Point of View

I absolutely love reading. In fact, I read four books this past week. It was amazing. The first book was Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. She is pretty amazing, you should all check her out. But anyway, Jackson's first book As You Wish is told by two characters, a girl and a guy. I loved this. This was one of my second time encountering more than one narrorator, the first was Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver and Linger, which are also amazing. But anyway, I absolutely have fallen in love with multiple points of view. Shiver is told by Sam and Grace. Linger is told by Sam, Grace, Cole and Isabel.

So anyway, Sisters Red is told in the points of View of Scarlett and Rosie, the two main characters of the book. Now this was great because they are such different characters that it is amazing to be in both of thier heads not just one, most people would call that an unreliable narrorator.

The second and third books I read were Leaving Paradise and Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles. These books were amazing! I read the first book in five hours and the second one in approximately the same amount of time. They were just fantastic. These books are told in multiple points of view as well. That of the main characters Caleb and Maggie. Like in Sisters Red, each chapter is told by a different person. In all three books every other chapter is told by switching points of view: Scarlet, Rosie, Scarlet, Rosie and so on. This is the same with Leaving Paradise and Return to Paradise: Caleb, Maggie, Caleb, Maggie.

The Fourth book I read is called Where She Went by Gayle Forman. This book is the sequel to If I Stay. If I Stay was told in the perspective of Mia, she has been in a car accident and is looking at the world as if she is a ghost. Where She Went is told in the perspective of Adam, Mia's boyfriend from If I Stay. I just loved the switch from Mia to Adam. I also love this book being told in Adam's view because not too often in YA literature do you get to see what goes on in the guy's head and I love getting that opportunity. Most YA books that I have read are told in the girl's point of view and I always want to know how the guy is feeling about a certain situation.

I love looking into different characters and how they view different situations. A lot of the time when I read a book I am wondereing how the other characters are feeling about different things and different narrorators gives me that opportunity to take a glimpse into their world and I just love it.

The novel I am working on is being told by two different people, the two main characters, boy and girl. Now, telling the story from multiple points of view can be difficult because you really have to know your characters and be able to differentiate them on the page as well as in your mind. If you do not have a good enough handle on your characters they may read as the same character and your reader will get confused or disinterested.

So, the consensus of the day, I wish more books were told in multiple character's points of view because it lets us gain insight and even lets us fall in love with a certain character more easily that if we were just to see them through someone else's eyes.

I hope you enjoy!

Novel or Short Story?

That is the question.

So you may have been able to tell from my other posts, but I love to read. But most of what I read are novels. This semester in my Advanced Fiction workshop class, our focus is on Flash Fiction, which is a very very short story, usually ranging in word count from 500 to 750 words. I have found that I love writing these stories. They are fun and short and easy and yet difficult, but Flash Fiction is all about 'the moment'. And it is so fun to write 'the moment'. But I also love writing my novel, it is equally fun and challenging.

So now I pose my question. Which is more fun to read? A short story or a novel? And what I have in answer to that question is: why not read them both.

The short story can be read in one sitting and is simple enough to enjoy in the moment. A novel is deep and complicated. It takes you a while to read but can be equally enjoyable.

I enjoy the short story, and even though I say why not read both, I personally love reading a novel because I love to fall in love with a character and have a vested interest in them. I hate it when a novel ends and I can no longer read about the characters I have fallen in love with.

So, somewhat of a disorganized and possibly incomplete blog post, but the point is, you don't have to chose. You can read whatever you like.

Later homes!