Writing with multiple POVs
Alright guys, it’s time I got in here with my own personal opinions and takes on writing, and first up: multiple POVs
I’ve seen a lot of posts discussing POVs and honestly, it kind of surprised me how so many of them have said that one POV is enough, two or three if you really must for plot purpose, but more than that is too many.
Bullshit
Of course, like all things in writing, multiple POVs can be majorly fucked up, or be an amazing asset to a story. So…. As someone who specializes in writing stories with a lot of POVs, here are my personal tips for making it work
1. Know your characters
First and foremost, know your characters before you begin writing. Know them inside and out. Know their darkest fear, their worst flaw, their motivations, their favorite food, if they’d rob a bank on a dare, everything. This is pretty standard for all writing, but especially in multiple POVs.
Here’s why:
If you write single POVs (or even just two or three), you might be able to get away with beginning your story without having your character 100% fleshed out. But if you do this in multiple POV writing, all your characters will sound and act exactly the same by the end of it.
You probably won’t even notice it’s happening at first, until you reach a pivotal scene (especially one dealing with characters’ emotional responses) and you find that they all respond the same way. This happened to me when I first began writing, but it can be easily avoided if you just make sure you know your characters better than you know yourself before you begin writing.
2. Character Diversity
This goes hand in hand with knowing your characters. I don’t want to read a POV and then supposedly go to a completely different one, but the second character has the same exact motivations, personality, and thought processes as the first character. If one character is a brash, outspoken, spunky servant girl, make a timid, thoughtful princess who just wants out of the spotlight, and then her best friend, the stable boy who’s a secret magic user and uses his abilities for practical jokes and just enjoys his life, etc. Make them different! It’s incredibly boring to read the exact same thing, over and over again.
Of course, all your characters will probably have at least some similarities I mean, if not, why would they even be together? This is okay, and even good for interactions between them, just make sure that their similarities are in balance with their differences and that one doesn’t overshadow the other.
3. Who is narrating what and when?
From the beginning, know who is going to narrate what and when. Because remember, even if your characters are always together, they’re all going to narrate the same scene in a different way. So… before you begin a scene, think about which character is going to put the best spin on it and be the most logical to narrate it. Examples: If you are going to write an intense battle scene, you will most likely want a character narrating from the thick of battle, and one who knows battle well. You don’t want the princess who is sitting in the palace, simply waiting on news from the battlefield to narrate the entire window of time that the battle is taking place in. Not to say she can’t narrate at all during the battle, just not all of it.
Also, you will want to know exactly how much of your WIP your characters are each narrating. Personally, I divide it up evenly. For my Legends series, each of the books is thirty-two chapters, and each of my eight narrators narrates four chapters. But this doesn’t have to be the case. You may have one character who narrates half the novel, while the other five characters only narrate a fifth. This, of course, is fine. Just make sure you have carefully planned out when everyone is going to narrate before you begin.
4. Balancing narrating MCs with MCs that don’t have a narrating role
This one can be kind of difficult. If you have multiple POVs, it may start to feel like the only way a character can be a main character is if they narrate as well. They feel overshadowed by narrating characters.
Honestly, the only way to avoid this is to make sure they get a ton of page time. Put them in every scene that is pivotal to the plot and make sure they have a strong relationship with at least one of the narrators. If you do this, there’s really no way they could be overshadowed. And if it just feels awkward putting them in that many scenes or building relationships between them and the narrators, then they’re probably not meant to be a main character anyways.
5. Read books with multiple POVs
Yeah, yeah, most stereotypical writing advice ever. But really, this is extremely helpful. You can experience many different dynamics between characters and see various different techniques with multiple POVs. Not only that, but it’s proof that you can make it work if you do things right and that multiple POVs aren’t automatically a writing taboo.
Some examples (unfortunately, I almost exclusively read/write fantasy and sci/fi so that’s pretty much all I have to offer):
Six of Crows duology (Leigh Bardugo), Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin), The Lunar Chronicles (Marrissa Meyer), Heroes of Olympus series (Rick Riordan), Strange the Dreamer (Laini Taylor), Throne of Glass series (Sarah J. Maas)
6. Alright, really, though. How many POVs is too many POVs?
I mean, it has to be brought up, because logically and realistically, there is a point where there are too many POVs. For me, personally, the limit is ten (especially if the characters all narrate equally, not if there’s a random side character that narrates one scene for plot purposes). The most narrators I have for one series is nine, my average is six, and my lowest is three. Of course, if you want to go above ten, by all means go for it. Just remember, it’s going to be difficult for you to keep track of everything. Not only that, but you may begin to shrink the audience interested in your books, because it can be difficult for a reader to keep up with that many POVs and complexity. It will become very niche (not that this is a bad thing, but if your goal is to have a large audience, I’m just saying that’s probably not the best idea you could have). So yes, in general, I would limit yourself to ten POVs.
Of course, like all writing advice, this is completely optional and if it doesn’t sound right to you, ignore it and do whatever the fuck you want. But I feel these are some fairly general guidelines for writing with multiple POVs.
