But not all that conflicted...? I have a general idea of which POV this story should be told from, but I'm usually very indecisive about how I should handle certain elements of a story that require commitment throughout after finishing those first few paragraphs. So I wanted to get a consensus. Scenario: chamber drama (one very confined setting) driven by only two characters that share a very dark past. One of these characters is resentful toward the other but tries to mask it, terribly. The second is completely detached from reality and relies on the "resentful" character for their daily needs. That's a slither of it. How would you lot go about deciding which POV to use here? First, second or third? Whichever variations of each. I'll be honest and say that I'm inclined toward first person from my "resentful" character's POV (for intimacy and exposition purposes) but I've never written a novella before...so I'm unsure of which direction to take. Help?
I think that I might feel claustrophobic being trapped in either of those POVs, and might want to swap for some breathing room from the stresses of each one. Plus, seeing the same thing from resentful-but-in-reality and detached-from-reality might be interesting. So I'd vote for close third person limited with changing viewpoint character. But if I had to pick one, I'd choose resentful over detached from reality.
I'm with the Chicken. Revolving POV, especially in light of the two rather different grasps of reality in the respective characters, sounds like it would make for a very interesting dynamic.
Come to think of it, there is not enough second person POV out there. And it strikes me that a "chamber drama" would make an interesting pick for it. I'm not sure what " completely detached from reality and relies on the "resentful" character for their daily needs" is, but I can definitely imagine that second person would make a good match there, too. My rule of thumb is write in the POV you enjoy. If you struggle with it, it does show.
I think an important question is, whose story is it? Which character is the story is about? That should go a long way in determining whose POV to use.
I would go with the resentful character but if you feel like it's to restrictive you can always jump between POW's
To me both those characters sound too interesting to limit to one POV. You could always use first person and alternate between them or use close third. I know most people are voting for resentful if you have to narrow it to one but I'm intrigued to see through the eyes of the detached person. The audience would be able to pick up signals about the other's resentment but understand how the character's thought process misses or misinterprets these.
