Okay, so I’ve been meaning to write this blog for a while. A common piece of feedback that I get is that people hate that they don’t get the alternate point of view in my books. Hell, that’s literally why I’m writing a companion series from the hero’s POV. The inspiration for this particular blog came from two things, the first was a review of The Wedding. In it, the reader was incredibly frustrated by the fact that “Harrison’s thoughts were as blank as his memory seemed to be.”
In the review, we ended up having a massive, in-depth conversation about Harrison and his motivation, I pointed to the conclusions we could draw from what other people told Heather. Heck, that was why I ended up writing a chapter from Harrison’s POV for them. They found it super frustrating that they had no idea what was going on in Harrison’s head during the book.
Here’s the thing, though, we don’t get a second point of view in life. Do you know who else felt frustrated by Harrison saying he couldn’t remember anything about that night when she was pretty sure he could? Heather. She could only go off what she knew from what he told her, but also from what she knew from things other people had told her.
As a result of this, we felt her frustration. We felt her devastation. Heather couldn’t just pop into Harrison’s head and check his recollection to help herself feel better, and neither could we.
Which brings me to the second thing that inspired this blog. I read a few books with multiple points of view, recently, and hated it. I’ll tell you why. It stops me from feeling as emotionally attached to the character. We are with our main character, we feel their feelings, then we jump into someone else’s head. Then we jump back, again. We now know things our character doesn’t know. While it’s satisfying to have those answers, when our character feels things, we no longer feel those feelings with them because what we feel is informed by knowledge that our character doesn’t have.
I feel far more connected to a character when a book is written from a single point of view. I get to be with them, I get to feel what they feel, and I truly get their perspective on what happens. I theorise with them about what other people are thinking based on what they’re told, because they don’t know what other people are thinking and neither do I.
So yeah, that’s why I write in a single POV, and why I will continue to do so. Because people review my books and tell me that they felt things when reading my writing. I know that they’ve emotionally connected with what I’ve written, which I love (even if it leads to heated discussions on Goodreads lol!).
I can’t say that I will never write a dual (or more) POV book, but I can say that it’s highly likely that most of my books will remain single POV and all of the ones I currently have planned to write are single POV.
Anyway, I hope you’re all having a great Monday. Happy reading!
I get what you’re saying about a single point of view. I don’t argue that. What I always argue, are multiple points of view written in 1st person. That is the kind of jumping around that pulls me out of a story. A story written from a single point of view in 1st person can be good.
Stories written from one person’s point of view or multiple in THIRD PERSON can be equally good or bad, that entirely depends on the author, how they solve this and their overall writing style. Either can pull me completely in.
It is rare for me to enjoy a story written in 1st person, the characters usually tend to do too much navel gazing and the monologues tend to be too long. Two of the many pitfalls of 1st person.
These can more easily be avoided in 3rd person. How many points of view don’t matter that much. Of course I would have loved to know what is going on in Gabriel and Harrison’s heads, companion stories are a good solution as long as they don’t become too repetitive…
I’ll admit I had issues with the first book, I had a hard time connecting with Ariana, probably because she’s written as such a young person. But that’s okay, I found the connection in Encore.
I did however completely connect with Heather. I cried with her and I laughed with her. That was an interesting rollercoaster. I stayed up past 1.30 last night finishing this book.
As for the first book, I see what you did with the chapters, and I saw why you did what you did when I was reading Encore. I’m debating re-reading the books right away, I do feel like I rushed through them a little too much. Staying up half the night and finishing both books in less than 48 hours is a lot, even for me.
Now to my biggest gripe; that I have to wait so bloody long for next book and for the companion books. Being fresh off of reading The Wedding, I’m a little bit anxious… I want to know more.
My reviews are up on Goodreads, I hope you don’t hate the one for The Album too much. All I can say is that I usually write the reviews as I’m reading the books. If something is on my mind, I have to get it down or it’ll drive me crazy.
Haha, your review of The Album is far from the worst one I’ve received for that book! I actually really enjoyed the blow-by-blow of what you were feeling when you read it! Ariana is so divisive. Unfortunately, she doesn’t shine the brightest in her own book. She does a lot of growing up and is one of the most down-to-earth characters later in the series. The way she handled the reactions from Sebastian and Heather in The Wedding showed how much she’d matured, in my opinion.
I’m currently reading a book that’s multiple POV in the first-person present tense. I don’t hate it, but I still maintain that I don’t connect anywhere near as strongly with the characters for exactly the reason I said in this blog. I know stuff they don’t know, so I don’t feel their emotions as strongly. I groan whenever I see a POV change in a book, and it’s so common in romance. I understand that it allows you into the head of both main characters, but gah, I don’t like it!
I naturally write fiction in close, limited, third-person POV. I did choose to do the companion series in a first-person present POV purely because I wanted them to be different, so it doesn’t end up being exactly the same book, just with the internal narration of the hero, instead of the heroine.
I’ve enjoyed writing the companion book to The Album, so far, because I get to play with what Gabriel notices and experiences vs. what Ariana noticed and experienced. One of my favourite things so far (aside from Heather teasing Gabriel and implying that he’s bad in bed) was a conversation with Hayden that Ariana was present for, but not noted in her book because she was tired and checked out at that point in the evening.
I think you’ll really like The Baby. Sebastian’s character arc is another one that I love. I wish there wasn’t such a huge gap before The Stalker comes out, but I’m also glad I’ve got that time because I want to make sure that I get everything perfect in that one. The whole series ties together, nicely, I think. But, I want to make sure I don’t bork it and leave some plot hole open!
I think you might have me figured out… LOL
Speaking of plot holes. As I’ve understood The Album, Ariana was on tour with the guys for 6 months. But at one point there is a mention she was there for 9 months. With how well edited your books are, that one stood out like a sore thumb, and I’m surprised no one caught it. I didn’t want to mention it in my review, I figured I’d been harsh enough already…
And yes, I’ve already started my re-read. You’re good, you got in my head and I can’t put away either book. I think this might be one of the few books I want to own as a hard copy. i’m usually pretty happy with my Kindle editions, even for favorites. But every now and then, when I book gets under my skin, I want an actual book.
I lost count how many times I wanted to kick Ariana’s butt. But Encore, man, that one got to me. I did figure throughout the book she would have to get away from it all and that she needed to grow up a bit. The scene in the park. Harsh. I was reading Encore well into the night. I think it might have been 3AM before I finished… I know the last time I checked the clock, it was past 2AM, and I was reading for a good while after that.
How much navel gazing is going on in your 1st person multi POV book? They tend to all dive into the same pitfall… I started reading one like that right after The Wedding, but I caved 15 chapters in. And I don’t think I’ll pick it up again. Oh, and this one had constant flashbacks to various times. It was exhausting.
When I read the sample of Gabriel’s Album at the end of the book, I was first taken aback by it being in 1st person. But it works. Like I said earlier, for some books, 1st person works. It just depends on the author and how they solve it.
As for your Easter eggs, other than the chapters being the songs on the album, I haven’t figured it out yet. Yet.
OMG, I just searched in the document and you’re right! I’ve been meaning to fix The Album before I put the rewrite up for print, again. I’m so glad you pointed that out! Hold off on getting a hardcover until the rewrite is available. I think I unpublished all of the original ones, but there’s a few out there. Originally, it was all told in a flashback format and nowhere near as good as it is now!
Funnily enough, the other error in the book is a Heather reference as well. She says “After that, Hayden had started becoming famous…” which was obviously meant to be Harrison. I mean, technically, she WAS friends with Hayden, too. I picked too many H names for them. 😉
Oh god, no. They’ll be in first-person, but still ONLY one person’s POV. I…try my hardest not to gaze at navels, be it in books or real life! 😉
I literally don’t expect anyone to ever get The Album’s secret. It’s ridiculously hard. The Wedding’s…GAH! I don’t want to give clues. *zips lips*
Can I ask one thing about this secret? Is it some kind of foreshadowing? Okay, I won’t pry. I’m halfway through chapter 4, I’ll see if I get it. I ended up reading Sebastian on Wattpad last night. How many chapters have you planned for it? Please say a lot! LOL