Characters - writing from different perspectives

[Beth Pavell]

So, this is kind of a product of my idle thinking of late. Currently I have to write from the perspective of two characters. I handle this mostly through viewpoint chapters (Ie - the entire chapter is labelled a "Joshua" or an "Evelina" chapter) with the odd switch to the perspective of a pokémon. So what I started thinking was this: how would the entire story look if seen through the eyes of the pokémon? Not just the battles, but the relationships between the human characters? Or how would the same battle look seen through the eyes of the Gym Leader?

I think it would at least make for a fun writing exercise. What does everyone else think?

 

[Renewal]

Multiple perspectives are definitely among the simpler and more effective ways of building up (or down?) a scene's depth. An important thing to keep in mind, I think, is just to make sure your chosen perspective add to the scene, even in a minor way. Using the Gym Leader example, the key is to highlight how differently the Leader approaches battle, how they build up their tactics, how they react to the shifting flow and rhythm of the battle, and so on. For example, most Leaders tend to be more experienced than their challengers; the trainer's perspective could touch on the struggle in overcoming that experience, their reactions and stresses, capped off with a stratagem or two that turns the fight to their favor. In contrast, the Leader could have a much a cooler head; Gym battles would be more routine for them, instead of a critical struggle, and their thinking could reflect that. You reveal a lot about both sides' thought processes and emotional states, as well as their evaluations of the others.

The perspective of a Pokémon is definitely worthwhile, simply because their thought processes--depending on the author's interpretation--can be so alien to a human's. Really, a nonhuman perspective is always a fantastic tool to have, because you just have so many more options. What would seem over the top and cliched for a person may be just right for a Pokémon. You should definitely try it out at least once.

 

[Kantomasta]

Alot of my fics seemed to bounce from perspective to perspecive quite a bit. As for when they change, I prefer chapters. I read a story once where the author would change perspective mid scene with just a subtle [charactername] and it got confusing at times if i missed it.

As for the perspective of pokemon, one of my most popular fics back when I posted them alot was from the perspective of Bulbasaur being trained by Green. At the time, it seemed very good, but looking back nearly two years later I see ways I could rewrite and make it better. More trainer/pokemon interactions, as most of my interactions were pokemon/pokemon.

 

[Renewal]

Alot of my fics seemed to bounce from perspective to perspecive quite a bit. As for when they change, I prefer chapters. I read a story once where the author would change perspective mid scene with just a subtle [charactername] and it got confusing at times if i missed it. .

I think it depends on the kind of story as well as the kind of storytelling involved. Fics involving multiple first-person narrators? Unless the author has a strong command of their characters' voices and can instantly express who's narrating, then yikes, I definitely agree that's a pain. But I do think multiple perspectives can be a powerful tool to elaborate on a single scene. Just building off the Gym Leader example from before:

Reina struggled not to bite her lip, gritting her teeth and exhaling sharply. The match definitely wasn't going well; Morty stood calm as ever on the opposite end of the battlefield, his posture relaxed, arms loosely crossed. Even as her Quilava continued to leap at his Gengar futilely, sparks streaming from its mouth, she could tell her opponent's superior speed had decisively shifted the initiative in Morty's favor. Swallowing soundlessly, she thrust an arm out sharply, quelling the nervous shaking with dramatic gestures. If she wanted to turn this battle around, she needed to be a little bolder...

* * *​

Morty's fingers twitched as his Gengar narrowly dodged another burst of flames, floating above and out of range not a moment too soon. This Reina was tough, quick on her feet and decisive. Win or lose, it was evident that she was deserving of the Fog Badge; he doubted she'd need more than one rematch, if even that. She had stood firm, even when Gengar had blitzed her Kadabra with a lightning quick Shadow Ball. Even now, he could read the fiery energy within her, just raging to get out--sure, there was a hint of nervous tension there, but the steel in her was in plain view. When she slashed her arm out, ready to issue a command, Morty merely smiled to himself. Time to see what she was made of...​

It's a very rough and blunt example, but I hope you see my point--dynamic scenes can benefit from multiple viewpoints and in-character interpretations. It's especially effective if you're dealing with characters who aren't very self-aware, particularly if the narration doesn't allow for much introspection.

 

[Legacy]

As a reader, I tend to find stories that jump around from POV too much to be distracting. Obviously there are ways to do it effectively, which I think the above posts have addressed.

if you are going to tell a story through multiple viewpoints, I think its important to segue from scenes in an effective manner so that the reader is clear through whose POV they are reading. Try not to do it within the same scene or chapter.

 

[AetherX]

I think that changing perspectives is a valuable storytelling tool and is actually very refreshing to do as an author. I've been doing it a lot recently. The way I go about it is to have as few different perspectives per chapter as possible, and try not to rapidly switch them. Try to keep each perspective in its own chunk. For example, going back and forth between the perspective of a trainer and a gym leader during a battle would get confusing and kind of annoying. If you want to do that, just split the battle in two, either two scenes (using the scene break stuff described by others), or two entirely separate chapters.

 

[Renewal]

I don't think it's necessarily the number of perspective switches that's problematic, but rather ensuring that the switches are meaningful. The supreme concern of all writing is the question, "Does this scene matter?" If a scene doesn't build onto your ongoing narrative--whether it's by advancing the plot, or introducing someone new, or character interaction, or personal introspection, and so on--then it's boring, and your readers will just skip it. A clever writer can nestle weaker scenes between stronger ones--like a bridge supported on its ends. But a stark change like a perspective switch is like severing those supports, potentially exposing flaws that would normally be overlooked.

So you're right; just switching perspectives for the hell of it doesn't add anything to the narrative. You need to make switches meaningful, not just a trivial action or reaction to the last scene, but something decisive and immediate and relevant to the characters or situation at hand. If I wanted to revise my passage earlier to better demonstrate this, then I'd probably go into more depths about how Reina and Morty's strategies evolve over time, and how they better evaluate and understand their opponent--not just calling out attacks in response, but a more holistic look at everything a battle says about the two of them.

Of course, devoting the amount of detail such a scene would require naturally has the side effect of decreasing the number of perspective switches, because there are only so many words you can use to describe an action. So I guess it all works out for both arguments after all ^_^.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Speaking with a relatively well known author at a convention, once, I asked him about how he did perspective shifts and why in his stories. He told me that it must be done carefully, and if done properly, "separates the boys from the men" in the writing world.

He told me that perspective shifts must have some sort of point to them and should be limited to separate chapters or hard breaks. He works with focus characters, dedicating entire chapters to the "limited omniscient third person" perspective of the character. From the get go, that definition doesn't make sense, but he described it as a hybrid between first and third person; The narrator knows all that the focus character knows, feels and thinks, but can only observe from the outside what other characters might think or know.

In my own writing, I try to employ that narrative strategy. I've had difficulty maintaining it in Storm Island since it's only have one focus character until recently (and may end up going back to that one focus character), but focusing on one character's interactions in Let the World Fear Us seems to have been much simpler than spewing every character's thoughts into writing, so far at least. Over the years, I've tried getting every character's thoughts into a chapter and it gets needlessly cluttered.

As for a story that's written entirely through the eyes of a trainer's pokemon... I've read a few over the years, and I can't say a single one of them has been remarkable or memorable. Then again, I value human interaction far more through the eyes of other humans, and perhaps I struggle too much in thinking of Pokemon as more than just mere animals without personalities.

 

[PiccoloX]

I'd be more interested in what the Pokemon were thinking. You won't have to explain the trainers because their offhand info will come from how they react differently to the Pokemon. However, add a since of drama and realism. Face it, these creatures were pulled away from their natural environment and forced to fight for the amusement of humans. Despite how much brain washing the Pokeball does (and you know it does) there will still be a deep seeded resentment toward humans. How many of Ash's bird Pokemon fought against him tooth and nail only to "happily" accept their enslavement after he released them from the Pokeball?

As for the brain washing comment, the MewTwo special before the movie proves it when the Pokemon Hunters Pokeballs were destroyed by MewTwo and his Pokemon simply walk away confused.

 

[Dorothy]

In the novel I'm writing, each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character. This allows for multiple perspectives on the world in which the story is set, as well as on the overarching narrative thrust of the novel. I enjoy writing multiple perspectives because by showing multiple takes on the same subject, it provides more depth and realism to the fictional world.

 

[PiccoloX]

It also reveals the differences and similarities between the two characters. Either showing their common goals or why they oppose each other. IMO, I don't need to see a romance or bromance. I could do without that trivial, expected narrative. I prefer to see how the "villain" isn't evil and how the "hero" isn't without sin. Seeing their thoughts rather than an exchange of banter face to face.

 

[Dorothy]

It also reveals the differences and similarities between the two characters. Either showing their common goals or why they oppose each other. IMO, I don't need to see a romance or bromance. I could do without that trivial, expected narrative. I prefer to see how the "villain" isn't evil and how the "hero" isn't without sin. Seeing their thoughts rather than an exchange of banter face to face.

This as well. My POV characters, as a general rule, aren't going to be meeting each other. However, two of them I've put together right from the get-go in order to compare and contrast their views on war, government, and idealism.

 

[CrystaI]

Writing from perspective of different characters surely allows the writer and readers to understand the same world and same thing in different manner and different attitude, and where I find that is something really interesting.

Say for example, we are all looking at Ash Ketchum. How did Misty view him? How did Brock look at him? How was him in Pikachu's eye? How is he in Gary's mind? How did May view? How Dawn sees him? What Iris think when looking at him? What Serena think when she saw him? Each one is different, hence that's why it is interesting because for the exact same thing there exist thousands of different opinions.

That is of course not only limited to opinions of different characters towards the same thing, it also tell us how each character perceived their surrounding world, giving us the idea of the mindset and psychological aspects of the character.
There is one thing specific for 1st-person perspective, is the reliability of the narrating character. Because each character perceives the surrounding world differently, does xe perceived something as good or bad? Does xe think this is the correct or incorrect things to do? Does xe thing something is acceptable or not? Is xe took notice to something minor or just ignore things without much attention? With 1st-person perspective, story is narrated from the subjective mind of the character, hence it is biased and with presumption. Compare to someone thinking their life is bright and shine, and someone think living in this world is just a misery, despite they are characters in the same story going through the same plot, story atmosphere could change drastically.

And that's why, I start to grow to love writing in 1st-person than 3rd-person (limited or omniscient). It digs much deeper into the psychology of the character (both human and pokemon), provide a more sophisticated narrative than an invisible outsider looking at someone else's story but they are none of your business.

 

[Felly]

I agree with AetherX in that too much change in PoV can be distracting to the reader. There definitely are ways to do it effectively, but that takes time and practice.

I tend to stick to a single perspective within a story just because I feel like that's what's easiest for me. That's not to say I wouldn't want to write from multiple perspectives within a story, but that's an endeavor I'll go to in the future. That said, I have written in from the perspective of a Pokemon, and it's actually quite fun! I do think it's valuable to have multiple perspectives just because it does give a different view on the world and actions, like others above me have said. It just takes practice to do it right so that it's not distracting to the reader.