Combining first and third person in the same novel

This topic relevant to a project I'll be working on later this year. To be specific, my resurrected-and-overhauled trunk novel from waaaaay back.

I originally wrote this in third person all the way through, because that was my natural default setting. Sometimes present, sometimes past, but always I wrote in third, whatever the story.

Trouble is, this story was crap. Committed every sin in the book. Yes, even head-jumping, because I knew Jack about staying in one character's head.

Fast forward a decade...

Soon after I had an idea that could bring some life to this years-old idea again and make it worth reading (I hope) I started writing in first on other projects. So I thought, "Hmm...maybe, as well as putting my trunk novel's characters in a different setting, ageing them a little and expanding certain storylines, I could switch from third to first."

Seemed to work for the 16k words I scribbled out over the course of a few weeks. Random scenes here and there that will fit into the book somewhere, somehow.

But after looking through my draft from way-back-when...that is, once I got over the nausea and embarrassment that I could ever have written such rubbish, I realised.

Houston, we haz problemz.

The first chunk of the novel is from the female MC's point of view. No problems there. She gets involved in a weird, urban fantasy-type situation. Mixed up with the wrong crowd, blah blah. Meets the wrong man. They get involved, shit happens, then...she injures him.

Badly.

To the point of death, in fact.

He manages to get away and seeks help from one of his associates.

You see my problem.

We've been in first person from the female MC's point of view up to now.

But now we need to describe the male MC's injuries and the fact he seeks help from a friend - a friend the female MC cannot know about, at least yet. She thinks she's killed someone, doesn't know the male MC is alive, or that he's gone to Second Male Character to get fixed up.

So...switch to third person at this point? Stay in first but bounce into the male MC's head? The secondary male character's? Would you consider any/all of these to be 'cheating'?

Now it's not so much that I'm asking for help in writing this novel - that's my job, only I can write my own ideas down, but I'm curious as to what other folks think, because this is a subject which has been touched on in other threads, in particular the anti-first person POV one.

We all have our favourite POVs and this thread isn't intended as a "which is best," debate, or even "which is your particular favourite?" (For the record, I don't have a favourite POV or tense...as long as the book's written I couldn't give a monkey's either way).

But. Mixing points of view. Yes? No? Doesn't matter?

Can you think of any books which do this well? And, as a warning, any which do it badly?

I could write this particular project in third person and it would make the switch from female MC to the section where the male MC has his injuries tended less jarring, but...hmm, the female MC's chapters might seem less intimate written that way.

So I'm giving serious thought to having different sections to the book, for example:

Part One: First person, female MC
Part Two: Third limited, from the point of view of either the male MC or his male companion.
Part Three: Your guess is as good as mine.

If the book were sectioned off like this, would a POV change be less jarring to you?

Finally, I know that story trumps all. A book should be well written, and that's it, but really I'm just throwing my questions out there to get a feel for everyone's opinions and preferences and how they would handle such a problem.

Leukman - when I talk about switching points of view while staying in first, I mean being in my female MC's head for the first chunk, writing a few chapters from inside my male MC's head and then returning to the female MC.

The thing is, I'd only need to stay with my male MC for a couple of chapters and wonder if the brevity would make his 'section' stand out more?

sknipper - I love, love, love The Time Traveller's Wife and Gabaldon's novels, too. Picoult? Not so much. I know it can be done; I'm just unsure of whether I can do it!

katiemac said:

...I feel like your biggest challenge may be overcoming the initial POV change. I find after reading long sections in one POV (and tense), that a sudden and big change is very jarring.

Click to expand...

Exactly my concern.

The 'switch' would only last for a couple of chapters at most, and I'm thinking it's information the reader needs. And my female MC cannot know what goes on...yet.

The only alternative I can see is to have someone else (the secondary male character, most likely, when they eventually meet) relate all these happenings to her in a later chapter. "You know that guy you thought you killed? Well he's not dead and by the way, I helped him recover." But that idea set my info-dump siren blaring big time.

I have other WIPs to see to meanwhile, so it'll be a couple of months before I get around to this one, but I might just start writing it and hope by the time I get to the troublesome section, that a solution presents itself.

I spoke with thethinker42 the other day and she votes having another character relate these events to the female MC at a later time, but I'm still feeling edgy about it coming off like an info dump.

We'll see.

But thanks to everyone for their thoughts so far.

Someone bring me my migraine medication. NOW.

It does indeed. Thank you for saving my brainache.

I'm getting there too, Kevin the Christ. Never thought I would say that, but for some reason I'm coming over to the dark side.

I could definitely write in third again, but it's first for me at least for now.

I've heard it said fledgling writers often opt for first because it feels easier, more intimate and gives their writing authenticity. I was the exact opposite. I never felt right in first, years ago, because it was too intimate.

And I realised that was because I was writing what amounted to The Secret Diary of Mary-Sue Peaches, aged 18 and 3/4. First person would have basically been admitting to as much.

But now I think I'm better at characterisation, I can 'do' first person, because I'm now more able to separate myself from the characters. First person is safe for me because the folks I write about are more distinct from their creator than were my characters from years back.

Does that make any sense?