Point of View
November 28, 2000
7:26 a.m.
Lisa continues to think the best answer for the election is pistols at dawn. But I came up with a different idea. Parachute Roulette. We let Gore and Bush jump from a plane. The last one to pull the chute gets the job. This, of course, assumes that they remember the chute, but I'm willing to give them both the benefit of the doubt. Lisa amended to the idea to require that they live afterward. We're going to petition the Supreme Court to get a ruling on whether drawing actual breath is a requirement of the job.   Point of view is not something I think about a lot. I tend to choose them by gut rather than through any basic understanding of "purpose" each might bring to the page. So I've always looked at point of view as somewhat arbitrary, though I know it isn't. "Searching for Ghandi" is teaching me to pay attention, though. I'm a morning away from completing the story again (I think), and it feels like the POV change I've enacted was the right thing to do for it. The secondary character is coming out more strongly, which, as I've been moaning over for the past couple weeks, I've always viewed as being important. Even better, I don't think the shift has diluted the main character any. Of course, I can't just leave it here. I'm going to have to spend some time figuring out why this one works better than the last. Don't worry, though. Don't shake your head and tell me I'm draining the fun out of it all. I'm an engineer and all that--I need to know how this works. Not only that, but I think this understanding is what makes the whole process so invigorating. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. :) What this all means is that I'll probably spend the next two to four months of my reading time focusing on point of view--asking myself why this one worked, and how it would be a different story if it used a different one. Writing is fascinating, you know? It's like working with fractals. Everything is so elegant what you look at it at the highest level. But there's a lot going on down in the guts of it all. There are solutions churning, numbers crunching, decisions being made as to what colors to assign which solutions and how many iterations deep to delve. There's a lot to learn here. A lot of variables to play with, and point of view is one I haven't played much with. Here's to experimenting... [grin]. Have a great day.  Dang, whack ... Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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