How many pov shifts are too many?

blacbird said:

The seemingly limitless infatuation with multiple-POV narration in this forum has exploded over the past couple of years.

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The worst offenders, in my experience, are aspiring Fantasy writers.

caw

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I blame GRRM. ASOIAF is easily the most popular series out there and gods know how many POVs he has. So newbie fantasy writers think 'Aha, this is how you do it!' 'This is the popular thing' etc etc.

But ofc George is a very experienced writer, so it works (for most readers - too many shifts for me, and I only really got into three of the characters. One of whom he then killed...)

I've done multi POVs before - the most being 3, which damn near killed me poor brain trying to keep track/keep in character. For some stories it works, in fact for some stories, it's necessary. But even then, I think usually the best choice is to use as few as possible, the least number to tell the story. Unless you are GRRM ofc...

Mr Flibble said:

I blame GRRM. ASOIAF is easily the most popular series out there and gods know how many POVs he has. So newbie fantasy writers think 'Aha, this is how you do it!' 'This is the popular thing' etc etc.

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I'm more inclined to blame TV and movies. That's why I do it. Each POV shift is equivalent to a jump cut to a different set of players.

Right now I'm writing a story with two sets of characters and intertwining narrative threads. Each thread has a strong influence on the other, but they only cross at a few dramatic moments. I've found I can't do omniscient well enough so I'm in limited third, which inevitably means POV shifts since no one character witnesses both threads of the story.

To reiterate what was said earlier on: the first one that irritates the reader is one too many. Part of your skill as a writer is in judging where that line falls.

Re GRRM and multi-POV-- Jordan did it in Wheel of Time first.

Jordan's problem is that he branched out from the initial POV characters and started including POV scenes from a much larger cast. The pace slowed to a crawl and the story eventually collapsed under its own weight.

Martin's ASOIAF was more tightly written (even with all the POVs) and for awhile it ranked as one of my all time favorite fantasy series, but the last couple of volumes have started to display an alarming tendency toward bloat, helped along by what I think of as "nameless" POV chapters--those from the POV of a minor character who doesn't rate having the chapter titled after him or her. The result of that is the forward momentum is beginning to stagnate. I hope he revives it in the next volume.

I've never had trouble writing multiple POVs (I think my theater experience helps with that.) I like using it best with love stories. The typical "I love him, but he doesn't know," and "I love her, but she doesn't know." I mainly write those for my own pleasure because they've been done so many times before, but I've never had trouble keeping track with my characters.

For the reader, however, it can be troublesome. If I'm READING a book I can't stand more than two characters telling the story, especially if everyone has an odd name, etc. It's just too much to keep up with. So I keep the reader in mind if my story has multiple POVs.

onesecondglance said:

I'm more inclined to blame TV and movies. That's why I do it. Each POV shift is equivalent to a jump cut to a different set of players.

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That's a consideration -- does the writing jump-cut, dislocating the reader with a WTF Now! sensation, or does it segue naturally, so the reader falls into the new POV as if it was there all along?

Either can be used effectively, but consider whether you want the reader to experience a bump or not.