McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Point of View Question

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Shecky:
Heinlein did it in The Number of the Beast. Each chapter was headed by the narrating character's name in italics, followed by a colon (e.g., Zeb: ). Easy. It takes great skill to write each character in his/her own distinct but natural-seeming voice, however; if anything, I'd be very careful with it.

Danny-boy:

--- Quote from: Shecky on December 30, 2008, 08:01:54 PM ---Heinlein did it in The Number of the Beast. Each chapter was headed by the narrating character's name in italics, followed by a colon (e.g., Zeb: ). Easy. It takes great skill to write each character in his/her own distinct but natural-seeming voice, however; if anything, I'd be very careful with it.

--- End quote ---

Yeah...I haven't really dug into it yet...it might not even work...we'll see...

Shecky:
It's really worth a look if you honestly feel that the story needs to be seen from multiple PoV.

Lisa™:

--- Quote from: Shecky on December 30, 2008, 08:01:54 PM ---It takes great skill to write each character in his/her own distinct but natural-seeming voice, however; if anything, I'd be very careful with it.

--- End quote ---

This is a good point.  I write several characters in a prose-based online RPG, and being able to distinguish between two or more different "voices", particularly when I'm writing a scene or a certain story on my own, is very important to me. 

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Shecky on December 30, 2008, 08:01:54 PM ---Heinlein did it in The Number of the Beast. Each chapter was headed by the narrating character's name in italics, followed by a colon (e.g., Zeb: ). Easy. It takes great skill to write each character in his/her own distinct but natural-seeming voice, however; if anything, I'd be very careful with it.

--- End quote ---

If you can do it, go for it.

Myself, I have always thought putting the character name at the head of the section is admitting defeat. (If necessary in a book where all the voices are as indistinguishably similar as Number of the Beast.  Distinct voices are not that hard, and particularly if you are using your different POVs in a repeating pattern I think there's no need for it.

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