I recently reviewed a book by an indie author who was a
gifted natural story-teller. Her book centered upon a true, long-ago tragedy in a
small, tight-knit backwoods town. Unfortunately, I found
the story difficult to follow, because of frequent POV shifts, sometimes as
often as every few paragraphs.
There was usually a double drop between these
shifts, but she also had a habit of changing voice. Sometimes the new POV was
first person, sometimes third. Occasionally, I found myself stumbling from
first person to third person subjective, followed by bursts of the venerable 18th
Century third person omnipresent. Many of her narrators were unreliable,
and there were many, many characters, almost an entire town. Few were
well fleshed out. However, each one, Rashomon-like,
had a unique piece of information about the pivotal event.
As compelling as the story was, I’d have to say "thumbs down."
Her tale was interesting and important—and probably remains inflammatory, even years later. People probably still remember where they were
on the terrible day when a labor dispute went terribly wrong and police waded
into strikers and killed someone.
POV shifts are tricky business, even in the hands of more more skillful writers. If I’d been
her editor, I know our discussions would have been difficult, because she
clearly had problems making a choice about who the main characters were.
Although it might have created other difficulties in telling the story, the
loss of focus that resulted from all that switching around made my job as a
reader far more difficult than any author has a right to ask.
My diagnosis? The story hadn’t jelled when she
began to write. In her rush to get the inspiration down, to cover all the
bases, she created a huge maze of information and very nearly couldn’t unravel
it herself. A novel, (which is, after all, an artificial creation and not
reality) needs a core character(s) and a core point of view, a place for a reader to stand among
whatever whirligigs of narrative and event the author can contrive.
So, if you are thinking of finally writing “that book,”
definitely work out who/what/where/when before you get going. Laying the
groundwork, pouring the foundation, you might say, is the place where a writer
really ought to start.
Juliet Waldron
See all my historical novels:
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Juliet, I feel your pain on reading that book. I've been judging contests and several of them had the problem of too many characters who wanted to tell their version of the story. At one point the dog had a POV. Once there were 2 POVs in the same sentence. For some writers this is a hard thing to learn.
ReplyDeleteWell, the dog might have a POV, but it probably should be the hero!
ReplyDelete:) This lady had so much going with this incredibly moving and believable story--but she needed to pick a narrator and stick with them.
Great post, Juliet. Even after all these years trying to craft a story, I'm always at odds with myself regarding who will be the view point character of a particular section or chapter. Sometimes you have to go with a secondary character to give the reader a different slant, but the reader is (or should be) most interested in the protagonist. Anything that doesn't shed light on his/her arc is most often unnecessary and confusing. But a dog's perspective would be most interesting :-)
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