Are Multiple Points of View Right for You?

I wrote several books before one of them was published. My first book, The New Recruit, had one point of view. The second book was Project Gemini, also one point of view. Then I wrote a middle grade story called Seagulls are Plain that was also one point of view.

After that, I experimented with a retelling of Anne of Green Gables, though it had four points of view. It was turning into a beast of a story, so I set it aside. Then I wrote Replication, my first story with two points of view. I must have liked two points of view, because after I finished Replication, I wrote By Darkness Hid. This book sold, and after that, I wrote To Darkness Fled and From Darkness Won, both with two points of view, though book three did have a prologue from a third point of view to give readers a ticking time bomb.

When I finished those books, I wrote a proposal for the Safe Lands trilogy. I wanted to tell the story of three brothers, but if felt weird not to have a girl point of view, so I decided to do four. I plotted it out, wrote the first three chapters, a synopsis of book one, and a blurb for books two and three, and sent it off. Zondervan bought it. And then I had to write those books.

Um … That was hard!

I instantly knew I was in over my head. Not that I wasn’t capable of writing a book with four points of view. I had tried it with the Anne retelling and failed. But then I wrote four books each with two points of view, and my skill level was ready to tackle four. But since I’d sold this off a proposal, I had to write it fast. And I wasn’t ready to write four points of view fast.

But I survived. And I learned a lot.

Why choose more than one POV?

-You want to show the male and female perspectives in a romance.
-You want to tell two or more separate stories that will intertwine.
-You want to show what’s going on in a different part of the storyworld.
-You want to show the killer’s perspecitve or something mysterious.
-You want to give the reader more information than your hero has.
-You want to show deeper characterization and motivation of other characters.
-You want the reader to see the story from different angles.
-You want to have mini subplots for supporting characters.
-You want to broaden the scope of the story, make it bigger, more epic.

Tips to make it work:

-Know why you’re doing it. Have a purpose for each POV. In Captives, I wanted to show how three brothers could have completely different experiences in the Safe Lands. In Replication, I wanted to contrast Abby and Martyr’s worlds. Ask yourself if multiple points of view will help you tell the story you want to tell. Will it make the story stronger? Because if you’re doing it just because you think it will be fun, that’s not a good enough reason.

-Each POV needs to add something than no other POV can add. If the reader doesn’t care about that POV character, they could put down the book and walk away. If you’re going to add a POV, make sure that it’s necessary and gripping. If it doesn’t add to the story, it should be cut.

-Multiple points of view might make your book longer. At least they did for me since I each of my characters had their own mini story with its own story arc.

-Multiple points of view take more time to write. I was lost when I wrote my first draft of Captives. On the proposal, Levi had been my main character. But Mason took over. And Jemma’s point of view didn’t work at all. In the rewrite, I got rid of Jemma and created Shaylinn, who had a purpose for her POV.

– Every time you switch points of view, you risk confusing your reader. If your reader loved the first point of view, then you switch and they don’t like the next voice, you’re in trouble! And even if you do it well, it creates distance between the reader and the story. I’ve heard of readers skipping entire chapters to read only the points of view they like. And then there are readers that prefer books about one character and won’t read books with multiple points of view because they find them too confusing or jarring when they switch heads.

-Don’t switch POV characters too quickly. Scene by scene is a good way to do it. Or chapter by chapter. I had written By Darkness Hid every other chapter—Achan, Vrell, Achan, Vrell—but my editor, Jeff Gerke, urged me to stay with Achan for three chapters, then do Vrell for three, then go ahead and switch every other. This helped readers connect with Achan in the beginning before I left him for Vrell’s POV.

-Be sure to go back to everyone at the right time. In Captives, I tried to alternate evenly between my four characters. Mason, Levi, Omar, Shaylinn; Mason, Levi, Omar, Shaylinn. But Mason was more of the main character in Captives, so sometimes he got two chapters in a row.

-Don’t recap. This was something I quickly caught on to writing Captives. Because I was showing four people arriving in the same place, I found those people describing and experiencing the same things. So I had to be careful to give a different purpose to each scene and delete as much repetition as possible.

-Give each POV character a unique voice. It’s more important than ever in a multiple POV book that your characters don’t all sound the same. Distinguish the voices, narrative, and actions of your characters. The reader should never be confused whose POV they’re reading. It should be obvious. And that’s a lot of work.

In conclusion . . . 

If you want to try a multiple POV book, go for it! But keep in mind that you should only choose multiple POVs because that’s the way the story needs to be told. If you’ve never tried it, I recommend writing a two POV book before you try a four POV book. Baby steps are good. Work your way up to that epic fantasy with twelve points of view. *grin*

What is the highest number of POVs you’ve written in one book? Why did you choose to write it that way? Any questions about multiple POVs?