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Multiple Points Of View
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Tasha
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Mar 08, 2013 08:03AM
When reading a story with multiple points of view, what is the best way to switch from character to character? Any opinions or tips on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
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A common, easy-to-understand way to switch point of view is to begin a new chapter; that is, if you are working in novel form. Or to use a white space between one point of view and another.A writer needs to establish early on that the story will be told from different points of view. Alice Munro's short story, "Lichen," in her collection, The Progress of Love, provides a nice example of how to set up shifting points of view.
Another trick is to start the first paragraph of the new section with the name of the point of view character.
If there is a brief "aburpt" POV I skip a line, center * * *. write the new POV, repeated the process to go back to the original POV, It's very visibls and clear that POV has taken place
Thank you! Feel free to post any other tips or opinions on multiple points of view.
Abigail wrote: "Another trick is to start the first paragraph of the new section with the name of the point of view character."I believe Audrey Niffenegger does this in her book "The Time Traveler's Wife". She'll simply write:
Henry: Story story story etc etc etc bla bla bla for as many paragraphs and for as much time as she so desires... then,
Clare: And suddenly, we see life from Clare's point of view. It's very simple and easy to follow. Doesn't distract the reader but makes it very clear and obvious.
I was about to read The Time Travelers Wife. That seems to be a simple and best way to change point of views. Thank you.
Jodi Picoult titles her chapters in My Sister's Keeper with the POV character. I tend to skim over chapter titles and was thoroughly confused when the 11 yo girl started speaking like a lawyer.
I number the chapters in my novel, and when the locale changes, I write the place name to the left of the page, as I have seen in many books and movies in the espionage genre. Sometimes there are several characters in the chapter, so maybe I haven't made the POV clear enough.
Robin Leigh wrote: "If there is a brief "aburpt" POV I skip a line, center * * *. write the new POV, repeated the process to go back to the original POV, It's very visibls and clear that POV has taken place"I use a new Chapter, or a clear visual indicator, such as the ****. It helps to use the new POV character name right away as well, so the reader knows who the POV has changed to.
I use a new chapter or a segue mark (the *** although I try to find something fancier for the finished product).I really enjoy the 3rd person multiple-omniscient style, so sometimes i will let my readers know what is going on in the minds of all the characters in a particular scene, but I give clear indications as to who is thinking what when I do this.
It seems to flow best with the change of the chapter or significant space between paragraphs...but I prefer the chapter
I like to use the *** or a new chapter. UNLESS the point of the story is an unclear POV. Every rule has an exception.
As a reader, I like it to be made clear to me with the name of the POV each time it changes. Some books automatically change POV with chapter and it's not always clear who is talking until you are halfway down the page.
As a reader, I tend to get confused when it goes every other chapter, switching back and forth through the whole book. I find myself in the middle of the chapter saying, "Wait, whose thoughts are these again?" and I have to turn back several pages to find out.So, when I write, I tend to block off PART I.... And I write several chapters so that the reader can get into the flow of the character's thoughts.
Then, just when the reader is expecting more from that character, I leave the last chapter a cliffhanger and switch POV's.
But with that said, I think that any of the techniques above CAN work, if written effectively, especially if there is a sharp contrast in personality traits between your characters.
The first book I read like that was Wheel of Fortune. There were about six different sections, maybe 100 pages each, told from the viewpoint of one of the six characters. I found it fascinating to be in the head of each of those characters. I would think I knew a situation and when I saw it from the viewpoint of another it was totally different.
I write with a lot of POVs. I simply start every new chapter with a new POV and reveal as soon as possible who it is. My readers have given me a lot of feedback that they really like the different POVs, particularly when they get to be inside the villain's head for a bit.
I'm not above writing a chapter from a particular POV, and then turning right around and writing the same chapter from another POV for fun (my chapters are around 1000 words, so it's not a huge investment for anyone to read it over. The readers say that's fun for them, too.)
I read a book where the author kept switching points of view every few lines and it was frustrating and confusing as hell! Every chapter or every other chapter is the best way. And make sure the different characters have distinct internal monologue otherwise readers will get SO confused. Allegiant - Veronica Roth is one book that kept confusing me, and so is the Legend Series by Marie Lu because both characters sounded exactly the same and I kept forgetting who was talking!
I agree with John above. If you're writing multiple POV, each POV character should be written as a separate chapter or scene, and, as others have stated, they should all have a distinct, recognizable voice. Otherwise head-hopping ensues. Also, there should be a maximum of 3 POV characters. Of course, it does depend on the genre. If you're writing an epic fantasy, for example, there may be many POV characters. The bottom line is that it has to be written well so as not to be jarring/confusing to the reader. No matter how many POV, the big question is always does it work?
Another one chiming in on the topic. I too usually start a separate chapter for a different POV, if I need to show multiple POV for the same scene, I tend to use *** between points, and make sure the reader knows who exactly it is.I'm pretty sure it worked well, at least, none of the beta readers have complained about it yet.
One of my pet peeves is when a woman writes a man's perspectve and it sounds like a woman, or when a man writes a woman's perspective and she sounds like a man. I read 'Toys' by what's his name (Patterson?), and the whole time I had to keep reminding myself that the perspective was of a super-human man because I kept getting the impression that he was a teenage girl. Weird.
I should clarify that 'toys' was written by a co-writer. Not sure how much Patterson actually had to do with it. Which could lead to another, tangental, pet peeve...
In my book I do this.
I think multiple points of view are a great way to tell a story. What I do is in bold lettering to either the right or the left of a new paragraph when I'm switching point of views I write the name of the character I'm using.
To me, what makes such alternating POV sometimes tough to follow is when the author switches back-and-forth simply between two disembodied trains-of-thought. Unless you kick off each 'hop' with an kind of 'anchoring' focus on a character's actions... then describe what they are thinking about..things can get muddy. Start every scene or chapter with an action, rather than just an interior monologue.
I'm in the process of writing a book with several POVs. All I'm doing is putting a name in parentheses next to the chapter titles identifying who is speaking, or a 3, for third person omniscient chapters.
Curious about how my characters' points of view were structured, I checked out the first three chapters of my historical novel. Chapter One has three POV characters that appear in successive scenes. Chapter Two has two POV characters: character A in scenes 1, 2, and 5; and character B in scenes 3, 4, and 6. Chapter Three has four POV characters: character A in scenes 1, 3, 4, and 7; character B in scene 2; character C in scenes 5 and 6, and character D in scene 8. Each scene is separated by an extra space, and each POV character is identified in his scene's first paragraph. I didn't have a particular plan devised when I wrote each chapter. I just proceeded employing what I hoped was common sense.
Harold, I think your readers would appreciate some sort of definite break, *** for example, between povs. No one likes to feel confused when they're reading, unless it's a mystery, and then they like to feel the confusion is intentional. And I think Feliks is right. I also like what was said earlier about making sure each character has a distinct voice. That is much harder than adding a few ***, but makes for a better story.
Don't take me wrong. My favorite POV is by far the first person, but if you are going to have so many POVs why not just make it all 3rd? I can understand two. I've read some that alternated between two protagonists and it was awesome. However, more than two is kind of lazy. It's by far easier to add new POV than to find a way around it to make the story advance. Personally, even adding a 3rd POV to first POV sounds lazy. I'm not saying people shouldn't do that, I'm just saying that it feels like a short cut, and if not careful, it might even break the rules of first POV. Now, even with two only, I would advice to switch chapter for each protagonist, and of course (for once I have to agree with Feliks) make sure that the voices are different.
I believe the type of story you are narrating determines whether you need to use multiple POV characters. If your scope is very broad, you can't do your story justice with 2 or 3 central characters. I agree that providing your various characters distinct voices is essential.
Now when you say POV are you actually hearing what is in someone's head and seeing from their eyes? I use many scene changes and show what is happening to many characters but only a couple of characters get the privilege of the reader seeing their mind. I rarely use 1st person. My stories are not told by narrators or the characters themselves. The actions of the characters and their dialog usually tell a pretty good story.
For me, when I use POV, it is so the reader can hear the character's thoughts and see what they are.Although, thinking back on it, I do believe I have male character that comes off sounding like a woman at times. Hmmmm. Food for thought.
I have an established style of switching POV in every chapter. I make it very clear who is doing the thinking from the start of the chapter. Furthermore, the characters are all so different that their speech/thought patterns remind the reader of who they are.I take great care when planning each chapter what info needs to go into the chapter and how I want to present it. POV is as crucial as the plot. Because I write very deeply inside a character's head, it very much colors that bit of the story.
I really struggled with this concept from the beginning. Now, I have a lot of practice under my belt and it's not hard. Now it's a habit. But it still does take a lot of consideration and care.
I see a lot of writers have big problems with POV while they are learning. All I can say is practice. :-)
I have read (at someone's request) early manuscripts of stuff I frankly couldn't make heads or tails of. This is because the person didn't figure out a POV and stick with it. I read the first chapter of the thing not even knowing who the protagonist was supposed to be. Not a good start.
As a Reader, I cannot stand flip flopping points of view. No matter how well planned or crafted, It doesn't work for me. I want to watch plots unfold. I like to see what happens to the characters and from their actions determine what they are thinking. As an author, I will add character thoughts like someone would dialog but events are not clouded with their perception of what happened.
J.T. wrote: "As a Reader, I cannot stand flip flopping points of view. No matter how well planned or crafted, It doesn't work for me. I want to watch plots unfold. I like to see what happens to the characters a..."J.T., I can understand your view, but personally I love to see things through the character's eyes, first person or not. I even enjoy when they feed me biased and incorrect information because they themselves don't understand something. I love feeling their emotions as they discover and experience their world. I'm actually more interested in the character's take on things than I am on the plot they react to. Obviously, other people feel differently, which is why there is such a variety of reading material out there. I love it.
Although I always use third person narration, I present my characters' perceptions of events far more than I write as an omniscient story-teller. I tell what my characters are thinking and feeling usually without correction or judgment. I try to show what each character is like, leaving the reader to make value judgments.
If you're planning ahead to scripts or film adaptations, traversing a story via character POV using VO is the most powerful filmmaking technique in history.
Feliks wrote: "If you're planning ahead to scripts or film adaptations, traversing a story via character POV using VO is the most powerful filmmaking technique in history."Well, it screwed up 'Blade Runner' and the director's cut without the bored Voice Over was definitely better.
Most common (and least intrusive) way to shift POV is a line break or a new chapter.Most common way it's abused is head-hopping - right in the middle of Ray's thought of shooting the waitress, the waitresses thoughts about how cute his pimples look intrudes in the story.
If you headhop in your story, that will half your stars in my reviews...
Martyn wrote: "Most common (and least intrusive) way to shift POV is a line break or a new chapter.Most common way it's abused is head-hopping - right in the middle of Ray's thought of shooting the waitress, th..."
Head-hopping can be done right. However, when I see it employed, it appears to be accidental and sloppy. There are some very skilled writers who can pull head-hopping off seamlessly. Albeit, very few.
VO, I loved it in Moonlight when Alex O'Loughlin was doing it. It added a little something to the whole story!
Head-hopping can work pretty well if we're talking omniscient narrator, and if the author does it properly. But in other case, it's fairly annoying. Alas, most books I've read with "head-hopping" were in the latter category.
Yzabel wrote: "Head-hopping can work pretty well if we're talking omniscient narrator, and if the author does it properly. But in other case, it's fairly annoying. Alas, most books I've read with "head-hopping" w..."Agreed. I'm trying to think of a good example.
Gregor wrote: "Agreed. I'm trying to think of a good example. "Actually, I'm trying, too.
The thing is, if you write in omniscient, it's not 'head-hopping' but merely omniscient third person. It goes bad when the book is written in third person limited, and the writer is writing from the perspective of Ray, and then thinks that the reader won't have enough input from that POV, so they switch temporarily to the POV of other characters. If those changes are preceded by a line break, then it's proper. Without a line break, it's jarring.I enjoy Third Person Limited because it has this restriction. One of my characters is blind. Writing from his perspective requires not using any visual cues, so I paint his world in smells and sounds and involving all the senses except for 'sight'. It adds another layer of suspense if something happens and the reader knows as much about it as a blind person.
I've found this discussion really interesting because I'm in the process of rewriting a few of my very first (and IMO, very badly written) books. I wonder how they ever got published. I head-hopped unashamedly because I didn't know better. I think I was maybe on my 14th or 15th published book before I ever heard the term POV and had to ask what it was. By that time, I did know about it and was actually using it correctly, all by accident or maybe through more careful reading of others' books. I've only ever done one 1st person novel, and while I enjoyed the exercise, I still prefer 3rd Person, Limited for both reading and writing. I've found a fair number of 1st Person stories to be a tad self-indulgent. Would appreciate some suggestions of really good 1st Person, esp. SF.
@Judy If you like Urban Fantasy, you might want to check Jim Butcher's Dresden's files.
Feliks, I've never been able to get very engaged in an Elmore Leonard work. Different strokes?
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