opinions about person, 1st-3rd and everything in between

lucyfilmmaker said:

I'm working on a YA Fantasy novel, and while I have one very obvious main character, I've been writing in the 3rd person and switching the POV every chapter. This is mostly because there's a lot of peripheral action happening that we need to know about, but I'm wondering what people's opinions are on this.

Is it important that I stick with a single POV?

Are you less likely to read something that jumps around like that?

Keep in mind that it is 3rd-p, so it's not like I'm running around TOO deep in people's heads.

I just don't know if I should keep it up, or switch it over!

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Swapping POVs is fine. Lots of books do it, to great effect. You said the readers need to know the peripheral action outside of your MC, and I think that's one of the best (if not the best) reason to switch POVs.

Just make sure that peripheral action really IS necessary and you're not just being indulgent. The book I finished last night switched between five POVs, and I only read the scenes of two of the characters. The others were just repetitive and useless.

katiemac said:

Swapping POVs is fine. Lots of books do it, to great effect. You said the readers need to know the peripheral action outside of your MC, and I think that's one of the best (if not the best) reason to switch POVs.

Just make sure that peripheral action really IS necessary and you're not just being indulgent. The book I finished last night switched between five POVs, and I only read the scenes of two of the characters. The others were just repetitive and useless.

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All of this.

One mistake a lot of new writers make is assuming that we need to know everything that's happening. A book isn't a movie where you have more freedom to jump from scene to scene and character to character. The POV's must impart essential information, as Katie said, it comes across as self-indulgent.

Third person POV can get just as deep into the POV characters' heads as first person. It depends on the degree of penetration the author choses to use.

Do be careful about scattering POV among more than the principal characters. That tends to lessen the reader's attachment to the principals. Also, if the reader knows everything that's going on everywhere, suspense can be diluted too far.

I don't believe third person can be as close as first. If it could be, we wouldn't need first person. Penetration has little or nothing to do with it. First person is inside, third person is outside, and both stay this way.

But swapping POVs is fine, as long as you do it for a reason. The worst reason to swap, I think, is because you don't know how not to swap.

Third person may not be as close but it allows you to be more selective. It's like editing a person's thoughts.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't believe third person can be as close as first. If it could be, we wouldn't need first person. Penetration has little or nothing to do with it. First person is inside, third person is outside, and both stay this way.

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Third person can go just as deep inside a character's head as first person, if the author chooses to do so (C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series is one example. Could be just as easily written in first person, but she uses very close third limited, with passages included that could be attributed as stream of consciousness. Works pretty well, imo--i just finished Explorer, which is why i automatically think of her ). Style choice, really.

Back to the OP's question: i'll add my agreement to what's already been said. Make sure the information you're imparting through the POV change is necessary. And plenty of books switch POVs.

ChaosTitan said:

One mistake a lot of new writers make is assuming that we need to know everything that's happening.

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That's what I called the telleverythingitis -- a lot of writers tend to think they must tell everything.

I do blame it on TV and movies.

Lady Ice said:

Third person may not be as close but it allows you to be more selective. It's like editing a person's thoughts.

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Nothing about first-person narrative POV means you shouldn't be as selective about thoughts and observations as you would be in third-person. One of the biggest problems with first-person POV manuscripts I've seen is the lack of selectivity and over-indulgence on superfluous thought by the narrative character.

caw

blacbird said:

Nothing about first-person narrative POV means you shouldn't be as selective about thoughts and observations as you would be in third-person. One of the biggest problems with first-person POV manuscripts I've seen is the lack of selectivity and over-indulgence on superfluous thought by the narrative character.

caw

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Right... new writers believe that when they pick first person, then anything goes including navel gazing, as long as they "get the voice right." Thus, they also assume that "first person is easy" because "it's just like writing a journal."

blacbird said:

Nothing about first-person narrative POV means you shouldn't be as selective about thoughts and observations as you would be in third-person. One of the biggest problems with first-person POV manuscripts I've seen is the lack of selectivity and over-indulgence on superfluous thought by the narrative character.

caw

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maestrowork said:

Right... new writers believe that when they pick first person, then anything goes including navel gazing, as long as they "get the voice right." Thus, they also assume that "first person is easy" because "it's just like writing a journal."

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Double QFT

But swapping POVs is fine, as long as you do it for a reason. The worst reason to swap, I think, is because you don't know how not to swap.

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Yep, this. One of my first attempts at writing a novel featured two main characters, and I alternated their POVs. (Both third person.) I'm actually rewriting it now, with huge changes so it no longer resembles anything close to that first book. But one of the many changes is that I'm sticking to one character's POV throughout. Originally I thought it would be neat to see what the second main character is off doing, but it turns out the story works much better with just the perspective of my first MC, oblivious to the other MC's actions.

I came to that conclusion because, despite the two main characters, the main conflict only resides in one character. It's his journey, not the other character's, so I have to focus on him. If I was telling the reader what my second MC was running around doing, it would not be nearly as interesting when my first MC finally finds out about it.

blacbird said:

Nothing about first-person narrative POV means you shouldn't be as selective about thoughts and observations as you would be in third-person. One of the biggest problems with first-person POV manuscripts I've seen is the lack of selectivity and over-indulgence on superfluous thought by the narrative character.

caw

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Exactly. People think 'Wow! Character A is so cool!' and so they tell us everything character A does/says/thinks/feels, etc.