{"id":1345,"date":"2021-04-07T09:15:42","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T13:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2021-04-07T09:15:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T13:15:42","slug":"sharing-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/07\/sharing-the-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing the Limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 25, 2020, Kit Kat Kitty wrote, I\u2019ve started plotting a new book out (usually, I\u2019m a pantser, but I\u2019m trying this out), and I\u2019ve run into a bit of a problem. I have two main characters, a boy and a girl. The boy is the actual main character, but the girl is a close second. The premise is that the boy is trying to get to the underworld and retrieve the soul of a man he killed by accident a year ago. (It\u2019s a long story. There are gods in the story, and the boy happens to be the son of the death god, so he accidentally killed someone by touching them.) Anyway, he\u2019s just starting out on his quest when the girl shoots him with an arrow that causes him to fall in love with her (that is also a long story; she didn\u2019t want to, but she was worried her mother would love her less if she didn\u2019t, and her mother is a goddess). The point is, I realized that the girl has just as much growth to go through as the boy, and the whole \u201clove arrow\u201d sub-plot is really only a hindrance for the boy but it\u2019s a big deal for her, so I was wondering if I should make her a POV character as well. I also think her story would be very interesting to write about. Any advice?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A conversation ensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katie W.: Go for it! Writing from someone\u2019s viewpoint (especially 1st person) is a great character-building exercise, even if the scenes get cut later on. Unless you have a deadline, there\u2019s no reason not to experiment. Sure, there will probably be a lot of garbage, but there may very well be some really good stuff, too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Mead says: Sounds like a fascinating premise! Good question! Is the story more about him, or them? What would 2 POVs give you that 1 doesn\u2019t?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kit Kat Kitty: My main concern really comes down to trusting myself to make the right call. If the story ends up being two POVs, it\u2019ll go in a very different direction than if I only do one. I have a nasty habit of deciding to write from a character\u2019s POV just because I think they\u2019re interesting. I suppose it really comes down to what kind of story I want to tell, and I\u2019m thinking that one POV is better, but I think I\u2019ll try writing a few chapters from the girl\u2019s POV too, as Katie W. suggested.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that said, I\u2019m still not 100% what I\u2019m gonna do or what\u2019s gonna happen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Mead: \u201cI have a nasty habit of deciding to write from a character\u2019s POV just because I think they\u2019re interesting.\u201d Sounds logical to me!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kit Kat Kitty: I guess it does, doesn\u2019t it? I guess I\u2019m just worried about what people will think. I\u2019ve been warned before not to write two POV\u2019s in a story just because I want to, but since I\u2019m in the really early steps, I don\u2019t think it\u2019d do any harm. I guess I just need to remind myself that I write because it\u2019s fun.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Mead: I think the most important thing is to make it clear when you\u2019ve changed POV, and why. Ex, don\u2019t do it in the middle of a scene, because the reader will get confused.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I agree with Katie W. and Melissa Mead and with Kit Kat Kitty that we write because it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it isn\u2019t. But we write for the fun times. And some of the fun is in experimentation and the growth that follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m certainly with Melissa Mead that the story premise is fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you probably noticed, this question arrived over a year ago, and Kit Kat Kitty probably finished her story long ago. If you\u2019re reading this, would you let us know how it went?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m in favor of experimentation. Timidity puts me to sleep when I\u2019m writing and puts readers to sleep if a timid story manages to get finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written two books from two POVs. The cake in terms of number may be taken by Bat 6<\/em>, written by National Book Award winner for True Believer<\/em> (and my friend) Virginia Euwer Wolff, which is told by\u2013count them!\u2013twenty-one first-person narrators. It\u2019s an excellent book and worth reading. Also, you\u2019ll see how she pulled it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we\u2019re thinking about multiple POVs, we need to consider what we\u2019ll gain, and Kit Kat Kitty, in my opinion, makes a good case for trying it. Both characters are children of gods, which affects them differently. The girl adds a complication to the boy\u2019s quest. She reacts one way; he another. There\u2019s a lot to explore in their differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first two-POV book was my Mesopotamian fantasy Ever, which is told in alternating chapters by each POV character, one a mortal girl in the city of Hyte where the people believe in a single god, the other the young god of the winds from the kingdom Akka, where there is a pantheon of gods. The chapters are labeled by who\u2019s telling, so the reader always knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a love story, and I don\u2019t think I could have brought the love aspect to life in the sole POV of either of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is my Trojan War book, Sparrows in the Wind<\/em>, for which I am waiting (endlessly, according to me) for edits from my editor, who is almost certainly not reading these words. In Sparrows<\/em>, the first half of the book is told by Cassandra, the seer whose prophecies are never believed. The second half is told nine years later by Rin, an Amazon girl who rides to the aid of Troy with her mom and eleven other Amazon women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sparrows<\/em>, my initial reason for the two POVs was because Cassandra ages out of childhood while the war continues, so I felt I needed to introduce a fresh girl character. Since this is fantasy, I could have shortened the ten years and stayed with Cassandra, but I wanted to stay as faithful as I could to the established mythology. I didn\u2019t anticipate that the double POV would create a buddy story, and I was happy about that. I\u2019d never written one of those before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both stories and in Kit Kat Kitty\u2019s as she\u2019s described it, the POV characters have different backstories and different perspectives, which form their varying responses to events. We can keep that in mind when we consider what we\u2019ll gain from the added complication of more than one first-person narrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sparrows<\/em>, for example, Cassandra lives in a society in which women have no freedom. Zero. Except for religious festivals, they rarely even step outside the women\u2019s quarters in their houses. Turned loose in the wild, a Trojan woman wouldn\u2019t last long. On the other hand, an Amazon can fend for herself and better; she lives to hunt, fight, raid villages, and collect spoils. Amazons are contemptuous of so-called \u201cvillage women\u201d and prefer death to captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from chapter headings in Ever<\/em> and the passage of time between the two halves in Sparrows<\/em>, we want readers to always know who\u2019s speaking. In Ever<\/em>, I tried to make the two voices different. I reasoned that Olus, the god of the winds, would be more educated than a mortal girl, and I tried to give him an advanced vocabulary and to have him think and speak in longer, more complex sentences. I don\u2019t think I succeeded. But when I just opened to pages at random I always knew who was talking. Their history and world view are so different that it affects everything. Besides, since Ever<\/em> is a love story, each one is usually either speaking to the other or thinking of him or her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sparrows<\/em>, to differentiate speakers and also for plot reasons, I wrote the first part in the past tense and the second in present. That alone differentiates the two, but also the world views of the two of them have little in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are two strategies for differentiating the POVs. There must be many more. For example, one POV could be told through journal entries, another through live action. One might even be presented in italics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019re working from a traditional tale, like a fairy story, more than one POV will expand its scope and most likely lengthen our page count. We can consider if we want that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple POVs will also complicate the arc of our story. For pantsers (like me, mostly), that will make the telling more difficult. I would want to come up with a skeletal outline. But this isn\u2019t to say that complete pantsers shouldn\u2019t try it. The pleasure is in the journey!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Tell \u201cJack and the Beanstalk\u201d from two POVs, Jack\u2019s and the giant\u2019s. You may have to give the giant a backstory. What were his hopes and dreams when Jack brought him down to earth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The English version of the tale has this rhyme, which you can read about on Wikipedia: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fee-fi-fo-fum<\/a>. Here\u2019s the rhyme:\n\nFee-fi-fo-fum,\nI smell the blood of an Englishman,\nBe he alive, or be he dead\nI'll grind his bones to make my bread.[\n\nIf you want to use this, you can bring in geopolitics!<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Tell the fable of the hare and the tortoise from three POVs: the hare, the tortoise, and the fox, who judges the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Go wild. Tell the story of a spelling bee from the POVs of the final seven contestants, a sibling of one of them, and the judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On March 25, 2020, Kit Kat Kitty wrote, I\u2019ve started plotting a new book out (usually, I\u2019m a pantser, but I\u2019m trying this out), and I\u2019ve run into a bit of a problem. I have two main characters, a boy and a girl. The boy is the actual main character, but the girl is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}