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PoV

Ovius

Minstrel
Has anyone done multiple Pov books? I always wondered how do you decide who goes first... I am thinking I need just to write my story 4 times and then just plucked chapters.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Feel. Logic. That's as helpful as I can be, LMAO. Opening Eve of Snows had a few possibilities, but once past the start, everything fell together through a million words and running.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Which character has the most pain, and has the most change happening right at the beginning. Start there.
 
I haven't. But I guess when deciding which character goes first, you just need to ask yourself:
1. How do you want to begin your story?
2. Who happens to be there at the time, and whose eyes do you want to see this event through?

Lets take Game of Thrones as an example. The purpose of the prologue is to establish that White Walkers exist and they like killing people. Hence, the prologue had to be told from the POV of one of the Night's Watch, beyond the wall.

Then we have Chapter 1, in which the only member of the Night's Watch who survived the encounter with the White Walkers is executed by Ned Stark for desertion. Now, this scene could have been told from the POV of Ned, Jon or Bran. George R.R. Martin decided to go with Bran's POV. From this we get to see the execution through the eyes of a small boy who is only just starting to learn about the harsh realities of life. So the scene hits a bit harder than it would if it were told from Ned or Jon's POV.

Also keep in mind that often, while a multiple POV story has several main characters, whichever character the novel begins with is usually considered to be the MAIN main character. So you might want to begin the novel with whichever character you feel is most important to your story.
 

Ovius

Minstrel
I haven't. But I guess when deciding which character goes first, you just need to ask yourself:
1. How do you want to begin your story?
2. Who happens to be there at the time, and whose eyes do you want to see this event through?

Lets take Game of Thrones as an example. The purpose of the prologue is to establish that White Walkers exist and they like killing people. Hence, the prologue had to be told from the POV of one of the Night's Watch, beyond the wall.

Then we have Chapter 1, in which the only member of the Night's Watch who survived the encounter with the White Walkers is executed by Ned Stark for desertion. Now, this scene could have been told from the POV of Ned, Jon or Bran. George R.R. Martin decided to go with Bran's POV. From this we get to see the execution through the eyes of a small boy who is only just starting to learn about the harsh realities of life. So the scene hits a bit harder than it would if it were told from Ned or Jon's POV.

Also keep in mind that often, while a multiple POV story has several main characters, whichever character the novel begins with is usually considered to be the MAIN main character. So you might want to begin the novel with whichever character you feel is most important to your story.
I personally think 2 are equally important because they start together and end together and connected over long distances but can still communicate because they are two halves like yin and yang
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Here are some (maybe) common sense notions:

If you know the "inciting incident" of the primary plot, start with the character most influenced by that incident.

If two characters are present at the InIn, start with the one most intimately affected by the InIn.

If the story doesn't jump around in time, then "cause/effect/cause/effect/cause/effect" creates a basic timeline. Pick the starting cause or effect, and start your timeline at the "beginning."

OR you can blow all of that off and take this (maybe) simple and dang tootin' greatest advice:

Start all novels with the best HOOK you have in the tackle box. Readers are wary fish, big or small, so sharpen it up and yank when they nibble on the first pages, heh heh.
 
Good advice here. Often indeed one character is more a main character than the rest and he gets the most screentime. Other times, a few get about as much.

As for writing it, some tips which can help, but can also be ignored;
Give the readers a fairly complete section at the start. At the end of your book you can jump between character pretty quickly. In some instances you could even jump to a character for only a paragraph or two and then jump back. However, at the start, give your readers some time to get to know the viewpoint character, and leave them at a point where they want to know what happens next with the character.

You could write 1 POV at a time. That is, first write the story from one POV, and when it's done, write it from the next, and so on. This has the advantage that you can really learn the voice of that character and complete it before moving to the next.

You could also just start at the beginning of the story and just write the story beginning to end, switching between each viewpoint as needed by the story. The advantage is that you get a complete story out of it, and don't have to pretend stuff done in another POV has already been written. This is what I do.

You could also use a completely different method of course. I know people who simply write whichever scene is most clear in their mind. They would probably do that in such an instance as well.

It helps to keep track of how many chapters or scenes each POV has gotten. Either when outlining or when writing. That helps ensure that everyone gets enough screentime and that the character you think of as the main character actually gets the most screentime.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
We usually have 7 - 9 POV's and we're open to more. Everything depends on the needs of the story. When choosing the beginning POV, we look hard at our central themes or plotlines, and the one that is the most crucial, the closest to the story's core, gets to be first up at bat. Now, occasionally people then die, but it's a sacrifice we're willing to make. ;)

So far it looks like:
Faerie Rising: FMC POV
Ties of Blood and Bone: POV Murdered, followed by the investigation
Beneath a Stone Sky: Argument between FMC and MMC, followed by oh, so many dwarves
Book 5: Murder
Book 6: Murder Murder Murder. Very dead POV, Followed by maybe some more murder.

It's the Books of Binding. There will be blood.

74467909_10159215544889012_1295123881752788992_n.jpg
 

Ovius

Minstrel
I was going to write in third person then just put there thoughts or first pov in different colours or font but I really did find it off putting
 

Mad Swede

Auror
Yes, all my stories have multiple points of view. As to where and with whom I start, that varies depending on the story and it need not be any of the main characters.
 

Ovius

Minstrel
It's my biggest obstacle I'm doing some serious research into it and I'm still stuck maybe the answer is to quit and change the story or risk that readers won't be satisfied
 

Incanus

Auror
I think it's a good idea to research this subject. It is both trickier than meets the eye, and is very important to get right.

From what I've learned, you don't simply choose a kind of POV (such as omniscient, first-person, or third-limited), and then move on. The choice will affect most narration choices, how the prose gets written, and how information reaches the reader.

Working with multiple POVs should be done with great care.

I stared my current WIP with only two limited-third POVs, but then added a third POV when I was nearing the end of Act I. It almost seems silly looking back that I didn't figure that out earlier. Now, all three POVs reflect different aspects of my theme, and it couldn't have been any other way.

Also, you might want to use as few POVs as makes sense. Often, when encountering a fresh POV, it is like starting a new story. If readers don't like some of the POV's, that could be a problem.
 

Ovius

Minstrel
But i really need 2 main character povs in first person then but when there together that is the problem because they need mis interprete each other and not know there pov of the other and get deep into there minds what they see objectively.
And it wouldn't show in 3rd person but think it wasn't an art form I'd get a professional to answer it.
 

Incanus

Auror
It's a little difficult for me to follow the run-on sentences and odd spellings. But if I understand this, it sounds like an omniscient third POV would cover this. In my opinion, that's the hardest POV to write in.

I may be wrong, but I don't think you can really have multiple first-person POVs in one story. It wouldn't surprise me to learn this has been done, but I doubt I'd want to read such a story.
 

Ovius

Minstrel
i think im gonna really try to do dual pov if not i really think it would lose something though making each paragraph dividers and making it clear of the change will be alot harder with the cores character break effect character 2 is going to be weird in one chapter we will se i hope it will come out good for critique later. thank you incanus
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
But i really need 2 main character povs in first person then but when there together that is the problem because they need mis interprete each other and not know there pov of the other and get deep into there minds what they see objectively.
And it wouldn't show in 3rd person but think it wasn't an art form I'd get a professional to answer it.
This is hard to decipher, I think you meant to say this:

But I really need two main character POVs in first person. But when they are together this is a problem, because they need to misinterpret each other and not know the POV of the other. And I get deep into their minds to show what they see objectively.

It wouldn't show in 3rd person. I think, if it wasn't an art form, I'd get a professional to answer it.


Here is your professional answer....

Stop fretting about this and just write it out. You have plenty of time to get the thing in cruise control, and come back to adjust after.


Nonprofessional answer.


If what you say is how it has to be, I would write this scene twice, one from each POV, and show the two scenes as covering the same event.


Scene 1:

I went into the room, Mary was dead on the floor, Ralph was holding a knife dripping with her blood.

What the hell? He looked right at me. I ran from the room, and rushed for the stairs, I had to get away. I had to find my pistol.

Scene 2:

I could not believe it. Mary was dead. A knife stuck in her back. I pulled it out and rolled her over. Her blood got on my hands. I had to tell someone, call the police....

The door opened, Jack was standing there looking at me. I was holding the knife. I know how it must have looked. I opened my mouth to speak, but Jack just ran off.

What could I do? I had to chase after him.
 
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Incanus

Auror
I second what pmmg posted here.

If the scene absolutely, positively has to have two character perspectives, that can only be accomplished with an omniscient POV.

The only other way I can think of is back to back scenes of the same event, from the two different perspectives, as pmmg aptly demonstrated.

Yeah, just write out something. Give it a go.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I use the 'one POV/one chapter' approach, told in 3rd person limited. The 'Empire' series has four main POV characters in the 'present,' plus secondary POV chapters set in the recent or distant past. Each POV character has a different perspective, background, and skill set, which results in different approaches to challenges. Hence, it is not the same story told four times, but four stories woven together.

The first chapter is usually that of the main POV character.
 

Ovius

Minstrel
This is hard to decipher, I think you meant to say this:

But I really need two main character POVs in first person. But when they are together this is a problem, because they need to misinterpret each other and not know the POV of the other. And I get deep into their minds to show what they see objectively.

It wouldn't show in 3rd person. I think, if it wasn't an art form, I'd get a professional to answer it.


Here is your professional answer....

Stop fretting about this and just write it out. You have plenty of time to get the thing in cruise control, and come back to adjust after.


Nonprofessional answer.


If what you say is how it has to be, I would write this scene twice, one from each POV, and show the two scenes as covering the same event.


Scene 1:

I went into the room, Mary was dead on the floor, Ralph was holding a knife dripping with her blood.

What the hell? He looked right at me. I ran from the room, and rushed for the stairs, I had to get away. I had to find my pistol.

Scene 2:

I could not believe it. Mary was dead. A knife stuck in her back. I pulled it out and rolled her over. Her blood got on my hands. I had to tell someone, call the police....

The door opened, Jack was standing there looking at me. I was holding the knife. I know how it must have looked. I opened my mouth to speak, but Jack just ran off.

What could I do? I had to chase after him.
Yeah that's what I am doing? Scene by scene.
 
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