SHIFT POV IN FIRST PERSON

I've written a couple of things with more than one POV in first person. The trick is you have to make the narrative/character voice very distinct to really make it seem like two different characters.

A lot of people will say you should only have one first person POV in a novel/short story. I think it should be whatever works for the story, but it's quite a challenge to do well.

I think someone told me that The Time Travelers Wife had two PsOV in first person. (But I could be remembering that wrong.)

Therese Walsh's debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy (which I named my "best read of 2009"), shifts between first person and third person through the first 2/3 of the book. The technique was effective for her story because the first person portions were present day, and the third person portions were a type of flashback. But I hesitate to use that term. Also, the first person viewpoint was through a different character than the third person viewpoint.

Her execution made it work, and it's a book I highly recommend as a study in writing technique and story structure, and of course, for entertainment.

There is LOADS of books in 1st person that shift pov. One of my favourites is John Fowles' The Collector.'

Margaret Maron, Hard Row

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is first person with two pov characters.

Like Aggy said, you have to make their voices distinct so the reader isn't confused.

Charles de Lint's "The Blue Girl"

James Patterson does it in all of his Alex Cross novels. Cross's POV is in first person. others, his partner, the antagonist, etc. are in third.

I wrote a novel with three first person POV's alternating chapters and naming the character's POV in the chapter title. Everyone but the agents liked it.

swhibs123 said:

Have you guys ever read any fiction, in any genre, where the novel is written in first person, but it shifts to other characters?

or - a novel that is predominantly written in first person but shifts to 3rd person when the MC isn't in the scene?

I've never seen this, and it might be an absolute no-no, but if it exists, I'd love to read some of it so I can see how they did it.

Cheers,
S

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I've read several novels with alternating chapters in first person and third person limited.

The first one I remember reading was a Louis L'Amour western called Galloway. It alternates first and third person POV for several chapters.

But there are a fair number of novels that do this.