wesleysgirl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wesleysgirl) wrote2005-09-10 05:05 pm
wesleysgirl) wrote2005-09-10 05:05 pm
Writing thoughts
So last night I was thinking and I realized why I have such a hard time writing scenes with more than two or three characters in them.
It's POV's fault.
Because I write in a fairly tight POV, I 'see' the scene from that character's POV. I'm so busy concentrating on how the POV character is interacting with each other character in the scene that that's all I can see. It's like each line of dialogue is playing off the one before it without acknowledging that there's this whole bigger picture.
I don't think I can stop writing from the tight POV I write in. Okay, I could, but I don't think I want to. I might consider experimenting, but I can't picture making a major switch in my style of writing other than temporarily.
But I think what I do need to do, when writing group scenes, is pull back a little bit. I can still be in the POV character's head, but sort of... hovering over him, like a camera shooting the scene from up above. I need to be able to imagine the bigger picture and watch it unfold without forcing it, letting all the characters interact as part of the entire conversation instead of in little pockets of individual space.
Anyway. It made sense last night.
It's POV's fault.
Because I write in a fairly tight POV, I 'see' the scene from that character's POV. I'm so busy concentrating on how the POV character is interacting with each other character in the scene that that's all I can see. It's like each line of dialogue is playing off the one before it without acknowledging that there's this whole bigger picture.
I don't think I can stop writing from the tight POV I write in. Okay, I could, but I don't think I want to. I might consider experimenting, but I can't picture making a major switch in my style of writing other than temporarily.
But I think what I do need to do, when writing group scenes, is pull back a little bit. I can still be in the POV character's head, but sort of... hovering over him, like a camera shooting the scene from up above. I need to be able to imagine the bigger picture and watch it unfold without forcing it, letting all the characters interact as part of the entire conversation instead of in little pockets of individual space.
Anyway. It made sense last night.
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Even though, when I'm writing (which doesn't happen all that often), I have the exact opposite problem. I can't get *into* a character's head, instead I kinda hover over the action, all limited (or even full) omniscient. Which is great for crowd scenes, but hell when you're trying to do an intimate bit with just a couple characters. Or, worse, just one character.
It comes from years and years of role-playing (instead of writing) where we challenged ourselves to do multiple character scenes, and to (many years ago) being the primary dungeon master for my AD&D group.
no subject