Love As Acceptance

love was just another secret i was keeping | postsecret

Sheep sheltering at a bus stop on a rainy day in Ireland.

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What's your opinion on writing from multiple perspectives? Like, one chapter would be from Bob's POV, and then the next from Shirley's, ect. Do you have any tips for this?

I love multiple POV stories! I really like when authors explore multiple characters and really give the readers a chance to take in the story from many perspectives.

Multiple POV stories work best when:

You have many plots. The more complex the story, the more information you need to feed the reader for the story to work. Sometimes it’s just not possible to get all that information through a single protagonist. Many protagonists, however, are better suited to learning all that information. Many protagonists - especially if they aren’t working together - are also better at screwing up plans and creating chaos. 

The plot is character-based. A character-based plot means the story deals more with internal struggles than external struggles. If your plot is character based, you really want to show the reader what all the major characters are feeling. Again, a single protagonist probably isn’t privy to everyone’s emotions.

Tips:

Your POV characters don’t need equal time. And when I say equal time, I mean in chapter time or wordcount time. Devote time to the most important characters and most important situations. Do as the plot demands, not as the character demands.

Don’t double up scenes. One of my least favorite moments in multiple POV stories is when the author covers an event with one POV character, then goes back to the beginning of the event to cover it again with another character. If you want another character’s perspective, let them remember parts of the event or revisit as little of the even as you possibly can.

Work on voice. You want to keep those characters as distinct as possible. They are different people, after all. I have a voice tag here to get you started.

Divide the POVs. Not with that awful fanfiction.net **KATNISS’ POV** paragraph starter. Divide POVs by chapter or put a little divider thingy in between POVs if you’re switching in the middle of a chapter. 

Keep track of information. Your POV characters will not know the same things because they live different lives and will be exposed to different situations. If your POV character suddenly knows something they shouldn’t, you’ll have a plot hole.

Try to avoid one-shot POVs. One-shot POVs are when a character gets one POV chapter, then no others. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it feels strange to hear from a character once and then no other times. 

The plots should interact. Even if the POV characters never meet, their plots should have a common element: for example, a common struggle, a common character, or a common theme. This prevents the story from becoming a collection of badly patched short stories.  

Some More Aesthetic Playlists for Writing

For when you’re running through the streets of a steampunk city

For when you’re gettin’ lit and plunderin’ ships with your rowdy pirate crew

For when you’re exploring the surface of a new planet

For when you’re in a southern, mystical Wuthering Heights™️ situation

For when you’re roaming the fog ridden streets of Victorian London

For when you’re traveling Europe by train with your college friends in the 1900s alternatively light academia

For when you’re on a space adventure with a fearless band of friends

For when you’re wandering through the palace gardens awaiting an arraigned marriage

For when you’re sailing on the high seas and your crew is singing some shanties to keep the spirits up

For when you’re walking through the streets of a big city and you can’t help feeling like there’s something magical running through your veins

For when you’re experiencing the Highs and lows of aristocratic life

For when you’re chilling with your cyborg friends at an android jazz club

For when you’re monster hunting in a small woodland town

For when you’re making your way through a bustling town and trying to take in the beauty and splendor

intro to lit theory

Authorship: Barthes, Death of the Author; Foucault, What is an Author?

Formalism: Eichenbaum, The Theory of the “Formal Method”;  Brooks, from The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry

Structuralism: Saussure, Course in General Linguistics ; Barthes, from Mythologies

Psychoanalysis: Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams; Lacan, The Mirror Stage & The Significance of the Phallus

Ideology: Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses; Foucault, Truth and Power

Feminism & Queer: Sedgwick, from Between Men; Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa; Wittig, One Is Not Born a Woman; Butler, Gender Trouble

Deconstruction: Derrida, from Of Grammatology;

Postcolonial: Fanon, from The Wretched of the Earth; Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?

Cultural Materialism: Adorno & Horkheimer, The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception; Williams, Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory  

these are about 2/3 of the readings for my intro to lit theory course, if you’ve ever wondered what one studies on such courses, the links lead to free pdfs  

Take me to an art gallery

Paper Lamps by Sachie Muramatsu

orchid mantis

We need to speak against the problems