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Q&A Do you need to end a story with the same perspective you start with?

No. A story stands or falls on the completion of the story arc. POV is simply about camera angles. You choose the camera angle that best frames the part of the story you are telling at the moment. ...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:51Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25647
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:49:31Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25647
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:49:31Z (over 4 years ago)
No. A story stands or falls on the completion of the story arc. POV is simply about camera angles. You choose the camera angle that best frames the part of the story you are telling at the moment. There is no obligation to end on the same camera angle that you opened with.

There seems to be an obsessive focus on POV in many questions here at the moment. I think it is important to stress that POV is simply a narrative device. It does not determine the shape of the story, nor the reader's sympathy with the protagonist of the story. Nor is there any obligation to tell an entire story from a single POV.

In fact, the only real reason to give a writer any such advice would be if you thought they were not yet a sufficiently skilled writer to manipulate POV successfully, like telling a fledgeling composer not to change time signatures in the middle of a piece. But the point of such advice should only be to suggest that they master the basics before they move on to advanced techniques.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-12-26T07:05:00Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 4