McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

POV Advice

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belial.1980:
Hey there all,

So I was helping to seek some advice regarding POV. When writing from 3rd person limited, I've found that I like to include minor characters' POVs from time to time, just to freshen things up. These are usually "one shot" scenes written from the perspective of minor characters ranging from innocent civilians caught up in a slaughter, to the protagonist's mother, to the family cat.

I do it because it seems to be more interesting to tell that bit of the story from an otherwise unexplored angle. In the case of the protag's mother, it felt more visceral to see her son in pain through her eyes than to stick with the protag's POV. She doesn't have a major subplot dedicated to her POV, but I just thought the particular scene worked better when seen through her eyes.

I just ask because I feel like I don't see a lot of this in the published books I read. Therefore, I'm wondering if it's something to avoid. It seems like everything I can remember reading in recent years will include the POV of the main protagonist and usually a handful of secondary characters, each with their own well-defined subplot.

So, are there any thoughts on this? Is it kosher to use a few one-off viewpoints that belong to characters that don't have their own major subplot? Or from a reader's (and a potential publisher's) standpoint, do ya'll think this is something to avoid? Thanks in advance for any advice!

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
The failure mode of one-off viewpoints for a reader, sfaict, is that they look undisciplined.

As a writer, I think they can be an unduly easy out - where it might make for a better story to figure out how to get the relevant information in, or imply it, within an existing POV.

Quantus:
I think it depends on where and how you do it.  To give an example:  In the Codex Alera books the main plot POV's are Tavi, Amara, Fidelius, and Isana.  But in several of the books there were brief parts that were told from other POV's, often as one-shots. These included Erron, Varg, and a 'redshirt' soldier getting eaten by giant bugs.

To me it didn't take away from the story in those cases though in general there is a danger of throwing off the rhythm of the story.  In general, every time you shift POV's is an opportunity to loose your reader, so you want to make sure they are going to be interested in what you are switching to, which much easier with established characters and plotlines.  It is much easier at the beginning of the book (especially in a Prologue, which is already set apart to some degree) while you are setting the stage and events have not really gotten moving;  later on it is much harder to cleanly jump to an unestablished POV.

LizW65:
Terry Pratchett has made effective use of this, occasionally switching to the POV of a minor character for a brief scene.  I think the trick is to keep these scenes few and far between, as they retain more impact that way.

superpsycho:
Whatever works. If you think it makes the scene more effective, then do it.  The only time I find multiple POV distracting is when it's being constantly switched to the point you can't keep track of it.  The goal is to create an interesting and entertaining experience for the reader. Anything that you do towards that end is fine.

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