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Interesting. It occurs to me that one could keep the above POV slips based on the fact that these are Romano's assumptions. The rest of the chapter is also written from Romano's POV, and he makes other assumptions that are routine in novels, such as saying 'Connor looked at X.' In the latter case, how would Romano know exactly what Connor is looking at? Connor might be admiring the exorcist's shoes, rather than the exorcist's actions. Romano's thoughts (whether correct of incorrect) could be considered part of his POV as well.

Naturally, this would never get past any experienced reviewers on this site, but it is annoying to have to use words like "as if", "probably", "seemed to", etc.

Dirk

Note to self: expired diet Pepsi tastes nasty.

I'm not in the mood to write a new chapter, so I decided to take another crack at Connor becoming possessed by Legion. The damn scene screams for the possession. To differentiate the transfer of the demons from the one in The Exorcist, I can do it by Palermo (the reverend mother) biting into his throat or simply by kissing him.

The tricky part is that once Connor is possessed, there are up to three possible voices coming out of him: his own normal voice, his supernatural commanding voice (deep/reverberates), and the many simultaneous voices of Legion. There will be a conversation between these voices, with Connor on one side and Legion on the other. I could potentially differentiate them by using 'Connor said' and 'Legion said', although that's inconsistent with how I wrote the rest of the scene, where Palermo is identified as Connor's external opposition. Palermo has the many voices of the demons throughout the scene, but Connor can't identify them as Legion until fairly late. Even then, I continue to refer to her as Palermo throughout, for consistency. Does it matter if I shift from 'Palermo' as the external opposition to 'Legion' as Connor's internal opposition? Worse, every physical action Connor takes must be referred to as 'Connor did X', regardless of who (Connor or Legion) caused the action, since the POV character (Romano) can't tell which of the two is acting, only who is talking. This has the potential to be very confusing.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Dirk

Totally forgot that Romano is supposed to start unraveling because of his guilt at the death of his former lover. Changed the beginning of the chapter to this:

I was tempted to have Connor say, "Are you a demon or a vampire?" just before she bites him. It's actually combined with wolf-like growls.

I eliminated the shivering. As currently written, he closes his eyes, furrows his brow, and turns his head from side to side while the exorcist is praying. Half a page later, he throws holy water on the exorcist, who screams as his body dissolves to reveal that he's a demon in human form.

You live in Canada, too? :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMxGVfk09lU

As Connor's powers grow, he will increasingly become the central character, except for the point of view, which has to remain Romano's. It's a little like the Gospels themselves. They were written from the point of view of four different men, but Jesus is the central character in each. If it wasn't for that, Romano could be written out of the scenes. What I need to do is give Romano more to do. FYI, the prologue is currently written from Connor's point of view, but that's a temporary placeholder. Once I write that scene in the main story, it too will be from Romano's point off view.

POV question. Since the following is from Father Romano's POV, Kdot rightly pointed out that the second sentence is a bit of a POV slip. I've since made it worse by adding "in concentration" to the first sentence.

Technically, it's possible Connor is smelling a fart and trying to figure out where it's coming from, but that's not likely. How big a deal is this? And what would fix it? If I take out the problem parts, I'm left with:

Doesn't really tell the reader enough until half a page later when Connor says he can sense many demons in the room. Or does it?

Suggestions?

Thanks
Dirk

Hmm. Those lines are three of most quotable from the Rites of Exorcism and allow me to build to the fourth (successful) line. The Exorcist used them repeatedly, so I cut my usage to just once. I read the original script this weekend, and there's only one other sentence of overlap, but it's not as important.

Kdot, I have a potential plothole I'm wondering about. When Connor is trying to drive out the demons, he says "God the Father commands you! God the Son commands you! God the Holy Spirit commands you!" That doesn't work. He eventually realizes that the right thing to say is "I command you!"

If Connor is Christ, which is what I'm hinting at, then the first three commands should have worked. It's one thing for those to fail to work when a priest says them, since some demons are too powerful, especially Legion, but when Christ issues those commands, they should have worked. In the New Testament, Jesus barely broke a sweat casting them out.

Thoughts?
Dirk