Hi, all! So I'm writing a modern Christian fantasy/science fiction series (I'm also going to post this in the other respective categories - I just wasn't sure how to categorize it) and I finished the entire series, but now I'm going back to edit it. Yes, I know it's probably not the best way to write a series if I want to get it published someday, but I knew that I'd have a long list of edits to make, so I didn't want to seek publishing until I'd finished the entire series.
So, here I am. I wrote all 6 books, each one over 100k words (the last one tops 300k words), and I have that very lengthy list of edits to make.
However, there's one thing I'm still undecided about - the POV. Each of the first 4 books is from a different character's POV, the 5th is split between 2 new characters, and the 6th is split between all 6 characters who have had a POV.
I know that's a lot of POV's to digest. Sorry about that. I'm not considering changing the switching POV's (it's necessary for the story) but here's my question:
The entire series is written in 3rd person past-tense ("Character A strode into the dining room and glanced around, wondering if...blah blah blah. She thought...").
This 3rd person past-tense gets a little tricky when describing emotions and past experiences, but this is also the same POV used by, for example, the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings.
However, I've been considering (since I need to edit the series anyway), if I should rewrite it from 1st person POV and, if so, if I should use present tense or past tense ("I stride into the dining room, then glance around..." versus "I strode into the dining room and glanced around..."). For popular books examples, The Hunger Games uses 1st-person-present-tense and To Kill A Mockingbird uses 1st-person-past-tense.
One of the benefits of writing 1st-person-present-tense is that I would be able to describe emotions and experiences way easier, as well as recalled past experiences and being about to differentiate between the two.
A negative about it would be that I would have to be extremely careful to keep the different characters' voices and thoughts unique (I would also indicate which character's POV the chapters are from, in the books that switch POV). However, this could also be a positive if I can pull it off, and would make the writing a lot more colorful (right now, with each character having a 3rd-person-past-tense POV, I do notice that I got lazy at some times and there's not much personality difference between some of them at certain points).
I am looking for advice about this, so any input is hugely valued!! Please consider my genre (modern Christian science-fiction/fantasy), the switching POV's, and other books you may have read that had these different kinds of POV's. Thanks so much!
So, here I am. I wrote all 6 books, each one over 100k words (the last one tops 300k words), and I have that very lengthy list of edits to make.
However, there's one thing I'm still undecided about - the POV. Each of the first 4 books is from a different character's POV, the 5th is split between 2 new characters, and the 6th is split between all 6 characters who have had a POV.
I know that's a lot of POV's to digest. Sorry about that. I'm not considering changing the switching POV's (it's necessary for the story) but here's my question:
The entire series is written in 3rd person past-tense ("Character A strode into the dining room and glanced around, wondering if...blah blah blah. She thought...").
This 3rd person past-tense gets a little tricky when describing emotions and past experiences, but this is also the same POV used by, for example, the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings.
However, I've been considering (since I need to edit the series anyway), if I should rewrite it from 1st person POV and, if so, if I should use present tense or past tense ("I stride into the dining room, then glance around..." versus "I strode into the dining room and glanced around..."). For popular books examples, The Hunger Games uses 1st-person-present-tense and To Kill A Mockingbird uses 1st-person-past-tense.
One of the benefits of writing 1st-person-present-tense is that I would be able to describe emotions and experiences way easier, as well as recalled past experiences and being about to differentiate between the two.
A negative about it would be that I would have to be extremely careful to keep the different characters' voices and thoughts unique (I would also indicate which character's POV the chapters are from, in the books that switch POV). However, this could also be a positive if I can pull it off, and would make the writing a lot more colorful (right now, with each character having a 3rd-person-past-tense POV, I do notice that I got lazy at some times and there's not much personality difference between some of them at certain points).
I am looking for advice about this, so any input is hugely valued!! Please consider my genre (modern Christian science-fiction/fantasy), the switching POV's, and other books you may have read that had these different kinds of POV's. Thanks so much!