I've always written my novels in limited 3rd POV, but I am anxious to try something new. That and the majority of Urban fantasy seems to be written in 1st person, so I decided to go with the flow. Anyway, the story I want to tell has two main characters. Is it acceptable to switch from one 1st person POV to another as long as I do it at chapter breaks? Like chapter one would be told from the 1st person POV of main character A, while chapter two would be told from the 1st person POV of main character B. Are there other novels out there that have employed a similar style?
Multiple 1st person POVs
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Sure. Two great examples of this are:The Posionwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and A God Against The Gods by Allen Drury.
Two of my alltime favorite books. Both have first person POV from several characters and one of the best things about it is to see one event from various vantage points.
Two of my alltime favorite books. Both have first person POV from several characters and one of the best things about it is to see one event from various vantage points.
Yes, I've read quite a few. It's fine when handled well, and confusing when it isn't.
You'd have to establish the POV changes fairly early. One of the easiest ways to do this is to title each chapter the POV character's names. IE: Chapter One: Character A, Chapter Two: Character B. Either that, or make defining characteristics about the POV character obvious in each chapter.
You'd have to establish the POV changes fairly early. One of the easiest ways to do this is to title each chapter the POV character's names. IE: Chapter One: Character A, Chapter Two: Character B. Either that, or make defining characteristics about the POV character obvious in each chapter.
Thanks for the fast responses. I'm feeling better about this project now and I will check out some of the books suggested.
Perfectly possible, but difficult to give all those characters a different voice. One should be able to distinguish between them just by reading a paragraph or two, I think - even without a chapter heading to indicate whose turn it is.
One that's done really well is Robert Wiersema's Before I Wake. Multiple 1st Person POV...a great read.
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Multiple 1st POV is very doable, especially if it's only two or three and not like 10. With that, however, the issues with 1st person are amplified. It's doubly difficult to pull off, especially you need to maintain two or three different narrative voices. But it can be done, and has been done before. Just go with it and see how it works out.
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I hope certainly hope it's acceptable, since that's my favorite way to tell a story--and is therefore the structure my novel takes! It's difficult to give each of the characters different voices, but such a fun challenge once you really get into it.
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