Narratives in the POV of the characters

[Myra]

Hello, I posted this thread because I was confused with an aspect of my writing that I think will be very confusing for readers. I have a lot of narratives in the POV of one of the main characters but there are a few that are in the POV of another character. How do I do it so that my readers will be able to tell which character it is in the POV of?

[Mouse]

Do you mean that you're writing in first person?

Make sure their voices are distinct enough. You can also just go for the naming of the chapters too (giving the chapter the name of the character so readers know.) You could also try what Jonathan Stroud does and perhaps use third person for one character and first for the other.

[springs]

i do it a lot in close 3rd pov. Over the two books I have at least ten. A couple of things that, I think, helps

taking a chapter or scene break (money for jam, I know, but sometimes when it runs on I still forget.)
I get the name of the pov character in to the new scene as soon as possible and ground the reader with them
I try to stay in a pov for a reasonable period - at least 1500 words, more if possible
Recently, I'm trying to give a different voice and flavour to each, but I'm not sure how successful I'm being yet.

As Mouse says it's harder in first to distinguish between them, and can get confusing...

[Bowler1]

Ignoring my habit of head hopping and climbing on the soap box, here is my penny worth.

Have sections from a characters POV and the next section from another POV. Using a different voice for the characters, one shy character and the next section from an out going character as an example. This is easy for the reader to follow, this is one character and this next section is another. Think of it as different scenes like a movie director, that works for me when I write.

Steps down off the soapbox, exits to another thread before I do too much damage.

[Glitch]

Some people use a hierarchy for their characters - relating to their importance to the story not a class structure. The most important character in the scene is always the POV character.

Hence the reader will always know the POV character based on those present in the scene.

Of course that depends on the style suiting the story.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by Myra

Hello, I posted this thread because I was confused with an aspect of my writing that I think will be very confusing for readers. I have a lot of narratives in the POV of one of the main characters but there are a few that are in the POV of another character. How do I do it so that my readers will be able to tell which character it is in the POV of?

This is entirely normal within fiction - the best advice would be for you to flick through a few books that may be a little similar to yours (ie, fantasy, or science fiction, etc) and just read them. And look at how the writers split up POV use.

[Weird Era]

if you have the third person, then just a case of naming, as generally you'll have the POV character's name said at some point e.g "Bob thought to himself"

if its first person you have then, it's really all about how noticeable you make your character's voice. If they all have similar thought processes, then it'll be kind of hard to distinguish them.

[Stephen Palmer]

Use scene breaks, but ensure that, at the beginning of the new POV, you make 100% clear who the new POV character is - sets it in the reader's mind, then there's no problem.

[Myra]

Wow thanks for all the replies! They were very helpful. Thing is my book has two main protagonists and both of them have certain first person POV but the story itself is not written in first person POV so it doesn't follow just one character, but several :/ For example...the main character may have a Narrative at the beginning of the chapter, but then the chapter could be about one of the other characters? So how do I write it so people know who it is the character is that is doing the Narrative? Sorry I am probably being confusing lol.

[Jake Reynolds]

Yep, I go for the alert asap, first sentence, unless it's a general descriptive scene. However, as soon as I get the description out of the way I go straight for pov indicator.

Another little trick I use, which can get tiresome if you're at 200,000 words, is that in different povs I refer to different characters differently. See the difference? As the above sentence makes little sense, by way of example I might have two guys and a girl traveling together: Dave Jones, John Smith and Pirouette Xaraxaras.

Now, Dave is in love with Pirouette, but John hates her because they're from the same small village and she has no business having a ridiculus fantasy name. So, in all of Dave's povs it is Pirouette, and in all of John's povs it is Xaraxaras. Just another way of reinforcing the changes.

Or, you could go the Ice and Fire route and just have each chapter name the name of the character whose pov it is.

[Jake Reynolds]

Like ships in the night, posts at the same time- to add re your new post, if the characters are drawn well enough, then the reader should know fairly easily. If you inject opinions and so on, like: 'Dave wondered what Pirouette was thinking as she smote the boggygutts with her staff of awesome sauce'. That way, though the action is about Pirouette. it is clearly Dave's pov.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by Myra

Wow thanks for all the replies! They were very helpful. Thing is my book has two main protagonists and both of them have certain first person POV but the story itself is not written in first person POV so it doesn't follow just one character, but several :/ For example...the main character may have a Narrative at the beginning of the chapter, but then the chapter could be about one of the other characters? So how do I write it so people know who it is the character is that is doing the Narrative? Sorry I am probably being confusing lol.

I don't understand this - do you mean some of it is in first person and some in third?

If it's all written in third person then I don't see what the confusion is over identifying the POVs.

I've done (for the NaNoWriMo) a story where the POV character would do a short narration in first person, then I'd continue that segment in third person from their POV. Then I'd swap to another character. I had three POV characters. For each of these, I only did the first person segments for their introduction bits they did. The rest was in third.

Does that sound something like what you're doing?

[Myra]

Originally Posted by Mouse

I don't understand this - do you mean some of it is in first person and some in third?

If it's all written in third person then I don't see what the confusion is over identifying the POVs.

I've done (for the NaNoWriMo) a story where the POV character would do a short narration in first person, then I'd continue that segment in third person from their POV. Then I'd swap to another character. I had three POV characters. For each of these, I only did the first person segments for their introduction bits they did. The rest was in third.

Does that sound something like what you're doing?

Yes and no. I'll give you an example using three random characters.

Say there's three people, Jason, Scott and Anne. The Narrative is in the POV of Jason from a first person POV: I never realised how well Scott and Anne get on...

That would be at the beginning of the chapter, but if the third person view was to go to Anne: Anne walked down the high street to meet Scott...

Then halfway through the story there is another first person POV from Scott's POV this time: I never realised how beautiful Anne is when she pulls her hair away from her face...

Do you see what I mean? Would that just be too confusing? Or should I stick with this but keep the Narrative in the first person view of the same character the whole way through? That's what I'm confused at lol. Hope that helped explain it a little more.

[Mouse]

Would it just be small snippets like that? You could put it in thoughts?

If it's big segments, check out Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus books where he uses 1st and 3rd - though he does give them separate chapters.

[springs]

The other way to do it might be to italicise the first person thoughts, if they're only snippets. You'd have to be pretty smart about it, though. What about if they were like the lead in to the chapter. So italicised paragraph, drop into third person, or if more central than that, whole sections italicised between the third person sections. I think you will need to find some way to seperate them, show us it is his voice, and then you might be able to intersperse. But it ain't easy.