POV Idea and question

I'm not sure I understand your issue.

Are you saying you want to use a different POV than your main character so that person can convey things in a couple scenes your Protagonist isn't in?

A number of authors tell the story of the main character through another character's voice.

Seems a tad convoluted given you can't write what is in the main character's head. By default you are changing the secondary character to the main character.

One option is to write the whole thing in third person.

Option number two is to switch POVs for those couple chapters the main character is not in. (Do it by chapter, not mid-chapter.)

And third option is to switch to third person in the chapters the main character isn't in. The Young Elites does this.

I'm using option two. The second POV does not become the main character but he is a bridge to the second book which has a new main character. I haven't written that book yet so it could change. I may have the secondary character in the first book share POVs with the new main character.

I really should learn how to write in third person. But my stories grow from putting myself in the protagonist's head.

The Poisonwood Bible tells the story from multiple first person POVs. I love that book.

I, too, don't quite get the dilemma.

You're basically just adding her POV, right? Lots of writers use multiple POVs, though I don't know that I recall one offhand where a POV was used solely to observe one other character and their relationship; generally, at least in my reading experience, when a character has a recurring POV, they have some sort of story/character arc to go with it, even if it's ultimately just a subplot or side story compared to the main story arc. So, does she have an arc, a purpose to exist on her own, or is she just there to observe the MC? You say she's a "pretty big character in her own right", yet you seem to only want to use her POV to observe the male MC. That might cheapen her, which is an extra Issue if a woman's only purpose in the story is to make a man look more interesting.

Ultimately, though, the rule to go by is "do it if it works." And the only way to know if it works, and if you can pull it off, is to try it. Get your post count up to 50 and throw a sample scene up in the SYW subforums, and see what people think.

Good luck!

I'm currently reading Dune and the narrator jumps from one character's head to another quite often, multiple times within a scene. The first time it happened I thought "huh, okay" but it works with the story. Everything is about Paul (the main character) and the things characters think or see are about Paul, so it makes sense. He's a messiah, the world revolves around him, so seeing what others think of him works. You can break any "rule" of writing as long as you do it well and it serves a purpose.

So if all the scenes of the couple are from [girl]'s perspective, what does that do? Why are you keeping from the reader what [guy] is thinking, what he's feeling? Maybe he's pursuing her for not-very-nice reasons. Maybe he has issues with reading faces/emotions so he's misreading this situation really badly and you want to keep that secret to increase tension. I have no idea what your story is about or your characters, but if the story was about a sociopath (and we know he is one pretty early on by seeing his actions), then the couples scenes, we'll see [girl] thinking that he's so perfect, he always says the right things etc etc but we, the reader, know that this is effed up. We're not sure how much of what he's doing is genuine and how much is manipulation. Hopefully this will give you some ideas.

Blue Tortoise said:

In the project I'm working on, I've basically had only two POV characters, the primary protagonist, who has had probably 90% of the scenes in his POV. Then I've had some from the POV of his closest friend, who is really the deuteragonist, because I liked the little bit of freedom it gave to cover more ground in the story with her in different places and situations. Working on a scene between my main and his potential love interest (a pretty big character in her own right) I had a flashbulb moment that I really liked. What if in all of the scenes they have together that are just the two of them, we see from HER point of view. So now instead of seeing how he views himself in those interactions, we step out of those shoes and experience how she views him.

Now I am not silly enough to think I'm the first person to have this kind of idea, but I can't come up with any examples of such of a thing to read and study on. So my question to you lovely, learned people is can any of you think of any examples similar to this set up? I'd love to look at the work of a good writer to try and make sure this works like I think it could.

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You want me in the close POV of a main character and then you remove me from his POV when he is in presumably potentially emotional scenes.

Question I have for you is - Why? If I am connected to HIM I want to know how HE feels and reacts.

And even though a scene is in HIS point of view the reader can still get a handle on how SHE feels through his observation of and reaction to her actions and reactions.

With which character do you wish your reader to connect?

Nothing wrong with having a subsequent scene from HER point of view if that really achieves something storywise as opposed to simply thinking the reader needs to know precisely what each party to a romance is feeling and thinking.

I think it depends on your genre. In the romance genre, which is what I write, it's expected that you'll write from the two love interest POVs and swap regularly. What genre is your WIP?

A rule-of-thumb I use is to write the story with as few POVs as possible. It can be tempting to add POVs to add something to the story, which by definition they do. But something is gained and something is lost, right? What you're possibly losing is brevity, getting to the point, etc. What you could be adding is bloat and unless you're an underwriter, that can push your word count way up, possibly out of a publishable range for your genre.

I am by no means not saying to ever add POVs. But if you can merge two POVs into one (because one POV is only available when both characters are together) or eliminate a POV altogether by including exposition, those options might be worth considering.

MythMonger said:

A rule-of-thumb I use is to write the story with as few POVs as possible. It can be tempting to add POVs to add something to the story, which by definition they do. But something is gained and something is lost, right? What you're possibly losing is brevity, getting to the point, etc. What you could be adding is bloat and unless you're an underwriter, that can push your word count way up, possibly out of a publishable range for your genre.

I am by no means not saying to ever add POVs. But if you can merge two POVs into one (because one POV is only available when both characters are together) or eliminate a POV altogether by including exposition, those options might be worth considering.

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+1. I had to learn this the hard way. When I first started writing, I loved all my characters and wanted to cram them all in. I originally wrote my urban fantasy with four POV's becasue I loved all my characters, but realized at the end of the first draft that all of the chapters could be done with two certain characters. It immediately strengthened my story and I learned what the main focus of it was.

I believe this will make the querying stage more difficult. If you're self-publishing, that won't matter.

Writing the other viewpoint is an excellent exercise regardless. You might learn something useful about your main character.

I'm a little puzzled why it is that your main character has the option to 'see everyone' through his viewpoint but his romantic interest sees only him? IN other words, it seems like an odd construction to me, and one of my first thoughts is that her viewpoint is only valuable when she sees only him.

And then I wonder why. Are you hoping to describe him? From the eyes of someone who loves him? ... Are you trying to make him likable by having a woman say she is in love with him? I'm genuinely asking, what's the motivation here to add her viewpoint limited to these situations. If you are using the woman to state something for the reader about the man--his appearance or likability, and her opinion (viewpoint) is never valued otherwise, then here's my advice: Write the scenes (Because the exercise is valuable, for sure) and ask if this construction might come across the wrong way... (as ~mysogynistic...)

But my brain has spun down this rabbit hole and there's a 99% chance that none of my post is worth the screen-space it's written on.

This thread is from a little while ago, but if you’re still considering adding another point of view to your novel and want to read other novels that did this, I can think of a few that might fit. A few A. S. King novels have multiple POVs, or mostly one or two POVs with a few short ones added in. They Both Die in The End by Adam Silvera has two main POVs, but will have another character’s POV every once in a while. The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness starts out with one POV in the first book, adds another in the next, and adds one more in the last. I don’t know if any of these would be relevant and/or helpful.

I'm currently reading: Dark Days of the After, by Ryan Schow, and there are a lot of shifts in POV character. Mostly it's done well though.

I personally HATE head hopping, and prefer the scene / chapter to be exclusively in a single POV. This story bounces around more than I like, but I see that it's necessary for the story the author is telling. All I can suggest is that if you shift between characters, try to make it obvious so your reader doesn't get confused.