With any story, I believe telling it from the right perspective is key. If I catch myself struggling to develop certain parts of the story, I’ll try to consider how things might look from someone else’s point-of-view. Sometimes a story can be told from just one character’s perspective. Other times, it helps to have more characters expanding the narrative. To use an example from my recent book review, “Shadow and Bone” gives us a very limited view on the Ravkan civil war, as we only ever hear things from Alina’s perspective. The Shadow and Bone Trilogy would have been quite a bit longer and more complicated if other characters’ point-of-views had been included. In contrast, the Six of Crows Duology bounces between the viewpoints of our main group of characters, giving us time to get to know each of them. Had these books been told from just one character’s perspective, they would have been quite different and I doubt the investment would have been quite as high.
I was admittedly struggling with how to incorporate parts of the plot in “Aria in Flux”, until I realized that there were other characters whose points-of-view would make that easier. I decided I would use the perspective of four characters to help tell the story the way I’m wanting to. Aria is obviously the main character and will be, more or less, the default perspective. Her grandfather, Armando, will be another perspective. He mostly helps broaden the world and give deeper insight into Aria’s character prior to the start of this particular story. The other two perspectives I draw from will remain secret for now.
Let me know about your thoughts on stories with multiple perspectives. What stories have you read that it works in? What stories have you read that it doesn’t work in? As always, I look forward to hearing what people have to say as long as they are respectful.