Changing POVs mid-chapter?

I think as long as the pov switch is made clear you'll be fine.

TheAmir said:

Ok, so I'm working on a chapter in which MC wakes up from having been knocked out/having weird nightmare flashbacks of his youth. When he wakes, he's disoriented and thinks he sees his father kneeling next to a dead animal, preparing to skin it.

What he's seeing is, in fact, one of the people who have taken him captive getting ready to skin an animal.

My question - I want to switch POVs and go from his to hers with a "page break". Is this acceptable mid-chapter, or do I need to start a whole new chapter for changing up POVs?

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You can change with a scene break. You don't need to start a whole new chapter.

I regularly have POV changes mid chapter - some even have 4 or 5 scenes all from different POVs. Just put a # and an extra space to indicate a scene break and you're good to go.

Use a scene break. You indicate it with a single centered #.

I'll admit that one of my personal pet peeves is POV changes that change mid-chapter. I'm not sure why it bothers me. I have no problem with PoV changes for separate chapters. I'm revising a novel of mine right now that has 2 main PoVs and I know one thing that I have to revise is making sure that the PoVs are consistent. But that's just my personal issue. I think that certain genres accept PoV changes more than others. I've been reading a lot of mystery series lately and I notice that the writers change PoVs throughout the chapter quite often (and these are best selling books).

Djuna

Like others have said. Scene break and have fun. Personally I'm torn when I read chapters like this. Sometimes they feel like they should be their own chapter, other times they truly feel like the two separate POVs belong together. When it works, I've got no problem.

As long as there's a scene break, you should be fine. Personally, this would bug me if the chapters were short to begin with, but if they were longer I don't think I'd mind.

Hmm this is actually useful information, since I was wondering the same yesterday. I was always under the assumption that a change of POV should mean a new chapter, but I guess that's not always true.

On a related note, what's everyone's opinion on a POV change where the two scenes are continuous? An example would be if the POV character gets in into a fight and gets knocked out, and the scene continues from someone else's POV after a double line break. Would that feel jarring at all?

TheAmir said:

Ok, so I'm working on a chapter in which MC wakes up from having been knocked out/having weird nightmare flashbacks of his youth. When he wakes, he's disoriented and thinks he sees his father kneeling next to a dead animal, preparing to skin it.

What he's seeing is, in fact, one of the people who have taken him captive getting ready to skin an animal.

My question - I want to switch POVs and go from his to hers with a "page break". Is this acceptable mid-chapter, or do I need to start a whole new chapter for changing up POVs?

Click to expand...

I think changing POV in the middle of a chapter could be very costly indeed without a scene break at the very least. I pretty much second what others are saying here.

I use page-break for new chapters. For POV-change, I hit ENTER three times and get going.

Line breaks. Press ENTER, center, #, ENTER, continue writing. My personal style is to switch to every major character's POV once per chapter, so I certainly don't think a chapter break is necessary.

JustMANGO: That # is a print reader mark for "leave an extra line space." It's best to include it in case your extra lines breaks occur at the bottom of a page or something.

I don't mind POV changes if they're done with a scene break.

Be very careful changing pov's, especially if you are writing in first person - it can be done well, but it is also easy to do poorly. Make sure you have good editors and beta readers reviewing your work. What seems clear to you may not be clear at all to readers.

justMANGO said:

An example would be if the POV character gets in into a fight and gets knocked out, and the scene continues from someone else's POV after a double line break. Would that feel jarring at all?

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Wouldn't "feel jarring" be a desirous outcome?

I remember reading "The Things They Carried" and feeling that I desperately just wanted it (the story) to be over. Which, in retrospect, I believe mirrored what the author was trying to convey with his words. A truly powerful read.

justMANGO said:

Hmm this is actually useful information, since I was wondering the same yesterday. I was always under the assumption that a change of POV should mean a new chapter, but I guess that's not always true.

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Not in many of the books I've read. Maybe it's a genre thing.

On a related note, what's everyone's opinion on a POV change where the two scenes are continuous? An example would be if the POV character gets in into a fight and gets knocked out, and the scene continues from someone else's POV after a double line break. Would that feel jarring at all?

Click to expand...

Not if it makes sense.

Light exploded inside his head, everything tilted, and the ground rushed up.

# (centered)

Mary looked down at the unconscious warrior. What a dork. Sneaking up on a child would have been harder. She dropped her rock and grabbed the man's legs.

And so on...