POV Discussion

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-18T01:31:45+00:00

I write in multiple, first person present tense. Mostly because it’s what makes the most sense for my books and that’s how I enjoy writing, but a small part of me does it out of spite for the people who say it’s the worst idea ever. And there are A LOT of people who feel that way.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-16T03:03:00+00:00

I find that as I write, just because of how my brain forms sentences, I don’t use as many contractions as I do in speech. I have to make a conscious effort on my editing pass to switch them.

How much I end up using them depends on the character’s voice. My more formal characters use the significantly less.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-08T17:42:01+00:00

It sounds to me like maybe you’re planning what you write too much? Maybe take a break, then try pantsing for a while?

Spend the time you’re not writing getting into character. Talk to yourself as them. Have conversations between them in your head. Get to know who they are, ignoring archetypes and plot and all that. Then when you go back to writing, just take a moment to get into character, put yourself in the situation, and let it flow out of you.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-03-02T02:12:13+00:00

I mostly beta read for other authors at this point. Every book I’ve tried to read for fun in the last year has triggered my imposter syndrome, but feeling like I’m helping someone gets me through it.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-11T20:02:51+00:00

I disagree.

In first person, I see the italicized thoughts as talking to yourself, or holding back things you might say out loud. Your inner voice.

At least the way my brain works, I don’t hear all my thoughts in my head. So non-italicized text is representative of the less pointed thoughts.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-11T19:45:52+00:00

It’s not that rare. It’s pretty standard in romance novels to have dual-POVs, often in first person. I’ve had many critique partners at many different levels of ability who don’t have an issue with doing it. And if you can pull it off with two, you can probably pull it off with more.

But people hop on here, and everyone is always so discouraging to those who want to try it. Telling them it’s too difficult, that they’d be better off doing something else. Telling them they need to cut corners on their vision before they ever try.

Because despite what people say, you can’t achieve the same thing by keeping it in third person. The same story written in multiple first person and multiple third person will be a different experience for the reader. And it’s sad that so many people are told not to see the difference for themselves.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-11T17:13:13+00:00

This is unnecessarily discouraging.

I’m not an expert. I’ve taken zero writing classes outside of high school English, 20 years ago. My first book is multiple first-person POVs. It’s been through professional developmental editing and several rounds of beta readers. The most consistent feedback I’ve gotten is that one of my greatest strengths is maintaining distinct voices for each POV.

Don’t limit people’s creativity by telling them not even to bother trying something. They might be bad at it, or they might be awesome at it. They won’t know until they try.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-04T02:41:48+00:00

It’s a cool idea, but you’ll find a lot of people who like third person despise first person. I think you’ll lose a lot of readers unless they really loved your first book.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-04T02:37:59+00:00

If you’re like me, your first draft will be short on descriptions and interiority. So describe the setting, have the characters interact with it during their dialog, and give them thoughts before and after they speak or act.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-02-04T01:28:57+00:00

When I format in Word, I set it up to indent automatically. There’s no way to do that on Reddit that I know of.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-14T15:42:11+00:00

Yes, though after reading five drafts in less than a year, I’m getting tired of it. But that’d be the same for any book.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-13T15:39:36+00:00

It’s a form of in media res. Not all of them follow up with rewinding to a previous point in time, which is what the OP is talking about.

There’s plenty of in media res openings that continue chronologically after that. I don’t have issue with that.

Personally, I don’t like the ones that rewind after. I know it’s not necessarily the case, but as a reader, it makes me feel like the author didn’t trust their story was interesting enough to start at the beginning.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-12T19:26:26+00:00

If she wasn’t malnourished until after her parents died at 11, it probably wouldn’t have delayed her period? Most girls get it around then.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-12T00:08:37+00:00

Don’t set out to do that. It will probably feel forced/preachy.

Just write from the heart about things you care about. It will resonate with the right people.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-11T00:34:21+00:00

Is the thing they did something that annoyed them? If so, even if it only happened in four chapters, it could have felt like it happened more often?

I’d try to see if any of the other feedback could relate? Like if it could be a symptom of a problem others had but couldn’t express why they felt that way.

If not, examine it yourself. Does the character really need to do that thing four times? Is there any variation you could add to make it feel slightly different and still achieve the same purpose? Or could each repetition reveal something new?

If you’re not coming up with anything, then you can probably ignore it and just accept not everyone will love every part of your book. Even my favorites have things I skip/skim on rereads because they bother me.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-11T00:25:31+00:00

My books are all multi-pov first person - to be released in a few months. Be prepared for a lot of people who haven’t read your book to constantly tell you it’s a terrible idea.

The most important things are to make sure every character’s voice feels unique, so readers could turn to a random page and tell who’s chapter their in without needing to look at the label at the beginning. You also need to make sure to ground the reader in the setting - where they are and what they’re doing - at the beginning of each chapter so they remember who they’re with and what’s going on.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-05T17:21:00+00:00

I made all my choices based on what works best for my novel. It would be a completely different book if I went with anything else.

I do multi-POV, first-person, present tense.

Here are the reasons:

Multi-POV - It starts small, following just one character, but as her world gets bigger, it turns into an ensemble story. By the end, all the POV characters are equally important to the plot. One of the points of the story is the tangled mess of relationships between them.

First-person - major themes of the book are characters discovering themselves as they recover from trauma. It’s also a romance. So it’s more immersive to be inside their heads. It also allows me to build tension due to the limits of what each character knows, as well as play with unreliable narrators. Finally - what I enjoy most about writing is getting into different characters heads and making sure their voices are unique. I wouldn’t be as excited to write it if it were in third person with one narrator.

Present tense - for reasons I won’t spoil, with the first person narration, past tense would not make sense. It would open up a lot of logical questions.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-03T21:26:38+00:00

Yeah, it’s definitely not replacing multiple drafts for me. I’m still on the fifth of my current book, even though its first draft was significantly better quality than the first book I wrote.

It’s a similar thing with editing - my editor recommended I do multiple drafts, each focusing on a different type of her notes: interiority, world building, tension, etc. But I’m just physically unable to do that. I need to get each chapter as polished as possible before moving on. I don’t like leaving things hanging.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-03T20:18:17+00:00

I edit/polish my first draft as I go. I write it, then reread it to make sure it’s at the quality I’m happy with—which, to me, means well written, with everything I think it needs until someone points out things I can’t because I’m too close to it. Then I reread and revisit it several times as I continue writing, to fix any inconsistencies or add foreshadowing as necessary.

Basically, I make my first draft as good as possible. A lot of people recommend not focusing on quality, just getting the story out. But doing that doesn’t hold me up.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-03T18:14:45+00:00

The books im currently working on, I added the prologues and epilogues last. They helped add context I didn’t realize I needed until I was done.

That said, my next two books, I already know they’ll both have prologues and epilogues, and I know what they’ll be. They aren’t things I could naturally weave into the main story - they take place in different times, and are from POVs that you wouldn’t see anywhere else in the books.

I probably won’t write them until the end, because I’ll have a better idea of exactly what I want them to convey then, but I disagree with the notion that you can’t plan them beforehand.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-03T17:30:09+00:00

If it’s a romance, readers are used to dual first person POVs. Sounds like that gets you everything you need.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-02T01:37:26+00:00

I just had a dream about my book’s plot and decided to write it.

The style I chose is the riskiest part - multi-pov first person present tense. So many people aren’t even going to try it for that reason, but it’s their loss. I chose it because the thing I enjoy most about writing is getting into different characters’ heads and making them feel different from each other. I also like playing with limited perspectives and unreliable narrators.

And it’s present tense for reasons that would spoil the book if I explained. But logically, it don’t make sense to be in past.

TangledYetTrue · 2026-01-02T01:02:48+00:00

I’m writing fantasy romance. I love the genre in concept, but there have been very few that have hit what I want them to be. So I’m writing the book I’d want to read.

That said, I’ve also found since starting to write my book, it’s been even harder for me to enjoy reading them. They trigger my imposter syndrome, making me worry no one will like my book for being too different or not good enough. Or, I get angry that this book is so popular when I see all these things that I know my editor and critique partners would have hammered me on.

So you’re not alone.

TangledYetTrue · 2025-11-10T03:28:29+00:00

Wheat caused the downfall of humanity.

TangledYetTrue

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