I am writing a one-shot that is about Coco Pommel waiting for her date inside a restaurant, with the side character of the waiter checking up on her from time to time. I was wondering which point of view would be interesting to write from - Coco's or the waiter's?

4053105
The waiter.
From his PoV, you can describe everything, from her motions to her reactions, her attitude, body language... remark on how different she seems to the other customers. He can speculate: is she waiting for a date? A business partner? A dead lover? What does she order, and how symbolic of her as a pony is it?

Plus, Coco is nice and easy to describe. Cute little mane, tidy coat, plush (hand)bag, whatever. It'd be a good character study. Maybe there's something about her that takes his fancy?

It's what I'd do anyway.

4053105
well, i guess it would depend on how you write your story. writing from coco's perspective could allow you to show a character's uncertainty and insecurity. it could also help with adding more depth to her character. if you go the route of the waiter, you could go about writing it from a background pony-isc type of vibe. although it's from his perspective, he wouldn't be the story centric character. you could use him to give some outsider insight about her, about what might be happening, and just friendly vibe over all for the story.

that being said, that's all my opinion man. i would say to go with both since it would help create an interesting story while showing a fair amount of writing skill and ability. once again, it's just my opinion.

4053120 That sounds like a great idea. Thanks

4053105
Something else you can play with in the POV as the waiter is his experience. They could be all "eh i've seen it a million times" and he/she rambles about coco and whatever versus his experience and maybe at some point you can leave them shocked that the situation turns out different than he/she expected.

By having this character give exposition in their head, you can make them a more believable character and the world feel that much more real.

Waiter

4053125
I like the alternating PoV aspects. it's interesting in my head.

4053194 I love that too as long as they let the reader know whos POV their in when reading.

4053194
same here. it helps give more than one side/perspective towards an event, in this case a dinner date. it also allows for a lot more interaction and subtle nuances between characters that one wouldn't really understand if just solely going off of one perspective.
4053227
i agree with that completely. if he goes along that route, he could either make 2 chapters that coincide with one another, one each for the waiter and coco, or he could shift perspectives every now and then and kind of either create some way of letting the reader know who's perspective they are currently reading.

4053125
4053172
4053242 These are all really interesting ideas, and I'll put all of them in consideration. Thanks for all the help.

4053242 For switching point of view I think just putting up "[Insert name here]'s P.O.V" is quick to the point and lets the reader know without disturbing the flow of the story. I've seen it plenty of times and it actually makes things better. And it lets you use different perspectives like 1st or 3rd for that character.

4053380
true, that would work and it wouldn't all that hard to actually do. would save the writer some time instead of making a specialized pov indicator.

4053105
The power of perspective frames the conversation and sets the direction of the story. For example.

What is it that you want to convey in your story's scene. Which camera lens would work best? Do you want us to see Coco from an outsider's perspective? Do you want us to see through Coco's camera? What is the overriding emotion of the scene?

4053512

I like that picture. I may steal it.

-Lumino