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pinkmanthedog https://pinkmanthedog.tumblr.com/post/644670252737839104:
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This is the program Clark Kent was on (Your picture was not posted)
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Someone pulled the plug out of the Erie canal. We had to get out of the
house so we went to Lockport and looked at some stuff. Then ate
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lakeeffecticecream which was awesome. (at Lockport , New York)
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esteefee https://esteefee.tumblr.com/post/641724241619861504/head-hopping:
Let’s talk a little bit about POV (Point of View), because recently, I’ve been reading some fic that could be so splendid if the writer didn’t have me head-hopping between the OTP characters like I’m in a pinball game.
Not that anyone plays pinball anymore, but anyway.
The sensation I feel, when I’m reading a well-written scene and the dramatic tension is building up (UST? Check. Self-deprecating yearning? Check. Awkward plot development that forces the two characters to confront their possible feelings? Oh my, yes.) is that of a tire or a balloon inflating to the breaking point.
But then, all of a sudden, I’m in the opposing characters head, hearing their thoughts instead. Suddenly, the tension whooshes out. Also, if it happens in the middle of a paragraph, I’m usually disoriented as well by who “he” or “she” is referencing. What?? Go back a sentence and figure out what just happened.
But the most important take-away is: the tension, the excitement, is gone. The air is out of the tire, and I’m going nowhere. I’ve seen inside the other person’s head, so whatever fantasy I’ve been concocting about what they’re thinking is moot. That delicious feeling of “what if?” is gone.
It is possible, especially for longer pieces, to maintain tension by limiting the POV switch to between scenes, especially if the romantic tangle is complicated. But I generally try to only switch POVs if it’s absolutely necessary for the plot. If there’s no other way to resolve the plot than by showing the story from both POVs (or many), I will switch. Otherwise, I’ll keep it in a single POV for the entire story. Why not? The longer I stay in a single POV, the more secure the reader feels in that reality, the more relaxed, the more they sink into the story and the world outside disappears.
It was flamingoslim https://tmblr.co/mYo8aZok9dEuV4EzeaT5GBQ who started
me down the strict POV road back when I first started writing in 2004, and
I have to thank her for advice. Until she pointed it out, I didn’t even see
or understand what POV was.
I don’t know if other people feel the same way, but I’ve noticed the stories I enjoy the most are the ones that follow this standard.
It was about that year that someone gently pointed out the same issue to me, and their name is alas lost to history and my terrible memory, but I will be forever grateful. (An entire university degree in creative writing had neglected to mention this fundamental of storycraft… but thank you, fandom, for filling in.)
The way I really, really forced myself to master it is that I rewrote a story in first person, because then it’s really jarring when you try to switch points of view. You can’t! Not from within the narrator’s head!
And then since I don’t really like 1st per stories, I rewrote it again to be 3rd person, but this time it was a much lighter edit and required no reimagining, just a tedious manual retyping.
(I also find it an extremely good lesson for myself to do my editing, at least sometimes, by completely retyping the document. Helps to have a big enough monitor, or better still two computers or two screens of some kind… I don’t do it that often but when something’s really not working or when I’ve changed my mind midstream, it’s the only way to really commit to a hard, hard edit.)
As with all writing rules, this can of course, of course be broken, but if you’re breaking it, you really should know why, and should know what it costs you to break it both within your narrative and within your reader’s trust. (Your picture was not posted)
timeasmymeasure
