POV Roulette
The name of the game recently has been POV swapping. The novel I'm editing, The Pull of Gravity, has four main point of view characters, on top of a non-linear structure (two parallel timelines). The result is quite a juggling act, and I seem to need to re-balance the POV structure anew each draft.
Let's call the characters thusly:
- MC1
- MC2
- SC3
- SC4
(MC = main character; SC = side character)
Originally, everything was a mix, based on the order of events. There also existed a SC5 and SC6. Those characters no longer get point of view sections, though they're still in the novel--that was step 1, reducing the sheer number of POVCs.
Step 2 then became fixing the order. The two timelines are Before and After. SC3 and SC4 only appear in the After timeline. The other two appear everywhere, because it's primarily their story. To smooth out the helter-skelter POV switching, my agent suggested sticking to a more predictable order, eg MC1, MC2, SC3, SC4, repeat. I managed to make this very nicely organized in the After chapters, and even towards the climax, the swaps start happening more quickly, which helps ratchet the tension.
The Before chapters, unfortunately, didn't benefit from this. Basically, in chapters 1-20 MC1 was taking steps to advance the plot by himself. He doesn't meet MC2 for a while, and they don't start having deep interactions until chapter 20, which--surprise surprise--is where MC2 starts getting POVs in the Before timeline. While event-wise this made sense, it meant the first act was heavily dominated by MC1, while the second and third acts had much more POV switching in both timelines. Fixing that became step 3.
Now, my options here were many. I could add more switching early, or reduce switching later. I could introduce SC3 and SC4 into the Before chapters. I could do all sorts of things. What I ended up doing was rewriting a whole crapton of chapters from the eyes of a different character. Almost all of MC2's chapters got turned into MC1, and a few went the other way. Some of MC2's narrative even got handed over to SC3. It's a labyrinth over here.
What I've Learned
I mentioned in several posts before about coming to understand the importance of absolutely gutting chapters in the name of making the book better (The Most Important Lesson From Last Year). Every time I go through it, I'm even more convinced than I was before. I probably sound like a broken record, but it's hard to explain--I think I'm okay with the concept, then have to tear apart a chapter I loved even more than the last one I tore apart. And it's really hard, but then really cathartic once I've let it go, and replaced it with something better.
Additionally, it's valuable knowing intimately what each character is thinking. When I change the POV, sometimes a lot of a character's inner thoughts get lost--but they're not exactly gone, because I still remember what was going on in their head, and it translates even more convincingly into their words and mannerisms. This process has also made me realize how cuttable some stuff really is. I'll think it's so important and there's no way to get the same emotion across if we're not in that guy's head, then I'll try it the other way, and whoah, I can get rid of five paragraphs of introspection and replace it with two powerful sentences of dialogue that tell us the same thing.
It kind of sucks, but it's nice when you're on the other side of it and looking at the newly rewritten chapters.
Let's call the characters thusly:
- MC1
- MC2
- SC3
- SC4
(MC = main character; SC = side character)
Originally, everything was a mix, based on the order of events. There also existed a SC5 and SC6. Those characters no longer get point of view sections, though they're still in the novel--that was step 1, reducing the sheer number of POVCs.
Step 2 then became fixing the order. The two timelines are Before and After. SC3 and SC4 only appear in the After timeline. The other two appear everywhere, because it's primarily their story. To smooth out the helter-skelter POV switching, my agent suggested sticking to a more predictable order, eg MC1, MC2, SC3, SC4, repeat. I managed to make this very nicely organized in the After chapters, and even towards the climax, the swaps start happening more quickly, which helps ratchet the tension.
The Before chapters, unfortunately, didn't benefit from this. Basically, in chapters 1-20 MC1 was taking steps to advance the plot by himself. He doesn't meet MC2 for a while, and they don't start having deep interactions until chapter 20, which--surprise surprise--is where MC2 starts getting POVs in the Before timeline. While event-wise this made sense, it meant the first act was heavily dominated by MC1, while the second and third acts had much more POV switching in both timelines. Fixing that became step 3.
Now, my options here were many. I could add more switching early, or reduce switching later. I could introduce SC3 and SC4 into the Before chapters. I could do all sorts of things. What I ended up doing was rewriting a whole crapton of chapters from the eyes of a different character. Almost all of MC2's chapters got turned into MC1, and a few went the other way. Some of MC2's narrative even got handed over to SC3. It's a labyrinth over here.
What I've Learned
I mentioned in several posts before about coming to understand the importance of absolutely gutting chapters in the name of making the book better (The Most Important Lesson From Last Year). Every time I go through it, I'm even more convinced than I was before. I probably sound like a broken record, but it's hard to explain--I think I'm okay with the concept, then have to tear apart a chapter I loved even more than the last one I tore apart. And it's really hard, but then really cathartic once I've let it go, and replaced it with something better.
Additionally, it's valuable knowing intimately what each character is thinking. When I change the POV, sometimes a lot of a character's inner thoughts get lost--but they're not exactly gone, because I still remember what was going on in their head, and it translates even more convincingly into their words and mannerisms. This process has also made me realize how cuttable some stuff really is. I'll think it's so important and there's no way to get the same emotion across if we're not in that guy's head, then I'll try it the other way, and whoah, I can get rid of five paragraphs of introspection and replace it with two powerful sentences of dialogue that tell us the same thing.
It kind of sucks, but it's nice when you're on the other side of it and looking at the newly rewritten chapters.
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