POV?

[Sage]

It's just occured to me that most fanfic on this site is written in the 3rd person, at least a greater percentage than you would find with general novels and such.
I personally have written very little fanfic in 1st person, and those tend to be outright character studies [oh and the one vignette I wrote in 2nd person, just prove I could].
Started to wonder why that was the case. Is it that because CS is a TV based fandom ultimatly we are always going to be 'outside observers' and therefore mirror that in our writing?

Don't have a problem either, just thought it was an interesting observation.

[Marion]

I didn't want to reply to your comments earlier, Sage, as I had a new story about to go that was relevent to your topic! http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/something_stupid.htm
I was taught - as a dewy-eyed schoolgirl - that the first person story is best kept to something that only needs to be seen from one point of view. The motivations of characters other than the narrator, have to be filtered through his/her perceptions anyway, so that can be tricky in a complicated action-based story.

It could well be wrong - I seem to remember that Charlotte Bronte pulled it off in 'Jane Eyre'....

[Sage]

Oh yes of course. I've read that and utterly adored it. Am now rewriting some of my own stuff to accomidate those 'developments'. Always find it great to get so into a character's mindset. There is more of an immediacy to it, more 'believeable' too in a weird way.

Hmm yeah that's a good point.

The story I'm working right now is first person, but each 'chapter' is from a diffrent character's perspective. Have seen that done in a novel and it does work. Long as everyone has a pretty unique voice and you signpost the switches.

[Carrie]

Point of View...
Yes, I have agonised over it, until my head hurts.
I'm (still) writing my current multiverse story in what I call 'third person limited omniscient', well, thats what it WILL be when I've edited so it reads like that!!!!!
It's a multi-character, multi-action with lots of internal monologues for some of the main protagonists, and I really had to watch it, for in the 'head' of that character, they can't see themselves blush..for example, or see their hair flying out around them, or know what someone else was thinking....

If not writing in first person , then most (decent) writing books suggest one POV per scene for third person POV, otherwise the reader doesnt know which character to root for (as it were!) in the scene, and feels like they're watching a tennis match, batting the emotions or thoughts from one character to another. Also it can dilute tension if we know what everyone's thinking in that scene...

I guess the beauty of POV is that it allows the writer to change the tone of a story, and engage the readers emotions differently
It's a very powerful tool at the writers command if used correctly.

Totally agree with what you said about various 'first person's' in the same story if signposted correctly, Sage.

[Rhapsody Angel]

tThere are times when a story is best told in the first person through only one character. I loved retelling the story of Manhunt from Captain Black's pov in Have Mercy on the Prisoner. There was no other way to effectively describe what it was like except in his own words. But there are also times when the best way to tell a story is from the perspectives of several different characters; they may be in the same time, same place, doing more or less the same thing, but have entirely different experiences. I haven't tried doing a first-person pov like that yet! It would be quite a challenge though.

[Prismatic Avatar]

I prefer 3rd person POV, simply because I like to get in all the characters' heads. I tend to avoid 1st person POV unless they're a character insight thing.

[Parker Gabriel]

Even though "The Inquisition," the requisite "flashback" installment, was actually not that good an installment, in Captain Scarlet's search for Captain Blue, it certainly lends itself well to first-person POVs, especially when he remembers how they first met. (See the novel All The Colours Of The Rainbow for the story of that first meeting as Colonel Bishop tells it.)

Frankly, I personally wish Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson had taken the trouble to explore that possibility to a greater degree than they actually did.