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Question POV Question

4 years 11 months ago #1 by Enemyoffun
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    • I've been internally debating this for some time now. I have an initial plan to finish up Rain on a Sunny Day but going forward, I was wondering what you the readers would want to read more of. More specifically, I was wondering if you wanted future stories to be from Riley's POV still or if you thought maybe it would be better if I shifted focus from her to Jenny instead?
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    4 years 11 months ago #2 by Rose Bunny
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    • I would say that you might go to a third person, or narrated pov. That way you can focus on them equally during the story.
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    4 years 11 months ago #3 by Enemyoffun
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    • Rose Bunny wrote: I would say that you might go to a third person, or narrated pov. That way you can focus on them equally during the story.


    That is an option and one I have considered :)
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    4 years 11 months ago #4 by null0trooper
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    • Enemyoffun wrote: I've been internally debating this for some time now. I have an initial plan to finish up Rain on a Sunny Day but going forward, I was wondering what you the readers would want to read more of.


    If it's all the same to you, we've seen hints of what life has been like for Jenny, but not much of her side of the story. Otherwise, whichever story grabs you the most.
    Forum-posted ideas are freely adoptable.

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    Discussion Thread
    4 years 11 months ago - 4 years 11 months ago #5 by Schol-R-LEA
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    • I concur with Null. While we haven't seen all that much of Riley yet (enough for now, but still plenty more to see), we do know more about her than about Jenny.

    But you might want to alternate between them, or use a third character to observe both from a bit of a remove, as was already suggested. As the readers, we'll want to know more about Jenny pretty soon, but you obviously have long-term plans for Jenny and Mao. While I wouldn't expect you to jump right into that, focusing on Jenny for a bit would let you play that out more - if you are focused on Riley, and then things hit the fan about Mao without us seeing more about Jenny first, it would feel out of left field.

    If you think you can keep it going, it may work best if we see more of Jenny now with hints about that, then you go off with some other plot thread before going back to Jenny with some slice-of-life of her time at Whateley with more hints and such, then keep that going a while. If let it build up, rather than dumping it right on everyone, it would give a more organic feel.
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    Last Edit: 4 years 11 months ago by Schol-R-LEA.
    4 years 11 months ago #6 by Court
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    • Whatever POV YOU want to write from. Whatever feels right for you. If you don't feel comfortable writing a story, the odds are that we, the readers, won't feel comfortable reading it. So do whatever makes you happiest.
    4 years 11 months ago - 4 years 11 months ago #7 by sam105
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    • In my opinion the pov that keeps you writing is the best pov.
    Edit Thanks for the writing that you have done.
    Last Edit: 4 years 11 months ago by sam105. Reason: Authors should be thanked.
    4 years 11 months ago #8 by Morpheus
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    • For me, it always depends on the story and characters involved. For some, they practically demand a 1st person POV, but with other stories, the 3rd person works better.
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    4 years 11 months ago #9 by Enemyoffun
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    • I've been thinking about it the past few days actually, I think I might finish up Rain on a Sunny Day, however many parts it might have. I also really want to tell Jenny's story too, I've been developing a bit of an origin tale for her. I think I'll go with my current plan and see where it takes me. All of this feedback has been great though, thanks guys :).
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    4 years 11 months ago #10 by Kristin Darken
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    • Morpheus wrote: For me, it always depends on the story and characters involved. For some, they practically demand a 1st person POV, but with other stories, the 3rd person works better.


    Agreed. The most important thing for me is that you find it and stick with it. Nothing more confusing in trying to read a story than for the narrative perspective to shift between characters or to reveal things that the narrator can't possibly know. For instance, first person for a non-Psi character making decisions based on the emotional responses of a character they are interacting with. They'd either better be really good at reading body language or they just 'broke' my interest in reading about them.

    Most people fail with first person the moment their protagonist is off screen. They try to shift to another character, and give that first person perspective. The problem with that is that you've now revealed things about a second character that the reader knows, but your protagonist should not. Also... inner monologues, common in first person perspective, are often 'show, not tell' ... which is a bad habit to fall in to. The best use of first person is when you have secrets your protagonist isn't supposed to discover (especially early on)... and you want to keep the reader guessing too. Because no one learns the secret until the protagonist solves the riddle/puzzle.

    If there's history or political narrative involved, its best to stick to third person. Things that the narrator can explain to the reader, that bypass the characters entirely.

    But that's more a question of narrative perspective. EOF was talking and asking more about point of view in the sense of "Which protagonist should I write about at the moment? Are you more interested in seeing Jenny or Riley as a protagonist in the next stories?"

    T
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