Introducing new characters later?

[Calyb]

Do you think there is anything wrong in introducing new character viewpoints later in a novel? In my WiP the first eight chapters are almost exclusively from the POV of one character. After that, more characters are added. To (briefly) demonstrate:

C, C, C/D, C, C/Fr, C, C, C/K, E, C, D, F/K, C, S, Ca, K, E, C, S, Ca, E, C, F, C.

Covering chapters 1-24, with each letter corresponding to each chapter's viewpoint.
Basically, I'd like your view on this. Would you say it's a mistake to shift focus so late into the novel? Or does it not matter?

 

[Svrtnsse]

I haven't done this myself so I can't talk from experience. My first spontaneous thought is that when you do it like that you will need to make it really clear who is the PoV character for that chapter.

 

[Calyb]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Luckily the setting is very different for Ellie (E) so there shouldn't be too much trouble in demonstrating the new viewpoint.

 

[Svrtnsse]

One thing I've seen done is to have the name of the PoV character displayed at the start of the chapter. It might work, but it might also be a bit weird if the first three chapters start with the same name. Optionally, you could just add the name when the PoV changes.

 

[Ireth]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Luckily the setting is very different for Ellie (E) so there shouldn't be too much trouble in demonstrating the new viewpoint.

As far as differing settings goes, you still need to be careful not to confuse your reader, and ideally make sure it's clear how Ellie's part of the tale intertwines with the rest. That's one big thing that turned me off of the Game of Thrones book -- too many characters in different places, with little to no indication of how some of them related to one another.

 

[Philip Overby]

I was going to say the same thing as Ireth. Martin does this in his books. Some like it, but some don't. I would say in the later books, he does this more. I feel like as a fan of the books, I don't mind it as much, but I find it hard sometimes if I'm reading a book and there are more than three or four POV characters. This is not always the case, but I prefer to not have new characters introduced toward the end of a novel.

 

[Jabrosky]

As far as differing settings goes, you still need to be careful not to confuse your reader, and ideally make sure it's clear how Ellie's part of the tale intertwines with the rest. That's one big thing that turned me off of the Game of Thrones book -- too many characters in different places, with little to no indication of how some of them related to one another.

Maybe this is why I couldn't get into that book either. There were so many broadly scattered viewpoint characters that I couldn't attach myself to any single one of them, nor did I get a clear sense of the over-arching plot.

Most of the time I prefer to hover over the protagonists when it comes to viewpoint. I don't necessarily sink into the sort of deep point-of-view recommended by certain posters on online writing forums, but neither do I jump between dozens of different characters as tenuously connected from each other as the GoT cast.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We do this, where we have new POV's introduced fairly late in the books, but they are of characters who are already familiar to the reader and have been there all along, so there isn't a huge disconnect. Really, clarity is going to make the biggest the difference as to whether or not this will work for you.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I think you can introduce a POV just about anywhere, and at any time. However, it helps if the reader has seen the character before AND the character is unique or is one of the most interesting of the ancillary characters.

It can be a lot of fun for your reader when they turn the page to the next chapter and see it's told in a new POV of a character they really like but, up to this point, have seen only in supporting or opposing roles to the protagonists. I can think of several authors who have surprised me this way.

The dangers of introducing a late POV:
1) The character is similar to an already existing POV
2) The reader hasn't been exposed to the new character yet through the other, already existing POVs.
3) The new POV isn't as interesting as already existing POVs.

I'm sure there are other considerations but these would top the list for me.

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the likes and dislikes of potential readers. If you worry too much about a general audience, you're less likely to produce something people will love. Taking the example of Martin since it's been discussed in this thread, some people can't get into it, yet the books have a ton of rabid fans. I'm sure Martin is content with the story's success.

 

[Ireth]

We do this, where we have new POV's introduced fairly late in the books, but they are of characters who are already familiar to the reader and have been there all along, so there isn't a huge disconnect. Really, clarity is going to make the biggest the difference as to whether or not this will work for you.

Exactly. When I introduce a new POV that hasn't been used before, even if it's of a character who's been previously introduced via other POVs, I try to make it clear that this is character X, who split off from the other characters in Y manner, and is heading off to do Z plot-important thing... etc. Or maybe character D who joined up with A, B and C, whatever.

 

[AnneL]

I find it a bit jarring to have a new POV character introduced if there's been a really long run of only one character up to that point. If there's already been some switching of POV then I can accept it a lot more easily to have a new person come in late. However, if the new POV is introduced just so the author can work out of a plot hole or is using it as a shortcut, I feel like that's cheating and I get ticked off.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I find it a bit jarring to have a new POV character introduced if there's been a really long run of only one character up to that point.

The greatest successes I've seen with this have deliberately made use of that--for instance, suddenly killing off the character who'd previously been the protagonist.

Spoiler: This is what happens in

What Fire Cannot Burn. Soledad was the villain protagonist of book 1, which ended with her throwing away any hope of redemption. She remains the protagonist halfway through book 2, then gets stabbed to death completely out of the blue, replaced with a major character from book 1. The new girl is frankly a better character, and she swiftly establishes that she's not going to do things the same way Soledad did. For me, it worked, if only because Soledad was completely played out at that point.

 

[Calyb]

Admittedly, I was partially inspired by GoT by having multiple viewpoints, but I don't really have many cases of new POVs being isolated from the existing POVs for long periods of time. Ellie, for example, quickly meets Sam (S), and not long after the 'main cast', so it is dissimilar from GoT as the characters meet pretty soon and there are far fewer viewpoints - especially as the characters D and F are essentially the same (think Quirrel/Voldemort in HP1), and Ca, K and Fr are all known to the audience before 'leading'. (Plus Fr (Freya) only takes over as C (Calyb) is unconscious at this time).

I get that there's an issue with having 8 straight chapters of one viewpoint then introducing several more. The chapters are largely chronological, so there isn't a lot of room to manoeuvre here. However, it is possible to introduce Sam and Ellie earlier, so I'll see what I can do in that.

 

[James Chandler]

One thing I've seen done is to have the name of the PoV character displayed at the start of the chapter...

Peter V. Brett did that in The Warded Man. It worked fine.

I think how long you go with one POV depends on how compelling that portion of the story is. For example, if one POV is very intense, switching the POV can give the reader a break, release the tension a bit before returning to the more intense storyline.

 

[Philip Overby]

R. Scott Bakker also does long stretches of one specific POV character before switching to others. They all tie in later, but it doesn't so much jump around from POV to POV. It stays with one for probably 100 or so pages before shifting to the other. I thought it worked well in this case also. However, I would say in general I prefer to know the general cast of characters that are going to have POVs early on.