When
thou writest a POINT OF VIEW, thou shalt NOT change the POV in the middle of
the scene. If thou dost, thou shalt have
a VERY GOOD reason for doing so, yea and verily the reason must be JUST and the
use of the POV shift must be RARE. Two
shalt be the limit of thy POV shifts, and the number of the shifts shalt be
two. Three shalt thou not shift the
POV. Four is right out.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
From the Holy Book of Armaments
When
thou writest a POINT OF VIEW, thou shalt NOT change the POV in the middle of
the scene. If thou dost, thou shalt have
a VERY GOOD reason for doing so, yea and verily the reason must be JUST and the
use of the POV shift must be RARE. Two
shalt be the limit of thy POV shifts, and the number of the shifts shalt be
two. Three shalt thou not shift the
POV. Four is right out.
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I STRUGGLE with shifting POV in fiction. It's one of the reasons I so love memoir (all first person POV). I've seen some master storytellers shift POV every two pages, and it works. I've seen much more fail, though.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Clavell did it in "Shogun" and the first time he shifted, it was really weird for me. Every book I'd read up to that point had never changed POV in the middle of a scene. I've seen it more these days. Joe Abercrombie does it, and if you buy into his style, it's ok (and he is a good writer). But it still jars me a little.
DeleteShifting POVs is a very common mistake. I don't care the reason; I don't like them period. Personally, I think it's lazy. It's hard to stay in one POV per scene, but it makes for tighter writing, IMHO. :D
ReplyDeleteMarci
I wonder why that is, Marci? Is there a desire, perhaps Hollywood-movie fueled, to show the scene from a new perspective?
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