Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Short story question

This is topic Short story question in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Leaf II (Member # 2924) on :

Hey, guys.
My question is.... In a short story, say 3k-5k words, is it 'acceptable' to have 3 different veiw point characters, considering they are properly divided at breaks in the story, whose parts to play in the story are all important, but the change is necessary???

I know there are a lot of answers like, "it depends on the story, ect. ect." So, just pretend that the story allows for this, is it acceptable, or frowned upon by readers and publishers?

Opinions please....

thank you

-leaf

Posted by DeepDreamer (Member # 5337) on :

I kinda think it depends on the reader more than the story. I for one not only like reading and writing multiple-POV stories, I seek them out. I like getting to see more than one side of the story. 3 characters within the space of 3-5K might be tough to pull off well though. But I won't say you can't do it. I won't set limits on what you can achieve.

Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :

If the story is good enough, it's not a problem. But that's true of just about anything.

There's a reason why you don't see many multiple-viewpoint stories in the 3k-5k range, and it's not the result of prejudice against multiple-viewpoint stories. It's because each additional POV character tends to require some "overhead" wordage to properly establish the characterization. The shorter the story, the more difficult it is to flesh out one character, let alone three, while still doing justice to the plot and setting. It's also because having multiple POV characters dilutes reader identification with the characters, and in such a short work it's difficult to make up for that by other means.

So the worry isn't that some editor is going to reject a good story because you have three POV characters. The worry is that because you have three POV characters, the story won't be good enough.

That's not to say you shouldn't do it. You just need to make the payoff of the story worth the cost of having three POV characters.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Basically.

Is having three POV characters actually making the story that much better? I've read a few stories where you don't even have a story at all unless you include multiple POV characters, so it isn't exactly unthinkable. If you need that many POV characters, such that cutting one or more of them simply isn't an option, then that's that.