Two Character POVs

Z0Marley · Feb 12, 2010

Question:

Do you need to have the same word count per character's PoV?

My novel was originally written with the main character's point of view. While rewriting I realized how much better my story would be if I told it not only from the protag's POV but from the antag's as well.

My gut instinct is telling me that I should treat it like a chapter, tell only as much or as little as the story needs. Example, one of my chapters has 2.8k words from the protag's POV while the antag only has 1.1k.

Since my gut has been wrong on a number of occasions, I posted here. Any help/blog posts/insights would be wonderful.

Thank you!

shaldna · Feb 12, 2010

Not at all.

If it's a natural break then I would leave it as a chapter on it's own. Don't worry too mucgh about the word count.

Stunted · Feb 12, 2010

I'd say that the word count doesn't have to be the same at all, but that it would be weird if the antag's POV bits weren't scattered relatively evenly through the book.

suki · Feb 12, 2010

I'll add that usually it works better if both POVs have a substantial portion of the text - doesn't have to be equal, but it's usually more effective if they each have a substantial portion of the narrative, as opposed to one only having a chapter or two, for example.

Second, it's usually better if the POV breaks are clearly delineated - ie, only one character POV per chapter, as opposed to switching back and forth within the scene or even scene to scene within a chapter.

~suki

owlion · Feb 12, 2010

No, not at all. If you look at Marianne Curley's 'The Guardians of Time Trilogy', they usually have one character with longer/more frequent chapters. As long as it doesn't get really unbalanced..

wandergirl · Feb 12, 2010

I'm going to go further and say it's actually best if one character -- your main protagonist -- is intentionally emphasized. I believe I've read somewhere that a 60/40 split is optimal, with 60% on the text in the POV of your primary MC. We should be more invested in their side of the story.

Z0Marley · Feb 12, 2010

wandergirl said:
I'm going to go further and say it's actually best if one character -- your main protagonist -- is intentionally emphasized. I believe I've read somewhere that a 60/40 split is optimal, with 60% on the text in the POV of your primary MC. We should be more invested in their side of the story.

Exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks to all of you!

ether · Feb 12, 2010

Agreeing with above. My MS is told from three different third-person POVs, but my main MC has the highest wordcount/number of chapters.

Lindzy1954 · Feb 13, 2010

100% agreed. My main character has the most chapters and highest word count, but I do have two distinct POV's.

Lindsay
www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com

(Arrived 19,000K of appx. 50,000)

Two Character POVs

Z0Marley

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

Stunted

Ich heiße Superphantastisch!

suki

Opinionated

owlion

Absorbing inspiration from the moon

wandergirl

~kirsten hubbard

Z0Marley

ether

Lindzy1954

Chi-Town Scribbler