Dual POV Part 2: The Experience

It’s time for Dual POV Part 2: The Experience!

So, last time I mentioned Stalks of Gold was the first time I wrote dual POVs and why, this time I’m going to talk about how it went. Some very minor spoilers for Stalks of Gold if you haven’t read it yet.

So, how did my first time writing dual POVs go?

To be honest? Not well at first.

I’m a big plotter, so originally, I outlined Stalks of Gold with the intention that Aurelia and Sandor would trade off chapters. It’s the easiest way to do multiple POVs, starting a new chapter every time the POV changed so there’s no confusion. I really wanted to do it this way for clarity, but obviously that didn’t happen.

As I was writing, I found that Sandor’s chapters were consistently shorter by relatively large gaps, and making shorter chapters than I wanted. It also meant that things weren’t happening chronologically. Certain scenes from Aurelia’s POV would chronologically take place between scenes making up Sandor’s chapter and vice versa. I decided I would much rather have the scenes arranged in chronological order for clarity and ditch the idea of having a new chapter start each time the POV switched.

So I settled on using scene breaks to signify the change in POV, which worked much better. It gave me more control of the pacing.

Of course, that wasn’t the only problem I had.

Let me tell you, Sandor was so hard to write. As a character in general but also getting his voice down. I really had a hard time fleshing out his voice and getting his internal monologue right. It was a delicate balance. I worried a lot in the beginning that I was making him too one dimensional where his personality and voice was only about Aurelia rather than being a genuine person first who happened to be in love rather than being in love with Aurelia first and a person second.

It helped when I was able to figure out his trajectory and take a step back to see his character arc that Aurelia was part of but wasn’t all about her. Sandor’s scenes needed to be working towards his growth as well as Aurelia’s and the plot’s. Once I was able to work that out, his POV started to really come together. Loraine was a big part of that.

Aurelia was no picnic either, trust me, but I definitely had an easier time getting her POV down compared to Sandor.

As rough as the process was, I’m so glad I did it. So much so, I can’t imagine doing anything other than dual POV for the rest of the series! I’m really excited to explore both sides of the couples as I go forward. I hope you all continue to enjoy it!

If you haven’t read Stalks of Gold, you can get a copy here. I’ll see you all next time!