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

[chatona.livejournal.com]

... Ew.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

my thoughts exactly. I hate that and I've seen it (or something similar) for Gibbs/Tony, House/Wilson, Dean/Sam and others

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think it's terrible.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

worse is when they get creative with eye color. Chocolate instead of brown, cerulean, emerald... etc

[chatona.livejournal.com]

You find that everywhere, unfortunately.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

and I want to hit people over the head and yell STOP IT!

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should ;_; Though I doubt it would do much good.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I've given up trying to nudge people into being better writers if I don't know them or if they've made (what appears to be) a simple mistake.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I've... pretty much given up on that, period? Idk.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I still try. I remember a great story that had Gibbs very very old and talking about/visiting all the dead- Shannon/Kelly, Tim, Kate, etc and it mentioned Ziva being cremated and ashes spread in Israel so he couldn't visit. I knew the author (vaguely, through commenting on their fic) so said how I liked it, but asked if they were aware that it's very very unlikely for Jews to be cremated since it goes against what the religion allowed. They were happy to correct it.

However, I just saw a fic that has Ziva as a mom and says the kid calls her Ima. The Hebrew word is Eema (long e sound) not Ima but I don't know the author and the story wasn't that good so I didn't say anything

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean. But those are... research errors, I guess, not writing style?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

lack of research yes. I find, when not beta-ing, writing style is impossible to correct, don't you?

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

once a fic is up I think it's rude to leave a "surely it would have read better if you'd done X instead" when it's a huge thing. Little things, like fixing a canon point or spelling or tense or whatever can be changed.

oh lord there was one ficlet (400 words) I read once that had three canon errors, a ridiculous plot and incorrect terminology, I didn't bother to do anything but hit the back button on that one

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Ergh. Yes. Those I just close as soon as I notice the lack of quality.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Some things, to me, are just unforgivable. Like the spelling of a character's name

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yes. Absolutely. If you can't even get that right... >>

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I mean wiki is RIGHT THERE. As is imdb. It's not that hard to check

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Plus, if you're a fan... The first thing you should know is the characters name, no?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I mean, it's okay to mistype once- Gibs or Tomy or something where the author just hit the wrong key, but Cait just annoys the crap out of me. Yes, it's Caitlin, but it's shortened to Kate

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yup. I can definitely relate.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

When reading older things, I have to steel myself to take into account canon changes since then. Like the reveal that Tony's mom is dead. Or that Gibbs lost his wife and daughter. If it's something written 1st season the author wouldn't know. If it's something written last week the author's an idiot

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Agreeing with you on that account, too.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

what's your opinion on british/american terms being used? Do you notice or not?

i.e. the Doctor takes a lift, Gibbs an elevator. Jack grabs something from the boot of a car, Tony from the trunk

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I notice, sometimes I don't. I usually don't particularly care, I just figure that the author will use whatever term is the one used where they live, i.e. a British person would use lift, an American one elevator.
... But that,too, depends on the POV. In the first person, you'd have to use the term the character would use, else it gets ooc. In third person, though, I don't particularly care. Or notice.