May I have your opinion?

[elanorelle]

So I want to begin a story that I have been longing to write for over a year now. Some of you may have already read a piece from said story but I have officially scrapped those specific ideas and I'm leaning towards a very different storyline though the land and characters are relatively the same.

I have it lined out, (not too much since my characters need to propel the story along ), but what I can't decide is how it should be written.

The story, I'm hoping, will rely solely upon the perspective of the main character but given the actual storyline I'm not sure how that would work out. I want it to span over AT LEAST two novels so that I could have room for world building BUT that may not work if I decide to write in first person. I want to give some details but what's the point of spoiling a not-yet-written story?

Anyway, what I'd like to know is if you would read a story where the first part is written from the perspective of one character, the next another character, and so on? Or do you think I should choose a different pov?

Thanks!

[jesusgirl4ever]

I think that, as the author, it is your decision... I would choose the type of POV you're most familiar and comfortable with.

However, I will say that the first idea sounds more interesting, and to me, fun.

[elanorelle]

Writing in third limited is the perspective I normally go with but given the circumstances in this story having it come from first person will make it "work" better. I'm definitely leaning more towards writing it all in first person by my main character but switching characters is also an option right now.

The part that is making me struggle with the decision is my character's change/realization because I don't know if I could span that across more than one novel... but I suppose it could be done.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Like Jaygee said, it's quite up to you to decide what works best for your purposes. As to reading stories that flip-flop between first-person povs, I've read a fifteen-book series like that and one or two books from another series. The first (and better) series was Red Rock Mysteries by Jerry B Jenkins and Chris Fabry. The second was a new series of Hardy Boys, I think published through Aladdin something-or-other. I can say that I had to get used to the storytelling in Red Rock since I'd never read anything that switched povs in first-person before. It took a fair chunk of the first book before I got into the swing of it. (However, it's possible that it took a while to figure it out because the chapters are so very short). I read two Hardy Boys books that followed the same pattern sometime later.

[jesusgirl4ever]

*blinks and quickly PMs Ariel*

[elanorelle]

Well, thank you four your thoughts. I think I will go with first person through the eyes of only one character. After going over this problem and your responses last night I was able to think of something I had never thought of before. Hopefully this will be able to meld the story together better than I originally figured.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Very good, Elanor. Happy writing!

[elanorelle]

Thanks! I'm planning an October Writing Month for myself and so hopefully get most of it done then.