Alternatives to multiple POV
It seems to me that multiple-first-person-POV books are more popular with writers than ever. Multiple POV is one way of showing us the same events from different perspectives (see, for example, Brent Hartinger's Split Screen or Steve Brezenoff's The Absolute Value of -1), and it can be quite effective. But it's not the only way.
Third-person omniscient narration can also take us into the heads of multiple characters, although we may lose some of the flavor of the individual characters' voices and thought patterns when their thoughts are filtered through a narrator. And then there's my favorite challenge of all: letting a reader know what Character B is thinking even when we are experiencing the scene through Character A's first-person POV.
Characters will give cues that narrators miss because they are preoccupied with their own concerns, and because they carry their own fears and prejudices. However, readers will pick up on these cues. The trick is making them obvious to the reader while keeping it believable that the narrator would miss the cue.
Not all the cues have to be missed, either. The narrator may understand exactly what another character is going through, and then we understand it, too, even if we're not inside that person's head. Suppose Character B has confessed to a narrator, Character A, her desire to win an important scholarship competition. B is consumed with this competition, has prepared for it and worked for it, has even started to feel that her worth as a person is wrapped up in it. A is present when the winners are announced, and B does not win. B may give no outward sign of her reaction; B may be utterly stoic. But A will know how B is feeling, and we readers will know it, too. We don't have to jump into B's head and hear her internal monologue at that moment. In fact, it may be more powerful if we don't, if we supply that monologue ourselves.
All this is not to dismiss the use of multiple narrators, since there are books that call for multiple POVs. My point is just to suggest more tools for the writer's toolbox.
Third-person omniscient narration can also take us into the heads of multiple characters, although we may lose some of the flavor of the individual characters' voices and thought patterns when their thoughts are filtered through a narrator. And then there's my favorite challenge of all: letting a reader know what Character B is thinking even when we are experiencing the scene through Character A's first-person POV.
Characters will give cues that narrators miss because they are preoccupied with their own concerns, and because they carry their own fears and prejudices. However, readers will pick up on these cues. The trick is making them obvious to the reader while keeping it believable that the narrator would miss the cue.
Not all the cues have to be missed, either. The narrator may understand exactly what another character is going through, and then we understand it, too, even if we're not inside that person's head. Suppose Character B has confessed to a narrator, Character A, her desire to win an important scholarship competition. B is consumed with this competition, has prepared for it and worked for it, has even started to feel that her worth as a person is wrapped up in it. A is present when the winners are announced, and B does not win. B may give no outward sign of her reaction; B may be utterly stoic. But A will know how B is feeling, and we readers will know it, too. We don't have to jump into B's head and hear her internal monologue at that moment. In fact, it may be more powerful if we don't, if we supply that monologue ourselves.
All this is not to dismiss the use of multiple narrators, since there are books that call for multiple POVs. My point is just to suggest more tools for the writer's toolbox.
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