Forum: Author Hangout

I have a question as regards readability; I fancied trying something in the Cyberpunk genre, and had the main character transmogrified from present day to a future day. The story is written from the MC's point of view, so basically, they haven't got a clue what's going on, and as a result, neither does the reader. As time progresses, things slot in place as the MC learns and understands, how-ever, that takes time.

The question I have, is should I leave things as they are, or should I enable God-Mode? God mode being the story expanded to include the views of supplementary characters, dropping exposition bones that reveal to the reader information that the MC doesn't/will not have.

I can see pros and cons to both, but I find it hard to be objective, since I already have God-Mode enabled by default.

Opinions?

It depends.

I know, I hate me too.

Do you drop enough clues for the reader to follow along? Are you making the clues sufficiently difficult to make the reader feel smart when they figure it out ahead of the MC, yet easy enough that the reader doesn't get frustrated and give up? Are you using the clues as plot points to move the story ahead? Do you feel like the reader just won't get it without Morgan Freeman narrating?

If you are writing the story first person so far, and it is working for you, then don't change mid-story. Throwing in a different viewpoint to cover your own insecurities, rather than because it is a integral part of the story, is just annoying in most cases. It changes the whole feel and flavor of the story.

Either start with multiple viewpoints (introducing more than one early in the story arc) or start with one, and stick with it.

POV may be be the most important decision an author makes.

Only you can answer the question.

Do you want the reader to live the story through the POV character? Learn when he does. Get surprised when he does. Misunderstand when he does. Get confused when he does. If so, you want to write it from that character's POV.

Or do you want the reader to know more than the MC? To know what happens around him and what he doesn't know. That's why some stories have prologues — to explain the world the character lives in and doesn't know. It's also why many SciFi and Fantasy stories are written in omniscient — to tell the reader more than the character knows.

Or you can write it in 3rd-person limited where a scene is from a single character's POV, but you can switch POV characters with a scene change. So the reader knows more than the one character, but not everything an omniscient narrator would know. I don't know how you can write suspense without doing that or having an omni narrator. How can it be suspenseful to have a bomb about to explode at noon if the MC (and therefore reader) doesn't know it was planted? Either an omni narrator tells the reader the bomb is there or you have another scene from the POV of the character planting the bomb.

For me, POV is the most difficult part of writing fiction.

Opinions?

I just started a James Patterson novel — Liar, Liar.

Scenes from the MC's POV are written in first-person. The rest of the novel is written in 3rd-person providing the reader information the MC doesn't have.