Question about shifting POV’s

[Husky_Embrace]

@SteelPoint @000zing I understand where you two are coming from. It is very annoying if people do not follow the rules so consistently. As a new member I haven't experienced any of that yet, not knowing all the forums. However, I think all you can do is continuously educate the people, trying to point them to the right forum when you notice. In addition you can try reporting, but it seems there are too few admins around to take proper action (?). The user or an admin can remove the post and it can be asked on the proper forum. It can be as simple as human error.

Agression towards individuals can lead to uncooperative behaviour, while each you teach is more likely to spread the word. Then you're not alone in trying to make the forums change.

 

[KimAwakened]

What's all this about "education". That's just political correctness-talk, wanting to be "everybody's friend" and not calling out what needs to be.
So didn't they have enough "education" already by the age of 18 to know what a "story idea" might mean...? Really?

The point here is that we haven't got a mod on SI worth the name and that the site owners can't be bothered to police it and prevent either things like this - or for that matter the brazen commercial ad that's been posted today on a thread of mine. As has been said, the forum is going to the dogs.

 

[Britva415]

I have a couple of story concepts I’m working on that I’d like some feedback on, just to see if my idea is viable or if it’ll just be chaos to try and read.

In one story, I’m telling the story from a first-person POV, (only 2 characters) but I want to add the thoughts of the other one in italic, to give some insights into her thoughts. Is this something that could work?

In an attempt at branching out a bit, I’m toying with an idea for something I hope can be a bigger story across several categories, a saga of sorts. It’s still only in early concept stage, but I had an idea and wanted to ask. I like writing in first person, and will likely use that for most of my stories, but it’s limiting when it comes to descriptions of the main character.
Is it doable to switch between third-person and first-person? Kind of like seeing a scene from above, then going in for that first person view, and as necessary, back out again briefly.

Not exactly ‘Being John Malkovic’, but along those lines.

Are you able to step outside the story and explain why shifting POV’s is the right technique for this one?

What is it about this story which can’t work with regular third-person or with a single POV?

I know, you did say that it’s because you want to show the other person’s thoughts - but why, and why this way? There are other, more conventional ways to make that happen.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

What's all this about "education". That's just political correctness-talk, wanting to be "everybody's friend" and not calling out what needs to be.
So didn't they have enough "education" already by the age of 18 to know what a "story idea" might mean...? Really?

The point here is that we haven't got a mod on SI worth the name and that the site owners can't be bothered to police it and prevent either things like this - or for that matter the brazen commercial ad that's been posted today on a thread of mine. As has been said, the forum is going to the dogs.

Oh ffs. Why do you immediately need to make it political? It is very simple psychology. I'm not saying be their friend. I'm saying do not make them an enemy. If they accept your correction, and you do not make them your enemy, they can correct someone else later.

Alternatively we can get Seal team 6 and have them knock on anyone's house who breaks the forum rules. No doubt effective, but it would be more costly than people policing themselves.

**You always call it out.** The difference is how to get them to obey, and possibly assist later on so you don't have to.

If there's ads, I do agree that agression is the right choice though.

 

[LiterallyLiterate]

Are you able to step outside the story and explain why shifting POV’s is the right technique for this one?

What is it about this story which can’t work with regular third-person or with a single POV?

I know, you did say that it’s because you want to show the other person’s thoughts - but why, and why this way? There are other, more conventional ways to make that happen.

It was simply an idea I wanted to try out, to give a kind of snapshot of what was going on inside the other person’s head, without moving away from the first person POV that I’ve been using for every other chapter in the series. I’ve done this before through the MC’s interpretation of the other person’s expressions and so on, I just wanted to go deeper.

It started out as something fun, an idea I wanted to play around with as a literary technique. The comments I’ve gotten so far leads me to believe it will be more confusing than illuminating, so I’ve put that particular project on the back burner for now. I haven’t given up on it, but I’ve had several new ideas that are more interesting to work with, so this story is just a half-finished draft for now.

That said, I keep coming back to my original thought about how I could make it work. I imagine it kind of like in that Mel Gibson movie, where he hears women’s thoughts. There, their thoughts are overlaid with an ethereal voice, that’s the kind of effect I was hoping to achieve by using italics to denote her thoughts.

Fancy that, a story idea that revolves around a technique, rather than a specific plot. Novel… (That comment was not aimed at you, Britva. I appreciate the effort to keep the actual discussion going.)