I know I've asked this before...

[lonewolfwanderer]

about keeping the same style throughout the novel series (in terms of first person/third person).

But in my WIP, there are two major parts:
The first part- where the story belongs to William, the MC throughout both parts.
The second part- where the story belongs to a whole group.

The first part is written mostly in first person, but in the second part I want to switch it so that the story is only told in third (Part One and Two won't be in the same book). Has this been done? If so, are there any recommended reads where i can get an example of this?
If it hasn't, will it work?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Mouse]

The Bartimaeus books by Jonathan Stroud are written in first and third.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

The Bartimaeus books by Jonathan Stroud are written in first and third.

Thanks, Mouse! I just looked it up, looks and interesting read. I'll see if i can find it anywhere near me here in SA lol

 

[Boneman]

not quite as involved, but The Name of The Wind (and its sequel) starts in 3rd, then when the hero tells his story it switches to 1st, and occasionally back to 3rd when he talks to his audience or there's some action happening.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

As there are some examples, clearly it can work, but I'd avoid switching from first to third like the plague. You can get almost as close to a character emotionally by using a very close third person as you can by using first person. Probably easier and far less jarring for the reader to stick with third, but switch POV characters when you need to.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

As there are some examples, clearly it can work, but I'd avoid switching from first to third like the plague. You can get almost as close to a character emotionally by using a very close third person as you can by using first person. Probably easier and far less jarring for the reader to stick with third, but switch POV characters when you need to.

The first part of the story, is mostly from the MC's point of view. It only changes if there is something that needs to be told, that doesn't involve the MC, so basically, you really only read the story through his eyes. And for this part, I quite like the first person- i feel it just adds that personal element to it, and like i said, the first part is his story.

The second part is the group's story, with William remaining as the MC, but by that point the reader should be close enough to him, but it needs to tell the story of the other members as well.

However, I am still busy with the WIP, so there is a chance that i might decide on close third throughout, by the time i get to the end. So i will take your advice into account

Thanks!

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

not quite as involved, but The Name of The Wind (and its sequel) starts in 3rd, then when the hero tells his story it switches to 1st, and occasionally back to 3rd when he talks to his audience or there's some action happening.

That's pretty much what i'm wanting to do... But in mine, it starts in first and remains there, and only changes to third when i need to tell something important, that the MC isn't involved in, but the reader should know.

 

[Tecdavid]

What I'd worry about most, in this situation, is how you'd make the transition soothly. Can one chapter end on 3rd-person, part-way through the book, then suddenly start the nex off on 1st-person? Would that seem jarring? Confusing for a while?

 

[barrett1987]

only time it worked for me was when the book was spplit into three parts, frist and third were third person and the 'middle ' was a long first person diary type thing before the third part continued and ended the story.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

What I'd worry about most, in this situation, is how you'd make the transition smoothly. Can one chapter end on 3rd-person, part-way through the book, then suddenly start the next off on 1st-person? Would that seem jarring? Confusing for a while?

The first part of the WIP (William's story) will all be in first person, except for the few scenes where he isn't involved. This story ends in third person (in the ending i have in mind at the moment, that is) because William, the MC, is unconscious and the epilogue, so to speak, is told through the eyes of his godsister, who is with him.

The next part of the WIP (the group's story) will start in third person, and remain in third person throughout.

Part 1 and Part 2, won't be one book when finished. At the very least, it will be two separate books. My initial idea was to have Part 1 as a trilogy, and likewise with Part 2, with Part 1 being more like a 'prequel' to Part 2's story.

If you are talking about my POV changes in Part One, however, that will take some work to perfect. But with the first few chapters I currently have down, I already have two such transitions.

The first chapter begins in 1st person, but ends in a dream sequence, which is told in close third. The second chapter starts in close third, but reverts back to first person. Both POV changes are marked, in my manuscript, by '***' to show those transitions.
And the POV in each scene is apparent right from the first sentence.

I hope that makes sense...

EDIT: This is obviously still a Work in Progress, so as i said in an earlier post, that I might find, by the time that i've finished it, that i want to stick with close 3rd throughout. At the moment, however, I'm writing it in first because i find it easier to get the story down. Not only that, i also want to try it like this and see if it works.

 

[Bowler1]

What I'd worry about most, in this situation, is how you'd make the transition soothly. Can one chapter end on 3rd-person, part-way through the book, then suddenly start the nex off on 1st-person? Would that seem jarring? Confusing for a while?

Everything is possible and the POV switch does have a logic behind it that could work well. Like Tecdavid I would worry about jarring the reader about some, but give it a go and have fun trying and fingers crossed you can pull it off. I think its a brave idea and if it works would be very interesting to read.


Rock on buddy.

 

[tinkerdan]

I did this with a series with mostly first person but there were parts the MC doesn't know that I wanted the reader to know so some chapters were in close third person. I kept the tense the same and I think that that helped a lot because changing tense can be just as jarring as changing POV.

Once that was established in the first book it was expected in the second. Another writer suggested that any deviation would probably jar some fans too much.

So what you decide for book one might determine the shape of the rest of the books.

There were some writers who suggested that this would be too difficult to pull off, but it seems to have worked for me and it's moving into the third book of a trilogy now.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Just to add to the chorus; Stephen King's Christine is written in both.

Halfway through the book it changes (it starts off in first and switches to third).

pH

 

[Glisterspeck]

Across the Nightingale Floor and the rest of Lian Hearn's Otori trilogy are written like this. And awesome.

 

[Nick B]

Michael Marshall (Smith for his sci-fi novels) now often writes the main story from the first person, then breaks to other scenes in third. Works perfectly, but to be fair the man can't do much wrong in my opinion.