balancing multi POVs

No, I don't need them to be equally balanced as a reader, nor should they be imo, unless all your characters are actually equal.

MS1 - 5 povs. The twins got the most page-time, the sort-of antagonist had the next most, and the two supporting characters got the least. However, because I had five, I did tend to mix them in chapters. It was better for the pacing. Ymmv on that.

MS2 - 70%/30% split. Pov 1 hogs the limelight for sure.


GRRM in the ever-useful example of Game of Thrones definitely doesn't have equal time for his chars.

I write a fair amount of multi-POV work (when I'm not writing in 1st person). Usually the protagonist has the most chapters, the secondary protagonist has a fair amount, and the rest is split up between characters/villains who have only a chapter or two each. I do not alternate every other chapter with a different POV unless the story requires me to move the POV with each chapter (and then it doesn't typically alternate).

Generally the beginning sections of the book are all the protagonist's POV, with other perspectives becoming more frequent the deeper into the plot/book I get. There is no particular pattern to how I decide which character to center around, and no hard and fast rules aside from the chapter needs to focus on whichever character has the most to lose/gain in that particular chapter or it covers events that only a certain character has knowledge of.

Bear in mind, I am not an author who worries about that kind of structural consistency. (My chapters are also, never uniform in length. Although I do tend to find a kind of average length as I write, I will also have at least a few chapters that are very very short - current WIP has one chapter that is three sentences - and much longer than some of the others.)

This is definitely one of those "Do what works for the story" issues.

I write using multiple POV characters and, for me, they all serve the story and I don't give much thought to how much time each one has. They all appear as required.

I found it generally interesting to see how POV characters interact with each other if they are in the same place and time. If a story has such a section, skipping one POV completely or sidestepping it for a long time usually frustrates me. The POVs shouldn't be equal in that case either, but say you have something like Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy, where there are long sections where several POV characters interact -- in a situation like this, if the writer skips one POV for too long, I feel they are not exploiting the situation to the fullest.

When POV characters are in different locations and part of a (seemingly) different storyline I don't think it matters if one POV is skipped for even two hundred pages.,These situations should follow a split that best keeps the reader/writer interested (and perhaps if there are overlapping global incidents, keeps time consistent).

But I guess in both cases, one could say that the story should dictate the split.

Yes, they definitely don't need to be equal. You don't want to be writing extraneous scenes for a character just so his screen time matches up with another.

Lone Wolf said:

If you read a book that alternates POV between 2 or 3 main characters do you expect them to get fairly equal "screen time"?

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No. I'd expect them to get POV scenes when necessary for the story. It doesn't have to be balanced.

When writing multi POV's the single thing you need to take care of is to be certain that your reader will know whose head they're in. Beyond that, anything goes IMO, and certainly your characters don't need to have equal time in the spotlight.

The only stipulation I can see is that if a POV character doesn't have much time on stage, your reader won't know him/her very well. Without knowing them, your reader won't have much of an emotional connection and probably won't care too much about what happens to them.

The character who had the least page time for ms1 was also my most popular.

Readers bond to a character because of who they are and how they are presented. Arya Stark gets much less page time than some in GoT but is still a favorite.

Multi POV lets you tell a complicated story by hopping between individuals to keep the momentum of the plot moving. In general, I think your multi POV must be pushing the plot forward.

I think that this is very informative. My one MS has multiple POVs and it was something I also thought about. The balancing out. Out of the five central characters, one has more "POV" scenes the rest have the same amount. I was just concerned of pushing the plot forward while also showing the character dynamic and development.

Great input from everyone!

I just wanted to throw my meager chip in the pot and echo: do what works for the story. It's not a mathematical equation, it's YOUR story. You have to do what works best for you.

As DanielSTJ said, it really depends on the story. I know in my story: Neverworld the Great Dragon I started with first person, the narrator introducing himself, and then quickly, introducing the reader to the main character. Through out the story he'll interject his thoughts, or add some additional information, but for the most part, he stays out of it. The book's available on Amazon if you want to check it out, I'd very much appreciate it. But I digress. You should also try reading/ watching A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The change in POV in that series could act as a good study guide for you. Good luck.

I have two main story threads in my MS (plus a third tiny one which gives you a little insight into the baddies!). The minor story thread has one POV and the major one has the main characters POV and occasionally the supporting ones if relevant. The main character definitely gets the most time devoted to her but that is not to the detriment of my minor story thread. I put together a little timeline so I knew when to switch from one to another, so that events progressed at roughly the same pace. Sometimes this meant you didn't hear from one for a while i.e. if one was travelling for a few weeks to go from A to B, then that was clear as the reader spent a lot of time with with my other characters.

I'm writing a story about brothers where the POV alternates every chapter. Sometimes the chapters are immediately picking up where the previous left off. It's cool to show the difference in persepctive of the same event. Im trying to be careful as I dont want the shift to be jarring to the reader by switching mid scene, which is why I'm strict about the alternating chapters. It's also fun to play with who knows what secret or information the other doesn't.

Lone Wolf said:

If you read a book that alternates POV between 2 or 3 main characters do you expect them to get fairly equal "screen time"?

My WIP has 3 MC with POV changing from scene to scene. (3rd person deep, limited) It doesn't necessarily change every scene and the heroine gets more scenes than the 2 heroes because it's mainly her story. It also doesn't change in a regular pattern of whose turn it is.

Is it fine to have long stretches without a POV from MC #3? He still gets mentioned in the POV of the others so it's not like he fell off the face of the earth.
Several times I have 6 to 15 scenes from POV of #1 & #2 before a single POV scene for #2. Thing is some of these are largely there just to give #2 a scene and my WIP is too long so I think I need to cut them (and others) so I might end up with 20 scenes between his. Is this a bad idea.

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My novel has 5 different POVs, and they have vastly differing screen times. The MC, of course, has by the far the most. Other than that I decided which POV to put a chapter in both through planning (keeping suspense high) and on gut feeling (Which character's POV do I cinematically "see" this scene from, before my inner eye). I don't believe in an equal distribution (in fact, personally, I often find stories written in recurring alternating POV patterns pretty boring and somewhat jarring to read) imho you should go with what the story needs.