Exploiting your POVs

   Exploiting your POVs
The POVs are often a great tool you can use to initiate special effects/concepts in a story. These effects often are realisable using the first POV which when given a strong character, (I mean its identity) could earn your story the most amazing outlook you could hold on to. Let’s look at a story that begin as this:
“I was there, but you wouldn’t notice, I was meant to be ‘a nobody” at the party, however I became somebody before it ended. Since I was a nobody at the beginning, you don’t need to know me yet, let’s talk about Sandra as she was the one earning the spotlight at the beginning. Sandra sat at the eastern end of the living room. Guests were scattered all around the mansion where the party held. John walked up to Sandra, he sat in front of her whispered some words and they both stood up and headed for the dance floor seconds later. I stood at a corner watching, the party is becoming boring, I had come alone and hoped not to leave alone. Sandra and john had had their fill of dancing, so they returned to their sit……”
I can’t possibly finish that story in this article, however I can report on the POV usage over there. The narrator was at that party, however she hasn’t revealed herself. She is creating a kind of mystery, in fact at some point you might seem she is lying, she could have been a cast she will introduce pretty soon, yet she wouldn’t claim the identity of the cast to sustain its mysterious atmosphere. Even I have been claiming she is a he, what if she is some kid. Definitely, our narrator could be anybody trying to manipulate us for the major part of the story until at such peak when the revelation of his identity would be most sensational.
I had a short story series I started years back, titled the “Telescopes above the clouds” in the series certain gods of known attributions in certain regions would tell a story involving them and the people that serve them as they watch their affairs via their fictitious telescopes above the cloud. The narrator being a god sees what happened above those clouds, narrates them narrates his intervention or their intervention if he eventually sought the help of the other gods. The story had such epic feel as the god’s characters and setting should. Hence the atmosphere of the story was hence captivating enough. Here is an excerpts from one of the stories from the series.
“Men, they will never stop amazing me with their disbeliefs. My name is Orunmila and if you should ask a Yoruba man who I am, he would ask you to ask the next Ifa priest you see. So that faithful afternoon the sun that glared across the dense forest that I peeped at was a real bother. Falade was there at the lighter entrance of the forest.  He was pointing to the dense undergrowth, just beneath a tall dongoyaro tree, ‘the lion shall appear from there’ he told them. They looked at where he pointed, it was barely lit, and the undergrowth only gets a fraction of the initial sunlight from above. Then beyond the denseness were further darkness, it was however not so dark further inward as the undergrowth faded; but see, nobody dared explore as falade’s mention of a lion was scary enough”
Once in a while the god (Orunmila) brilliant thoughts breaks the narration in the story and it further created a unique mystique as the existence of the god seemed to run parallel with the happenings on earth. Probably I will share the full story one of these days and the effect the superb POV Identity had on the story would be so glaring.
The 2nd POV and 3rd POV can be exploited too however a very strong identity, with a compelling voice should be used.
Choosing your POV correctly can adequately push your story in a direction you yourself would find engaging as you write, however choosing a wrong POV and giving it a boring Identity can give your story a slow momentum and a leprosy of reach. Learn to exploit your POVs adequately and you can move mountains with your stories.
Abd-afeez Abd-hamid