God Perspective

Janine, that's everything I was trying to say, but said better.

I prefer to write an entire part of a series from one perspective without hopping heads at all. But it is possible to break things up with a *** and move on to the next perspective so that you can understand how two characters feel about one another within the same story.

What I'm talking about is when during a single spanking, I'm seeing the spanker look down on the spankee, then reading about how the spankee is feeling the spanks. That is *very* uncomfortable for me personally.

I do it sometimes.Especially if I have two central protagonists, it makes sense to get both points of view at critical junctures. But having said that I think I use it sparingly. There is usually one main character whose thoughts are described but on occasion I do a brief shift just to give someone else's perspective. I used it in The One Room Schoolhouse. One recent example is Menace from Mongo. But here my main characters are in different scenes, so naturally POV is split. In a story now in the queue I use dividers because I am shifting POV from a participant to a secret witness who speaks in the first person. WE'll see if it works.

I would have to re-read my stories and take notes to sort out how many I've used the omniscient perspective versus how many had the perspective of one single character. I'm working on a story right now that will definitely has to go that way.

I'm sure I've used the first person as a higher percentage of my stories than most writers. I don't like the idea of "jolting" my readers, but notwithstanding the advice of the professional experts, I write my spanking fiction for myself and my own tastes. Once I like it, I send it in, no matter what "grade" it might get.

My feelings on the matter are aligned with those expressed by SNM:
I agree with Twisted that this was an interesting and provocative post. Thanks, Storm, for putting it out here. This kind of post will draw replies.

P.S. - I somehow missed the Janine post, but, as usual, I agree with all the points she made.

Yup. Writers Art. I said that.

Why Janine???????? You..........ah......er...... 'Bodice ripper'????.......................who knew?

And I agree whole heartedly. It is hard to 'critical' while enjoying..................it.

Evil Large Scale Top Grin!

I can't figure out how to quote! Good grief! I mean, there's a little button, but it doesn't look like it's giving me a quote. Should I guess that using standard bb code will work? I think I shall try that.


(Please tell me that worked! We'll see!)

I write for myself as well. Personal satisfaction is the #1 reason to do this, though watching comments roll in on stories adds to that personal satisfaction, and therefore I like to write things that people like to read.

The single most significant factor for me with regard to personal satisfaction is whether or not I have managed to grow as a writer. Have I adapted the way that I create my characters? Is the storyline working better? Does the story flow better than the last one that I wrote? Is this the story that I would want to read?

When I can honestly read over my past stories and find satisfaction in reading them, that's when I know that I'm on the money. Even with my own fiction, I am much happier with those that maintain a single POV throughout a single scene, though preferably throughout an entire story.

I think it's interesting; we should all, of course, write what we would most like to read, shouldn't we? I wonder what that says about me? Hmmm....

(*Squee!* It worked! :D)

FYI, Storm, that quote I snagged of SNM's was the first time I ever used the quote function too. I made sure I didn't squee!, but - ahem - I did want to.

I would submit head hopping is much more effective in a shorter story then a long one. In a serial or a longer story (one over 4000 words) one has a chance for dividers/scene changes etc but under 2000 words there is little opportunity for such things and the writer has to make a choice on either one perspective or more, and it seem most writers go for more.

The Assistant (Version 1) and The Assistant (Version 2). It's a story of a student who returns to her old school to be a teacher's assistant. In one version certain events could easily be accidental while in the other version you see inside other character's head enough to know that there it isn't accidental.

And I agree that you shouldn't have godlike knowledge of what every character in a scene is thinking as the scene happens - unless there's some narrator telling you a story and filling in those details (one of these day I'm going to write a narrated story - at least that's what I tell myself). Or there's some break in the action... I'm sure I've writing from the perspective of someone getting spanked then switched to what the spanker was thinking but I don't try to keep a steady stream of action happening during those switches.

And if either you or Janine want to add more advice, more of "this is what we tell starting writers" I'm sure people will love hearing it. I know I will. I also know that I might reject that advice, even if it is good advice. Stephen King is known for the advice he gives authors (or maybe it's his book on how to write) and also known to disregard those guidelines when it gets in the way of telling a story.

Goodgulf
(edited to fix a typo - the bane of my existence!)

Well unless you count a single published poem as being a "professional" I'm not. Of course, I often remind people, that was a legitimate publish and I was paid. I didn't have to pay any money to see it in print; the publisher paid ME. LOL

If you're interested in experimenting, I really recommend trying the perspective of an observer. When it's loaded, Foster Forest part 16 is an example of it. That was my great experiment and it turned out beautifully, I think. The observing character is also highly sympathetic, which helps, I think.

For me, my big love in fiction (of any kind) is strong characters. I usually try to keep a running character bio about the characters that I use and reuse. Since everything I do is in serials (which are essentially short novels -- the Foster Forest Series 1 is 80,000 words long), this is not only important, but it's less of an inconvenience than if I was building a complete character bio for a single short story. I do this for all of my characters, including those who are fairly minor to my plots. I like to know what their motivations are.

I've said frequently that when I create characters and when I role play, I do it as an actress rather than as a writer. One thing that I learned early on in my acting life is that you're always looking for your character's motivation. I try to always know what is driving my characters when I write them.

When my Nery Legacy is loaded, a lot of people are going to hate one of the characters. They're supposed to. But I know what this character's motivations are for outright cruelty. And that information will come to light when I think that it's appropriate for it to do so.

So I suppose that would be a piece of advice that I would offer: always know why your characters are doing what they're doing. If Marilyn is ticketed for speeding so that Karen can give her a sound, bare bottom thrashing, what caused Marilyn to break the speed limit in the first place? Was she late for work? Was it her anniversary with Karen and she wanted to get home before Karen got there to do something nice for her? Is she a compulsive speeder? Testing the power of her new car?

In my opinion, the most important question for the writer (or actor!) is "why."

ETA: I'll check the stories tomorrow. I've got some time since I insisted on finishing school today. Hopefully next week I'll be done on Friday. But I get one day off!

ETA again: I missed a bunch of posts! Sorry!

I personally think that shorter stories that remain in a single headspace are more effective than hopping heads, but I think it depends on how you define "short." I define "short" as being less than 500 words. Anything over that and I think we're reaching different territory altogether. I'm essentially writing slightly disjointed novels here. Definitely with the Nery's. There's a lot of continuity there!

Yet another gamer - I sometimes wonder if most of the people on this board either enjoy playing RPGs or would enjoy doing it if they had the chance.

I've got a few stories that are set in GURPS' Technomancer setting and another that takes AD&D rules and uses them for a Noir style modern day detective story (the latter is called "Gloves McCoy..."). Some other of my stories are inspired by games (S&S Story - that includes paladins and halflings, Right Is Right - where a paladin is convinced that the detect evil spell has to be wrong because she knows she's good). If you've played around with Amber Diceless I've got an attempted adaptation call Bamber and as I was writing I mentally crafted the main characters with ADRPG stats. So far I haven't posted anything in the WoD, but with V20 coming out soon I might be tempted. Or maybe write one about a LARPer who takes the LA a bit too far and someone ends up with a sore bottom...

I know some gamers who think that the numbers on a sheet is what makes a PC when it should be the PC crafted around the numbers on the sheet...

But this is an aside. Sometimes the biggest issue with being in too many people's heads is making sure that the characters don't do the same. That the characters only react to what they know, not what they would know if they were reading the story. A gaming background where you have to separate IC and OOC information can help manage that.

Goodgulf
(whose stories tend to focus on plot more than characters, but tries to make his characters breathe)