Blogger: Rachel Zurakowski
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Let’s start today by talking about point of view. In many films, the point of view shifts frequently. The audience sees a snippet of one character’s view, and then the film jumps back to the main character’s life. This often creates tension in a movie. An example of this is the new X-Files movie, “I Want to Believe.” I didn’t think the movie was very good, but scenes changed often, moving from Scully and Mulder trying to figure out the case to flashes of the captured girl’s struggle to stay alive in the clutches of the mad scientists. This allowed the audience to know that time was running out, and it heightened the tension.
If these same “flashes” occurred in a book, the reader would be confused constantly. Point of view changes can work fine in writing, but there needs to be an established rhythm to them. If the author is changing point of view multiple times in a single chapter, the reader feels lost and will quit reading. A good time to change the point of view is at a chapter break or a change to a new scene within a chapter. If you’re trying to create tension in your writing, don’t flash to a scene with characters the reader has never met.
Do you ever feel like just skipping a prologue because you don’t understand it? Super-speedy point of view changes create the same feelings. To heighten tension, end a chapter on a cliff-hanger and move the point of view to your other established main character for the following chapter.
Here’s another example of point of view changes in film. In the recent movie version of “Mama Mia!” the characters all have moments in which they sing about how they feel about the other characters. We learn through song that Pierce Brosnan still likes Meryl Streep, and soon after we learn that Meryl still likes Pierce. Perhaps it’s the other way around, can’t remember. During their songs, the scene often flashes to the other characters or to dancing maids. This wouldn’t work in a book. Let’s imagine it:
We are reading the story from PIERCE’S point of view. We find out he still cares for MERYL. We flash to a few scenes describing MERYL cleaning her hotel for her daughter’s wedding in the middle of PIERCE’S song or monologue. PIERCE finishes his declaration as he leans against the barn wall. Suddenly, MERYL declares her love for PIERCE. During her monologue, we switch to a scene with maids running around and dancing. As they dance, we hear MERYL’S song in the background. The writer describes MERYL singing her heart out as she leans against a wall. Then she starts dancing with the maids, and they all jump in the water. (I only saw the movie once, so no judging me if I confused a few of the details.)
I’m sure you can see why we can’t follow this film’s example for shifting point of view.
Just for fun, let’s finish up the day with “WALL-E.” “WALL-E” represents another significant difference between the big screen and a book. “WALL-E” is an almost silent movie. You can have an amazing almost silent movie, but there’s no way to replicate it in book form. As close as you could come would be to have an amazing illustrator and you see yourself “writing” the next The Snowman or Santa Paws. If you can only draw stick-figures, please stay away from “writing” books without words.
What books/movies have you read/seen with successful point-of-view changes?
I read a lot of Ted Dekker (House, Circle Series, etc). I really like how he changes point of view. So smooth and easy to follow.
Same with John B Olson (Shade). Oh and Pamela Tracy (Daddy for Keeps) and Camy Tang (Sushi Series). I like how they do it.
You’re right about fast POV changes, though. they send my head spinning. I haven’t read many with those problems that have been published with main stream publishers. But I’ve read a couple self published books that obviously hadn’t gone through extensive edits. Oh man, I was dizzy from all the POV shifts. I never know who was saying/thinking what. LOL.
Thanks for the post. Have a great day.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back- The switch between Han and Leia racing through space in themillenium falcon, and Luke receiving training from Yoda on Dagobah did a good a job of keeping the viewer engaged. You get invested in what Luke is doing, then you wonder about Han and Leia, then you wonder about Luke.
The Sixth Sense- It was a brilliant move to actually show the viewpoint of Cole seeing dead people. You understand Dr. Malcom’s doubts about the boy’s supposed sixth sense, but then you see what the boy is seeing and all of a sudden you are rooting for both Malcom and the boy. You want Malcom to save Cole from these horrific images. It wouldn’t have worked as well if you never saw what Cole was seeing. You would have wondered the whole time if he was just spinning a great big lie.
Kevin J. Anderson’s “Saga of the Seven Suns.” I’ve read a lot of epic sagas that have a massive amount of characters to keep track of, and Anderson does it the best. Pretty much every chapter switches to a new viewpoint, but I never forget why I should care about each character.
George RR Martin does a decent job of POV changes, also using chapter breaks. But, like Robert Jordan, every once in a while I wonder where a character went and if I’m ever going to see him/her again. It annoys me when a main character isn’t heard from for an entire book (or two, or three). Then we spend the next two backs “catching up”, and the plot doesn’t move forward at all.
Rachel – Yes, Mat missed at least one full book…it might have been two. It’s a measure of Robert Jordan’s brilliance that I love the series despite the vast number of characters and overabundance of detailed descriptions :-). I think his wife (and editor) made a good choice in Brandon Sanderson to finish the last book in the series. I’m listening to “Elantris” right now, and so far I’m enjoying it.
Yes, I definitely recommend Saga of the Seven Suns. The downside (and the upside) is that there are seven books. Okay, so it wouldn’t be a downside at all if my library had all of them or I had an unlimited budget…haha.
I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this, but The Woman in White by Wilke Collins has multiple narrators.
Megan, I agree with you about the Robert Jordan problem. Didn’t Mat from The Wheel of Time series spend an entire book under a wall? The wall fell on him and then he wasn’t in the rest of the book!
It’s sad that Robert Jordan died before he could finish his last book in that series. He was a good wordsmith; I’ve enjoyed his stories.
I haven’t tried Kevin J. Anderson’s books, but I see I’ll have to!
i’m reading this on my kindle!
Question: I’ve been struggling whether or not my book should have a prologue to give some neccessary background or intergrate it farther down the line in the book. Some articles say a prologue is not always reccomended.