How many 1st person POV's in one story...

Gary Compton

Gary Compton

I miss you, wor kid.
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In my WIP I have my protagonist written in 1st person. It works well and i prefer writing like that.

I did have my antagonist, also written in first person, till someone said you shouldn't as the reader will get confused.

What do you think?
 
Make it clear whose POV you're in at any one time and you're fine. Do this either labelling each chapter, or having some clear manner of distinction. Continuity from a previous scene, name dropping or some characterisation. Then slap whoever told you you shouldn't do something.
 
So long as it's obvious which character is which, I don't see the problem, Gary.
 
Been thinking if I name all the chapters then most of the protagonist will read:

New Scotland Yard 20th April 2010 15.32hrs

Only the dates changing on further chapters.

The same with the antagonist who is located in his bunker.

Will this not be boring?
 
no especially if your characters are very distinct from each other. With POV I think the general rule is just don't make it confusing.
 
Writers do this quite often, though the only examples that spring to mind just now are Carol Berg (The Daemon Prism) and N.M. Browne (Wolfblood). Anyhow -- it's not a problem as long as it's clear who's speaking.

I don't tend to read chapter headings and I wouldn't notice date changes, so the chapters wouldn't help me much.
 
In The Book of Skulls, Robert Silverberg numbers each chapter and simply gives a name for whose POV it is. He does have four POV characters, though, rather than two.

You could simply label them New Scotland Yard and Evil Bunker ;) if you want to name every chapter. Do you need dates and times or will that be shown in the writing?
 
I suspect your only real problem will come if they ever meet up in the same chapter!

I'm not a big fan of dates and times in chapter headings, too detailed for my liking. But 'Big Bad Guy Bunker' or 'New Scotland Yard' should make it very clear when you have jumped POV.
 
Bowler1 said:
I suspect your only real problem will come if they ever meet up in the same chapter!

I'm not a big fan of dates and times in chapter headings, too detailed for my liking. But 'Big Bad Guy Bunker' or 'New Scotland Yard' should make it very clear when you have jumped POV.
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Time traveller's wife has two first pov, one of which is sometimes in the scene at two different ages. She names the chapters by who is narrating them and then put in brackets the ages:

So HENRY (Henry is 32 and 4, Clare is 26)

It worked okay for me. I think the key is ensuring they each have their distinct voice.
 
springs said:
I think the key is ensuring they each have their distinct voice.
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This should be the author's aim however many PoV characters there are and whatever the persons (first, second, third; singular or plural) being used.
 
If the person giving the advice has read the story and is confused then I recommend looking into character voice. That said character voice is more of a subconscious thing as far as I can tell. I've been told my characters have it but I don't know how to make it happen. Either way it might help to branch out into third for a character. Marketability wise what you are doing is risky. You'll here alot of people say screen the market. Write for you. That's true but if part of what you want is to get published then hamstringing yourself isn't writing for you.
 
Aminar said:
Either way it might help to branch out into third for a character. Marketability wise what you are doing is risky. You'll here alot of people say screen the market. Write for you. That's true but if part of what you want is to get published then hamstringing yourself isn't writing for you.
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I'm not so sure I'd agree with that statement 100%. Yes there is a lot more 3rd person stuff being published, but 1st person is still getting into new print. Write for enjoyment first I'd say and worry about agents second.
 
Its more the desire for multiple POV characters combined with an apparently confused reader. If the characters aren't distinct enough a switch to third person for one or both might be necessary to avoid a ton of work later. I don't want to see the OP have to go back and change everything that radically later or have an unpublishable manuscript because everybody just said screw the rules, do what you want.(assuming the OP wants Publication) Its the lazy in me giving advice. There are better ways to assert individuality into a book than format. The creative bits should be world, character, and story. Not person and tense. Those are just tools. First person doesn't lend itself to multiple perspectives. Its a limitation of the format and not really something that should be ignored.

Perhaps if one of the perspectives were a journal or something obviously very different from the other... Maybe have your villain in the now more by being present tense. But again, that isn't the way to make your work unique.
 
My favourite multiple first person is the Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers series. (I know at 36 I should've grown out of them by now, but I haven't). The chapters alternate between Joe and Frank. The nice thing from a writer point of view is it is written by a syndicate so some are done exceptionally well, some are mediocre and some highlight how not to go about it. They just put Joe or Frank at the chapter heading.
 
I enjoy novels written in first person, but if there are going to be more than one perspective, third person just makes more sense aesthetically.

I can maybe see it working in a "twin brothers separated at birth, raised by rival factions, are destined to battle one another to decide the fate of the universe" sort of way, except that once they finally meet the story gets muddy.
 
wesleychu said:
Multiple 1st POVs are tricky if not done correctly. One of my wips uses three first person POVs. The trick I found was to make sure the user knew within the very first sentence of the chapter who's pov it was.
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No disrespect but that's not hard to do. I cant make my mind up:mad:
 
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