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With my current WIP, I wanted to have three third person POVs. But as I’m continuing to outline and piece the plot together, I’m thinking that it really only needs one main POV. I really love first person, so that was what I was gonna do. But there is another character that I wanted to be a POV character. My question is: would it seem right in a first person story to switch to another character in third person for a few short parts of the story?
@jane-maree @dekreel @dragon-snapper @aratre @daeus @skredder @mariposa @rochellaine @anyone elseI'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.com@jenwriter17 I think it could work as long as there is a good reason from the reader’s view for a change in first person to third person, and a clear separation in the change from one to another to clear up any confusion. Other than that, I think it could work well and be kinda cool.
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
@jenwriter17 I’m actually doing something very similar in my WIP. It’s working well for me so far.
This may help:
https://kingdompen.org/forums/topic/switching-between-povs/
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Compendium of KP Literature: kapeeferliterature.wordpress.com@skredder okay, I’ll keep that in mind
@supermonkey42 thanks for the link!I'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.com@jenwriter17 I’ve switched between multiple POVs in several of my books and have read many books with multiple POVs. Most books with multiple POVs that I read were not confusing. One book was extremely confusing – in fact so confusing that I only read about two chapters because I had no idea what was going on. 🙂
I believe the reason multiple POVs did not work in that book, but did in other books was because of the correct or incorrect introduction of the characters. In the books I liked, the author would spend a lot of time introducing one character before switching POVs. Always at least a chapter, usually several chapters. In the confusing book, the author introduced a new character’s POV almost every couple of pages, so I couldn’t keep track of them all. (Later, after the author has introduced the characters fully, he can switch POVs more often, but at first I think it’s important to give a thorough introduction to the character before moving on.)
I have also read a couple of books which switch between first person and third person, though that is not very common. The usual way this is done is that the first person character is reminiscing during the writing of the story, so the parts that he figures in will be in first person, but the parts where he doesn’t appear, since it happened a while ago and he knows the full story now, he can tell about the other characters in third person.
Even if you do not do that, I think it can be okay. As long as you clearly define whose POV you are using at the moment. Some people write Jack or <i>Sarah</i> above the text as they switch POVs, and that works. When I switch POVs I usually write the first sentence of the new section to include the POV character’s name, such as “That afternoon Alice wandered down the paths of the garden.” So now the reader knows I am talking about Alice.
This is a really long post, but I hope it helps a little. 🙂
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@rochellaine this was very helpful; i don’t mind the length of the post 😉
I'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.com@jenwriter17 I concur with what everyone is saying. 🙂
Oh yeah. I did that every now and then with my first person book. Just so long as you make it clear that you’re switching, you should be fine. 😀 @jenwriter17
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@dragon-snapper okay, thanks!
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www.jennaterese.com
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