How Many POVS?

[Raevyn]

My story is in third person (it's on Goodreads, by the way), and I'm not sure how many characters I should get inside the heads of...Thanks in advance!:)

[Alex]

Hi Lucia,

There is no hard and fast 'rule' on the number of POV characters, but I think a story is stronger if you can keep it to three or less.

Stick with POV only in the hero/heroine and the antagonist. If you have dual protags, they can each get their own POV scenes, and then it's a matter of the flow of the story as to whose POV you put the scene in if both MCs are in it.

Eventually you will have protag and antag in the same scene, and I recommend using the protag's POV in those instances, because it is 'their' story, more so than the bad guy's.

[Nicole]

I agree with that. Also if you're going to do multiple POVs then make sure people know which character they are reading from. I've read some books where I've gotten so confused. Recently I read one that dealt with this very well. They used the character whose POV it was from for the title of the chapter.

[Alison]

Agree with Alex and Nicole. Also think it's important to be consistent - for example, if you've written from one characters POV for a great deal of the book, it can be annoying for the reader if you suddenly switch to the pov of another character. However, if you switch povs from the start, then the reader expects this.

[Alice]

Good advice everybody :) Like Alison said, don't do random POV's. Keep it to two or three characters.

Sometimes I think it's best not to have switching POVs at all (for instance... if it's a romance and the love interest is this mysterious, brooding character. In that case it would be more interesting to keep his thoughts hidden).

[Emily]

One I'm doing, one thats stalled for now, is about two twin sisters growing up in parallel universes because of things, so every two chapters it switches POV between them. Even when they end up in the same world.