Point of view has always been a hard decision for me. In my creative nonfiction stories, the choice was obvious. First person works best becuase I'm the one telling the story, based on my own experiences, thoughts and feelings. With fiction, I never know if the character I use is the best one for the story.
I've been working on the "Imperial Story" in my daily writing practice, trying out scenes, sticking with the ideas that work and abandoning the ones that don't. For the most part, I've stuck with Andros' (Briyant's) point of view, as he became the dominant character in the story so far. I'm not sure why I chose him, though - keeping his perspective, in first person, makes me aware of how much he doesn't know about what's going on. A large part of the storyline rests on the knowledge that Andros doesn't know who he really is, but the reader has to know something's not right in the Lambazzia family.
This is the part I'm having trouble with: revealing that information in such a way that doesn't come out of nowhere but doesn't give too much away either. I've tried some scenes from Anitra's point of view, but for some reason, I haven't been able to get into her head; the voice still doesn't sound right to me. Maybe this is something I'll try in the first draft, telling the story from Andros' POV, and switch it in revisions if need be. I still feel like there is so much I don't know about this story, about the world I'm trying to create, so I need to be willing to change as I progress through an actual draft.
I'm curious to see how other writers would handle a similar point of view question. How would you decide to tell the story? I've used third person to switch between characters before - And You Tell Me I Am Home switches between Emma and Zeke - but to me, it doesn't have the same sense of urgency, of immediacy, that first person does. In a novel about a rebellion fighting an empire (cue Star Wars music here), I think that tension is needed.
For now, I'll turn back to my writing books for advice, and see where the story ends up going. I won't know until I actually start writing.
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I recently read an article in Broken Pencil (a Canadian zine mag which also talks about technique) and that article said that the third person POV is almost becoming an archaic writing artform because everyone uses first person now. I realized I haven't read a recently published fictional novel that's NOT first person in years.
ReplyDeleteSome writers, in turn, feel that first person POV tries to mask a weaker writing style, and that switching POV in the same story is weak writing as well. How much more difficult is it to convey the same details when you only have one POV trying to figure out everything as the reader is trying to figure out everything? No doubt it would prolong the story, which could lead to some interesting developments you never saw coming.
In all my longer stories, I have switched POV with the exception of the first two (remember The Jennings Twins written entirely from Stokes' POV? That's just a weird choice on my behalf. lololololol)
When I first read the article on POV I thought to myself "yeah, I don't write in third person anymore" but upon thinking about it, that's not true. I just write in my journal and haven't written any stories in a while, but mine are all third person. It's the ones I've read that have changed.
I will say the last bit from the Imperial story confused me a bit because I had a hard time integrating it with the last bit from the Imperial story (did you change from Andros to Anitra's POV?) but I blame that on being tired.
You can build the sense of urgency with the setting, and characters reacting to the setting. That's something I noticed missing from your story as it sits. Why the urgency? Are things on fire in the distance? Gunshots, etc.
One thing I did notice was one of Andros' similies in his thoughts was too feminine for a male soldier character, but that's something to work on later. (This is kind of rambling a bit, but it's like it's obvious a woman is writing the POV of a man and that's not good for a masculine imperial war type story, unless told from Anitra's pov. And that could make Anitra interesting, finding that kind of beauty in wartime. Just a thought...)
Just thinking back to my fiction classes, you're right, not a lot of people write in third person anymore, but a lot of the books I enjoy still do. All the SW ones I have are third person, except for one (I, Jedi, told from the POV of Corran Horn, one of Luke's students). I think it depends on who's writing it.
ReplyDeleteI feel you've got to find what's right for the story. First person has its own challenges, since you have to find a way to make a character discover information or someone has to tell it to him, rather than just knowing it. I'm not sure why I stuck with third for the novel, but I know I purposely stuck with just Zeke and Emma and made sure I was only discussing things that they would know, careful to stay in just their heads during their scenes. I'm not sure how well it's worked, but then again, that's what revisions are for.
You're probably having a hard time integrating it because I keep writing a piece from this part, two pieces from another. I'm letting prompts dictate what I write instead of going in order, hence the need for an outline and an actual schedule. I need to get all these thoughts in order and make it into something coherent.
I've always sucked at setting, and I don't know why. I get really caught up in dialogue and I forget to describe much of what's around the characters, what's going on. I had this problem in American Studies too, but thanks for noticing it. It's something I don't want to forget when I start drafting.
And wow, I didn't realize that about Andros, but it makes sense. You know I know so much about what it's like to be a soldier, as I was the girl who thought she knew "karate" by mimicking the movies from Power Rangers when I was a kid. True fact, that. That's a really convincing argument for Anitra's POV, though... I shall consider it!
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