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New Cyberpunk Story Poll #1 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-09-14 18:50:42
Imported:
2026-06

Poll

New Cyberpunk Story Poll #1

  • I like your idea of two POVs (male & female), or I'm at least willing to give it a try. 236
  • I would much prefer a single, female POV. 123
  • I would much prefer a single, male POV. 49
  • 2024-09-14
  • 408 votes
{'title': 'New Cyberpunk Story Poll #1', 'choices': [{'text': "I like your idea of two POVs (male & female), or I'm at least willing to give it a try.", 'votes': 236}, {'text': 'I would much prefer a single, female POV.', 'votes': 123}, {'text': 'I would much prefer a single, male POV.', 'votes': 49}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2024, 9, 14, 18, 36, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 408}

Content

Hey everyone! I've been doing a lot of thinking about my next cyberpunk series. Before we get any further, let me be super clear: It's still early days. I'm doing these polls because I'm starting to plan, but I haven't written anything yet. I'm still working out my writing schedule for the near future.

How about a funny/sad anecdote? While shopping for publishers for Vainglory, I had a few conversations with various folks in the business, and invariably, the topic of Cyber Dreams and cyberpunk, in general, came up, and the overall impression I got was, "Don't write cyberpunk." I hate to hear that, and despite that (no doubt very solid) advice, I intend to go ahead with my next cyberpunk series.

I know there are readers for it out there. I know because I had a bunch of you here on my Patreon!

Anyway, it's still in the works (mostly in my head right now), but I need to get a few things straight before I start putting words onto the page. With that in mind, I have a few poll questions I'm going to be asking you all. I know many of my CD readers dropped down to free memberships while waiting, so I'm going to open these polls to all members.

This first question is about POVs. I really enjoyed writing CD from Juliet's POV, but for my next project, I WANT to have 2 POVs, a male and female. These two characters will be closely entwined with the same plotline, so just because the POV changes from one chapter to another won't mean you're losing out on what's happening with the other character. Let me illustrate:

Suppose you like character A, and you're really into A's story. When the POV changes to character B, you will still know what's happening with A 'cause B will be involved with whatever A is doing -sometimes directly and sometimes tangentially, but they're going to interact with each other all the time. That's what I want to do, but I want to hear your thoughts on it first. My mind can be swayed.

Why am I mentioning the POV genders? Because some people really care about that stuff with their reading. I have never been one of those; I read male/female pretty much interchangeably, but I totally understand that it is a big issue for some readers.

So, without further ado, the poll:

Comments

GrimV

While I voted on the second option I think the first one could be interesting too, depending on how well your plan works out!

Fortunis

Gotta be honest, I hate pov switching unless it's relevant to the story. I always feel like I'm getting half the book if the one character I'm interested in is side lined for the one I'm not. And it's really hard to make a story with two equally interesting main characters.

Julian Brinkmann

To be frank, I tend to enjoy female characters more but I’m willing to try out your idea because I think if you’re writing what’s fun to you the story will come out better in the end

Tyderion

looking forward to your new cyberpunk story, there's not enough of those going around. I love POV switching if i'm interested in both (all) POVs but often one is much more interesting than the other one which makes it more difficult. I did vote for the first option (I don't care about the gender), you should write the story you want to tell!

jackalsclaw

I'm way more worried about how distracting POV switches can be then gender issues. I really hate ending a chapter on a cliff hanger then getting another character doing something unrelated in the next chapter.

Plum Parrot

Yeah, I won't do this. I mean, maybe very, very rarely, if the plot has really EARNED it.

Hoffman

I found you because of cyberpunk. Anecdotal my experience is your publishers are wrong

DDD

I discovered you with your falling with folding wings series audio books and thought it was excellent with your three protagonists and have loved the story so far of Juliet in the audio books. I have utmost confidence in you to deliver with dual POV storyline in a cyberpunk storyline. What would you expect the two characters relationship to be? Would they be partners or would they go off on their own adventures and meet up every few chapters? I can see you answered a bit, but would love more info! :)

Random Guy

I personally have real problems with POV switches because like you just said I always get invested in one POV more than the other and other POVs, even if from a Person right next to them, most of the time just feel like annoying fillers to be angrily skimmed. But I would be happy to be convinced of the opposite.

Andrei

I don't really like POV switching, and would rather a male POV since if I understood correctly this will be in the same world as CG and that was female. That said, I really hope it won't focus excessively on gender as such, as I find that to often detract from the story rather than add to it.

Plum Parrot

Nah, it's not going to be about gender, but some people struggle to identify with certain gender POVs, hence the mention in the poll.

Alley

I like the idea of two POV, but not with a cis man POV, I tend to find stories with them boring (except for Arcane Ascension, that series goes hard). I think diving into synths could be cool too since I feel like they were kinda of just cannon fodder in the last two books. They had serious potential considering the ethical and moral issues with them existing. Anyway I will read whatever you decide either way. I love cyberpunk.

Plum Parrot

I don't want to spoil the setup, but let's say the two characters will have a working relationship at first.

Andrei

To be fair, the concept of gender in the Cyberpunk 2077 world is very fluid, all the way up to the extreme of the Gemini full body swap in the TTG. That said, I still believe that with the world you've built you have the leeway of not worrying whether the reader will identify or not with the character, as long as the character is consistent in their behavior and reaction to the world around them. As another commenter said, unless you're writing a self-insert, write the story you want to write with the characters you want to write. You've definitely earned that right with the incredible work you've done on CG.

matt

I generally just prefer FMC's.

N0ct3m

proper cyberpunk is hard to find. yours has been deeply enjoyable thus far. Usually im against splitting focus on MCs, BUT id love to see what you do. Is it going to be in the same universe as CD?

Plum Parrot

The setting will be in poll 2 or 3. I have some ideas :)

evan maples

the only cyberpunk story I’ve listened to and enjoyed was the city of artem and it was about about a mercenary who got fucked over by his government and he starts at bottom of the food chain and work his way up so if this story is anything similar to that i would probably enjoy reading even with the split pov or if the main pov is male

hd

CD is my favorite cyberpunk series, so please do more if your heart pulls you that way. As for multi-POV, I especially like the idea/uniqueness of a PAI's perspective to mix things up.

phillip page

Cyberpunk is hard to do, but as you proved, the genre of the story doesn't have to match that of the setting

Parably

The issue with switching povs imo is I’ll most likely fall in like with one of them and feel mildly interested in the other. I’ll bum rush one mc and start to grow mildly annoyed with the other for being in the way.

Tikiza

I for one prefere a single POV if male or female is not that important to me. I love to explore worlds and storys from a single POV since it can be jarring to be sent into a second POV. Generaly i prefere one POV over another and i m tempted to skip the one i dont like as much. If i d be looking for books with the worst POV swaps "The wandering Inn" and "Infinite Realm" come to mind instantly. ^^

Reno

Well, as long as you don't go nuts with OTHER PoV chapters, it sounds fine. But what I'm after, aside from the story respecting the characters and them not being idiots.. is if the story brings new ideas to the table and how it executes them. So my initial interest will likely depend on the setting and world building. Cyber Dreams aside, the scope of cyberpunk feels like a very narrow strip of the fantasy genre. CD brought enough unique flavour to make it worthwhile, but most of the cyberpunk I've seen was nice, but not revolutionary. "More of the same." Fair warning, I'm very likely to only start reading after an audiobook comes out. Eye strain and whatnot. I only read on Patreon when I literally cannot wait for the next audiobook. 🫣

Reno

And even when I read on Patreon I get an ereader to read the PDF out loud. Or I copy the email into Word and still listen to it, if there is no epub/pdf. It's not ideal, but once I've heard the real voices in an audiobook it's not so bad.

Ryan Magady

It reminds me for path of ascension by c.mantis in how he change pov form the party members.

Tyler MachadoDarth Bane

One reason I prefer singal POV is world exploration. You have a main character who maybe started out in a poor neighborhood for example. How they see the world is interesting but then there is already a rich person and we've seen the world from them. Cyber was fine but it very much agrivates me when there is supposed to be a first person POV which in my mind means that most of the book should be from that view. I don't mind occasional interludes, it widens the world, but first person means first person in my eyes. Could do a Juliet gets isekaied LOL. The character always gets transmigrated at the beginning of their story. I have not seen a story where the series was complete, then the character wakes up in a new world. Azarinth, Victor, every story starts with the transmigration. Just kidding but thought of it when you first mentioned continuing Juliet LOL. Keep it up.

Snowcrash007

Can be single or dual POV as long as it’s cyberpunk !

ZapperGhandi

My preference in general is to have strong focus on one POV - but I voted for two because it sounded like the one you're most interested in writing.

Sacredwisp

To sum up my thoughts, I think a story like this with multiple POVs is high risk, low reward. It turns a lot of people off, and is harder to execute. Even if properly executed, often I and I imagine many other readers prefer one character, and reading the other POV(s) feels like a drag. Personally, if I see multiple POVs tag on RR it's auto skip, as I assume it's butchered. I like CD and Victor so I'd still give it a try though. I think Shipcore on RR is a multi POV space opera and it's doing very well, so clearly it can be done. Edit: At the end of the day, you already said that this is more of passion project and you don't expect to be making much money from it, comparatively, so maybe just go with whatever you're more excited about writing, in the end. You could also plan book 1 with an ambiguous ending to end it early if it doesn't turn out as you expected. That might not be possible though.

Cosmic Bananas

I really don't care about the gender of the POV. Sometimes I'll see a story where the characters are weirdly dominated by one gender (I'm looking at you PRox with all your man killing habits) but that's something else entirely

Dnulho

One thing that I have concerns about in a multi-POV story is having enough differences in character goals, personalities, and desires. This is not to say you have had issues, as FWFW was a good example of what I like to see in a multi-POV story.

Kahandran

I LOVE cyberpunk. I love Cyber Dreams. I don't love multiple POV stories (unless the extra POV's are just side characters lending perspective... say 1/6th the number of the main POV chapters at most). Buuuut... if you write it, I'll probably still read it lol. Maybe you'll change my stubborn mind. I do like Game of Thrones after all

M van Dongen

It's *your* story. Write it as you want and think it best serves the story.

marcus

I did when I started reading but I’ve found a good story makes me forgot about details like that

marcus

I will be checking out the new cyber punk cause I love the genre but don’t let that stop you from writing crazy or random “non-genre” things, I loved the psychic powers in CD and would enjoy to it expanded. I prefer single POVs stories, but a multiple pov story I enjoy was the Weirkey chronicles by Sarah Lin. In the first couple of books there was 1 main character and 2 sub-main characters, it was interesting to see their different POVS, a couple traps she fell into in laters book were repeating the same event to readers twice from different POVS this works for reactions to things, but just reading the same thing twice was annoying. Another trap was it going from 1 MC and 2 SubMC to 3 MC and it feeling like the main character was being forgotten about and replaced.

Johnathan

What I find exciting is when 2 separate story lines, in the same universe, interact. The reader has already experienced the various characters and their story, but the two groups haven’t. The idea that the reader knows about the “other” characters where the MC doesn’t. It’s sort of like paring food or listening to a quartet. A new flavor or sound is evoked that wouldn’t normally exist.

SteveC

I am pretty open-minded about a one or two POV story. However, I've enjoyed your character development in both CD and VOT and I would love to see what you might do with a story that has two explicit (and maybe different) points of view. For me at least, one of the points of engagement is the characters and their perceptions and I can imagine this format being very entertaining.

Snowcrash007

Would be fascinating if both characters also have progression … imagine reading a series about Cyberpunk Edgerunners but from Lucy and David dual pov each with their own views but also class/gear/role dynamics

Gwyn

The POV you describe immediately reminds me of a series you NEED to check out based on what you wrote. It's by Will Wight and has 2 names, "Of Sea and Shadow" or "Of Shadow and Sea" I think the whole series is called Eldar empire, anyway, The entire series both MCs are like, protagonist and antagonist for each other, and each book occurs simultaneously from one characters POV the entire time, even though both characters constantly interact with each other. Second, I'm only here for Cyberpunk, I have to show my support. I've got the first 3 cyber dreams in paperback and audiobook. So don't listen to the Cyberpunk haters. If Cyberpunk was lame, why would Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba be so closely involved with their Cyberpunk stories and roles, hmm?

Plum Parrot

Thanks so much for the support and encouragement :) I'll check out that series you mention!

Lupusregina

Personally I often prefer having 1 POV, but that is because sometimes I just don't care about one of the characters. Then I just feel like I'm trudging through a chapter or chapters to get to a part I care about. I'm willing to give it a shot though, since I like your writing.

Michael Olson

option 4, i don't care about the gender but i prefer a single POV. At most other POV's should be used to provide perspective on a situation. We oftern learn about the world at the same time as the character and a sudden departure from that pulls me away from my alignment with the character.