McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Dresden Files Pacing
Aminar:
--- Quote from: Quantus on August 28, 2012, 12:27:50 PM ---The Single POV has a lot to do with it for me. In 3rd POV, Codex Alera for example, you loose a little momentum each time you switch from one character/voice/plotline to another. With Dresden, even when you are switching plotlines, it's still the same Voice and POV, its just him having to juggle several flavors of pain-in-the-ass. He is constantly going from the Frying Pan to the Fire, but you never just drop the plotline and switch to some "Meanwhile" storyline.
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There are plenty of examples where multiple POV's don't cut the tension down. It's about making sure all of your plotlines hold tension at the same rate. For instance Michael Crichton usually put his characters into terrifying scenarios that affected the whole caste even if they were separate, making the tension stay high the whole time. Now if you cut from raging battle scene to an old lady sewing and reminiscing there can be cuts in the tension that make The Grand Canyon look small. It's all in the way things are split.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Aminar on August 28, 2012, 02:57:14 PM ---There are plenty of examples where multiple POV's don't cut the tension down. It's about making sure all of your plotlines hold tension at the same rate. For instance Michael Crichton usually put his characters into terrifying scenarios that affected the whole caste even if they were separate, making the tension stay high the whole time. Now if you cut from raging battle scene to an old lady sewing and reminiscing there can be cuts in the tension that make The Grand Canyon look small. It's all in the way things are split.
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Im not talking about tension, or transitions maintaining tone; Im talking about having a reader hooked at 3am on a workday and not giving them an opportunity to put the book down. In a 1st POV story, no matter what the tension or the mystery or whatever, the "Next thing" is always a single page away, and the reader is going to be constantly giving themselves "Just One More". In a 3rd POV with multiple POV stories you loose that innate continuity most of the time. Even if it ends one chapter cliffhanger style with character A in a battle for his life, and switches over to another character also in a battle for his life, the tension is the same but the reader knows that they have reached a stopping point, and can much more easily put the book down. You know its a stopping point, because its the point the author chose to stop at and relocate you to the other story; s/he is taking a break and going to come back to it, so you as the reader can as well. But when we are sitting on one guy's shoulder the entire time, no matter what the transitions are its still just that one thread you are following, which makes it subtly harder to let go, even if life/work/family would tell you that you should. Switching POV's is always going to be a little bit of a speed bump.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Quantus on August 28, 2012, 03:26:00 PM ---In a 1st POV story, no matter what the tension or the mystery or whatever, the "Next thing" is always a single page away, and the reader is going to be constantly giving themselves "Just One More". In a 3rd POV with multiple POV stories you loose that innate continuity most of the time. Even if it ends one chapter cliffhanger style with character A in a battle for his life, and switches over to another character also in a battle for his life, the tension is the same but the reader knows that they have reached a stopping point, and can much more easily put the book down. You know its a stopping point, because its the point the author chose to stop at and relocate you to the other story; s/he is taking a break and going to come back to it, so you as the reader can as well. But when we are sitting on one guy's shoulder the entire time, no matter what the transitions are its still just that one thread you are following, which makes it subtly harder to let go, even if life/work/family would tell you that you should.
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Fascinating. For me as a reader it's precisely the opposite.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on August 28, 2012, 03:45:02 PM ---Fascinating. For me as a reader it's precisely the opposite.
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how so?
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Quantus on August 28, 2012, 03:51:37 PM ---how so?
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In a book that's one contiguous first-person narrative, some scales of tension aren't an option, because you know if that narrator gets into a jam mid-book, you will see at least that they get through it and usually also how pretty much immediately thereafter. If someone like GRRM puts a character in mortal jeopardy half-way through a book with 16 POVs and no particular pattern to which POVs happen when, there's no guarantee you'll get resolution during that volume, or in that viewpoint - it could be reported to another character in another thread entirely.
There are first-person narrators I find very hard to put down, all right - Felix Castor probably the most, but that's much more to do with the rhythm of the voice than the events being told. If anything, i am more likely to be able to put one of those down mid-action-scene than in a conversation or a bit of description, because character writing generally compels me and action writing generally bores me.
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