Babble on POVs

[donutsweeper]

Just a question, and I'm not sure of the correct terminology here, but when reading (or writing), do you prefer a tight 3rd person POV  (where all events are seen and interpreted through one character's eyes) or switching between people's 3rd person POV with obvious page breaks or markers to show the new POV?

For example- my entire Charming the Pants off the Pashahads SGA/Jack crossover is told from Sheppard's POV, there is no scene where we see what Jack thinks about falling into the Pegasus Galaxy.  At points there are Sheppard's interpretation of Jack's actions (he notices a hedged answer, an avoided question, but doesn't know why Jack  answered that way).  If it had been written with switching POV's there could be the scene from Shep's perspective, noticing what he notices and wondering about it, followed by the same scene retold from Jack's, where he explained the reasons for saying what he did.  There also could have been scenes left out from the story the way I told it- I never did explain how Jack managed to get his hands on the Pashahads (because Sheppard wasn't there and wouldn't know).

I've been noticing more and more of the latter showing up in stories lately.  Presuming this babble actually makes sense to anyone, do you notice the difference between those types of POV styles and do you like one more than the other?

Comments

[adela-nightmoon.livejournal.com]

Personally, switching between characters drives me up the wall. I don't mind it so much when the POV steps back and can sorta see both people, but actual phsyical switching where it sits there and changes back and forth, and everytime you have to sit there and figure out where the point of view is now, is really frustrating to read.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

More often than not, that's my opinion as well, but I'm seeing it everywhere in fanfic these days. I understand that it's easier to write in a lot of ways, but I still find it annoying and/or frustrating so I was wondering what, overall, people thought.

[adela-nightmoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did notice that, it is appearing more and more. I find it a useless style though, as it tends to leave you confused.

Hopefully the trend changes?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Like any style it can be used well, and has (like the story becky linked to below) but too often it's unnecessary and annoying.

Maybe the trend will change. That would be nice.