McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
POV's and whatnot
Carnifex:Pacifex:
So, im still touching up on my short story (Uuzarus) and as I go through, I begin to question my method.
In all of my writing, in all of my stories, I always write in first-person from the perspective of the protagonist. It comes naturally to me and writing in 3rd person has always felt awkard as it oozed out my brian.
What I did for my short story, is swap whose perspective we view the story from in each chapter. ( it goes from Char. A to Char B then Char A then Char. B every other chapter)
As I read through it I find that I like how the "language"/"voice" of the writing contrasts eachother from the two viewpoints (one view from an ancient entity who wants to be left alone, while the other view is from a bounty hunter desperate for his next meal), But I am concerned how other writers would feel about it.
have any of you read stories that have done something similar? and did you find it irritating, or enhancing?
Galvatron:
Now this only my personal opinion, but I do not like books with more than one POV if its first person.
Also, even with third person, I enjoy either one POV or a few, 3-4 generally feels good to me.
My issue with two POVs is if I end up liking one more than the other, I end up dreading the start of a new chapter when I have to switch from the character I like more and it can lead to me putting the book down at chapter breaks more often.
Now if you can do both charcters and keep both equally interesting it could work, and just because its not my cup of tea doesn't mean others wouldn't enjoy it.
Carnifex:Pacifex:
--- Quote from: Galvatron on June 21, 2013, 09:09:15 PM ---Now this only my personal opinion, but I do not like books with more than one POV if its first person.
Also, even with third person, I enjoy either one POV or a few, 3-4 generally feels good to me.
My issue with two POVs is if I end up liking one more than the other, I end up dreading the start of a new chapter when I have to switch from the character I like more and it can lead to me putting the book down at chapter breaks more often.
Now if you can do both charcters and keep both equally interesting it could work, and just because its not my cup of tea doesn't mean others wouldn't enjoy it.
--- End quote ---
Ah, thank you for the feedback and for your reasoning, its understandable. Being a short story though, do you think that it would be less of an issue?
LeeringCorpse:
I’m not much of a writer --though I am trying to remedy that of late-- but being someone with a strong background in the visual arts I would say don’t bother asking such a question as to whether a style is good or bad. It is much better to develop the style you want to work with rather then feel you need to conform to what others want or think is good. Imagine if someone came up to Picasso and said, “Interesting, but I think you should paint in the Bob Ross method, it is more traditional,” and he stopped cubism to grow a fro and beard and started painting with a brush one normally uses to slather paint onto a picket fence.
It might not be everyone’s cup-of-tea, but it will be your distinct voice. And if you do it skillfully, people will enjoy it even if it is not the kind of thing they usually go for. Case in point, like Galvatron, I too like books with a smaller number of POVs, but I thoroughly enjoyed a book where the author wrote from 5 or 6 1st person points of view. The author made the experience fun and engaging and it more then made up for the fact that it wasn’t something I usually enjoy reading.
In short, write what you want to write. And if you do it well, people will read.
Just my thoughts on the matter.
Carnifex:Pacifex:
--- Quote from: LeeringCorpse on June 22, 2013, 07:53:32 AM ---I’m not much of a writer --though I am trying to remedy that of late-- but being someone with a strong background in the visual arts I would say don’t bother asking such a question as to whether a style is good or bad. It is much better to develop the style you want to work with rather then feel you need to conform to what others want or think is good. Imagine if someone came up to Picasso and said, “Interesting, but I think you should paint in the Bob Ross method, it is more traditional,” and he stopped cubism to grow a fro and beard and started painting with a brush one normally uses to slather paint onto a picket fence.
It might not be everyone’s cup-of-tea, but it will be your distinct voice. And if you do it skillfully, people will enjoy it even if it is not the kind of thing they usually go for. Case in point, like Galvatron, I too like books with a smaller number of POVs, but I thoroughly enjoyed a book where the author wrote from 5 or 6 1st person points of view. The author made the experience fun and engaging and it more then made up for the fact that it wasn’t something I usually enjoy reading.
In short, write what you want to write. And if you do it well, people will read.
Just my thoughts on the matter.
--- End quote ---
Many thanks for the feedback, and that thing with the "fro and beard" was clever ^_^
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version