Being a Better Writer: PoV Strengths · 12:09am Jan 31st, 2018
Welcome back readers, to Being a Better Writer! Yes, it's a day late, but I warned you guys. Unfortunately, I have that part-time job, and sometimes that means they want me for most or all of Monday.
Now, a quick update! Prior Alpha Readers, as in, those who have Alpha Read for me before! You should have an invite to the Shadow of an Empire Alpha in your inbox. If you have not received one, then something has gone wrong, please get in touch with me so I can update your contact information or pull you from the list if you're no longer interested.
On that note, if you've not been an Alpha Reader before, or have elsewhere an are interested in being an Alpha Reader on Shadow of an Empire, contact me as well. The more critical eyes I have on this, the better. As always, I want this story to be the best it can be, and that takes some solid effort.
Last note, then we'll jump to the meat of the post. There's a new feature coming soon to this site. I'm not going to say exactly what it is, but if you've kept up with the news of my projects these last few months, you've heard whispers and mentions of a side project almost a whole year in coming that's finally hit. It's not another book; I'll tell you that up front. But it will be something you guys may enjoy hearing about. Which is all I'll say for now.
So, news is done. Let's talk writing!
So today's topic is, as almost usual these days, a request topic. I don't recall which reader specifically requested this one (sorry), but it's a good topic that, in light of some discussions I've seen online that all but floundered on this same point, seems to have come at a good time. Today, we're going to be talking about PoV, or Point of View.
After reading through this latest update I have to thank you. Like the other posts, I've been following them to aid in my own writing abilities and thanks to them I've been able to correct my unfinished works and even my published one before making it available. Due to these posts and other aids I would like to think my writing has improved drastically from the first story I attempted and published. (And quickly removed due to its truly spectacular failing. It truly was that bad.) As such I believe you are due for a thanks, at least from myself.
Does the Hunger Games series count as an epic?
4785615
Hey, thank you! And you're welcome! I'm glad you've gotten so much good use and aid out of these posts!
4785680
Hmm ... well, it's YA, but it's definitely skirting that edge. At the same time, it does fall right into the issue I brought up in the second book, where she's touring and there's a whole lot going on outside Katniss' viewpoint that the audience is just told later in exposition dumps.
So yeah, it's a YA epic, and runs into the first-person pitfall.
4785920
Heh, yeah, I didn't say it was a good example!
And, honestly, that POV character seems to be shoehorned into a lot of the situations for tenuous reasons. Placed there not because it makes all that much sense for her to be there, but because she has to be there in order for the audience to know what happened.
Well, you goofed again, but this one wasn't more than a minor annoyance because you just forgot the first link to your site at the top of this post.
Also, I'm curious about your thoughts on more exotic first-person PoVs. Specifically, what about a character like a changeling that has an extra sense and can thus directly observe the emotions of others around them? You could take this even further with a full telepath who can directly report on the thoughts of others and relive their memories, or you could really go nuts with a character like Q or Data from Star Trek who are radically different from humans and thus have a completely alien way of looking at the world. I'm not sure that there's really a good answer besides extensively thinking things through in that specific case and being very careful about how you approach it, but I figured it was worth tossing your way to see if you had anything you wanted to toss in.
Pretty much covered the strengths of the first and third person point of views, aside from mentioning that third person can be further broken down into limited, which follows one to a few characters around, or omniscient. Also, first person can be used to fool the viewers, because not everything the first person sees is always right or even sometimes real.
Think that one of the major requirements, pretty much the make-or-break of a second person point of view is the question, "Can I imagine myself in those shoes?". Only one on this site I've found so far that I've liked, and that's "Of Ponies and Papers". Admittedly, the majority of the rest of second-person point of view stories on this site is smut. Yeah, no. Not reading them.
4785938
There's a specific tag sequence (URL, Center, Italic, Size) that breaks the URL tag for some reason. There's a couple of weird combinations that do it, and I occasionally find one. Fixed!
In answer to your question: That's still first person. You're just talking about adding senses or capabilities. That doesn't change the PoV, it just adds character capabilities. Dead Silver for instance, stars Hawke Decroux, who can speak with animals, but that has nothing to do with the PoV.
4785981
As the post pointed out, the entire thing was written in limited. Omniscient changes some things, but the same strengths remain for the most part, though the lens widens a bit.
Additionally, you can fool people just as well in third-person as first-person, you just have to be a bit more careful with it.
4786267
...Good job FimFic.
Actually, you might want to kick that over to Xaquseg if you still remember the sequence that broke it since I think he handles technical issues like that.
As for the rest, yeah, that was basically what I was thinking. It's really just another wrinkle that modifies things a little bit, although if the PoV character has the ability to relive the memories of others it does offer an interesting way to widen the lens of the story since it can let you effectively jump to another first person narrator to see something important without making the reader struggle to figure out who "I" is in any particular chapter.
4785981
To further extend what Viking said, third-person is a range, not a binary omniscient/limited split. Just like a third person camera in a game, it can be anywhere from right over one character's shoulder like in Gears of War to showing the area around them like in the old Sonic games to a full god's eye view like the Civilization games. It's still third-person no matter where you put it, but the further out it is the more you gain broad perspective at the cost of intimate detail and the ease with which you can fool the audience.