Question about first scene

I have seen similar things done in both books and movies.

If can be done effectively if done well and if there are good reasons for doing so, but in the circumstances you outline, I suspect it may be boring repetition for the reader.

This is where the craft of writing comes into play. It is rarely necessary to do what you are contemplating doing, which is basically spoon-feeding your reader to make sure they 'get it'.

If the only reason for doing this is to show thoughts and feelings of the non-POV character you might be better advised to make more effective use of the existing POV in relating his reactions to the visible actions and reactions of the non-POV character as observed by the POV character and reacted to by him (the POV character), or alternatively considering using Omniscient POV.

POV is a powerful tool.

I've seen this done in movies and sitcoms. You can google search vantage point. But imo it's boring to use multiple povs for same scene.

If you're taking the story ahead with the same scene shown by multiple povs, then it should be interesting.

The question that needs to be asked when writing a multi POV story is: "Does this POV bring something important to the story?" That also applies to the scenes, the individual pieces, of the story. Ideally a scene will accomplish more than one thing. Showing the same thing through another POV *only* for characterization risks a boring chapter.

If you're going to show the same scene from two different POVs, I'd suggest staggering the timeline rather than a 100% overlap. (EX: one person starts ahead of the other, the other person jumps into the scene at a later point but also goes past the timeline point of the first person)

Also, you can 100% overlap the scenes, but give the second POV more value by having them provide a valuable piece of information that can only be gained by their perspective.

If the second POV can contribute nothing but their thoughts and feelings to the scene, it's probably best to nix the scene repeat.

This question makes me think of my favorite musical, The Last Five Years. The story's about a couple's relationship and ultimate demise, where the guy tells his version of events from beginning to end, and the girl tells hers from end to beginning. They alternate scenes (or rather, songs) and only meet in the middle for their wedding. That's a great show for the power of POV.

It can certainly be done, and I think that it makes for a great exercise in determining whether your main characters are indeed fully realized individuals.

No two people experience even the most mundane things in the exact same way, and depending on what your opening scene actually involves, seen from two POV's, it could be that it's not even recognizable as "the same scene".

Good luck with it!

The way to do this IMO is to not make the POVs symmetrical. The first POV paints the complete picture, the second POV concentrates on the character's reaction -- or whatever it is that you need to be different for the two. And if the scene is too long, consider interleaving them.

I think I might combust if my brain ever tried that aha, like others have said, it can be done but I think it'd take something special to balance all the 'rules' for writing with it, I have trouble with them in general nevermind doing it alternating like that.

As a reader, I wouldn't want to read the entire first scene twice. However, there might be a way to do it so that the entire scene isn't repeated.

That said, the answer to your question mostly relies on how it's written. I suggest you spend some time in the community, get your 50 posts, and head for the share your work section. There isn't really any way for people to advise you on your particular work based on a brief description.

I tried this with a couple of my chapters in one of my books and was met with distaste from my Betas on each scene for the very reasons many here are stating. Even with short scenes, when the reader is getting practically the same information in both, they lose interest.

That's not to say you couldn't succeed where I failed; I've just never seen it done the way your are describing without coming off as boring. Even in Vantage Point, I thought the story was poor and the only reason for all the different views was because they didn't have enough plot to carry a full length movie to completion.

My advice would be to stagger the scenes. You can still get both characters' reactions to what's happening, but not force readers to go through the same thing twice. Again, only speaking from my experience, but if I had Character A travel partway through the scene, then change to Character B and ground the reader in the timeline by repeating about a paragraph, then finish the scene from Character B's perspective, it went over much better for my Beta's.

Wordsmiff59 said:

Hi, I'm a new member and was hoping I could get some advice about my first scene.

I am starting a novel and I want to write the first scene TWICE. Once from the point of view of each main character. This means the first two scenes will be virtually identical with just a few differences, highlighting each characters thoughts, feelings, etc. Is this workable? There are other characters in the scene and their dialogue and actions will be the same in both scenes.

Following the second scene, I will then go on to the third scene etc and simply write each scene from one character’s POV. I just want the first scene to be examined from both POVs as each character has different thoughts, feelings, etc. And you can’t do two POVs in the same scene.

I hope I have explained this okay. Any ideas, thoughts, would be welcome. Thanks.

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I would find this to be rather strange. Unless the second scene reveals completely new and compelling insights that are vital to the story, I don't see how this could come off as anything but repetitive.

And you can’t do two POVs in the same scene.

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Um, you can, sort of. If you wrote the story in omniscient, then you could write the scene once and show both characters' feelings and thoughts. Of course, omni is tough, and it might not be how you want to tell the story.

In that case, yeah, you could write the scene twice, but I wouldn't want to read the scene twice. I think you could just as well show the way the new character thinks and feels, and what they thought and felt about that particular scene, by having them consider it in a later scene. It could work doing it your way, and it might be worth writing it even though you might cut it, just to get to know your characters.

I think it could work if the two versions of the scene were separated--like, we get one character's perspective, and the story moves on until later, when there's some reason for showing how the other character thought that event occurred. Then it might be either amusing or an "aha!" moment as the reader realized the 2nd person had seen things quite differently.

But right after each other? Yeah, that would be tough to pull off.

Sort of a Rashomon effect?

It can be done, but watch out for wearying readers' patience. In Agatha Christie's Five Little Pigs, the murder and the events leading up to it are told from the perspectives of the five suspects. I got a little tired of reading the same thing multiple times even though I knew there would be clues in the accounts, and the characters' voices were made as different as possible.

Wordsmiff59 said:

Hi, I'm a new member and was hoping I could get some advice about my first scene.

I am starting a novel and I want to write the first scene TWICE. Once from the point of view of each main character. This means the first two scenes will be virtually identical with just a few differences, highlighting each characters thoughts, feelings, etc. Is this workable? There are other characters in the scene and their dialogue and actions will be the same in both scenes.

Following the second scene, I will then go on to the third scene etc and simply write each scene from one character’s POV. I just want the first scene to be examined from both POVs as each character has different thoughts, feelings, etc. And you can’t do two POVs in the same scene.

I hope I have explained this okay. Any ideas, thoughts, would be welcome. Thanks.

Click to expand...

sounds good to me. I've seen this done.