truepenny | talking about writing (Reply)

matociquala are thinking about point of view and characterization.

I'm going to repeat here a comment I made on Kat's post, which is that the habit of having every major character be a PoV character is one that I particularly loathe in modern high fantasy (George R. R. Martin, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, to name three perpetrators). I get very crabby if there are too many viewpoint characters, because I feel like I'm being jerked around on some sort of weird head-hopping carnival ride--you know, the ones where you have the whole thing going in a circle, and then you have little sets of cars going in their own circles. Which is great for a ride, but lousy for a read.

But, at the same time, you know, I completely sympathize with the urge. The fantasy novel I worked on and worked on and worked on in high school and college, and never completed, had six or seven viewpoint characters, and in fact it foundered under their weight. I couldn't keep my own interest in that many people's minds. Multiple PoV looks like a relatively simple way to get panoramic scope and close characterization, and it looks like it must be the easiest way to tell the story. But neither of these things is true. What it is, is an easy way to diffuse the energy and drive of the narrative so completely that the story turns into a stagnant bog.

I'm sure there are writers who can pull it off (and I'm sure there are many people who would tell me indignantly that Martin, or Williams, or Jordan, does pull it off). But it's not easy, and I think, nine times out of ten, it's not the right way to tell the story. Because, nine times out of ten, it's a choice made out of laziness rather than craft, or out of an anxious desire to make everything perfectly clear. Sections from the villain's PoV tend to have that motive behind them, and the story would generally be leaner and more interesting without them. I think it's good for readers not to know everything, and especially not to find out everything too easily or too quickly. And forcing the protagonist to find out these same things, rather than just bouncing over into the villain's head to let the reader in on them, is better for the narrative.