Disparate POVs

[Garren Jacobsen]

So, I'm starting a new project. It has three primary POVs that only occasionally interact with each other. So, my question is with these disparate stories how would you write it. I am planning on writing a sketch outline where I find out where they will interact, how the book will end, and some very important pieces of detail and then writing my way from point to point. Then I will write each character's POV straight through to the end. After I will arrange the chapters as necessary. Have any of you done this? Or, in the alternative, if not done this exact method dealt with 3 different and disparate POVs and how you dealt with it.

 

[ThinkerX]

My last NaNo project was something like this.

Originally, I envisioned three POV characters, with each chapter told from a single POV. Other rule was the same POV would not have two chapters back to back. As to the character types: a young male aristocrat and musician being packed off for a political marriage; a knight acting as an imperial agent, and an outcast sorceress attempting to regain a measure of her lost power. All three are part of a large army bound for the edge of the empire. Disparate enough?

Because the POV's did interact, and because plot and character details change once the writing begins, I never considered writing a single POV straight through from start to finish.

About a third of the way through, it became very clear that three POV's were not enough. The 'bad guys' needed a POV character (a challenge, since they're crablike aliens), there were a couple battles that required more elaboration than what the other POV characters could provide (probably going to go with a 'grunt' POV here), and the bride-to-be of the first POV character turned out to be active enough to warrant a POV slot.

 

[Penpilot]

In every multi-POV book I've written, I wrote everything chronologically, switching POVs as I advanced through the story. Of the three books, two had POVs that interacted with one another. The third, the POVs are separated geographically and only come together at the end.

For myself, I found writing things chronologically, helped when I made significant changes in one POV. I didn't have to go back and edit the other POVs very much because I hadn't written a lot of the stuff that would have needed changing. I just had to change a few sentences on an outline.

I'm not saying writing a POV through can't work, but there are obvious drawbacks.

 

[Epaminondas]

Well, I've been working on something similar. It basically began, the concept that is, as a large-scale war story with 1 POV for each of the four countries/regions involved. Originally I envisioned it as four separate POV's that essentially all work as antagonists for each other but only come together late... similar to yours it sounds like.

I have to say it's damn tough to do. I ended up finding that each of those individual story lines really don't hold up well by themselves without adding in more minor antagonists closer to each POV; so that each character has their own independent conflict separate from the war plotline. All of these smaller antagonists then at some point end up having a viewpoint of their own and before you know it you've got 9 POVs (most only having one or two scenes but still...).
Bottom line the length grew exponentially just to get everything in and quickly got out of hand.

Anyway I still ended up outlining the entire story and writing a decent amount of it but by the time I did the story would have taken three books to tell the way I wanted to. I still intend to keep working on it because it is, to me at least, one of the best actual stories but for now I've had work on smaller projects before getting too ambitious.

Some tips that I can give:
Be careful writing each one straight through; I had one POV that I loved but most of her early stuff happened over the course of two days while all the other POV's opening was spread out over a couple of weeks... It was almost impossible to finally figure out a chapter/scene order that wasn't a 70 page block of her POV.

Give each POV a personal or local conflict. My main antagonist was a young emperor out to reclaim his ancestors lost influence and worked against the other POV's but he needed a scheming bunch of politicians around him to give him a personal threat while the other POV's are still unknown to him and a long way away and not providing any conflict.

It's really like writing 3 stories (in your case anyway) and each one of those stories needs pinches, turning points, and a structure of their own with the main storyline having its own 3-act structure on top of all of it. Tough to pull off but easily my favorite type of story to read.
Hope all this made sense! good luck.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Well, I've been working on something similar. It basically began, the concept that is, as a large-scale war story with 1 POV for each of the four countries/regions involved. Originally I envisioned it as four separate POV's that essentially all work as antagonists for each other but only come together late... similar to yours it sounds like.

I have to say it's damn tough to do. I ended up finding that each of those individual story lines really don't hold up well by themselves without adding in more minor antagonists closer to each POV; so that each character has their own independent conflict separate from the war plotline. All of these smaller antagonists then at some point end up having a viewpoint of their own and before you know it you've got 9 POVs (most only having one or two scenes but still...).
Bottom line the length grew exponentially just to get everything in and quickly got out of hand.

Anyway I still ended up outlining the entire story and writing a decent amount of it but by the time I did the story would have taken three books to tell the way I wanted to. I still intend to keep working on it because it is, to me at least, one of the best actual stories but for now I've had work on smaller projects before getting too ambitious.

Some tips that I can give:
Be careful writing each one straight through; I had one POV that I loved but most of her early stuff happened over the course of two days while all the other POV's opening was spread out over a couple of weeks... It was almost impossible to finally figure out a chapter/scene order that wasn't a 70 page block of her POV.

Give each POV a personal or local conflict. My main antagonist was a young emperor out to reclaim his ancestors lost influence and worked against the other POV's but he needed a scheming bunch of politicians around him to give him a personal threat while the other POV's are still unknown to him and a long way away and not providing any conflict.

It's really like writing 3 stories (in your case anyway) and each one of those stories needs pinches, turning points, and a structure of their own with the main storyline having its own 3-act structure on top of all of it. Tough to pull off but easily my favorite type of story to read.
Hope all this made sense! good luck.

Thanks, the one good thing is these three people aren't opposing each other. Each person is working towards the same goal. One person is fighting against the physical threat of monsters under the control of the big bad, another is attempting to protect the magic, the last is attempting to protect the society. So, the benefit is that each will have a localized conflict that affects the whole. I'm intending on creating a timeline to make it easier to decide where each chapter will go, but I anticipate that it'll alternate between each of these in turn, for the most part.