McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
POV's and whatnot
The Deposed King:
I would advise against POV shifting, especially in a short story. Its hard enough to connect with a character, when you are stuck with such a small canvas the problem compounds. A novel on the other hand is much better for multiple POV's however I have to warn you that most people prefer to have one 'main' character. You can get away with multiple points of views or (POV) but you should be very careful.
That said don't listen to me, write it out and then show it to people. The audience will let you know. And the first members of your audience are your beta readers.
The Deposed King
Wordmaker:
I'm with Deposed King. For a short story, you're usually best to keep to a single POV character. There's just not enough space in a short story to give each POV the time and attention it deserves.
As others have said, for 1st-person, it can be hard on a reader if you switch POV characters, even briefly. With 1st-person, the goal is to get the reader really into the head of the character. Its intimacy is part of the appeal and strength of the style.
If you find yourself wanting to write from other POVs, but still keep a strong level of intimacy, I'd suggest experimenting with 3rd-person limited, and starting with either two equal POVs, or one primary POV and maybe two minor ones, kept for scenes where the primary POV isn't present but there's still something you want the reader to see.
Quantus:
Im with LeeringCorpse on this one, it may not be a standard method, but anythign can be good of you do it right, and the preferences of any sampling of your audience (here or elsewhere) shouldnt matter too much. Write what interests you, the rest will fall in.
If you are looking for an example of something similar, check out the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson series). Its his egyptian mythology series, and is a 1st POV account that switches between two siblings. It's written as if it were an audio recording that the characters mailed to an author to be published to "get their story out" and whatnot, so it takes it a step further than most in that you occasionally get the Narrator responding to something the other sibling is saying "off-screen"
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: Quantus on June 24, 2013, 03:22:02 PM ---Im with LeeringCorpse on this one, it may not be a standard method, but anythign can be good of you do it right, and the preferences of any sampling of your audience (here or elsewhere) shouldnt matter too much. Write what interests you, the rest will fall in.
If you are looking for an example of something similar, check out the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson series). Its his egyptian mythology series, and is a 1st POV account that switches between two siblings. It's written as if it were an audio recording that the characters mailed to an author to be published to "get their story out" and whatnot, so it takes it a step further than most in that you occasionally get the Narrator responding to something the other sibling is saying "off-screen"
--- End quote ---
If its the only thing you can write go for it and don't be discouraged. But if you can write something without the POV switching 'do it'.
Its not that you can't make POV switching work its just that, much like a land war in asia, it is listed as one of the classic blunders for a reason. Not many can invade asia and come out a head and for those that fail they tend to be spectacular.
A paragraph of two in third person with the bad guy at some particularly critical planning juncture might work. but with a short story your canvas has to be focused or, at least my readers, tend to bail. Now I did succeed in a fair amount of POV shifting in my 3rd book. About 2/3rds of it was carried by the secondary characters. But it was a risk, but a logical one, a natural progression in the story and at the same time built on the backs of characters the reader had come to experiences over the course of the previous 2 books and short novella.
If you're heart is set on it, go for it man. You could be the first Tolkien. And hey if at first you don't succeed always try try again. Just realize you've chosen the uphill battle on this one and expect some early failures and critisism. If it was me and I was able to take the good bits to hear I bet I could get a POV switching short story to work. I wont try it because it wouldn't be cost effective time wise for me. However different strokes for different folks.
don't let anyone discourage you, not even yourself and remember to always follow the dream,
The Deposed King
Wordmaker:
What he said.
The other thing to consider is that many readers are becoming more savvy and aware of red flags regarding an author's skill. Publishers and agents look for these when deciding what submissions to accept, and I feel readers are starting to watch for them too. Too much POV-hopping is one of these red flags, and regardless of how good an author actually is, if readers, publishers or agents see too many of them, they may pass on the story.
Like Deposed King said, this is just something to be aware of. Go for it if you really want, but be aware that you may have to work that much harder to pull it off.
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