shadowdrake27 i believe the issue here is related to the type of POV selected for the novel
If the author selected one type, then he should stick with it
This isn’t a god rule, ofc, but exceptions where it worked by combining more than one POV in one novel and do it successfully is rare, or i didn’t hear about many yet.
The point is: choose one POV and stick to it to th end of the novel, any mix in POV is a mistake except you are a genius writer or something

    ranmaro You mean, narration styles. POV means point of view. In third person narration you can have multiple POV's without any problem.

    MotivatedSloth

    Awesome post! You make a lot of great points here. I could do another whole thread on “showing not telling.” Stories get really old when it is just a long list of things that happen, in my opinion. Even if it is just a long list of what characters are thinking, that’s boring.

    First person stories are great. I like any story that follows the perspective of one person because of the suspense. Leading readers and the MC astray creates a wonderful conflict that has to be resolved, leading to a more natural plot. This is what I’m attempting to do with my third person limited stories here: only tell the thoughts of the POV character to build suspense.

    I will say that I have seen second person work very well to this effect. Stories where the reader is the MC, so “you” are in the story. Authors do have to be careful they do not fall into the many holes that are available here, such as making weak unnamed characters that are forgettable, but second person has the same suspense as first person if done correctly. The best place I have seen this used is on “choose your own path” stories. That is to say, stories where the reader can make choices that affect the story. The ability to control parts of the plot lends itself well to second person. I haven’t tried to use it in any other context.

      ranmaro

      Agreed, switching back and forth rarely works. If I ever see it, I chalk it up as a mistake immediately.

      The perspective (and point of view) can dramatically change how the story is told and viewed. Picking the right perspective for your story is important, but sticking with what you pick is even more important for consistency.

      shadowdrake27 Don't remind me about the readers a controlled story, as its a long dream of mine to make one. Like, to have a huge plot happening in the story anyway, and the readers capable of either voting for the decisions that MC has to make, or sometimes being given a choice, where for example the most liked comment on the Facebook turns out to be what MC will do.

        MotivatedSloth

        There are free writing websites that make stories like these if you want a few. I would prefer to send them via PM if that is a thing here. Basically, you write “pages” and can link pages together with choices. That way, depending on the choice, the reader gets a different page and new set of choices.

        Edit: I learned how to write on one of these websites, and some are active while others are dead.

          shadowdrake27 Let me reiterate first to check if I understood correctly - You basically write several stories (several ways in which they develop) and readers simply follow it along with their choice?

          If yes, then sorry, but that's not something for me. I'm not going to spend ages writing one and the same story in different versions and endings. Thats something you can do in games, when you have entire set of scenario writers and options that lead you towards counted outcome. Just like in witcher3, every quest you did and the choices you made pointed you out towards one of the three outcomes, depending on the valued sum of your decisions.

          What I would like to write at some point in the future, is a novel when the readers vote for the only direction that the story will take. While obviously I would keep my freedom to set possible directions in which the story would go, the specific choices and the way in which the story would develop towards the aimed outcome would depend on the readers.

          But well, that's the song of the future. I'm too busy with my current projects to waste time on something purely for fun. After all, if you spend as much time writing as I do, doing even more of writing just for fun would feel like wasting your time, while not having fun at all.

            MotivatedSloth

            Yes, that is what the web site is. Stories are a massive undertaking compared to similar length linear stories. What you are talking about is often done on the forums of such websites. I understand that and hope you get to write your reader driven story some day!

              LittleBlueLake
              You are correct it is called third person omniscient, but there is also third person limited. With It being limited you can make the novel you are writings kind of messy and difficult to read. With this you do not know the thoughts of every character. I personally prefer first person because it is a lot easier to follow along in the story. I do believe that authors shouldn’t solely focus on one character’s view; that is why switching to one of the other characters and understanding the full picture comes into play. I also just enjoy reading everything. 😁

                CrimsonLetter

                First person seems to be a popular one. It is nice to be in the shoes of a character to connect to them better. If written correctly, I think third person limited and first person can accomplish the same things. Both can get inside of the mind of one character at a time to reveal more about them. Both can switch POV characters at something like the end of a chapter where there is a pause.

                Maybe I will make a post about show vs tell... it seems to be relevant.

                  2 years later

                  shadowdrake27

                  Third-person omniscient is not a new thing among Asian writers, especially in the Wuxia genre. If you notice, Wuxia's novels in the '60s, '70s, and 80' all were written in third person omniscient. It's like that's the only POV they knew. When I think about it again, I remember that almost all books in Asia in the last century were written that way. At least in East Asia and Southeast Asia. All those books, either written in third person omniscient, or first person. It seems in the old times, people did not know third-person limited POV existed.

                    LinMusen

                    Huh… this is an old thread… It was an interesting one for me though.

                    This is a nice history factoid! I haven’t studying old Asian writing. Has this changed recently? As discussed earlier in the thread, third person omniscient POV is hard to pull off. First person is easier, in my opinion.

                      shadowdrake27

                      I think most people in my country didn't realize there is more than one type of third-person POV. When I was a student in the 80s, I only learned about third-person POV. I don't know about limited, omniscient, or objective. All third-person POV books were omniscient. Okay, maybe not all, but at least about ninety percent.

                      The narrator is the author, not one of the characters in the book. If the author wants to make a book that the narrator is a character in the story, then he or she will write the story in first-person POV.

                      As far as I remember, the ratio between third-person (omniscient) POV and first-person POV books is probably about 50:50. But I could be wrong, though. Because obviously, I didn't read that many.

                      Of course, it has changed now. I don't know when exactly the change happened, but it looks like after 2000.

                      Oh, but I'm talking about novels. When it comes to short stories, long ago, it seems that quite a lot of writers have written using limited third-person POV. Maybe because short stories are much simpler in structure than novels, so naturally the author only focuses on one character.

                        LinMusen

                        That all makes sense. I’m not sure how perspectives have changed in novels over time in general elsewhere, but I can see that all making sense.

                        The narrator is typically the author unless it’s first person perspective or a framed story as well. I think that’s almost always the case… It doesn’t have to be, but it’s relatively rare that people decide to write in third person with a narrator that is not them (unless it’s a framed story or story about someone “telling” a story).

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