How to write out multiple point-of-views?

Hello, True,

Yes, I love this format too.

As to how you write it, it may depend on how often your switches come. If, for instance, you're doing Part I from one POV, Part II from another, and Part III from a third, then it's simple - you just put the character name as the part-head (like John Fowles in The Collector - IIRC). If you switch when you change chapters, then again you use the character name as chapter head or part of the chapter title, just as some writers already do in 3rd person (eg Stephen King in 'It'.)

If you're doing it as I do, passing the relay baton in narrative sections within chapters, the most important thing is to be clear. What I've done for mine is simply head each section with the character's name so the reader is ready for the new voice. My publisher is very happy with that way of doing it, and it actually makes a very attractive print lay-out.

I know one writer (Michelle Lovric) who goes even further and also gives hers different fonts. It's an interesting effect, and ensures the reader never forgets who's speaking even if your voices sometimes blur - which hers don't, I hasten to add.

Was that the kind of thing you meant, or have I missed your point entirely?

Louise

The WIP I'm waiting to edit has 14 narrators, and regardless of how many you have the rule remains the same: each has to be a fully-fledged person to have a distinctive voice. Even in first person, each character should have a particular background, a particular view of the world that makes his/her voice distinct. Differing levels of education, different social/cultural backgrounds, and unique life experiences will all affect how your characters sound in first person.

What I did was over-write. I wrote more than I knew I needed for the story, just to be sure I was getting comfortable in each narrator's voice. I also did my first draft a little "over the top" to make sure I could identify each narrator with distinct word choice, grammar, syntax, speech patterns. Later of course, I went back and toned down the extremities to my characters weren't stereotypes, but creating each narrative voice in stark shades of black and white made it easier to identify the differences. And those differences remained after I'd "grayed" them into more real people.

Hope that helps. Oh and the most obvious help you can give a reader in the beginning--keep all your POVs in separate chapters, no bleed over between chapters, and at the beginning of each chapter, put the POV character's name. Just that simple.

Using multiple characters can give a great insight into their society and world. I'm currently doing this with my first sci-fi WIP.

Just don't switch too prematurely.

True said:

No, Swordswoman, you didn't miss my point.

My characters will be switching often. At least that's how I see it so far, although there will be characters whose voices will be heard more often than the others, so to speak.

The characters' point-of-views I'll be writing from are from different classes, levels of education, cultural/social backgrounds, etc. That's exactly the reason why I wanted to write from multiple POVs. I want the readers to know as much about my characters' world as possible without overwhelming them, and that's why I asked this question.

Thank you both, you've helped me a great deal already.

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Is there a reason why you must have them all in 1st person? Do you need that kind of intimacy with all the characters? Do you have unique voices/thoughts/etc. to sustain five first person narrators for the entirety of your novel?

You can still do multiple POVs with 3rd person limited and maintain a consistent narrative voice, if you wish, without overwhelming the readers with five different "I"s.

The pitfall is that first person is difficult to do well, and when you have five characters, even if you have five unique voices, the problem is that you may lose that intimacy anyway since you now have FIVE instead of just one character for the readers to attach to. Also, when any number of the five characters are in the same scene together, you will have to decide whose POV to use, and it can also be disorienting to your readers until you have very distinctive voices for them.

The difficulty is exponential when you have more than two FP narrators.

I would do omniscient third, not 1st person with that many POV chars.
just my 2c.

But the OP is asking how to do it in FP...not for advice about how to do it differently.



To the OP...my most recent manuscript was written with two FP narrators. It was split by having them each take an alternating chapter. I thought it to be the most natural and easy to follow format.

I second what KTC has just said. I've got a WIP with two alternating characters in first person. The only difference for me is, I have a third character, he's written in third person. He's just creepier that way.

I think it would be a good idea to get a copy of a book that succeeded in using multiple first pov. I had a look on internet, and I found this on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_mode#Multiple-person_view

It says "Larry McMurtry's novel Leaving Cheyenne uses multiple narrators"

I am sure if you keep on looking you will find something else.
I hope it helps.

Don't switch too much. In drama improvisations, coming into the impro as a character too early can kill the good work of everyone else.

Poor True!

I get the impression the OP knows exactly how to write multiple 1st and has done it successfully before, but was really just asking how to format it properly...

But the 'how often to switch' issue is an important one, and from the sound of it works differently in the US, which may be worth clarifying to be sure I'm not giving dud information here in my original post on formatting.

To recap: in the UK, you can switch as often as you want, and the reader doesn't seem to have a problem keeping up. The first multiple 1st novels were the epistolaries of the 18th century where letter length can vary from 40 pages to a paragraph, and this still works today. In some ways, the multiple 1st is even more attractive to modern readers because it emulates the form of quick-cutting with which they're culturally most familiar - the grammar of film and television. Of course the voices need to be very distinctive as well as individually engaging, but that just means the book needs to be 'well written'...

Personally (and I should stress that - this is my personal opinion, not a fact quoted by publishers in the industry) I agree with Lady Ice that in the set-up stages one needs to give a 'voice' time to establish itself before cutting away too fast - but after that you can follow whatever the characters and story need, without any concern for bleeding over chapters. In my last book, chapter 1 was told from two POVs, chapter 2 introduced a third, and gradually more and more were added as the book progressed. By the late stages, I was able to really increase pace by upping the cut-rate (just as you do in film), and in one battle sequence was changing POV every other paragraph. For one duel, I split the two opposing POVs so that at one point they finished each other's sentences.

How successful this is I won't know until the reviews come in. All I can say for certainty that it's highly publishable - or at least it is in the UK. Over here, the publishers who are very willing to buy a book in that style include:
Harper Collins
Random House
Orion
Penguin UK
Virago
and Hodder Headline.

These are houses who either bid for my book or published one of Michelle Lovric's.

But I'm getting the impression from other posts here that the US market differs, and doesn't like many breaks at all. Is that the experience of you guys?

Louise

Can't speak to the publishability of multiple 1st POV, but mine is multiple 1st as well. In most cases, I'll go at least a few thousand words before switching, but I have one or two shorter-lived switches during times of high action.

I switch by scene like this: (Not sure I'm totally happy with that, but... it's what I do for now.)


"And that's all I have to say about that," I said.

​

***

MC2: God, I thought she'd never shut up. Here's what really happened.
etc

I just finished a WIP with three first person narrators. I had the protagonist, the heroine, and the antagonist. Each had his/her own chapter. I didn't rotate them evenly, but as the story called for them. I kept in one POV throughout the chapter. a couple chapters were >5K words, a couple were < 500 words.

I suppose I could have added another narrator using this method, if the story called for it.

I've seen a cyberpunk multiple first person POV done with _different fonts_ for each narrator. Can't remember the author though.

I don't think multiple 1st person POV would work well in general without a noticeable transition of some sort - like letters with an introduction line. Even somethign as simple as mentioning the characters name in the first paragraph would help.

Cassiopeia said:

I second what KTC has just said. I've got a WIP with two alternating characters in first person. The only difference for me is, I have a third character, he's written in third person. He's just creepier that way.

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I can vouch for that Cass. Works really well

MrWrite said:

I can vouch for that Cass. Works really well

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Thanks Mister! I'm glad you enjoyed reading about my killer. I suppose that means I should be writing more.

That makes two of us!