What do you guys think of multiple points of view/main characters in stories?

[Ralavik]

I'm thinking about different avenues I can take for my epic. One of the ideas is that there are two major cities of power in the western world. One is a city built upon the idea of invention, guilds, a council, delightful cobblestone roads, and a certain degree of autonomy. The other would be kingdom more traditional; of king and hereditary rulers, a standing army, of a certain degree of rigidity within the kingdom in exchange for safety. The two have a truce and understanding but they don't necessarily trust the other.

Well, I want to make a sort of coming-of-age tale (the usual thing you see in movies, etc) where teenagers about to become adults are thrust into the real world. They have been sheltered in the former city's walls all of their lives and are still immature and naive. All that changes when unexpected news arrives that rustles up the city.

The next PoV is that of the latter kingdom and of the Knights Order* (haven't thought of names for many things yet). Well, the Order has been reporting increasing sitings of, you guessed it, orcs. After so long, the King sends some of his men as well as some Knights on a recon expedition to a neighboring continent. There they discover the threat of the orcs is far bigger than imagined, as well as other inimical kingdoms that has failed to come into their oversight.

Things quickly start to escalate from there that'll tie everyone in together towards the end.


Well, this is all just currently baseline stuff. I want to hash it out more and refine it - add some character, etc. etc.

There may also be a third PoV where, you guessed it, elves come into play from the east as unsettling occurrences begin near them. Not to mention the wizards, dragon's (the good one's) will have their own point of view and say on what to make of the current going-ons in the world.


Sooooooo, not sure if I should trim it down some or just go crazy.

 

[The Unseemly]

It's been working for me. I have (as a matter of fact) 4 MC, one of whom's the "bad guy" (their all bad guys, in their own ways...), and there's different jumps between the four, who are sometimes together, sometimes apart, lalala, I don't want to tell you my whole WIP.
The big +1 you get from this is that you can develop your plotline more, and base it around more than one characters, which I have found on the overall to be more interesting. Different POV's means more thorough involvement, and its also nice to get a perspective of what's going inside the head of the other person. If anything, it makes it more realistic, as many real life stories, are, indeed not fashioned by one character who understands everything that's going on all the time.

The big -1 on the other hand, is the fact that more POV's means potentially more confusion/increased complexity in the storyline, and which point you can achieve the one thing you don't want to achieve, and that is lose your reader. If you've lost your reader, you've lost the plot (in more ways than one).

So the key is finding the balance. Don't overdo anything, but by all means, more POV's = more interesting.

 

[OGone]

Briefly, I have a pretty short attention span and I find purely one viewpoint in long books boring (especially first person).

I think multiple viewpoints are the best way in fantasy to give the most information about your world without telling, because there's only so much one character can experience and know. If you're writing a warrior and a scholar character they're both going to have different pieces of knowledge that they know and can offer the reader, if that makes sense?

And in the current trend of grey morality it can create dynamic characters out of characters who otherwise wouldn't be if observed through a solitary viewpoint.

You can do far more with a plot with multiple viewpoints too. I always was under the impression that the reader enjoys knowing things the character doesn't so they can assume for themselves "oooooh turd's about to hit the fan" - you can't really do this through third person limited/first person if you're just using one POV or your character is completely oblivious.

I'd stick to a few main POVs, then if you NEED to have another one to tell the story then slot them in. If you're writing third person limited don't be afraid to use a different POV for just a few paragraphs if you need to. As an example, if your characters are getting ambushed by orcs (and have no idea about it) you could build tension by writing through one of the orc's eyes until they jump out from the trees then switch back to the main POV as the battle ensues.

On the other hand if you're switching POV every paragraph or writing from the viewpoint of a rock just... because... then it'll become frustrating. Plenty of characters can be good to build a setting and plot but if you have too many then readers will not engage with any of them. Going crazy is fine, going stupid is not. I think there's a difference

 

[advait98]

My advice is... go crazy, but also trim it down.

Though too many PoVs can pull the reader out like The Unseemly said, and develop a complexity in plot that if you don't have the control to handle, will lose the reader from their immersion.

Don't take as many completely unrelated (at first) PoVs as you have. Rather keep only the most important ones and try to filter the views of the ones' you scrapped, through the existing PoVs.

If I read the PoV of the dragons after ploughing through the other PoVs of the boys, elves, orcs, knights and others, I'll just lose that will to keep going on (well, I would). So keep things a little simpler.

Try to remove your omniscience of the story for a moment and look at it through the viewpoint of a reader. Constantly scan it for any aspect that might be hazardous to your readership.

 

[Rob P]

The question of POV numbers has been asked before and answered in different ways. The fundamentals are that the more POVs used the more complex the story's administration becomes. Many will offer advice to try and keep your POVs down to a few if this is your first attempt at a novel, say two or three so that you learn your craft more before attempting George RR Martinesque realms of 20 POVs etc.

If you choose to pursue numerous POVs then I offer only three bits of advice having done it myself.

The first is the same as any story. Plan and do your homework, outlines, characters, settings etc etc.

The second is to keep a tight grip on timelines of all your POVs. You don't want discrepancies in timing confrontations between POVs or create a situation where you are forced to whip your protagonist's horse crazy to get 200 leagues covered in three days just to make a situation work.

Start with two POVs and introduce others to create the other POVs but more importantly other parallel stroylines or subplots. Expand out but bring them back into the fold regularly. You don't want more than a few competing storylines as the story progresses. Ideally the less the better to mainflow flow of your story.

I agree that multiple POVs can help with an Epic sized story but they can also be an unrestrained burden if not tightly controlled.

 

[Tumbleweed]

I've found using multiple view points useful for giving the reader the information required in a more complex plot, but since this trilogy is the first time I've handled quite so many it's been much more challenging to write - not a bad thing as it's taught me loads (including the usefulness of preplanning in more depth and character profiles/time lines).

So yes, use as many as you need but not more than you need .

 

[Chessie]

Start with two POVs and introduce others to create the other POVs but more importantly other parallel stroylines or subplots. Expand out but bring them back into the fold regularly. You don't want more than a few competing storylines as the story progresses. Ideally the less the better to mainflow flow of your story.

This is great advice, thank you! Question: would anyone mind providing an example of multiple POV in a scene that flows easily? I am thinking like this:

"bla bla" jane said, describe an action. Describe her thoughts in this paragraph.

"bla bla" is john's response, describe an action. Describe his thoughts in this paragraph.

Jane's turn in this paragraph.

John's turn in this paragraph.

^^ Am I getting this down? Or would the POV be with strictly one character per scene? This is something I have confusion over myself.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

Good advice here. As a reader, I don't mind multiple viewpoints if they enhance the story (showing developments elsewhere, different perspective, etc), but not when each character gets their chapter by rote (A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D,...) whether anything has happened to them or not. And please, weave them together by chapter/scene - so it's something like: A, B, A, B, C, B, D, A,...

Not like the book I'm reading just now, which is more like A, A, A, A, A, A, B, B, B, B, B,.... You think the book's about A, you get invested in A, then you find - oh, here's B. Completely separate story. Well, OK, let's play along. But then, you get invested in B, while trying to remember A, and then there's C. And later, D turns up, and each time, the timeline rewinds thirty years and you start again from scratch. Horrible, absolutely horrible. [*] Anything that jolts a reader out of their absorption in your world is a Bad Thing.

[*] ETA: not by anyone here, and not even a fantasy book, sadly. My book group has made some lousy choices this year.

 

[Chessie]

I know its common in fantasy, but what annoys me is a new pov in every chapter after the first 3 or 4 have been for one character. Its like come on, I'm already invested why switch it up now?

 

[kayd_mon]

If you start writing with a bunch of POVs, and you then ask yourself if you have too many, then you probably do.

 

[Nihal]

I accept new POVs after reading many chapters in one if it makes sense. Sometimes you reach a cliffhanger and it would be extremely beneficial to switch the POV, even starting at some point before the cliffhanger then working your way until it catches up. It's how and why the switch happens that matter. It's a strategy that works for me as a reader, amplifying the cliffhanger, but if overused it'll be immersion-breaking.

I should mention, by the way, that I often hate reading multiple POVs.

 

[Chessie]

^^ It makes sense as to why its done this way...but I'm with you in that I hate reading multiple POVs. I find it really drags me out of the story, which is why I have a challenging time writing this way. I tend to write mostly in 3rd person limited although its, well, limiting.

 

[Meyer]

I prefer it to a single PoV as I feel it gives the story are more epic and realistic scope instead of being filtered through one perspective.