Homepage
Login
New Post
Profile
My WIP was begun before I knew what I was doing. I had to hammer about 5 PoVs into 2 (two heroes). I was finding hopping heads for months, sometimes these were one-liners, and about three or four were significant chunks and scenes.
The prologue, omniscient, was removed and the important pieces of it were brought in throughout the body of the story. A comment here, a foreshadowing there, a 'let this one go' somewhere else. One piece of the prologue went into exposition through dialogue (see 4.)
An argument between 2 minor characters which I felt was pivotal was removed, and I found no good way to add that information back. But what I did, to replace it, works in a different way. At supper that evening, following the now-invisible argument, the tension at the dinner table is palpable. Slamming silverware between the two minor characters and so on. Everyone else does not know why these two are so angry, but it is clear they argued and left to the reader to sort it out from the clues. (The clues are the surrounding context - what happens in the chapter preceding and following the tense mealtime.) I'm happy with the solution, the angry supper was an opportunity for humor, and since these are minor characters their actual argument was probably a distraction from the MC arcs, anyway.
A romantic evening romp between 2 other minor characters had to go as well. That was sad. But the important parts of their discussion were easy to resurrect - After their romp (which happened off screen, outside, actually) they hold their conversation on the way back into the house and a MC can hear them talking as they come back in. So, all the important info is overheard.
The best re-work was one of the pieces of the prologue becoming exposition from a secondary character to a MC. They had a long travel scene and I was so tired of describing what was going by outside the window and small talk, so it actually worked out really nicely to have this long uninterrupted stretch of time during which the secondary character could muse out loud about things that happened in the prologue. This way it was not simply the information, but also a dialogue (so, exposition through dialogue) and there was the opportunity for the reader to discover the information at the same time as the MC AND it broke up that long travel time.
Another scene, of just one minor character sleuthing around, had to go. Some of that info was worked into other scenes, again shared through dialog. Other info was simply lost. It's OK in the end.
I didn't use flashbacks for these, since flashbacks are still in the MC PoV. So of your three, I guess my solutions are closest to #2 but I'd say the idea of identifying the info you need and weaving it in elsewhere is what you should aim for.
(0)More posts by @LarsenBagley300
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © selfpublishingguru.com2024 All Rights reserved.