Hey guys, another writing/reading question for everyone.
Now I realize that your opinion will often depend on the piece of writing itself and how it flows but I'm just asking about your general opinion on the writing technique itself moreso than the execution.
There's been this ongoing discussion on a small internet community I frequent about stories that include multiple (a lot of separate distinct) PoVs, and how scenes where the characters actually interact, at the same time, in the same place, can be confusing if the author is jumping between the various characters' perspectives. Something about how it takes the reader awhile to get into the headspace of one character but before they can do so, the author has already jumped into the perspective of a different character. Adding to that, a lot of the time exposition has to be repeated just so the reader doesn't get lost.
Assuming that the multiple PoVs is required for the story, ie. the reader doesn't get lost because each character has their own schemes and machinations they are working on, or they are all noticing something different that is important to the plot later on etc. There are some people that suggested maybe using the groundhog day style PoV structure. Where you go over the entire scene from one perspective, and then jump back in time and go over the same scene again from a different character's perspective and repeat until the whole cast is covered. Of course, that has its own issues, especially the covering the whole scene multiple times issue (though that can be mitigated if you don't actually go through every perspective back to back, but write something else in between).
What do you guys think? How would you structure the scene if you were the one writing? Which do you prefer reading?
Now I realize that your opinion will often depend on the piece of writing itself and how it flows but I'm just asking about your general opinion on the writing technique itself moreso than the execution.
There's been this ongoing discussion on a small internet community I frequent about stories that include multiple (a lot of separate distinct) PoVs, and how scenes where the characters actually interact, at the same time, in the same place, can be confusing if the author is jumping between the various characters' perspectives. Something about how it takes the reader awhile to get into the headspace of one character but before they can do so, the author has already jumped into the perspective of a different character. Adding to that, a lot of the time exposition has to be repeated just so the reader doesn't get lost.
Assuming that the multiple PoVs is required for the story, ie. the reader doesn't get lost because each character has their own schemes and machinations they are working on, or they are all noticing something different that is important to the plot later on etc. There are some people that suggested maybe using the groundhog day style PoV structure. Where you go over the entire scene from one perspective, and then jump back in time and go over the same scene again from a different character's perspective and repeat until the whole cast is covered. Of course, that has its own issues, especially the covering the whole scene multiple times issue (though that can be mitigated if you don't actually go through every perspective back to back, but write something else in between).
What do you guys think? How would you structure the scene if you were the one writing? Which do you prefer reading?
