144: How to Write Multi-POV Stories Effectively

 

Writing a book with multiple points of view can be challenging, but it can create a richer, more dynamic story. Learn how to write multiple POV effectively in this episode. 

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how to write multi-pov stories effectively

Hello, welcome to your big creative life. I'm Katie Wolf. And I'm gonna try to record this podcast episode, I have a call at three o'clock. And it's, I don't know, if I have enough time, I'm gonna try to record this podcast episode. Okay, but I want to talk about multiple, multiple points of view, because it's been something that's on, it's been on my mind, because I'm writing this book. And I'm getting back into it and getting into a groove with the story. And I've shared before I was like agonizing over the decision of whether to have two point of view characters or three point of view characters. And so I've been thinking about this a lot. And it's also something that is an idea for one of y'all about a podcast episode. So thank you to whoever suggested this.

 

I used to have this belief that multiple point of view, books were like, automatically better, I'm putting that in quotes, because that is not true at all. And in my mind, I had this belief, which sounds silly to say out loud, but I'll just be honest, and say that I have this belief that three or more was like, really something amazing, because it showed a level of skill, it was challenging, whatever. Um, no, that's not true. It can be equally as challenging to stay with one single character for the duration of an entire novel, and to make sure that they're consistent to make sure that the pacing is still good.

 

That's its own sort of challenge. So if you are writing one character point of view in your book, and you're like, oh, shit, maybe this maybe I need to be doing multiple point of view? No, you absolutely do not. There's nothing wrong with sticking with one person's point of view. But this is just an episode on like, if you want to have multiple points of view, here's some things to keep in mind. So you can do it effectively. Because this is one thing that I often have feedback on for clients for editing clients, and for coaching clients who are writing books that have multiple point of view characters. There are some challenges that could come up with this. So we'll talk about all that in episode.

 

Okay, one of the best things about multiple point of view stories is that we can see events through different characters eyes and travel in the world of your story. When we are limited to just one person to just one character's point of view, we can only see feel, experience, what they are seeing, feeling experiencing, we are limited to their perspective, right. So if you have a protagonist that you are following through the duration of your novel,and the protagonist is not in a particular scene that's happening, you can't write that scene as it's happening because the protagonist isn't there.

 

So they're not going to have eyes on it, they're not going to know they can hear about it through someone else. They can, whatever. But yeah, we're just limited. So when you have multiple points of view, obviously, the benefit is that you get to see different things happening. Because you can shift to someone else's perspective who's there while that thing is happening, and then tell us about it. It also keeps things fresh for you and for the reader.

 

It.. I am hesitant, I guess I should be hesitant to say that because it's not like things get stale if you have only one point of view character. But I know some writers who like writing, writing multiple point of view, because it's like they get the fun of accessing different characters, they get to write different characters in their point of view. And they really enjoy that and it keeps things fresh for them. So that's something that's kind of fun about it as well. But one of the biggest i two really big things that I want you to watch for if you do have multiple points of view and your story.

 

Number one is, I always want you to ask yourself, like, is it necessary to be in someone else's point of view for this particular thing? Like, do I need to switch point of view, this is essential for the beginning, when you're you're still figuring out your book and you're figuring out whose point of view you want to be in like maybe before you've actually written anything. When you are deciding this think about who who needs to who is going to be witnessing something or experiencing something that we need to have access to. If you have a minor character in your book, who doesn't play a big role in the plot, like it's just kind of there in the background, then maybe we don't need to be in their point of view because they're not they're not playing a big role and things that happen.

 

It's hard or to say absolutes on this, because stylistically might be interesting thing to just like have a fly on the wall character observing things. So I don't want to say you should never have a minor character, be a point of view character, but really be deliberate and thinking about who do we need to have access to. In your book. I had someone asked me once, what are the what's the max, in terms of point of view characters, and I don't have a number. I mean, I think if you get past like, eight, so you can start to get tricky. But a lot of this just has to do with the skill of the writer. And it has to do with the purpose of the book, like, if you have a compelling reason to jump to nine different people's point of view, then that might be the right decision for your story. But if you're just doing it to kind of like, quote unquote, show off, then that might not be the best decision.

 

So think about what your story needs, and whose head we need to be in for particular, moments. So if there's a big moment that happens in your plot, it, it's maybe not the climax, but something big right? Something something important that happens in the plot. It's better to be in a point of view of a character who is experiencing that thing, versus being in the point of view of someone else who isn't there, and then having them learn about it later. It's hard to talk about this in vague ways, if you can't tell I'm kind of struggling. But and the other reason it's hard to talk about is because there really are no rules with this.

 

In terms of like, don't ever do this, or don't ever do this. Okay, let's move ahead to the other thing that I want to caution you on, which is head hopping. It's very easy to head hop when you are writing and multiple point of view. And head hopping is just jumping from one character's perspective from their head. So we're seeing we're seeing through their eyes, right to the head to the perspective of another character. And to do it in a way that's just jarring and not skillful, and not at a natural transition point. So let's say that you are having a dinner scene where I don't know five people are in attendance. And there's a big conversation that's happening at this dinner.

 

And so you want us to see the scene, right, you want us to see this conversation as it's taking place. If you start out in the position of in the point of view of the host of the dinner, this character, then as they're having dinner as they're, she's serving drinks or whatever, we should not just suddenly transition over to the perspective of one of the other characters. And then two lines later jump back into the head of the host, that is going to be incredibly jarring for the reader. And it's going to be it's going to take them out of the story. Because we're so we're going into scene with the host point of view, we're going with one person's point of view, and all of a sudden, we're jumping perspectives.

 

And then two lines later, we jump back, I'm not really going to get into omniscient versus limited in this podcast episode. But there is a form of third person that's called third person omniscient, which is where you have like an unnamed narrator, who is telling us about events in the story. And they can access they can jump into different characters, points of view. So with third person limited, when we're in someone's head, we're only experiencing feeling seeing what they are experiencing, feeling seeing.

 

So like with our example of the host, if she's not witnessing something, if there's something happening in the kitchen, but she's not in the kitchen, we can't know about it. She can't tell us how another character who's sitting across from her at that dinner table is feeling on the inside of their body. She can't know what thoughts that person is having she could guess she could make a guess, based off of their body language. She could make a guess if she knows that person well, but she can't know for sure what's going on in their body in their head. She can't know what's happening in a different room, right? We are limited to her perspective. Whereas with omniscient you can do this where you can narrate what's happening in the kitchen, you can narrate what's happening at the dinner table, and you could tell us, okay, what are all of these people with this dinner table feeling?

 

And the reason I'm really not going to get into third person personal omniscient a lot in this episode is because it's a whole separate topic. And it's, it's difficult to do I will say, third person omniscient. If you want to look at examples of this, you can certainly find examples of books that are written in third person omniscient to see how the the author's doing this, and how they're transitioning between points of view. But it's challenging. And if you're if this is your first book, I don't want to say don't do third person omniscient, but it's hard to say it's challenging it is.

 

And as an editor, I rarely see this done well. Third person omniscient is something you really have to commit to from the beginning. And a lot of people just don't do it right. So I'll just caution you, I'll say caution you, if you're if you're going to do third person omniscient, then make sure you have a good understanding of it. But for third person limited, where again, think of the host at the dinner table, she can't know what's going on in someone else's thought their brain or body each can't know what's going on, in a room next door. She can't know what's going on in the house across the street, right.

 

I had an editor I worked with an editor who called its narrative physics. It narrative physics refers to other things also. But this is a piece of it. So when you're switching perspectives, when you're switching to the point of view of a different character, you want to do this at natural transition points, either a scene break or a chapter break, those are the two most common places. So I'm sure you can think of examples. If you've read multiple point of view books, where Chapter One is, from this perspective, chapter two is from this character's perspective, chapter three is from a different character's perspective, and it just switches back and forth, right? You can do this in a single chapter.

 

So it doesn't have to be at the chapter level where in our dinner party example, let's say that you start out the chapter with the host getting ready, preparing, we have access to her thoughts and feelings, we know that she's dreading this particular conversation that has to happen, then it's like we transition from the prep of a dinner party to the actual dinner party happening later that evening. So there's a break, there's a scene break, we pick up with a different scene. And then maybe we have a different point of view character, so that we get one of the guests who is arriving at this dinner party, what they're thinking and feeling, et cetera. Those are the best ways to do it, so that it's not jarring for the reader. So it doesn't feel like we're jumping perspectives every two lines. Because again, if you switch point of view, too often, it just gets hard, it gets hard to keep track of it takes the reader out of the story, it's jarring.

 

So just make sure that you're you're doing it at those natural transition points, which are 99% of the time, the chapter break or the scene break. And really ask yourself like, is it necessary to switch point of view, right now? In the case of our dinner party, like, do we have to see something from a different character's perspective? Or would it be fine? would seem still read the same way if we stayed in the hosts perspective? So just think about that, too. Like, is there a good reason for this?

 

One of the thing I want to say about point of view is to make it clear right away on page, one whose point of view we are in in the story. This is feedback that I give often to people where there are multiple points of view. And sometimes I can't tell like the writer, the writer will start out describing the room describing what's going on. And it's like, okay, I don't, you're introducing all these characters, but like, I still don't know whose head we're in. And sometimes people will solve this by saying like chapter one, this character's name, chapter two, this character's name. But if you don't have that, then it can get confusing. So make sure that it's clear right off the bat, whose point of view we're in. And not just for page one, chapter one, but all the chapters as well make sure that it's immediately clear whose perspective that we're in so that the reader doesn't have to get two pages into the chapter before, it's clear.

 

And the last thing I'll say about this is looking at examples of this read, like a writer, look at different novels in the genre that you're writing outside of the genre that you're writing to see how people are structuring this when they're transitioning, how they're transitioning. And you can also evaluate it like if you think it's a good decision to shift over to this character's point of view here. Do you agree with the author? Why do you think they chose to do that? Why do you think they chose to write this particular scene through this character's eyes? That can start to train your eyes that you understand how this is done? Because if you're not paying attention to this stuff, it's so seamless. You're just like, oh, this is a great story. And that's it. So start paying attention to those things, too. Okay, I have to jump off from a meeting. We'll see y'all later. Thanks for listening. Thank you so much for listening.

Katie Wolf