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

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*shoos you off*

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Aaaand I'm back! :D *munches on food*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I was just reading that fandom grammar thing again and I agree with their ending- that epithets can work when used by an outsider POV. Only in certain cases of course, but especially in crossovers I think it might work

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree that epithets are better than names if it's from the POV of a person who doesn't know the name. But if the person does know the name or it's not from anyone's POV....

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

because then there is a reason for it. You can't call someone by their name when you don't *know* it.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

very occassionally (not often, but I have seen it) those stories come out great- us seeing our favorite guys by an outsider's perspective.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I do love outsider's povs, actually!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

there is such potential for disaster with them though

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. Maybe I should rephrase- I love well-written outsider's pov!

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Done well, they're terrific. Done poorly, they can descend into the depths of Mary Sue Hell.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Mary Sue Hell combined with the land of Who the Hell are the people she's describing OOCville

[tejas.livejournal.com]

I just had a flashback to Big Trouble in Little China. (Love that movie!)

To paraphrase...

"Fanfic has a lot of hells."

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*snickers* I love that movie. And yes, fanfic certainly does

[tejas.livejournal.com]

OH! That just reminded me of how I used them in my unfinished crossover. It's first person (because one of the canons is) and the POV character uses them, sometimes even when he *knows* the other's name (it could be said that Cal has an attitude problem).

But yeah, mostly, don't. :-)