donutsweeper: (Default)
donutsweeper ([personal profile] donutsweeper) wrote2009-01-08 02:11 pm

Babble on POVs

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?

[identity profile] travels-in-time.livejournal.com 2009-01-08 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it really depends on the story. The first "real" story I ever posted had different characters in different timelines, and I had to switch POVs to track what was happening in each timeline. Even within one timeline, I switched between two characters because I wanted the story to be about how they saw each other, and it's hard to do that from one POV.

Switching doesn't bother me, as long as it's clearly marked (a row of asterisks works for me...of course I also use that to show time passing or a scene change. I probably confuse everyone. :D) and as long as it feels necessary to show us something about the characters.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-01-09 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
As long as it's necessary, I think is the key here. and well marked. Good point