donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2009-01-08 02:11 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2009-01-08 02:11 pm
Entry tags:
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?
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?
no subject
*g* Trust me, if someone's doing it for the same reason I did, it's not because they're lazy. Trying to figure out how each character would perceive the (very little) action was a total nightmare, especially when I figured out that I'd screwed up the sequence of events and had to rewrite three damn times.
It was a completely fascinating exercise that I highly recommend as a way of learning about characters. Because what one character thought was helpful turned out to be annoying from someone else's POV. And something that happened to one was noticed by the second but irrelevant to the third. It was brain-breaking but great to attempt.