Point of view characters

[Claire]

I'm at a crossroads with my WIP, trying to decide whether, and when, and where, to add a second POV character. My initial idea had been to write the first half (ish) of the story from one POV, then switching partway through, coming back to the original character at the end. I intended the effect to be a little jarring - you go through part of the story with one character and then go back in time a bit to experience what the other character was going through during that time. However, as I make more progress on the story, I'm not sure that will work as well as I originally thought. I feel like the reader needs to experience more of the early story from the eyes of both characters in order to get in both their heads, hopefully increasing the reader's empathy for both of them.

My question isn't so much specific to my decision with my WIP, but I'm curious how others are handling POV. Are you telling a story from the POV of just one character? Several? How do you know when to go back and forth between them? Are you aiming for a balanced approach, with the characters getting fairly equal treatment? Or do you interject a scene in the POV of a differing character occassionally, when it seems necessary?

Thoughts?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I currently have 4 POV characters but I'm planning up to a total of 6-7.I write each story separately until their paths cross. At that time I just have to decide which POV suits the story best.

I like multiple POVs for several reasons. One of those reasons is that if I get bored with one I can just switch to another while still working on the same project.

 

[Ireth]

For me it varies from story to story. One of my WIPs stays with one POV character for the whole of the story; the other switches back and forth between four POVs.

One novella I really liked which switches back and forth between two POVs is Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. It's a prequel of sorts to Jane Eyre, and tells the story of Bertha Mason (nee Antoinette Cosway), the madwoman in the attic of Thornfield Hall. The first section is from Bertha/Antoinette's POV, telling of her childhood in the Caribbean; then it switches to Edward Rochester's perspective, telling of the early days of their married life in England, before switching back to Bertha/Antoinette's POV for the short final section.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Claire, in my novels I play a lot with the points of view and, even though most of the time the story is told from the point of view of my protagonist character, I keep changing suddenly to another character's point of view just to show my readers what is happening in a totally different place... maybe far away from where the protagonist is =)

In my first novel there was a great battle inside a castle between Mages from two rival cities, and this happened while the two protagonists (the Queen and the Princess of both cities!!) were at a different location in the city, completely unaware of the disaster that was taking place at the castle...

So I had to switch the point of view from the Princess to her sister fighting in the battle- This is why I love third-person narrative and I would never write first-person: For me, writing from many different POVs gives me more power as a storyteller and I can show my readers so much more of my characters and my worlds.

 

[Lorna]

I've just come out of a crisis concerning POV. When I first conceived the story I'm working on I had two view point characters. The main character was the young maid of a visionary and the second view point character was the villain. After writing his perspective and working out he ended up in that situation he became the protagonist and the girls story became secondary. Stylistically their passages were different because they were the voice of experience / a naive perspective and as I got into his story I became distanced from theirs and felt I wrote them poorly. Because they were passive witness characters who served only to give a different perspective on the world without the depth of meaning of the main story and a true story of their own that allowed them to develop as characters (which would have taken a good 30-40,000 extra words) I decided to edit their perspective out. Perhaps as an easier option.

However I admire writers who can write different characters, with equal passion and sympathy.

 

[TWErvin2]

My novels have been written in first person POV, with only one point of view character. However, in my first novel there is a device, what I call 'chapter starts' that are out of the time stream of the main storyline (but eventually merges), so the area is wide open for POVs and what can work.

I've written in 1st person POV and 3rd person Limited POV. I choose based on what will best tell the story. I avoid what I consider traps, like trying to manipulate the reader's emotions or connection by using/switching POVs. I trust readers to catch on and form their own opinions based on what's going on in the story and with the character(s), based on the readers' experiences and understanding. I do this rather than try to 'force' understanding of character emotions and motivations, etc., by inserting their POV for that purpose.

People/readers live in a first person world, and are constantly making determinations of what what's going on in other people's heads--motivations and emotions, so I count on this when writing the story. It also better allows the reader to engage their mind in the story--to think, pay attention, guess and see if they're right, etc.

I try to select the POV that will best relay the story to the reader, and limit myself to as few POVs as possible in telling the story. Sometimes that makes it a bit more difficult to write the story, but I feel it usually results in a better-told story from the reader's perspective, which is what counts.

 

[Bear]

When I wrote my last book I had to do some rewrites after editing due to the POV shifts. I tend to switch POV sometimes when it isn't needed. I need to work on this as it can confuse a reader. Thank god for editors to catch my mistakes.

Basically, in my last book I told the story from one characters point of view and had to reel it in from time to time since other characters POV snuck in.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

For my NIP: 3rd person POV, four protagonists (two men, two women), alternating chapters, similar to A Game of Thrones.

 

[Penpilot]

There's a movie that does the exact thing you're doing. It's called Melancholia. And here's the danger. The first half of the movie I hated. I understood what the director was doing, but I came with in an eyelash of turning the movie off. The second part of the movie I loved, but the overall feeling of the movie for me was meh. So with a book, you risk alienating the reader who wants to stay with the first POV or you risk never grabbing them if the first POV isn't working for them, but of course if it's all done well, it doesn't matter.

For me, right now I'm telling a story with one primary POV with a b-plot told from a second POV. I switch for chronological reasons and when I think it's time to take a break from the A plot. With my previous novel, I had 6 POV characters and I switched when I needed to. What I mean by that is I switched to whichever character was in the most interesting situation or had the most interesting pov of a situation that was advancing the plot. Sometimes POVs would over lap in scenes but only if there was a different take on the scene that revealed new information. Otherwise, for me, there was no purpose for the overlap.

 

[Twook00]

Brandon Sanderson does something similar in Way of Kings. The book is 1000+ pages and once or twice he would drop characters for several hundred pages. He actually discusses this and its effect on his Writing Excuses podcast Writing Excuses 7.24: Project in Depth — Way of Kings » Writing Excuses

As a reader, this drove me crazy when the character I enjoyed reading the most was removed from the story. I think its a matter of handling it correctly and having strong characters who can carry the torch.

 

[Will]

For my NIP: 3rd person POV, four protagonists (two men, two women), alternating chapters, similar to A Game of Thrones.

That is a quite a lofty claim! Personally I struggle with anything more than 2-3.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

That is a quite a lofty claim! Personally I struggle with anything more than 2-3.

It probably wasn't a wise decision to have my first novel have four protagonists, but I think it's turned out okay. It would have made more sense to start simpler, with a single protagonist in a fairly straightforward story. Master the basics before you go on to the wacky stuff.

 

[Claire]

Thank you very much for all the replies!

There's a movie that does the exact thing you're doing. It's called Melancholia. And here's the danger. The first half of the movie I hated. I understood what the director was doing, but I came with in an eyelash of turning the movie off. The second part of the movie I loved, but the overall feeling of the movie for me was meh. So with a book, you risk alienating the reader who wants to stay with the first POV or you risk never grabbing them if the first POV isn't working for them, but of course if it's all done well, it doesn't matter.

Yes, I agree that could easily happen. I am really leaning toward including both POV characters throughout - the more I consider it, the more I think it makes more sense from a storytelling perspective. There are parts of the story that will come alive from the second characters eyes in a way that isn't possible if I leave out his POV until later.

I'm impressed with anyone who handles numerous POV characters! Perhaps when I'm more experienced I may tackle something with that added complexity, because done well, I think it can add a lot of depth and richness to a story. This is my first novel, so I'm doing my best to keep it on the simpler side. You know, aside from the fact that it's fantasy so I had to create an entire world for the story to take place in... .