Comments on: Multiple pov

By: Darcy Pattison

Darcy Pattison — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:05:44 +0000

The usual answer is to change chapter with every change of POV. OR, you can at least leave a couple extra line spaces to indicate that something has changed. Some say to put asterisks to indicate a change. Just something. Don’t just go from one paragraph to the next with a change.

But of course, break any and every rule, if you need to in order to tell your story. Just make sure it works.

Darcy

By: will

will — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:19:15 +0000

*Particular characters point of view (I should have said on the last sentence)

Also – I would like to say that the chapter I am speaking of has a lot going on in it, and swaps in between the inside of a building and the outside.

I purposefully wanted it to be pretty frantic and colourful. But it is impossible to do from one single characters viewpoint.

By: will

will — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:16:02 +0000

If I have a chapter to tell – like for example, a lot of the characters from my story have turned up in the same place – and I don’t what to tell that chapter from any particular point of view – instead – varied ones.
Does every chapter (or scene) have to be from a particular point of view?

By: Darcy Pattison

Darcy Pattison — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:59:39 +0000

Steve:
Thanks for the question. The answer: it depends.
If it works, it works.
But you must have a VERY good reason for doing this and it must be seamless to the reader.

Also, when you switch to the diary entry, for example, make sure you set it off from the rest of the text, perhaps in its own chapter, even if it is very short.

Darcy

By: Steve Russon

Steve Russon — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:20:12 +0000

Hello there,
I have a question after reading many ‘how to write’ and ‘how not to write’ your novel.

Can I switch POV in a novel?

I have a prologue and epilogue written in 1st person for a good reason.

The bulk of the narrative written in multiple 3rd person POV but there are times when small sections are written in the 2nd person POV when a character is writing in her diary.

While this might sound terribly clunky here, it makes sense when you read my manuscript.

The reason I’m asking, I’ve read in so many texts that POV should be made uniform throughout the novel, that I’d be daft to ignore it.

Any thoughts? Many thanks.

By: Selecting a Point of View for your Novel | Emlyn Chand

Selecting a Point of View for your Novel | Emlyn Chand — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:27:54 +0000

[...] Multiple Third Person POV: Many writing resources do not differentiate between the multiple third person and omniscient POVs. I feel this is a must, since this is the murky area that ensnared my first novel — a trap which was very difficult to escape. If you even suspect that you may also fall prey to this difficulty, please read the guide “Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint” by Nancy Kress, which is part of the Writer’s Digest “Write Great Fiction” series. Multiple third person POV switches between the perspectives of two or more viewpoint characters — this switch is most frequently seen at chapter or scene breaks. Fantasy writers favor this POV to allow for more elaborate side-plotting. Examples of novels written in multiple third person POV are: James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” Jeanne DuPrau’s “City of Ember” and Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper.” [...]

By: The Wordy Transition: Selecting a Point of View « The Ambitious Ambigue

The Wordy Transition: Selecting a Point of View « The Ambitious Ambigue — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:39:03 +0000

By: Darcy Pattison

Darcy Pattison — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:05:23 +0000

Brian -
Great questions!

When multiple characters are in the same scene and you want to be in the head of each character, then you are writing with an omniscient POV. Usually, if you’re in 3rd person POV (the camera is in one character’s head), you stay in that POV for an entire scene or chapter. If you’re skipping around and dipping into the thoughts and emotions of many characters, it’s omniscient.

Darcy

By: brian

brian — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:16:03 +0000

How do you handle the POV when multiple characters are in the same scene?