The POV is where the avatar and the storyteller meet.

The POV is where the avatar and the storyteller meet. The POV is the middle.

It’s the same as how in a novel, the character and the novelist meet at the POV, the middle. This POV tends to be specialized for the character, because, as mentioned in previous posts, some specialization tends to be necessary to generate fun—for both the character and the novelist. (There is always the possibility that the POV expands, but not all such possibilities are experienced directly.)

What’s not in the character’s POV, the novelist doesn’t expect the character to be aware of. There is no novelist who blames the character for not knowing things that the novelist didn’t put in the POV. 

The same applies to the avatar world. Everything we need to know, the storyteller has put right in front of us. She sends us inspirations all the time. If we don’t notice the messages, that’s fine. The storyteller will keep sending them until we get it.

This, again, is like a novel. (Note that I keep using the novel example because these posts are written in words, and I write novels. But you can replace most analogies with any other story medium. Movies, for example. Or comic books.) We’re all familiar with the usual novel structure, where things get “worse” until the character finally gets it. The character hits a low point, then rises triumphantly from the hardships. It’s a classic happy ending.

But could that happy ending have existed, without things getting “worse”? Usually, no.

Therefore, are those events that are part of “things getting worse” actually “worse” or “bad” or “worst”? Not from the storyteller’s position.

However, it’s important that we do see bad things as bad, for the avatar. If the avatar feels something is bad, it is bad. Reality is the avatar’s POV. There is no objective reality outside of the POV.

The “things get worse” plotline tends to work for characters who aren’t aware that they’re in a novel. When a character isn’t aware that their POV is as much theirs as the storyteller’s, the character sees itself as separate from the setting, the other characters, and the story itself. Therefore, the character feels the need to protect, fight, struggle, etc. In such a state, so many things that happen in the story will feel life-threatening to the avatar—in other words, bad.

But when a character wakes up in a novel? The storyteller doesn’t need to throw the worst of the worst obstacles at the character to guide the character through the story.

Similarly, all that we in the avatar world need to do in the avatar world is pay attention to our POV.  Everything we need to know is in there already.

The worldview tag is best read in this order. The later posts build on the earlier posts.