Story Plan Checklist: Point of View

[ladyseishou]

Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.

- Horace



So Nano Writer, what's your POV?

Now that you have a working title Nano Writer and you've decided (more or less) what kind of story you'll be writing, it's time to think about who's going to tell your story or as Ms. Wiesner writes:

Your best bet for deciding which character's viewpoint to use: In any scene, stick to the view of the character with the most at stake - the one with the most to lose or gain.

Still undecided about your point of view? Maybe the advice offered by these authors might help:

Two Heads Aren't Always Better Than One - Robert J. Sawyer

Point of View - Lisa Binion

Point of View - from the The Bald Truth About Writing blog site


A reminder! Entries for the Cover Up! contest should be submitted by Sunday, October 11.


Until tomorrow Nano Writer, keep writing!

Comments

[angryoldhag]

Wellll, I was first thinking about taking a first person point of view but decided against that because it might be interesting to have some scenes in another character's head when the MC isn't around.

So, third person but mainly from the MC's perspective since that might explain the world better and more thoroughly since both she and the potential reader will be new to it. If that makes sense XD

[aingeal]

I'm going for third person as well. Not sure if I'm going to do strictly limited from the MC's point of view or have chapters dedicated to the limited point of view of other characters. I think that will be the seat of my pants aspect this year - seeing what the other characters have to offer in addition to the MC.

[ladyseishou]

This is my usual method and for the same reason that you say. lassarina mentions another interesting method below (in the comments) about combining both POVs (first and third) that I think that I'll try this year.

[angryoldhag]

That is an interesting approach, if I remember correctly Cecilia Ahern tried something similar in If You Could See Me now (Or Silver Lining or something in the US). It was intrigueing but could get a little confusing at times.

[ladyseishou]

I suspect that's true. I may need to work out some kind of device to signal my POV change (by section, chapter, quotation from a diary, etc.) to keep it all straight. And it might all have to be undone in revision but still, it sounds like a fun thing to try :-) I love challenges!

[the_wanlorn]

Everything I'm doing is third-person, as my hatred of first and second person narration is only trumped by my hatred of writing in the present tense. I think everything's going to be third-person limited from multiple unreliable narrators.

[ladyseishou]

Sounds good!

[lassarina]

Third person, for sure, and while there will (probably) be multiple points of view, only one in a scene, for sure.

Juliet E. McKenna, author of The Tales of Einarinn, does an interesting thing with point of view. The "primary character" for each novel - the one who's going to do the most personal growth etc. - is always written in first-person. Then, for things she needs to show but that her POV character wouldn't see, there are cut-scenes in third-person. I think it's fascinating.

[ladyseishou]

Oh, I like this idea! I think that I might try it. My usual is third-person limited but something new might be fun.

[shiny_crystal]

Heh, nice coincidence with the Horace quote, since my NaNovel will be told by Virgil. Perhaps even to Horace, I still have to research that bit. It'll be 1st person, as he leaves Rome for Naples, looking back on the last year. Haven't done 1st person for a while, so I'm quite excited :)

[ladyseishou]

This sounds very intriguing!

[nightbird]

I really love the idea of writing a story so that the narrator only knows as much as any given POV protagonist, and shifting POV from chapter to chapter to build layers for the reader. I want to try that this year, so I guess that would make it... very close third person, multiple angle?

I must be in the minority: I love second person present tense when it's done right, and generally am allergic to first person.

[asenathwaite]

I think I'm going to use a tight one character 3rd person POV for most of the book, but the monsters might also get some POV time. The prologue will definitely be theirs.

[twistingthetale]

I'm sticking with third person, as I'll be adding flashbacks for at least three of the major characters (these three are very important, so I'm being cautious and not really limiting myself to a single main character).

[boredsilly]

Initially, I wanted to do first person POV, but that would miss out on a lot of the fun scenes. I'm going to do 3rd person and most likely use multiple focus.