myskittishnovel

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He said, “One of us is a hypocrite, but I’m not sure which.”

“You,” Bryony said, with so little hesitation that for a split second she didn’t feel so very unfamiliar, and Serjeo half-wanted to smile.

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Serjeo Aurelianus

had time enough to think upon the question of what kind of songs you would choose to listen to now that I am gone  

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Bryony di Agostin

I’ve got to say goodbye to the pieces of me that have already died

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the next time I think it’s a good idea to write a present-tense fanfiction for fun, bonk me on the head with a wrapping paper tube.

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read the entirety of my draft yesterday because it’s been a while since I worked on it. it took me over three hours.

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me, to my characters, plaintively: why does everything have to turn into a fight?

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me, writing: “Serjeo looked at his map again”

me, not remembering what Serjeo would see when he looked at his map: *looks at my map again*

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catch me diving for the notes app on my phone like “I LOVE this idea! this crystallizes everything! it solidifies all my themes!! the whole story is a thousand times better now!” as if I didn’t already love the story a hundred fantastic ideas ago

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recently came to the realization that the Very Central Plot Point that I think of as a given is actually probably going to be a mystery to my readers, because the main characters disagree about it, and since I’m doing alternating perspectives, readers have no way of knowing which perspective is correct…..

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the venn diagram of characters that it would make narrative sense for me to kill off and characters I intend to kill off is two, totally separate circles

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boy, I sure do like “he/she snapped” as a dialogue tag

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this new version DOES spark joy

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ihaveonlymydreams said: It's so hard! One of the reasons I admire Jane Austen's narrative style so much is that she just seamlessly transitions between povs in a scene and it works so well!

aaaaagh you’re so right!!!! Austen is a MASTER at POV and I don’t think we talk about it enough??? yet another thing Jane does so well without making a big deal of it that you practically don’t even notice she’s doing it

magpie-trove: You do whichever sparks more joy for you. Sometimes both in one scene lol

YES!! but what if sometimes the only way to figure out which sparks more joy is to write BOTH versions.....and also I’m lazy? 🤦

atlantic-riona said: For me it's whatever is more interesting 😂 But on a more serious note, I think scenes should be narrated by the character it affects the most, and progresses his or her arc. Maybe Character A is having the emotional breakdown, but it's Character B's thoughts and reactions that's important. Or Character A is having an emotional breakdown and we need to see inside her head because it helps us understand her character progression more. It could also depend on if you're trying to keep something secret/keep the reader guessing or in suspense. Character A is having an emotional breakdown, but we're seeing it through Character B's eyes because otherwise the reveal that Character A's breakdown was faked (perhaps in order to trick someone into doing something for him) doesn't surprise the reader very much

but when it comes right down to it, isn't “whatever is more interesting” the cardinal rule?!! 

and I think you hit the nail on the head with the point that it’s about focusing on which character’s arc is progressing more. I think I’m realizing that my problem is precisely that I CANNOT decide which character’s arc progression is more important from scene to scene - and I think it’s because I’ve been ruined by television?? you don’t have to pick in tv or film, because you can literally just do back to back close-ups in a matter of six seconds, and everything that needs to get said gets said on the actors’ faces. and if you’re Jane Austen, you can do your back-to-back close-ups in prose and it works flawlessly - Megan Whalen Turner is crazy good at this too!! 

so it seems like your options are 1) be a really really good author, so good that you can switch perspective mid-scene without giving your reader whiplash, or 2) be an aware enough author to craft a story that largely allows your characters’ development to take turns simultaneously with their perspective chapters.

but seriously, in a multi-POV story, how do you decide who narrates which scene??  if Character A is going through something really emotional, do you narrate it from their perspective so you can really get inside the emotion, or do you narrate it from Character B’s perspective so that you can show Character B coming to a deeper understanding of Character A???? 

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but seriously, in a multi-POV story, how do you decide who narrates which scene??  if Character A is going through something really emotional, do you narrate it from their perspective so you can really get inside the emotion, or do you narrate it from Character B’s perspective so that you can show Character B coming to a deeper understanding of Character A???? 

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that’s right, rewriting my last chapter again

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I was tagged by @iamfitzwilliamdarcy! thank youuuuu

Rules: write the latest line from a WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the line some people.

“I don’t know,” Serjeo said. “I believe that you believe it.”

I’m tagging @magpie-trove @imissthembutitwasntadisaster @septembersung @ihaveonlymydreams

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