Hey guys, sorry for the late post.
Yesterday we learned about finding a writing voice. Julia's notes were based on this and this article. Among the key things we discussed were the difference between voice and style, as we as what makes voice what it is. For example, even common characters or plots can make up a writer's voice, but style, with things like word choice and structure, can be a part of voice as well. For developing voice, mimicking other author's style is not ok, but using that style as inspiration is a great idea. Also, try to avoid the style of bad authors.

This week's prompt: Create a character, then create a character from their past and their future. Try to fully create these characters, and if you want to try something new perhaps draw them or cast celebrities to play them, or make just their voice.

Welcome to another "there's no club today" installment of the writing club vlog.
For today's topic there were 4 topics we had talked about in the last club meeting, 1 of which I couldn't remember and another that I was pretty sure was meant for an actual club topic. So I decided to talk about CHOOSING WHAT POV TO WRITE IN.
This is a great struggle because it is something the writer has to choose early on in the writing process but will probably want to change at some point.
First, there are several different points of view, and most people think there are 3. First of all, most people never use the 2nd one and second of all, there are more than 3. There are 5:

1. First Person Point of View - The narrator is "I" or "we." A writer only reveals things the narrator sees, hears, thinks or knows. 
2. Second Person Point of View - The narrator addresses the reader. 
3. Third Person Point of View, Panoramic - The narrator sees all the action, but doesn't read minds. Think of this like a movie camera--describe anything you see or hear, but not thoughts. 
4. Third Person Point of View, Controlled Consciousness - Like first person, the reader sees all the action through the eyes of a single character and can only see what that character sees. The difference is the writer uses "he" or "she" instead or "I" or "we". 
5. Third Person Omniscient - God-like; the narrator knows and sees everything, and can move from one mind to another. 

The biggest effect that POV has on your story is going to be information. A character's thoughts, an impaired or skewed ability to observe an event, and personal bias are all factors of POV that affect the information your reader gets. Both your plot and your genre should help you make this decision, for example if your story is a mystery of contains a mystery.

The different POV's have their own pros and cons that you should also consider. The following are some points that I found interesting and relevant:

• 2nd person is not used commonly and can be unsettling and intriguing.
• 1st person and controlled consciousness are greatly affected by tense. Is/are your narrator/s  explaining an event with the knowledge they have after these events have occurred, or are they naive and biased in their account?
• Panoramic is like a movie. Pay attention to methods used by book adaptions to portray internal thoughts
• When using a controlled consciousness point of view, choose one character, called the viewpoint character, to experience the story through. A writer can have more than one viewpoint character in a novel. The viewpoint character should change only at chapter or scene breaks and should never change without good reason.
• Viewpoint characters should somewhat exist in every POV 
• Omniscient is the most flexible POV but the hardest to maintain. Readers can have access to lots of information that none of the characters do.

While it does not include panoramic, I found this chart very informative:

Finally, here are some articles with tips n how to write each point of view:

First 

Second

Third Panoramic - I couldn't find a good one so just check out these POV Tips

Third Controlled Conscience

Third Omniscient

The writing prompt for this week is:

Describe your morning in a perspective that is not your own. This means no 1st person form of you and no controlled conscience of you. 2nd person is not technically you so that is allowed. Try writing it from your pet's perspective or a god-like observer. Have fun.

Today was the first club meeting of November, thus being the official writing club start of National Novel Writing Month! We signed up online and talked about some tips for writing a novel in 30 days. If you didn't sign up yet, go here, and if you would like some amazing links and tips go here. 
This week's writing prompt was this picture: