Point of view and Flow

I am on the third round of editing my novel and have come to a rather difficult, but essential chapter. When I wrote the first draft of this novel I took a "damn the torpedoes" approach and didn't allow myself to get hung up on grammar or tinkering with mechanics. Early on I realized that it was just best to push forward and find the end of the tale before focusing on polishing.

I'm glad I went this route as it helped to reach the first goal of finishng the novel. It also allowed my creativity to run wild and as a result I was able to come up with a lot of stuff that is in the story I had not anticipated.

Now, the difficulty is getting it to make sense. As I finish each chapter I forward a copy out to a writer friend of mine and he reads it then looks for issues with everything fom grammar to plot.

The latest chapter I sent for review involves my main character having a number of visions in which he bears witness to the past. The stumbling block in this chapter is really point of view, there are multiples. There is the main character's point of view as he is static to what he witnessing. There is the point of view of the author as I try to explain what is happening. Then there's the narrative voice of his deceased Grandfather as he recalls the history my main character is bear witness to.

The word count is 66000.

The chapter itself is finished, but I was wondering if anyone could reference stories or book excerpts with dream sequences that I might be able to use as guide to clean up the flow.

Thanks
M

 

This sentence worries me. No matter how much flawed your first draft is in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation, plot etc etc... I think it has to make sense before you could say you have 'reach the first goal of finishing the novel'. Getting the story make sense isn't polishing yet.

As for multiple point of views, as long as you make it clear where the dream sequences start and end I don't think there will be problem. As for grandfather's POV, it could be put inside quotation marks as he will be directly recalling the history.

Sorry, I don't have any references to suggest.

 

I was being humorous. The story makes sense.

 

Is the story told from a first person narrative or third person? If it is mostly third person then it shouldn't be too confusing as long as it is clear where the dream sequences begin and end. If it is told in first person then the dream sequences wouldn't be a problem, but the sequence where you said it would be narrated by the grandfather might be a problem. You could just switch the perspective over to the grandfather for his part of the dream sequence.

 

It is mostly third. The Grandfather narrative is merely a memory. Come to thin k of it it is all thrird person, but a pain in the butt none the less.