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How to best handle POV changes

Laneer

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One author, I noticed when he switches POV, he just starts a new paragraph. I find it jarring. As I'm reading I think "what the hell just happened" and then I notice it's a POV change.

Are there better ways of handling POV changes in your opinion?
 

lizmonster

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One author, I noticed when he switches POV, he just starts a new paragraph. I find it jarring. As I'm reading I think "what the hell just happened" and then I notice it's a POV change.

Are there better ways of handling POV changes in your opinion?

3rd omni used to be pretty popular. It's fallen somewhat out of favor these days. Even when it's done well, it tends to draw me up short.

I almost always use chapter breaks to switch POV. The only time I didn't was for one fight scene, and there I did scene breaks between POVs.
 

Ari Meermans

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Even when fully immersed in the story, the reader needs to "come up for air" once in a while. Scene breaks and chapter breaks are perfect for this and, for this reader, are also natural points for any necessary POV changes. POV changes at the paragraph level tend to jar me out of the story, too.
 

rgroberts

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I always use scene breaks. One of my favorite authors sometimes swaps within the same scene, and it drives me up the wall. For me, a new paragraph just isn't enough of a break. I need some indication that this is someone new, and scene and/or chapter breaks work very well.
 

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I use chapter breaks and add the POV character's name as a header. I write using multiple POV characters, so this method ensures readers are not confused.
 

waylander

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Section break then identify the new POV character as soon as possible.
 

BethS

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Are there better ways of handling POV changes in your opinion?

Changing POV on the scene or chapter boundary is usually best.

If writing in omniscient POV, then it's more a matter of switching the camera focus from one character to another. It depends of the skill of the writer as to whether that's accomplished smoothly or jarringly. The difference, IMO, lies in how grounded the narrative is in the omniscient voice.
 

rwm4768

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I use a scene break. During the drafting process, I use a single centered #, but then I change it to something else before publishing.

After the scene break, I almost always have the character's name as the first word of the next paragraph, and I try to write a sentence that makes it clear you're in their POV now.
 

ByTXP

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I try to stick to one POV per chapter and identify them early in the text, but when switching POVs in a single chapter I'll use a scene break (and I usually only do that if there's something the first POV character couldn't see because they've left the room, gotten knocked out, etc.). I think switching between paragraphs could be effective *if* it's an intentional stylistic choice to disorient the reader, but most of the time it's just unnecessarily confusing.
 

Earthling

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I prefer a nice clean break - a new chapter or at least a new scene. But as long as it's really clear (unlike in the book you read) I don't mind.
 

WriteMinded

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I try to start a new chapter, but sometimes that doesn't really work, so I use Waylander's method.
 

Roxxsmom

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I think it's jarring when authors switch pov without a clear, unambiguous break too. Most editors and writers recommend section breaks. I read a novel a while back where I was firmly inside the head of one character, who was inside a store talking to a clerk, and wham, in the next paragraph we're outside in the head of his friend in the street. No scene break or anything. This was a constant thing with this book, and to make it worse, sometimes there were scene breaks for pov shifts, but not always. I am not sure if this was an editorial decision or poor formatting of an e-book (blank lines do disappear in e-books sometimes). It forced me to do a lot of rereading of paragraphs to keep it straight whose head I was in.

With limited third, it's generally recommended that pov shifts happen at chapter or section breaks, and that the writer opens the new viewpoint with some orienting information so the reader knows through whose eyes they are seeing things. With multiple first person, many writers will have chapter or section headers with the name of the viewpoint character as well (some do this with limited third).

It's possible to shift pov at a paragraph break in limited third, but it means the writer needs to make the transition very clear. There are some tricks that allow writers to do this, but it seems like most these days use section breaks (in a manuscript you type # in the center of the line) or chapter breaks, at least in the genres I tend to read most.

Some writers who use omniscient will disclose the thoughts or feelings of different characters within the same section, with only paragraph breaks (or even within the same paragraph). That is a different technique than a pov change, and if done properly it shouldn't confuse the reader. With omniscient, you are in the viewpoint of an external narrator who can read the minds of any or all characters and who knows things that no character may be aware of. It's a different style, though some styles of omniscient will stick with one character for a long stretch and start to feel like limited third. They need to provide good transitions when they pull the camera back out to a more external view.

Really, the only "rule' is to keep your reader engaged and to not confuse them. If I go "Huh?" and have to reread a paragraph again, that means the writer failed at this (imo). If it happens too many times, I may give up on the book.
 

BethS

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With limited third, it's generally recommended that pov shifts happen at chapter or section breaks.

By "section," do you mean "scene"? Because when I first read that, I thought, But what about changing POV after a scene break? That's fine, too, and then I realized that's probably what you meant. :) When I read "section" in the context of novels, I normally assume it's another way of referring to a large chunk of story, often labeled Part I, Part II, etc.
 

indianroads

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IMO the bottom line to this discussion is that the break has to be clear so the reader knows whose head they're in.

Years and years ago I devoured everything I could find that was written by Robert McCammon. Baal, Stinger... great novels - and 'Gone South' - one of the greatest opening lines to a book I've ever read... It was hell's season, and the air smelled of burning children. Wow... lordy lordy. Anyway, I digress... Robert McCammon went dark for a while, no new books... so I moved on. Then a few years ago I discovered that he had returned and picked up 'Speaks the Nightbird'. The writing was gritty and awesome - EXCEPT - he kept switching POV, sometimes inside a single scene and even within paragraph. It drove me to distraction, and I finally gave up and shelved the book.

So - IMO we need to make it extremely clear when we switch POV. The authors of the Expanse series label their chapters with the POV character name - I like that. No bouncing around, and it's all clear.
 
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