Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Viewpoints Choices and Scenes #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Writing #Viewpoint

 The choice of viewpoints in a story is the author's but the author can also decide to change the viewpoint character or characters. Sometimes a number of characters are needed. Sometimes only one. There are times when during the writing of a story, another character needs to have a view. These scenes must be woven in soon and skillfully. I have a book that has one viewpoint and that's a murder series. I have another than has eight. The order is established in the beginning of the book This is important.

Now when you write scenes there are authors who throw in many viewpoints in a scene. This can be done skillfully but many times the reader begins to feel like they have whiplash and they don't care which character to root for. One rule is to maintain a scene in a single viewpoint. What if you want to switch viewpoints during a scene? Done with ease this can work. Some writers use some phrase to indicate the scene is changing viewpoints. The others make a decided break and start the next part of that sceen in the viepoint of a different character. No maatter what you choose, make sure the reader know through whose scenes the scene is talking place. And be very careful not to write something that looks to be in another character's viewpoint even for just one sentence,

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Viewpoint- Multiple Chracters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Tip #Writing #Viewpoint #Multiple Characters

 Especially in longer works multiple viewpoints are used. I've been guilty of this a number of times and I like showing the story from many character's viewpoints. I once used this as a vehicle to do vanishing characters. A number of the characters were killed leaving only the heroine, the villain and the hero standing when the book ended. There are tricks to doing this.

One of the tricks is to take a bit longer to make the character come alive and for the reader to form a bond with them. Another trick is to perhaps show some of the characters in the opening scenes and how they relate to each other. This I used in the Affinities series, starting iwth one character and bringing her two brothers and sisters into her opening scene. The only character not there was the fifth character who became their friend.

Another trick is to have an event surrounding them like a fire that effects a number of people. This is called building connections and is very necessary.

Keeping the switches simple can help. Using them to advance the story is another way. Take time to let the reader know you'll be writing in a second character's view for a time. Referring to the next viewpoint character by name or wondering where they are located can be another way to alert the reader. Don't clutter the openign scene with too many characters in too short a time perion. Introduce them slowly rather than have a scene where there are a dozen characters vieing for the reader's attention.

Keep these scenes active. Static scenes don't do much for the reader/

So choose your method of choosing a viewpoint character or characters for a story with care.

 

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Tuesday's Writre's Tip - Viewpoint - Two characters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Viewpoint #Two characters

 When writing romance, the usual method is to have the hero and heroine each having a viewpoint. This can also be done for other types of stories and done in several ways.  There are rules to follow when doing this. Having the reader's identify with a character is an important thing.

When using two viewpoints, you can use alternating scenes, alternating chapters or some variation. One trick is not to jump from head to head in a scene. This could bring the reader whiplash. Another thing to do is to show the reader this will be the structure of the story especially when beginning the story. Shorter passages will show how the viewpoint will shift in the story. One of the problems is if the scenes are too short, the reader may not have time to know identify with one of the characters. Once the pattern is established, the scenes can be longer. I've read books where these opening viewpoint scenes are merely paragraphs and rooting for the characters to overcome their problems doesn't seem to let me like or dislike one of the characters.

Another method is to have the story told in parts with one character's viewpoint being used for a particular time in the book in Part one. Part two then shows another character taking up the story.

No matter what method you use, make sure the scenes or chapters are long enough to brina an investment in the character and not so long when the viewpoint shifts, the reader won't wonder what's happening.

 

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Multiple Viewpoints #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Tip #Writing #Viewpoint #Multiple

 Sometimes your story needs to have  number of viewpoints. This isn't the easiest kind of story to pull off. You are asking the reader to invest in a number or characters. One trick to make this work is to show the reader early on that this will be the form of the book. I've written many stories where there are a number of viewpoint characters. Besides letting the reader know there will be more than one character telling the story, making the break clear is important. In my stories following this pattern, I try not to switch viewpoints within a scene. I often make a complete break between the viewpoints or I start a new chapter or scene. This method also allows the reader to perhaps move to a different geographical area than the one currently used. So take care and only make the changes in the viewpoint when there is a need for a different view on what is happening in the scene.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Single Person Viewpoint #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #wroting #Viewpoint #Single person

 A single person viewpoint for the story means the entire storyis told through that person's eyes, ears, feelings and descriptions. There are usually several characters in a story so choosing the right one can be difficult. If you choose Dan, the murdered, you would have a different story than if you choose Steve, the detective. So when you sit down, you must decide whose story you want to tell. This can be an easy choice or a hard one.

Choosing the character who has the most to win makes for a different struggle than if you choose the person who has the most to lose. So wait until you decide what kind of story you plan to write before choosing a single viewpoint character to be the eyes and ears of the story.

You could also choose an outside observer to be the single viewpoint chracter. This outside character can see or hear different chanractere. But -- there;s always a but. This outside character can't know what the characters he's observing feel. He can't know what their interior  problems bring to the story. Emotions other than the surface ones can;t; be shown since this outside observer isn't in any character's head.

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Tuesday's Inspiration - Mysteries and plot.

Am I inspired, yes. I've been randomly reading essays by writers and this one by Stanley Ellin really hit home. The opening line "To the author, the plot is the most important element of the mystery novel. Th the reader, it is one of the least important." This made me stop and think since my current project is a "cozy" mystery. I devote an entire draft to plot and I continue to tinker with it throughout the writing process. The plot has to make sense to me but sometimes it doesn't. I also need to have a good plot for my other forms of writing but does the reader need to love the plot. Sometimes events occur in the writing of a story, mystery or not that later bring the writer to an aha moment. This may not be the same moment to the reader. I've had this happen in stories in genres other than mysteries. What these moments do is clarify some plot point for myself.

What really happens is that the characters discover something. What a reader focuses on is the characters in the story and the setting. The plot is the understructurs of a story. For me it becomes the canvas on which I paint words. The characters interact with the plot and bring the story to life. But without a solid underground the characters won't take life. Since the mystery I'm writing is part of the series, my character has grown and changed but not her basic nature. In critique I'm reading to a mixed group. Some have followed the series and know the character almost as well as I do. Others have never read any of the books and this brings a mixed critique. Katherine is a rather no-nonsense person. She's also very in to her friends and family but she has little romance in her nature. This always boggles new readers if they haven't followed the series. Will she turn mushy. Never. Yes, she's getting married but she looks on this as another step in life. After all she and Lars have been friends for more than thirty years. They have been sort of romantically involved for the past fifteen years and are getting married. This is a union of good friends, not a romance.

Back to what inspired me. The characters and the settings are what brings the plot to life. Playing fair with the reader is another thing I need to be aware of. In the current book there is a small scene that wrote itself and in it there is a clue I didn't realize would be important as the book neared the end.

Also this essay talked about which person. For this series I chose for the first book first person. I always wondered why since only what the viewpoint character learns is what the reader learns. For these stories I've finally realized this is the right thing for the reader explores the murder in the same way as the heroine. Had I chosen multiple viewpoints for the story, they would be different and probably never would have been completed.

This essay inspired me and gave me a few clues as to what I need to explore in writing this story and also the next one which has little to do with mystery. It's a fantasy romance.