1. Hi there, Guest

    Only registered users can really experience what DLP has to offer. Many forums are only accessible if you have an account. Why don't you register?
    Dismiss Notice

How to Properly Shift Perspectives

Discussion in 'Original Fiction Discussion' started by Carmine, Dec 27, 2012.

0/5, 0 votes
  1. Carmine

    Carmine Unspeakable

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2010
    Messages:
    728
    Location:
    University of Nottingham
    Dec 27, 2012 #1
    I've noticed, due to a few people pointing it out, that in a piece of my first person original work a perspective change was particularly jarring. I agreed once I read it back; I had literally dropped the new perspective onto the end. In my experience, it's something hard to accomplish in first person or third.

    How do you think perspective shifts can be accomplished properly and without becoming jarring to the reader - especially in first person?
     
  2. Agayek

    Agayek Dimensional Trunk DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 20, 2009
    Messages:
    4,580
    Dec 27, 2012 #2
    The best ways I've seen it handled are to keep the subject matter the same for the transition. Give one person's account, then give the other's of the same event. Ideally, the second continues the narrative directly from the end of the first. This smooths over a lot of the 'wtf just happened' inherent in perspective changes.

    If you can't do that for whatever reason, then wait til the current scene is completely resolved. Dangling threads make the transition even harder IMO.
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2012
  3. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2007
    Messages:
    6,216
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Blocksberg, Germany
    Dec 27, 2012 #3
    Perspectives in what way -- as in point of views of different persons? If you want to have that, it's the #1 sign that first person is the wrong way to write your story. First person means strictly through the eyes of one narrator only. Anything else ends up in a colossal muddle. Rare exceptions prove the rule.

    I almost think you must have meant something else.
     
  4. Striker

    Striker What's up demons?

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2010
    Messages:
    1,500
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    In the Tesla
    Dec 27, 2012 #4
    If you must I'd say end the chapter with the first perspective and start the next chapter with the second perspective. Keep 'em separate at all times.
     
  5. Rym

    Rym Auror

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2009
    Messages:
    637
    Dec 27, 2012 #5
    Like Sesc said, you really shouldn't try for multiple POVs in a 1st person story - just write it in third person if that's the case.

    As far as switching POVs in a third person story - never switch within a scene. If you start a scene in Harry's POV, for example, you must keep everything within that scene congruent with Harry's POV. Only when you end that scene, can you change to another character's POV. When you read a novel for instance, you know its a scene switch by either of the following: Either the chapter ends, or there is a line break that indicates a scene change. In fanfiction, it's often:

    Harry blah blah blah blah blah....................

    dies.

    ---------------------------------------------

    Hermione..................


    --> Some type of connection can be used - e.g. beginning the new POV scene from a similar standing as where the first scene left off - but it's not necessary. As long as the reader knows its a new scene, you're free to change. Just make sure that you stick with one POV per scene. If you're in Harry's POV, you should not write a paragraph about how Hermione feels deep inside...her loins -- unless this was outwardly obvious to Harry at the time.
     
  6. Carmine

    Carmine Unspeakable

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2010
    Messages:
    728
    Location:
    University of Nottingham
    Dec 27, 2012 #6
    Okay, this is all pretty helpful, thanks guys. And yeah Sesc, that's what I meant. You've got a point. For the record, I'm talking one POV shift at the very end of a first person short story, rather than multiple shifts.
     
  7. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2007
    Messages:
    6,216
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Blocksberg, Germany
    Dec 27, 2012 #7
    Like I said, there can be exceptions. An epilogue, a piece from a paper, a formal twist, to play with perceptions -- it's like all rules, by breaking them you want to point something out. Be sure to know what you're doing.

    Well, it kinda depends on how you write the third person. If you've got an omniscient narrator, looking into many heads is more or less the point. Fairy tale-style, or child stories, that sort of thing. If your third person is limited (e.g. more like first person), you don't want to switch in the middle of a sentence, though, yeah. Make a clean break. For reference: e.g. HBP (The Minister/Narcissa/Harry, all in separate chapters).
     
  8. Aekiel

    Aekiel Angle of Mispeling ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2006
    Messages:
    1,511
    Location:
    One of the Shires
    High Score:
    9,373
    Dec 28, 2012 #8
    I find that there are two main reasons to switch perspective in a non-omniscient narrator story.

    1) You've got more than one protagonist and the story must be told from both their perspectives. Like, for example, in a buddy cop story where one of the protagonists heads off home to find his wife has been kidnapped in a typically corny way, while the other gets berated by the chief of police. This example may or may not have been influenced by the Lethal Weapon.

    2) You've got a single protagonist (or a small group as above) but need to give some insight into the antagonists' plans. Terry Pratchett does this frequently, like in Guards Guards where he gave a point of view from the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night (and later from Vetinari's former employee when the dragon takes over) to show how close the story is from going entirely to hell. It works well if you want your protagonist to act against a time limit, since the reader will know near enough when it's going to happen, but the protagonist doesn't. Builds up tension in a similar way to a movie.

    It's also a good way to get into the heads of the antagonists, humanize them a bit. In the Pratchett example above we see just how bumbling and incompetent the Elucidated Brethren are, so we know that something is going to go wrong before the end of the story that the protagonists will have to fix.
     
  9. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2009
    Messages:
    8,378
    Location:
    The South
    Dec 28, 2012 #9
    Just felt the need to point out that Rick Riordan's "other" series, The Kane Chronicles, is done with two first person POVs that are given about equal weight. Or at least that's how I remember it? I tried reading them once and didn't get very far but that was because they felt too childish for me and not because of any dislike for the POV swaps in 1st person.

    If you were interested in trying to have multiple POVs in first person it might be worth checking out. Childish or not they have sold reasonably well I think so you might get some ideas on how to switch the POVs and make it work (assuming, again, that you wanted to have more than one first person narrator).

    I didn't like how he did it though, with the two kids bickering and whatnot, but maybe that was supposed to part of the charm for young readers.

    I'll agree with other posters that it's usually not done (can anyone think of better examples of it?), but I won't say that you "shouldn't do it." There's a reason it's done so rarely though.
     
  10. The Fine Balance

    The Fine Balance Headmaster

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2006
    Messages:
    1,065
    Dec 28, 2012 #10
    The smoothest perspective changes I've read have been in Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. She utilized a really interesting technique here of having a sort of omniscient narrator that helps connect the story as she moves from one character's perspective to the other.

    Personally, first person perspective changes should not (or rarely) happen within the chapter. I've you wish to fit multiple points of view, 3rd person is recommended.