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How to cheat at switching POV in a first-person narrated novel?
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If Branden Sanderson can do it why can't you? He is a good one to learn from - re-read how he switches a few times if you haven't already and just try it!I imagine you need to do it at chapter breaks.
If they learn it second-hand later, wouldn't it ruin the suspense for the reader to hear it from the third person narrative?Either way, the least confusing way I see it done is with a chapter break, and then the section that's not in the 1st person POV is written in italics. I can't think of an example for the life of me, but it is done.
Hope this helps. :)
A lot of these 'sacred rules' are actually neither. I've seen/read so many successful books now that break many of them, especially this one. Their authors seem to be blase about switching POV multiple times within the book. I'd say anything goes, with a couple of important caveats: 1) It must be made very clear to the reader what is going on! That is to say, don't just segue into it; create a new scene with a clear marker *** , start a new chapter, put the new pov character's name at top, etc. 2) Don't switch around willy-nilly; keep it to as few switches as possible. Also, don't have just one scene in the whole book from somebody else's pov. It's jarring. The last thing you want to do is create a stumbling block that has the reader going huh? This kicks the reader out of their immersion in the narrative, and that sets things up for the dreaded DNF (did not finish).
You say that your novel is generally written in the first person. That tells me that you have already made use of the third person. Is it close third person (the POV of another character in the novel), or is it omniscient (an external narrator)?
90% first person with a single character, and the other 10% are third person seems when switching to other POVs.
WJ wrote: "90% first person with a single character, and the other 10% are third person seems when switching to other POVs."If you're already switching to other characters, could one of those characters function as the information supplier you need?
If the information is that important, either figure out how to flow your story so that it gets to the reader at that time through your POV person, or live with how they and the reader get it secondhand later. I know "if X author can do it, so can you!" is a popular answer, but X author probably practiced and rewrote a hundred times before they got their method down pat. If you've got that kind of time, try it. If you don't have that kind of time and patience, do it how the thing works for you and stop worrying about it.
A few thoughts:1. I agree with Nicole-Mary when she asks if this would ruin the suspense. I've read several novels where the multiple POVs have done just that - they made the book much less interesting than if it had been a single POV story where we learned the vital information alongside the main character. That's not to say multi-POV novels can't work, and a good author can take a historical event where we know the outcome and still make it suspenseful and interesting (see e.g. the movie Apollo 13), but it's something to think about.
2. I also agree with Thom. Rules do exist for reasons, and while it's fine to break the rules, there needs to be a good reason and it needs to be well-executed. There really aren't short-cuts to good writing, unfortunately. In my experience, POV changes like this either work or they don't, so it really is the sort of thing where you need to write it, and then get feedback from readers to see if it works.
3. I'd be very careful that these scenes or POV changes aren't just excuses to do extended information dumps, and that they don't function to bring the story and/or the pacing to a screaming halt. Any extended information dump is almost always going to be boring for the reader no matter how well it is executed.
Bare minimum: Change scene, so the reader reorients.Better: Change format. For example, if you're narrating a story, have a brief section with quotes or an image. One book I wrote (3rd person) has a prologue with some press releases (fictional, of course). There could be a hundred different ways - your story may suggest a format - leaked letter, transcript of some recorded conversation, some document you find, a song or poem or lines being performed by someone that you listen to....
Best: Don't. If your character will discover it later, it should appear later. First person narration with chunks the first person doesn't know isn't a great idea. Find a workaround. Use multiple segments with other voices (not just that one), so it isn't pure first person, or restructure story so that your plot builds till you discover that thing later and ...
Hope this wasn't too discouraging.
I've seen Branden Sandersen get away with this in his Starsight series, but am wondering if there are other examples or ideas on how to do this gracefully.