Point of View Nightmare
So today I got to thinking about character point of view and how best to structure it in my current novel, Quest for Milo. The book has two major characters: Toad and Melena. After a friend pumped me up, I agreed to try to write the book with both their POVs throughout the manuscript. I haven’t ever done such a thing so I immediately assumed that the different perspectives needed to be equal.
For example:
Chapters 1 and 2: Toad
Chapters 3 and 4: Melena
Chapter 5: Toad
Chapter 6: Melena and so on….
But this morning a thought bounded into my brain that left me momentarily speechless. Let’s say that somewhere down the line I decided that chapter 6 needed to be expanded and split into two chapters. Which would then mean that the part B of chapter 6 would become a new chapter 7 and would switch to Toad’s POV. Which then means that the old chapter 7 (which had been Toad’s POV) would be rewritten to be Melena’s POV and so on and so on and so on until I had rewritten the entire novel.
If you followed that, then congratulations. I, meanwhile, was so staggered that I had to sit down very quickly. Which I did. This fear of rewriting the entire novel simply based on POV changes is a real one … one, actually, that I am currently facing. But instead of panicking (okay, I did a fair amount of panicking), I began to wonder what would happen if I didn’t compose such a strict structure. What would happen if I looked at each chapter and asked myself, “Melissa, how would this chapter be in Toad’s eyes? In Melena’s eyes?” and based my decision on that? This would mean that there will most likely be great chunks of the novel through one character’s perspective, but I don’t think that’s a problem.
And isn’t that what really makes writing so wonderful? To be open to endless possibilities? I personally–and I’m sure there are those who would disagree with me–feel that there are no rules to writing. (So that I don’t get into a fight, I will say that there are basic rules of spelling, grammar, and sentence/paragraph structure, blah, blah, blah). There are popular styles that become all the rage that will eventually fade out and be replaced by a different writing style. That doesn’t mean that there is only one way to write a book. And really, wouldn’t that be a frightful thing?
