Which Perspective? [Outsider and Multiple Insiders]

[Kbrury]

Had to quote Astral for his excellent breakdown.

AstralProjection wrote:

Hey guys! I'm definitely interested in writing if there's room for another. We already have a lot of great ideas, it sounds like. I think we're on the right track, first we should agree on a perspective. That will really guide the feelings and details that are displayed in the story. I see a couple of options here, as laid out by you guys or from my own ideas. - First Person - Outsider I know you guys said first person probably wouldn't work, but I think it can, given the right choice of characters. My initial thought to make this work would be to have it narrated by an "outsider" character. Maybe a refugee, survivor of the attack, or some sort of person who would "associate" with Pax in the present, and this association was born of the heroics that they watched forge the organization itself. Smugglers tend to be ideal narrators for this case, because they are largely neutral and may associate with guild smugglers. Possibly written from the point of view of a bureaucrat inside the Republic as well. Maybe an Assistant to General Garza or the Supreme Chancellor is recalling our case file. Having it written a la the Gnost Dural timeline entries as you guys mentioned would also fit into this category. - First Person - Insider - Another way to make this work would be to narrate from the point of view of one or more members. It would have to be agreed upon whose characters we'd include (I'm assuming the Guild leadership, at the very least). You could do something as simple as having the whole thing narrated by one character, like Kurik Gene or Gaiutus, though that bestows upon us the daunting task of doing justice to your personal character visions throughout an entire narrative, which we may not always succeed at. I know Kbrury based his character on Spike, and I've seen plenty of Bebop and could probably pull off writing for him, but depending on who we choose we're probably going to need extensive character details after we make this decision. - First person - Insider - Multiple Stories - I really liked this idea the most so far, and will admit I've been hoping we'd do something like this from the minute I heard about the project. The creative writer in me loves the opportunity to express the world from divergent viewpoints. The different perspectives of each character would add color, emotion, and opinion to what would otherwise be a historical account, and having multiple accounts that converge would allow us to express the gamut of feelings and choices that helped to forge our association. I feel this method of storytelling is most representative of what Pax Republica is - A place where many different viewpoints and backgrounds can unite under the same banner and kick ass while pledging a basic code of decency. This type of story would highlight how different we all truly are, and how working together to complement each other is what makes us truly great. - Third Person - Omniscient This is probably the easiest POV for us to tell the story from- nevertheless, I'm not necessarily going for easy. I'd like dramatic, engrossing, and just all around awesome much more than I'd like easy : ) The advantage of this is you don't have to express thoughts, and can tell the story in a matter-of-fact way, as only the great eyeball in the sky can truly see it, knowing ALL the details without having to see them.

[CMDR Blue R]

I think we should set story narrated from outside.. There can we put some mysterious stories... Some "Pax's Legancy".
If we choose someone from inside, this person must be lair to told so "mysterious" story... And from outside? It can be more mysterious.

[AstralProjection]

To amend what I said, too, First Person - Outsider, really included some Third person options too. I usually stop to proofread before I post, because I write off the outline inside my head, which sometimes shuffles around : P

The way I see it the outsider account could either be some sort of bare-bones, historical recount of the situation, or it could be an outsider that was actually there, and thus can give us the first person account.

[AstralProjection]

I think I see where CMDR is coming from too. It's a tough call. If you see my post in our "Getting Started" thread, maybe it'll make more sense how I was thinking to pull it all together.

I'd like an outsider to tell the actual story, but for artistic purposes, his story will be "felt" by the reader actually receiving the first person accounts of those who were there for the founding. Then we return to the outsider, as if these first person accounts and feelings were all just him recalling the story to himself.

I'd like it to be an outsider that was there, if possible.

Is that making sense to everyone? Or am I confusing you?

[Kbrury]

So a combo of outsider with multiple stories? :P I think I get it, the outsider reads or recalls the first hand reports from those at the sacking and the founding and maybe chips in his own views as well.

[AstralProjection]

Yeah, kind of : ) I want to blow people's minds with this thing. Once we get it to BioWare they'll be posting it in a fan friday update, if I have anything to say about it.

Why not give it the best of both worlds? I'll do whatever we all want to, I just wanted to lay out our basic options and see if we could agree on something, whatever that something is.

Technically the way I'm describing it, there's an outsider "telling the story", but for the actual recount of the story, you're getting first person, with all the thoughts, emotions, and judgments that come with it. By bottling it up inside a storyteller's account, you're really telling it from an omniscient perspective, because you know too much, but feigning first-person to give it that personal feel.

[Clusterfact]

Kbrury wrote:

So a combo of outsider with multiple stories? :P I think I get it, the outsider reads or recalls the first hand reports from those at the sacking and the founding and maybe chips in his own views as well.

I didn't vote in the poll because I'm torn between a first-person outside story and a first-person inside story from multiple perspectives. I definitely think that should be the way we tell the story, though I'm not sure how we could convey the information smoothly.

[Kbrury]

I think we'll try it at least, it seems to be the most interesting.

[Arkathos]

I am also torn between the multiple diverging stories and the outsider view. I'm rather excited!

Guest Post Rules are In Effect for this Post

[Durstalph]

I haven't voted on the poll, because I think a hybrid view would be best. Lets say there is a new bureaucrat that needs to be brought up to speed on Pax Republica. The bureaucrat's lieutenant writes a third person report interspersed with first person accounts, to educate the bureaucrat about Pax's founding. This way we can combine the ease of a third person omniscient retelling with the emotional first person accounts.

[Nwahs]

I voted third person because it's the most classy, and would make it easier for us to be flexible.

[Amorl]

I like first person insider for the bulk and maybe switching to the outside perspective at certain points for a larger clarification or summary of what happened.


I can't remember the exact quote so I'll paraphrase. It comes from the black and white movie/TV days, where one of the stars (Charlie Chaplin? maybe) was working on the best angle for a bit where a bucket of cement lands on his head. He concluded the closer (thus more detailed you can get) was funnier right up until you could see the pain in his eyes. At that point it stopped being funny and became tragic.

The lesson of the story is one tied up in physical comedy but also storytelling itself. The emotional connection derived from the story are not only in the circumstances but the emotions themselves. In the case of the cement bucket the circumstances lead to comedy and laughter, In the case of a man in pain the emotional reaction becomes much different.

First person insider I believe is the best way for any readers to be able to identify with the passions of the writer, and the emotional states of the characters. Since we can not look the characters in the eyes to see their pains,triumphs, and failures litterally we give them the chance to do it figuratively. Thus I believe our backstory could infuse the story with our passion for Pax and an emotional introduction to our community.

For the first person outsider, i believe could be used for as the figurative person not in Pax but reading about Pax, while being removed from the emotional tenets being advanced in the story could handle information in a more straightforward way. For an example a senator reading a report about the formation of pax, getting an overview of the type of group it is, and possibly a brief summary of it's exploits to this point. Finishing with him being less apprehensive about the state of the republic knowing defenders like this are stepping up. This was just as example as I believe first person outsider should be used often enough to allow small breaks for a reader, with the chance to think about current events inspired by the different PoV.

[Garlen Durakkis]

All the choices are really good and whatever we go with will be I think. But if I had to pick, I've thought about it and I'm thinking First Person- Insider Multiple Stories. For from that we can see the story from different eyes. I'm just feeling that would fit best. You know if a Jedi saw, say a Sith he would be like "Step back I'll handle it!"
While just another example the smuggler could be all like, "Oh crap it's a Sith!!"
That's just how I see it.

[Friscoo]

First person Insiderrrr !

[Lord Marvel]

I would pick first person outsider, I dunno... it would sound more neutral for me if someone from the outside would tell about what we have done.