Point of View

So last week I made some changes to the blog and made a commitment to write 2 hours a day on my story. I would like to say I was successful in keeping to that commitment, but not entirely. I did spend about two hours every day working on my story, but I didn't do much in the way of actual writing.

I was able to track down this incredible excel document that helps you not only organize your novel info, but also dig deeper into who your characters are and what their journey will be in your story. I've been a little obsessed with it (hence no actual writing) but it has actually been extremely helpful in figuring out the direction my story is going and how I'm going to get from point A to point B.

There's just one problem. All of this organizing has made me think I need to change the point of view the story is being told from. The problem with that is I'm already 20 pages in and it seems a little daunting to go through and change everything...

At present it is being told in first person by three different characters. Each chapter is labelled with whose point of view you are reading from (only one P.O.V. per chapter). It was working out alright until I realized I'm going to reach 30 chapters and still won't be near the end. Granted, each chapter is short, but I'm not sure how well I like that idea. I've never really had the opportunity to read any fiction books like that (several short chapters), so I'm not sure how effective they are. I know that if I change the P.O.V. to third person, I can combine some of my chapters and it won't be quite as...choppy.

What are your thoughts? Should I keep it first person and just leave it with multiple short chapters, or should I change it to third person and make the chapters a little longer? And why should I keep/change the point of view?

You can comment below with your responses. Thanks for your help!

Updates

It has been a while since I worked on my story (or any writing at all really), hence my lack of updates for this blog. I have been preoccupied with other things in my life and have, sadly, allowed my writing to take a back seat to everything else. This, I have decided, is going to stop.

This last Tuesday my dad and my sister went to a book signing for Shannon Hale. If you haven't read any of her stuff, I highly recommend her! She is a phenomenal author and an incredible person. When I was younger she and her husband lived in our neighborhood and they are just lovely people!

Anyways, so at the book signing Shannon mentioned that she spends 5 hours a day with writing. 2 hours to answer emails and such, 3 hours for writing. Now, Shannon has kids (including three year old twins), and when I heard she spends that much time, as well as raises her kids, I thought, "What's stopping me from doing the same thing? If she can do it, I should be able to as well."

So this is my new commitment. I am going to spend at least two hours of every day writing. Whether it's 8 15 minute blocks or a straight 2 hour haul, I'm going to do it. In order to do this, I had to evaluate how I spend my time outside of work and identify the time wasters that take away from my writing. The biggest culprits are Netflix and Facebook, with Youtube, Tumblr, and TV/Movies in general coming in at a close second. I also struggle with wasting time playing games on my phone. Once I figured this out, I decided that I will not allow myself to do any of these things until I have gotten my two hours in for the day. Period.

In addition to this commitment, if you haven't noticed already I have added a counter on this page which is a visual representation of my progress on the novel. I will update the counter daily as more of the story is written. I have also given myself a deadline to reach my goal of 100,000 words. The countdown for that is also displayed on this page.

Thanks to everyone who is still hanging in there with this. I know I'm not the most consistent with posting, but I am working at it.

Love you all!