So my next novel I’m writing, I plan to have in first person perspective. I have exclusively written in 3rd person for as long as I’ve been writing. I’m approaching this book as a challenge for me to explore and expand my writing capabilities. Being this is the first time I will be attempting to write an entire novel in first person, I have a million questions lol, but I will start with one: How are multiple POV’s received in first person novels? How much is too much? Is it just expected to be the two main characters throughout the entire novel? (Okay a lot more than one question lol)
Coming from being able to explore and narrate about multiple characters at once, to having an pinpoint focus on one character at a time is making me think about how smooth I can make the transition.
There will be two main characters. A FL and a ML. They will obviously be the predominant two POV’s throughout the novel. But there are some side characters who will also have a certain degree of importance. There’s the FL’s sister, and the ML’s FWB (friends with benefits) and his dorm roommate. So in total, I will be transitioning between at least 5 POV’s for this novel. These 3 important side character POV’s chapters will not be any more than 2 chapters at a time (if even that), and will have some kind of meaningful significance to the main characters. I believe this will flesh them out as other living beings in this novel. They are important to the story AND have their own motivations. I recognize I can easily say these side characters lives and relations to the main characters THROUGH the main characters, but eh… I feel I could spare a chapter or two. This novel will be a Romance Drama (?) set in college. I do not wish to have a novel where the only reason the side characters exist is to ‘happen’ to the main characters. While the main characters are the most important, the side characters and world around them is what gives the story life. Idkkkkk. How have ya’ll handed multiple POV’s in a first person? Or do you not do it? Or should I just write this in 3rd person? lol
to have an example of a POV novel this complicated, I would check out Black Witch by Laurie Forest. she’s an amazing and talented author who has at least 7 POVs in the same book (if i’m not mistaken). she also alternates between 3rd person for the side characters and 1st person for the main character, Elloren, and her love interests, which I find very creative.
Welp, I’m getting experience as we speak. My current wip is multi-pov, and it’s the first time I’ve ever done this. I have three major character perspectives:
• the main character, who’s a prisoner facing execution for murder
• the friar who asks him to confess his sins
• the prisoner’s love interest in the past, who’s the actual murderer
The main character tells his story in first person
The friar’s chapters are in third person
The love interest’s story is revealed through diary entries
I try to give each of them their own voice and catch phrases. Only have about 50k words written so far, but it’s going well! ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I’ve always written in 3rd person, but am now doing a story in 1st.
I wanted there to be two different points of view in the story and, unfortunately, readers have told me that they get confused from my perspective changes in a couple of my other stories which happened to be written in 3rd person.
I ended up writing the main character in first person POV, but I decided to write the other character in 3rd person.
I did this so as to make it obvious which POV is being observed and also because I wanted Ramiel’s - the 3rd person POV character - thoughts to always be hidden from the reader. Seemed like a win-win solution to me.
WOW I NEED to read how she managed all of that in a book, she sounds amazing. Thank you so much for responding with that information
I’ve been toying with the idea of using 3rd person sparingly, but I don’t want to overcomplicate the perspective especially if it’s not really needed. Idk, I’ll explore some. Again, thank youuuu
I feel this SO hard. My current ongoing novel is 3rd person, present tense. I did not know writing in present tense made ppl gag with disgust lmaooo. Omg, you’d think i was committing a murder with the amount of pearl clutching I received having the nerve to write in third person present tense.
On top of the apparent disgust for that perspective, I did get quite a few complaints about the perspectives being confusing. I had however enough insight to understand that I was saying alot of “he, she, they” in chapters that had multiple characters at once, so i spruced that up a bit. The complaints definitely lessened since, but readers still complained they were getting confused.
I’m sorry you had to completely change the perspective to make it work. I think third person POV will always have the potential to be confusing just due to the nature of having multiple perspectives at once. Imma be honest though, ppl will complain and claim its confusing for them just because they don’t like it. I’ve had readers admit they prefer first person over third person and proceeded to be ‘confused’ about every single pov shift. It happens. I hope you weren’t too hard on yourself about it.
And sometimes, the reading comprehension for some ppl to is just not there lol. I think ppl much rather bash and be angry than admit they don’t have the critical thought to understand more than one person speaking at a time.
Oh wow, that sounds very interesting and dynamic. I’m glad to hear its going well! It must be quite fun getting to write in varying pov’s like that, I wish you good luck with your novel
Don’t tell me that! I usually write in past tense and this time around I’m trying my hand at present tense because I thought it’d make the first person POV feel more personal and intense
Oh, sorry. I didn’t have to change the perspective. I was talking about two separate stories. I left the one as it was and this one I am trying the new POV (first person)!
Yeah! I feel that! I try not to beat myself up too hard! At the end of the day, my writing is more for me than anyone else; although I LOVE hearing positive thoughts and having people read my work. I do try to take feedback into account and look for commonalities between negative pieces of feedback and then decide if it is something I’m willing to play around with/try and change going forward.
I want to improve and am always trying to move towards that, but sometimes people don’t know what they are talking about (that sounds arrogant and counter intuitive; but filtering out the helpful and useless feedback is very much an important writing skill).
I haven’t written in 1st in a long time, so from a writing side of things I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be. Though reading I’ve seen a little bit of everything with it.
Depends. I’ve seen it be great and I’ve seen it be very annoying and or confusing. multiple POV is a tool. It’s all about how you use that tool. Does it add to the story? Does adding that extra person make a difference and increase the value. Is the transition clear? Does it take away from the MC or does it add drama, suspense, does it enrich reading from MC POV.
No set number and 100% is dependent on the story. Does it make sense? Does it add value? You can always take out stuff later if it didn’t make sense.
So, i finish a story bc i love the character. if i don’t care for them i bail. So personally, its important that you keep coming back to at least one of the characters. But you can definitely have other characters peppered in with them. There has to be some common thing or person to come back to and hold it all together.
