Intersecting PoVs

[Khama]

Hey there, folks, would like to pick your brains here. I am at a cross-road of what I desire to write about next, and thinking about it part of it hinges on how exactly one would receive several PoVs and their lack of intersecting. As in the story what I'm thinking about at the starts requires the PoVs to indirectly intersect. As in that their actions intersect to a capacity, however their physical beings do not at all in the slightest meet. The reason being because both are fleeing an event we will just call a calamity. Yet, because of the way they are fleeing they would not meet until a book down the road.

Thus I am curious if you would still read a book even if its PoV characters did not directly/physically interact with one another?

 

[Penpilot]

Of course. If you look at Game of Thrones, most of the major POVs intersect briefly at the beginning then go off in their own directions.

I can't remember the name of the book, but I remember reading a book about the coming of the next ice age, and it told the story through different POVs that never intersected at all. The book was a cross section of society and how each handled what was coming, which is a pretty common thing in disaster movies. The movie Deep Impact is a prime example.

 

[evanator66]

I would probably read that. I have never read anything exactly like that, but it sounds interesting. It seems like a good idea to me.

 

[Philster401]

I might I'd have to know a bit more about rhe story but I love the idea

 

[locofife]

I would be willing to read something like that, but I would also have the expectation that their paths would cross somewhere, whether in the first book or a later one. If their paths never intersect and never will, you might as well write two entirely separate books.

 

[Chilari]

When you say that these two POVs indirectly intersect, how do you mean? That they experience the same events in different ways? That something one does in chapter 2 has a knock-on effect on the other character in chapter 5? I think if it's done well, it could certainly be a fun read.

 

[Khama]

Ah, i'm now finished with the holidays and have returned home.

I might I'd have to know a bit more about rhe story but I love the idea

Well, effectively its two groups of refugees fleeing westward across the sea. Their journeys take them across multiple islands as they attempt to find somewhere else to settle. And of course during the story both set do land on the same island. However, they do not land during the same time. There is at-least weeks apart between one leaving an island and another arriving.

I would be willing to read something like that, but I would also have the expectation that their paths would cross somewhere, whether in the first book or a later one. If their paths never intersect and never will, you might as well write two entirely separate books.

They would eventually cross paths in person no doubt, but of course not in this book.

When you say that these two POVs indirectly intersect, how do you mean? That they experience the same events in different ways? That something one does in chapter 2 has a knock-on effect on the other character in chapter 5? I think if it's done well, it could certainly be a fun read.

Effectively what I said in response to the first quote. Its broad but its effectively the in-direct interaction they have. What occurs during the first groups stay does effect the second group. As the second group interacts with whats left behind.

 

[Brightfyre]

I find no reason to avoid a book because the POV characters do not meet. As long as there is some background story to link them together somehow, that should be all of the contact needed.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't think it is a problem. Just make each of the POVs interesting, so that the reader wants to read about them. One thing I dislike in novels with a lot of POV shifts is when one of the POVs is just dull or uninteresting to read about. Whenever then author switches to that character, I think "Oh, man, not this point of view again," and I wonder if I can just skip back to the characters I like.