Chapters and POV

awaitingthemuse said:

Apologies if this has been covered before.

Is it acceptable to change POV within one chapter? At the moment my WIP has 34 chapters, each told from a single viewpoint (not 34 POV, there are 3 POV in the story). It seems a lot of chapters to me. I am thinking of merging some chapters together.

I am reading this question and wondering if 3 POV is too much?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I put the B in Beginner.

Thanks for any shoves in the right direction.

atm

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Three POVs are not too many. You can use as many POVs as works for your novel. Okay, okay, so if you use twenty, it'll be harder for a reader to connect to certain characters, but at three, I don't think you have a problem.

Thirty four is exactly how many chapters my novel has at the moment (if you include the prologue). There is no such thing as too many chapters. Your novel is as long as it needs to be, chapters are as long as they need to be. When you divide an undefined "acceptable" novel length by an undefined "acceptable" chapter length, you get as many chapters as you need.

And it is definitely okay to change the POV in the middle of a chapter, but be sure to do a scene break at that point & to let the reader know quickly whose POV you are in now.