POV Poll

[wook77]

I've been having a discussion with a few friends (fandom and non-fandom) about POV. We each had our own likes and dislikes about POV.

So, since I now know how to do a poll, I thought I'd post one here and open it up to a larger discussion group. I normally hate people who say pimp far and wide (and yes, I do mean me as well in that statement) but I'd really like a larger sampling than my flist (not that I don't love you as I do).

What do you think of POV?

ETA: Before clicking submit, please note the scale used! 1=YAY and 10=UGH. If you need to change your responses - click on "view poll results" followed by "take this poll". That should allow you to change your responses.


[Poll #669568]

Comments

[annella.livejournal.com]

regarding switching POV - it all depends on how well the author does it. Sometimes it can be downright confusing, but other times the author handles the transition well and it's obvious when there has been a change.

[fungus-files.livejournal.com]

I chose 2nd person POV as one I "abhor" but I don't really abhor it. Abhor is such a strong word. But now I look like an intolerant freak cos no-one else picked anything! HOMG. ;)

I'd say that, in my experience (with pro as well as fan fic), 2nd person POV is rarely done well over a longer work. As a drabble or short fic, sure. But in anything over about 2-3K words? It'd have to be pretty darn good writing.

As with all fic, however, it depends on how well the author crafts their work. I love changing POV fics that do it well (as in, it's a deliberate narrative strategy rather than accidental inconsistency...!).

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

argh, i thought ten was "yay" and one was "argh"! so of course i feel "yay!" about third person pov.

i also enjoy reading first and second person pov, but i think that's much harder to pull off than third person.

[wearethestars.livejournal.com]

If the POV switch is done well, ie. understandable and there's a reason for it, then I'm all for switching. If it's just a flip in the author's writing and they're doing it just to fuck with me then I'll stop reading.


I like first person POV and a lot of my original fic is like that. It can be a very very powerful way of writing. Just my opinion of course.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

okay, first off i somehow lost you off of my friends page [*whimper*] and because i am a complete plonker, i didn't notice until fungus pimped your poll and i wonder why i hadn't seen it. so if you are wondering why i've been so quiet, that is why [*headdesk*] now have a bunch of your fic i need to catch up on, but it will not happen tonight as too much to do.

second, the poll. i was completely useless since every question i kept going, well, it depends. because i don't give a rats arse what pov it is if the story is well written. i don't like or dislike one over the other. and i change pov regularly when i write, but it is usually one chapter d, next chapter h, next chapter d kind of thing. again, it doesn't matter to me if the story is well written. also i didn't know if you wanted reading or writing preferences. i write almost exclusively in tight third, but i have written in first, and first w/second (as in "i do this, and you do that"). i think it is probably hardest to find a second person pov that is well written, but it is dynamite when you do, fresh and interesting and, well, different.

so there you go. i have no opinion on pov. unless it is used badly and then i just hit the back button.

[waxbean.livejournal.com]

Hi Wook, interesting poll!

this is NOT meant to be wank, just info that may or may not be helpful:

I had to take it twice though because I usually associate "1" with being bad and "10" with being "good." I actually write social science surveys from time to time... and this kind of relationship (1=bad, 10=good) is fairly normalized for English-speaking persons.

Just a thought if some of your numbers come up funny.

[jehnt.livejournal.com]

When a person is using first-person POV and changes characters ... that does one over on my brain. Often the character's voices don't differ enough for me to be able to distinguish between them. Even without that issue though I don't like first person POV, even when done well. It just makes me feel all weird. I don't know. My ego has trouble coping with it, or something. *shrug*

Drabbles and microfics are okay in second person POV but I think it would get irritating over a longer period of time. It's suitable for a vignette, not suitable for an actual story.

Normally third-person POV with character switching doesn't bother me ... as long as it's a marked switch (like when there's a break between one character and another, not like a "omg now we're switching to Draco's POV guys!!1" sort of thing). There are some fics, however, that seem to be aiming for either switching or omniscient and end up with some weird, weird mixture that doesn't work at all. I pretty much grew up on the Star Wars EU books which in my opinion as a whole have good POV-switching despite having to keep track of about a zillion characters, so maybe this has made me extra-sensitive to weird POV problems. (Speaking of, do you read the EU books? I don't know many people who do and am always excited to find more.)

Really the most important thing about POV is that it's done consistently and well. I suppose that's the most important thing about anything to do with writing though, hah.

[chaeldub.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on POV, *shakes head*, that was a headache I didnt need. I'm not a fan of any, but I love all, any fic written, from any perspective , if done well. As for changing POV, *groans*, some people have a real issue with it with in a fic. I do not. Somehow I think that 'Dear Reader' should be able to realise you've shifted POV or characters. This is either done by a location shift, a tense shift, or just the way they talk or who they are talking to.

Chaeldub thought POV changes were good and should be attempted more often. :D

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

Okay, I clicked "no" to preference, because POV will not make me read or refrain from reading a fic. 3rd person, I think most agree, is the easier one to write and the hard one to go wrong with. However, if a fic is written in 1st or 2nd person they have the potential to become much more personal and intense. I have yet to see it work for a long fic (even if I've seen it in RL novels), but I bet some are out there, and I've read outstanding short fic in 1st and especially 2nd person.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It looks like I agree with many of the commenters above!

As a writer, I prefer third person limited POV, mostly because I like getting into one character's head and staying there. I like presenting a story from one person's perspective, especially when there's a mystery or some sort of plot point that requires a revelation. I just find it easier to keep everything straight in my head when I am telling it from one person's perspective.

As a reader, I also prefer third person limited, for many of the same reasons. I like getting inside one character's head and seeing the story from their POV. This works especially well in the HP fandom IMO because the canon itself is (almost always) told in third person limited, so a similar structure in fanfic seems to mirror that well.

My issue with second person is that I really don't like the whole ABH (Anywhere But Here, another name for second person in case you haven't seen that term before) genre -- it always feels like someone is trying to tell the reader what they ought to feel in a particular situation, and that just grates on me. There was an ABH fic I read once that basically had "you" watching two characters have sex. It was fine until the end, when the characters notice "you" are there and pull you into the sex scene and... stroke "your" cock. I got to that and went 0_o. Cause you know, I'm female, and that sort of threw me out of the whole thing.

And I think it bothered me on some deeper level, because for me, reading or writing fan fiction is not about self-insertion. Sure, I base characters' reactions to things on how I would react, but also on how I know other people close to me would react -- that's a great resource and I'd be a fool not to use it. But I want to read about characters someone else has created and have the option to draw any parallels myself. I dislike the idea of the author telling "me" how I ought to react in any particular situation, if that makes any sense.

As for third person omniscient, I suppose I see it well done only rarely. It often just results in something confusing, and I think it's much harder to convey certain kinds of stories that way. I have read fics where the writer was able to keep many different POVs clear, but the general rule seems to be not to switch inside a single paragraph.

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

Hi. :) Okay, so I prefer third person POV vastly, just because first person has to be done just so, so well to be pulled off and I hate second person POV. I don't mind switching when it's deliberate, if that makes sense. Like, if one section is Harry-POV and then the next is Snape-POV and so forth, very consistently and intentionally. When it goes like this:

Harry's heart beat extra fast and he thought he might faint. "Don't do that, Draco!" he said, hoping Draco would listen to him.

Draco rolled his eyes to himself. Harry was always such a drama queen. He got impatient. "Don't be stupid," he said, but it looked like Harry was just going to be stubborn about it.

Harry crossed his arms and started to get upset.

...

That switches back and forth with every line and that just isn't on. That's an official crime of writing, though professional authors do it all the time. A prof of mine called it the "omniscient narrator" perspective, as opposed to just telling the story from one point of view. And then you can vary in terms of how close to a particular character you get. It's possible to tell a story from third person POV and still narrate from an objective place. Or you can tell it from a very immediate third person POV, where the narrative is always also told through that character's perceptions.

Example of #1:

Draco looked up. The wind ruffled his hair and he absentmindedly combed his fingers through it. Harry was caught in a traffic jam, but there was no way he could have known that, and his impatience grew. He shifted weight from foot to foot and swore that he would wait only ten minutes and then leave.

Example of #2:

Draco looked up. The wind has ruffled his hair and he reached up to comb his fingers through it. Where was Harry? His impatience grew. He shifted weight from foot to foot and swore that he would wait only ten minutes and then leave.

It's a very subtle difference, but in the first, you have a narrator that still observes Draco and comments on his actions and other bits of the plot that are outside his own personal realm. In the second, you get only his own observations, both of his own behaviour and of what's going on around him. I enjoy both, both for reading and writing.

Second person always sounds too put-on to me, like it's trying too hard. I've yet to read a sampling of it that doesn't just sound self-conscious in the sense that you're always aware of it as a writing gimmick, rather than a simple tool for telling a story. And I'm in it for the story, not for the cogs and bolts that make it go, you know?

Sorry to ramble, but it was fun. :D

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

I prefer -
1st Person: is perfect for angsty stories. ^^
2nd Person: is good for short ones and for short interludes or to indicate an altered mindset.
3rd Person: is the most natural for me, and the easiest to read for some reason
Something else I'll describe in a comment: I like it when the POV/change of POV is consistent.


I abhor -
Something I'll describe below: People starting something in first person then realising that it should be in third and miss half of the verbs during adjusting the pov.


When an author switches POV in a story, does it annoy you as a reader: only when the switch is not thought trough, is in the middle of a chapter, is a one-time occurrence, is something that affects the style in a bad way.

[flamewarrior.livejournal.com]

I don't have any preference for PoV, as long as the once chosen is written well. As long as there is a consistent PoV within a scene I'm happy. I normally loathe PoV switches within a scene, but even that, well handled and well written, I could like.