Culminating action

[pmmg]

Totally recommend a sports car.

I actually drive a van. I've never been into cars.

 

[ThinkerX]

Initially, when I started out, I had some ideas about POV, and was much stronger/stricter about it earlier in my writing. But...My story does nor really have chapters, as much as scenes. One POV per scene would be that way it works for me. I am not sure if I will eventually go back to the POV 'rules' i set for myself in Book 1. I think not. I just kind of choose whoever allows me to present it in the most interesting way. GRRM used to start his chapters off with the characters name, and I thought that was cool. I should have used that, but I was well past that already.

Any, I go for several (or many) short scenes.

But there is formatting, Each scenes has its own formatting which could come to seem clunky.

I do have some very short chapters - under 500 words - come climax time. Then again, I have some chapters that check in a just shy of 10,000 words - it all depends on the tale that needs to be told.

 

[pmmg]

Most of my scenes are 700-1000K words. Many scenes make a part, but there are not chapters.

I think the smallest is maybe 300 words. It all works out in the end. But, I have formatting marks at the beginning of each scene, so if there are small, there are a lot of those marks all together.

 

[Jason]

This is from our second book, Ties of Blood and Bone, and one example of using your POV as not just unreliable (perspective is everything), but to downright withhold information from the reader without them noticing.

***

Alerich blew out a breath. Bugger it. He needed to talk to her, Etienne be damned. He pushed his way out of his car into the cold and made his way toward Curiosity’s, determined.

It was the music that pulled his attention away from his mission, and he slowed to look around. His mother used to sing that to Elspeth and him, a pretty French folk song.

The guitarist sat at the corner, fingers dancing over the strings, long, curly brown hair in his face, but he looked up at Alerich as he approached and smiled. “The store is crazy busy right now, what with the holidays and all. Not a good time.”

Alerich did a slight double take. “I beg your pardon?”

“The store. You’re headed to Curiosity’s.”

The melody seemed to weave its way around Alerich, making it feel as if he and the musician were the only two on the busy sidewalk, but Alerich could feel no magic at play. Which could mean one thing. He’d seen it at play with demons hundreds of times, but never like this. This was very subtle. Gentle.

The guitarist’s smile never wavered. “Are you shopping, or do you need a longer moment of their time? You don’t seem like the herbal bath type.” He glanced across the cobble-paved street in the direction of the store, and sure enough Alerich could see that it was indeed crowded with shoppers. He caught a flash of white near the register as Winter disappeared behind the beaded curtain and his heart clenched. The musician finished his song and sat with his hands resting on the strings. “Why don’t you come back later? Around closing time. They close earlier on Sundays. Maybe they’ll be better ready to listen, then.”

Alerich turned his attention back to the guitarist. “How—Who are you?” What was he? Alerich had a guess.

That pleasant smile widened. “My name is Stephen. I’m a friend of the family, and I know you and Winter have a lot to talk about.”

Guilt speared through Alerich’s belly, and he knew it showed on his face. “I’m sorry I hurt her.”

Stephen began to play again, something vaguely familiar. ‘Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free…’

Alerich did not know any other words, but he felt the tension in his shoulders begin to ease.

“I’m not the one you need to explain to. Come back tonight. You still have time to make a difference in this.”

Thanks for the example.
I guess by now I could have rewritten it with POVs as my reviewer suggested, but I decided to publish as is. Maybe the next instalment...

 

[Prince of Spires]

Totally recommend a sports car.

Now I just have to. Let's see if I can come up with a justification to have a sportscar in a first-crusade-like setting, technology level around 1100 AD in Europe. Hm, maybe a sports carriage. If I sneak one in there I'll let you know

One thing to keep in mind is that POV is just a tool. And as with any tool, use it when it's useful, but switch to something else if it stops working. And while authors and editors will worry about it and complain you're breaking your POV, readers might just not care if you break it occasionally.

Of course, it very much depends on how you've used POV's throughout the story. For Game of Thrones it probably wouldn't work because he puts you very deep into a character's head, even more so with the chapter name being the character's name. For him breaking that and switching to omniscient might give the reader a bit a jarring experience. But for other writers, it's a lot less clear and a lot more fluid who the POV character actually is, even if you're still in third limited.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Now I just have to. Let's see if I can come up with a justification to have a sportscar in a first-crusade-like setting, technology level around 1100 AD in Europe. Hm, maybe a sports carriage. If I sneak one in there I'll let you know

One thing to keep in mind is that POV is just a tool. And as with any tool, use it when it's useful, but switch to something else if it stops working. And while authors and editors will worry about it and complain you're breaking your POV, readers might just not care if you break it occasionally.

Of course, it very much depends on how you've used POV's throughout the story. For Game of Thrones it probably wouldn't work because he puts you very deep into a character's head, even more so with the chapter name being the character's name. For him breaking that and switching to omniscient might give the reader a bit a jarring experience. But for other writers, it's a lot less clear and a lot more fluid who the POV character actually is, even if you're still in third limited.

And now I need Malik. The sports car of the First Crusade was the horse, but not just any horse. A knight on campaign was expected to haul a small circus along behind them. Malik does a great job going into this in his Outworlder series. Also, since I'm an academic (at least I was) I will be handing out homework.

Good place to get started if you're a better-than-average student (as we all should be).
Amazon.com: Warfare in the Medieval World eBook : Carey, Brian Todd, Allfree, Joshua B., Cairns, John, Joshua B. Allfee, John Cairns: Books

The Geis have an excellent popular series that is accessible for both readers and writers.
Amazon.com: The Knight in History (Medieval Life Book 3) eBook : Gies, Frances: Kindle Store

If you have questions, you're in the right place to ask. We're always happy to help.

 

[CrystalD]

I have 3 POVs going right now. All characterswere introduced in the first act of the story, then two of them split off, the third is doing his own thing right now. I plan to have them all meet again waylater, as their plots are divorced from each other at thi point, but are all important for different plot reasons. When they meet again, it'll be in the heat of battle, so they can't hash out issues they had with each other early on, but they'll all have grown from their different msadventures, so their differences won't matter as much as they did before. But I tend to write a chapter/scene from the POV of whoever's gingto have the most emotional impact from it. You can even go back to the sae scene, from another perspective just to drill the emotion for each character in, so they're all as fleshed out as you want. I think for final battle scenes, it should go the same way, but I do agree bounce from POV to POV as little as possible. There should be a primary MC, so probably stick to them the most unlesssomeone else is doing something important to the overall battle, that will impact the plot/MCs development.

 

[Mad Swede]

And now I need Malik. The sports car of the First Crusade was the horse, but not just any horse. A knight on campaign was expected to haul a small circus along behind them. Malik does a great job going into this in his Outworlder series. Also, since I'm an academic (at least I was) I will be handing out homework.

Good place to get started if you're a better-than-average student (as we all should be).
Amazon.com: Warfare in the Medieval World eBook : Carey, Brian Todd, Allfree, Joshua B., Cairns, John, Joshua B. Allfee, John Cairns: Books

The Geis have an excellent popular series that is accessible for both readers and writers.
Amazon.com: The Knight in History (Medieval Life Book 3) eBook : Gies, Frances: Kindle Store

If you have questions, you're in the right place to ask. We're always happy to help.

I will add to that list. If you're writing a story set in some sort of quasi-medieval world then you should also read

amazon.com: The Medieval Traveller, Norbert Ohler

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I will add to that list. If you're writing a story set in some sort of quasi-medieval world then you should also read

amazon.com: The Medieval Traveller, Norbert Ohler

Nice! Thanks for the recommendation. I'm always looking to fatten up the library.

 

[Prince of Spires]

The sports car of the First Crusade was the horse.
....
If you have questions, you're in the right place to ask. We're always happy to help.

Main questions: Do those horse things come in red? And do they go faster if you paint racing stripes on them?

Just kidding. Thanks for the recommendations. I wasn't particularly looking for knowledge, but they look like useful reads. I'll add them to my TBR list