Best POV

Discussion in 'Author Discussions' started by IReadWhenBoredSoWhat, May 14, 2022.

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What Point of View do you find easiest to follow

  1. 1st person

    5 vote(s)
    29.4%
  2. Multiple 1st person

    2 vote(s)
    11.8%
  3. 3rd person

    12 vote(s)
    70.6%
  4. (it's been years since I had to take an English class and I just want to read)

    2 vote(s)
    11.8%
  5. "My neighbor's goldfish trainer's aunt who lives in a mortuary's next of kin who is def. real said-"

    3 vote(s)
    17.6%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. IReadWhenBoredSoWhat

    IReadWhenBoredSoWhat Well-Known Member

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    In this particular case, it's a short story about a family of 3, (mom, dad, son) where the parents barely knew each other and the mother died shortly after giving birth. Story wise, the bulk would cover the parents meeting up to about when she dies with the epilogue of sorts with the kid as a teen showing off how well he grew up for feels (and also brief yet brutal revenge on his maternal family that neglected his mother which lead to her early death but that's less important).

    I feel like this could be done in several ways, from the kid's POV the early parts might be a story told by Dad and the rest from the kid's perspective, or the early parts could be from the mom's and the middle the dad's and the rest the kid's. I could make my life easier and just do it all from third person/omniscient pov. I could even through in the butler as the narrator cause I feel like it's been a while since I've seen a story with a proper narrator but maybe that's just me.

    Yet here I am floundering, all because the little voices in my head demand a sacrifice and today it's this story;
    which I'll probably post in the community originals when I'm done cause it's a short one.
    (...or rather, I hope it'll be short)
     
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  2. tekinwillie

    tekinwillie TEKING

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    Depends on how you want it. Want to put an author's input in, 3rd person. Want to put thoughts of multiple characters, 3rd person. Want it to be more intimate with the characters thoughts, 1st person. I usually do 1st personally.
     
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  3. Deleted member 310942

    Deleted member 310942 Guest

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    Personally, I do 1st person most of the time. Especially if there is some mystery that the MC has to uncover later on in the plot. If you want the story to unfold for the readers at the same time it unfolds for the MC, then you should go for 1st person. If there are details you want to be thrown in that could only be seen by the other characters, then use 3rd person. I wouldn't know about the multiple POVs because I've never experimented with that.
     
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  4. simak

    simak Well-Known Member

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    For multiple points of view & the length of the story, 3rd person limited would probably fit the most neatly.

    I personally find that 1st person is the easiest to start out with, but causes me to run into the limitations of narrative & in-story knowledge quickest.
     
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  5. melomarl

    melomarl Burning Red

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    3rd POV is my go-to. Because my brain keeps coming back to early wattpad days when I try to write/read in 1st POV and I ruin everything because I would cringe so hard.
     
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  6. Silver Snake

    Silver Snake Magician of NUF|Show-off|Awkward|Genius

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    First person is better for shorter more personal stories, while third is better for longer more complicated stories.

    Like if there are a lot of characters, better to just do third since it can be a chore to come up with a bunch of different voices, plus it can be jarring for the reader, constant pov switches in first.

    I did first person for one story because it was largely about the experience that specific character was going through, but I did third in another because it was more about the protagonist's relationships with the world and other characters.
     
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  7. Xian Piete

    Xian Piete Author of many mediocre stories

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    You should write it in Morgan Freeman's narration, "Right now, you find yourself reading this quote as if Morgan Freeman were reading it out loud."

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Darius Drake

    Darius Drake A poster of verbose posts

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    This sounds like it's a short story intended to have about 5~10 chapters, total, and is focused around the character's and their interpretations of events. In this case, I feel like multiple first-person point of view would be the most suitable for the story being described, with single first-person being the runner up. The reason for that is because Multiple First Person allows for you to display the same conversation between three people in three potentially very different lights, while First Person only gives you one viewpoint, and Third Person tries to give both viewpoints while giving neither.

    Multiple First-Person POV: Prologue could be the One-Night-Stand from the Mother's POV, with the first proper chapter being the first proper meeting from the Father's POV. Second chapter would be Mother's POV on that conversation, with added details such as discussing meeting each other's parents, or bringing up custody and meeting rights of the unborn child, if they've decided to raise it apart, or even if they're going to put the child up for adoption. Follow up chapters relate to what is decided then, and decisions made in that second meeting, and the results thereof, usually keeping only to the POV of the Mother & Father, but occasionally adding someone external to the pair in order to get an alternate viewpoint.

    Single First Person POV: Should be taken from the Father's POV, and can be considered the MC recollecting about the mother of his child. I feel like it would be required to meet both parent's families in this version, with the epilogue displaying if the relation between the Father and the Mother's Parent's, with the possibility of other relatives on both sides, has changed for the better/worse over time. Could, alternatively, be done from the Mother's POV, and have the epilogue be done by her spirit/angel/other remnant form, though meeting the families would still be important to this.
     
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  9. MidstNost

    MidstNost 【 Reigen's Saltshaker 】【 Lingtian Raider 】

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    third person limited
     
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  10. IReadWhenBoredSoWhat

    IReadWhenBoredSoWhat Well-Known Member

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    For anyone that cares
    https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/a-short-ish-story-family-of-three.149114/
     
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