forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @evastardust groupRRAAAARRL

tune

Ah. Cool.

She eats insects, She has two stomachs and she has to eat the proper food for her spider stomach so insects she must eat.

Oh cool! Have you read The Horse and His Boy?

I have! That's where I got the Idea. It made logical sense so I thought why not include it.

Yeah that's exactly where my mind went when I heard two stomachs. I read that to my sibs. Might be my favorite out of the seven honestly.

It's the most whimsical and it has the least Amount of Allegory in it, so yeah it's the best one, the last one is the worst because it is so painfully an Allegory.

I probably liked it because it was the only time it focused on the world(s) in a more daily life kind of way. And freaking Aravis. I based my beloved Ledhálav off her.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but not every book needs to be a multi POV. I really do like both reading and writing books with more than one POV, but they're just not always needed. This seems to be something I that I see primarily on Wattpad, but I can think of some examples in published novels as well where there's a POV for every character and their dog. Like there's obvious benefits, but it's insanely boring from a reader's perspective to have to slog through chapters about the main character's third grade teacher or whatever, that adds little, if anything to the story. Sometimes less is more.

Especially when the POVs either sound exactly the same, or rotate between 3rd and 1st.

Idk what to call it but it pisses me off. PC that doesn't vibe right. DON'T PUT A FREAKING MERMAID IN. A. WHEELCHAIR! THEY DO NOT HAVE THE PROPER ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE TO BEND AT THE WAIST.

So what about povs for a little bit. Has anyone read a good one that bounces around heads? I'm pretty sure it's frowned upon. But I really want to do something like that in Marked. I really have no other way of showing things that are really important to me the story like Octavia and Rune's relationship and the way Silas thinks.

I have actually, "The Land of stories." Changes perspective in the later books I haven't read them in a while so I don't know if that nostalgia speaking of the actual content. "The Sisters Grim." Also jumps around a bit I think but the Nostalgia issue is also present. As much as I hate the third "Warriors" series, it did a pretty good job at perspective jumps. "Les Miserables" jumps around a lot and while the transitions are not great you can tell which chapters are from Marius's point of view and which are from Valjean's.
All of these are from third person, I know I've read some good First person ones but I can't remember the title at the moment.

Yeah I think I'm gonna do third person. Make it easier on myself.
I read The Bridge to Neverland which was eh I guess but the perspective changes felt smooth even though it jumped all over the place.

Bouncing around heads is frowned upon unless you're Virginia Woolfe in which case it's art and the most clever and unusual thing the world has ever seen
Mrs Dalloway is a trip and a half

So what about povs for a little bit. Has anyone read a good one that bounces around heads? I'm pretty sure it's frowned upon. But I really want to do something like that in Marked. I really have no other way of showing things that are really important to me the story like Octavia and Rune's relationship and the way Silas thinks.

They Both Die at the End had good POV switches between the main characters (first person), but it had brief switches to other characters in third person which I didn't totally mind since it was a neat concept, but it was a little annoying at times.
Since Relsey mentioned Land of Stories, when I first read them I ate them up. And then I reread them and realized the writing was awful. but I mentioned it to my sister and she got really mad at me. Good plot though and I did like the POV switches

My sister adores The Land of Stories, she got the boxed set for Christmas (since we found it cheap at Costco) and she's got to have reread them like 4 times by now.

As for POV changes, I think that The Lunar Chronicles does 3rd person POV switches pretty well, as does Six of Crows and The Diviners.
Red Queen handles 1st person POV switches pretty well although it's sort of annoying that they're not introduced until King's Cage (and Iris's POV is sorta unnecessary in War Storm). Salt to the Sea does too, since all of the leads have pretty different voices.

So what about povs for a little bit. Has anyone read a good one that bounces around heads? I'm pretty sure it's frowned upon. But I really want to do something like that in Marked. I really have no other way of showing things that are really important to me the story like Octavia and Rune's relationship and the way Silas thinks.

They Both Die at the End had good POV switches between the main characters (first person), but it had brief switches to other characters in third person which I didn't totally mind since it was a neat concept, but it was a little annoying at times.

I considered that. But I thought bouncing between first and third would annoy people.

As for POV changes, I think that The Lunar Chronicles does 3rd person POV switches pretty well, as does Six of Crows and The Diviners.
Red Queen handles 1st person POV switches pretty well although it's sort of annoying that they're not introduced until King's Cage (and Iris's POV is sorta unnecessary in War Storm). Salt to the Sea does too, since all of the leads have pretty different voices.

But there isn't a lead voice really except for Daniella. But Nathaniel gets the pov for a bit. So maybe they each get a chapter?..

As for POV changes, I think that The Lunar Chronicles does 3rd person POV switches pretty well, as does Six of Crows and The Diviners.
Red Queen handles 1st person POV switches pretty well although it's sort of annoying that they're not introduced until King's Cage (and Iris's POV is sorta unnecessary in War Storm). Salt to the Sea does too, since all of the leads have pretty different voices.

But there isn't a lead voice really except for Daniella. But Nathaniel gets the pov for a bit. So maybe they each get a chapter?..

I switch POVs (3rd person) a lot, but not chapter-by-chapter.

Oh, cool. So do you just separate it by scene?

Yeah, usually. Sometimes even paragraph.

Okay. I thought people hated head jumping.

I think it’s okay in 3rd person, but in first person it really bothers me, especially if the characters lack distinct voices.

I agree with Bec.

Good to know.

Just want to clarify what I meant about my original post regarding multi-POV stories, but they're not inherently bad. It's when you have either too many POVs or POVs that add literally nothing to the story. There's a lot of examples of stories that handle POV changes really, really well (Six of Crows, Onyx and Ivory, Renegades, Scythe, among many many others. Under my Skin by Charles DeLint also does a great job with 1st person POVs).

But I've read stories (again, this seems to be a huge problem on Wattpad for whatever reason) where there's literally like 10 different view points when really only one or two are needed to tell the story. Books like Carry On and Wonder really could have had like 1 or 2 points of view and you'd still have the exact same story (especially with Wonder. The only character I was really interested in was the MC so it was frustrating to have to read from the perspective of his sister's new boyfriend, and her ex best friend like???)
I feel like as a reader, I find myself more often thinking "this story should have had less POVs" rather than "I wish we had more POVs."

Re: head jumping, it's not something that I encounter a whole lot but I'm someone who gets really confused when things move around too much. So, I don't really mind it when it's done sparingly but when things bounce around too much it makes it hard for me to be invested in the story. Unpopular opinion, but I really hated Good Omens for this exact reason.

I thought of a book right away but now I can't remember what it was

Yeah, I totally agree. Too much is too much.
(God, there are so many things I have to read but I can’t bring myself to read at all for some reason)

Ugh the one POV in Wonder where there's like….no grammar gives me nightmares.