Dual POV Part 1: Why?

Hello everyone! This time I’m going to be talking about a writing technique I used in Stalks of Gold, dual POV. (Is technique the right word? I’m not entirely sure…) Also, some very minor spoilers for Stalks of Gold if you haven’t read it yet. Anyway, here is Dual POV Part 1: Why?

Full disclosure, Stalks of Gold was my first attempt writing dual POV, or more than one POV period. (I always intended on doing it eventually, but not for a while) And, honestly, I really, really didn’t want to. I am not a big fan of multi POV books, mostly when it gets to be more than four. It’s way too much to keep up with for me. It’s one of the many reasons I’m not into A Song of Ice and Fire, way too many POVs for my personal taste. So, I am being completely honest when I say that I would have only written from Aurelia’s POV if I could have.

But, it became pretty clear early on in the process of developing the idea I had to do dual POV. There was no way around it. Way too much plot happens without Aurelia being around to witness it, and pretty much all of it involved Sandor, or at least could involve him. While Aurelia couldn’t know what was really going on, intentional on Ruskin’s part, I wanted the reader to, and then I realized, well, it’s Sandor’s story too.

Sandor deserved a voice; he needed a voice in order for the reader to have a full experience.

Sandor and Aurelia only interact about fifteen times throughout the whole novel. (Trust me, fifteen is being generous, that’s me counting any time they speak to each other no matter how brief.) If I only wrote from Aurelia’s POV, we’d only see Sandor fifteen times, which isn’t enough time to cover both their relationship and the massive plot aspects Sandor has to carry. He has to provide the context happening in the castle that Aurelia can’t from inside a tower room. He also has to figure out where Aurelia is after she vanishes and show what happened in the wake of her disappearance.

Can you imagine only seeing Sandor fifteen times? I certainly can’t.

Sandor and Aurelia have storylines that run parallel, but occasionally intersect. It’s important they both have their own journeys and growth. While I technically consider Aurelia the protagonist, Stalks of Gold is just as much about Sandor finding Aurelia as it was about Aurelia escaping Ruskin. I also wanted Sandor to have as much complexity and depth as Aurelia did, so as difficult as it was, writing in his POV was what the story needed.

And you know what? I loved it, and I’m doing it for the rest of the series. I want to give some love to our fairy tale boys! I’m not sure if I’ll keep doing it for every series in the future, but definitely for the fairy tale retellings.

If you haven’t read Stalks of Gold, you can get it here. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you all next time!