[Yjar]

Hello, I am think about adding another point of view in my story. I'm brainstorming ideas for the plot, characters and whatnot. In my opinion, having many point of views can make an exciting and diverse story for me, but I fear giving too much information before the main character discovers it himself. I know the easy solution is to just not give out that information, but does anyone have any tips or experience in writing multiple points of view in a story?

Any advice that may prevent me from messing up is welcome. And feel free to discuss your opinion of multiple POV.



Thanks,



JR

[Window Bar]

Most of life involves our minds coming together and drifting apart, gaining and losing friends, lovers, parents, children, enemies... We hope it's toward some kind of sacred goal (read "sacred" however it applies to you). The beauty of a multiple viewpoint format is that it continues to allow a tight focus on emotions, wants, needs, loves, hates... without abandoning the characters who would otherwise move offscreen for awhile.

So yes, it's definitely worthwhile. There are all sorts of caveats, but I'll hold my comments to one: Truly give each viewpoint character the freedom of his/her own voice. If they all speak and think exactly alike, then multiple viewpoint is only a thinly disguised omniscient viewpoint.

Good luck, Yjar.

-- WB

[kmtolan]

Remember to use "head hopping" carefully. Jumping several times in the same chapter can be both disruptive for the reader and cause them not to care as much about any given character.

Look at some good examples of published books and see what suits you best.

Personally, I prefer to stay in a single character's head.

Kerry

[Yjar]

Most of life involves our minds coming together and drifting apart, gaining and losing friends, lovers, parents, children, enemies... We hope it's toward some kind of sacred goal (read "sacred" however it applies to you). The beauty of a multiple viewpoint format is that it continues to allow a tight focus on emotions, wants, needs, loves, hates... without abandoning the characters who would otherwise move offscreen for awhile.

So yes, it's definitely worthwhile. There are all sorts of caveats, but I'll hold my comments to one: Truly give each viewpoint character the freedom of his/her own voice. If they all speak and think exactly alike, then multiple viewpoint is only a thinly disguised omniscient viewpoint.

Good luck, Yjar.

-- WB

Oh yeah, definitely. The voice wouldn't just be in the dialogue, right? I'm thinking third person limited, so would that mean that how I describe something should fit the character's pov as well?

Thanks for the reply : )



jr

[RedMage]

I use 3rd person limited almost exclusively. For a novel length work I can't imagine trying to do it as anything else. While a single character point of view, when done correctly, can bring you a very in-depth, highly personal story, it does limit the range of what you can share with the reader about the world, what's really going on...the full story of whatever event you're writing about really. Like WB said, 3rd person limited it allows for multiple characters to remain in the picture without sacrificing the focus on their emotions and desires and personalities.

As for voice, I have 2 examples from my own writing:
I had a story where there were 4 main viewpoint characters. One of them was the leader of their little band. He was highly organized, well read and, generally, someone you could call "well-bred". As such, he didn't use contractions at all when he talked. Sometimes when he got very stressed or really angry, but otherwise not at all. The exposition for his parts of the story also lacked contractions. Meanwhile, all the other characters, in dialogue and exposition, did have contractions.

My other example is from my current wip. I have 2 teenage girls, sisters, and while they both think about boys (they are teenagers) one thinks about them quite a bit more often than the other. Therefore I have made the choice that, when the issue of boys is brought up for them, it will need to occur during the one girl's part and not the other's. She's the more shy, light-hearted of the two while her sister (no boy's one) is a harder, no-nonsense kind of person. That sister won't be getting any of the fluffy, fanciful stuff during her parts.

[Yjar]

I use 3rd person limited almost exclusively. For a novel length work I can't imagine trying to do it as anything else. While a single character point of view, when done correctly, can bring you a very in-depth, highly personal story, it does limit the range of what you can share with the reader about the world, what's really going on...the full story of whatever event you're writing about really. Like WB said, 3rd person limited it allows for multiple characters to remain in the picture without sacrificing the focus on their emotions and desires and personalities.

As for voice, I have 2 examples from my own writing:
I had a story where there were 4 main viewpoint characters. One of them was the leader of their little band. He was highly organized, well read and, generally, someone you could call "well-bred". As such, he didn't use contractions at all when he talked. Sometimes when he got very stressed or really angry, but otherwise not at all. The exposition for his parts of the story also lacked contractions. Meanwhile, all the other characters, in dialogue and exposition, did have contractions.

My other example is from my current wip. I have 2 teenage girls, sisters, and while they both think about boys (they are teenagers) one thinks about them quite a bit more often than the other. Therefore I have made the choice that, when the issue of boys is brought up for them, it will need to occur during the one girl's part and not the other's. She's the more shy, light-hearted of the two while her sister (no boy's one) is a harder, no-nonsense kind of person. That sister won't be getting any of the fluffy, fanciful stuff during her parts.

That's a good idea. I've been feverishly jotting down notes for each character give a nice distinction between POV's. Thanks for the reply.



I used to jump right into writing. 200 pages into the garbage, I think having a firm grip on the story as a whole before starting will help build confidence. I'd also like to read a lot more than I do. Like KM mentioned, can anyone recommend me a good third person-limited fantasy novel? I'll be searching online, but if anyone knows what off hand, it would be appreciated.



Have a good night,



jr

[PeteMC]

can anyone recommend me a good third person-limited fantasy novel? I'll be searching online, but if anyone knows what off hand, it would be appreciated.



Joe Abercrombie does this sort of thing extremely well. Compare Glokta's POV chapters to the Dogman's - two completely different narrative voices speaking.

[KatG]

First off, you don't have to do third person limited just because you're doing multiple pov characters. Numerous SFF novels are in various forms of third person omniscient.

If you want to do third person limited, numerous examples also exist. Abercrombie as mentioned is one. George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books are perhaps for fantasy a choice example since he does pov very well, in my view.

That you are doing multiple pov characters does not mean that you have to tell the audience any information you don't want them to know sooner than you want them to know it. Each character only knows and experiences certain things, and they do through their own world views, which can be erroneous.

If you are giving a character's thoughts, you don't have to give all their thoughts. You can even allude to thoughts they are having without going into details of what they are thinking, i.e. "He had been weighing the several options open to him and had almost decided on which one he would exploit. Not yet, though, he reminded himself. He did not have to make the decision tonight. There was still time." -- We know the character is weighing his options. We don't necessarily know what those options are, or which ones he's leaning towards. We know it's a difficult decision that he is not eager to make. We know that he doesn't have to make it that night, but possibly soon. And we know something about him from the way he's thinking about the issue. But we don't know key information that he knows because that's not in his thoughts upfront.

Characters see what you want them to see, do what you want them to do, think how you want them to think, reveal only that information you want them to show at any one time. Sure, a lot of those decisions come from our sub-conscious/right brain and so surprise us that we thought them up. That's why authors talk about characters taking over, etc. But it's still the author's choice what to keep and what to throw out, what to show and not show.

So a third person limited narrative gives you a number of options that might work for your story, depending on the plot, but there is no set number of characters you have to have. You might just have two additional ones. You might have six, or more. Some of them on stage briefly, some on for chapters.

There are no boundaries here. If you want to write a third person omniscient narrative that 90% of the time sticks mainly to the viewpoint of the main character, like Harry Potter, you can do that. If you want to have thirty pov characters in third person limited like Wheel of Time, you can do that. If you want to have multiple character povs in the story and have each of them be in first person (revolving first,) you can do that. If you want your protagonist's sections to be in first person and other characters' pov sections to be in third person, you can do that, and so on.

And even if you eventually decide that you want to do the whole story in first person, it doesn't necessarily hurt you to write out some narrative in other characters' pov's, so that you can get a handle on those characters and the plot. Then you can take that material and figure out how to work it into the first person viewpoint of the protagonist.

[Window Bar]

so would that mean that how I describe something should fit the character's pov as well?

I agree with you up to maybe the 80th percentile on this goal -- just so you don't get slavish to it. I just finished reading a piece where the viewpoint character would not have been in a position to know what a saguaro cactus was called, so the story flow was interrupted so the author could remain true to viewpoint. Unfortunately, that exercise required a seventeen-word description that still didn't give me as clear a picture as the two-word moniker saguaro cactus would have done.

So would the use of saguaro cactus have turned those two words into omniscient viewpoint? I suppose, but I've got to say that in reading stories I'm far more interested in the ease of communication between the writer and myself than I am in the purity of any system. Maybe this is why the halfway terms like third person limited exist.

Does this mean I have no time for Finnegan's Wake? Yup. Whether or not it's a work of genius is not for me to say.

Best -- WB

[Expendable]

I've seen first person done where each chapter would switch between two characters.