Multi-POV strategy

[sozme]

When you are writing multiple POVs in a single story (edit: when you are writing in the style where each character POV is its own chapter), do you ever try to write all of a single character's POVs for the entire story, and then move on to the others? Or do you switch around from character to character while you are writing?

(note: I am not talking about how the chapters are arranged when the work is actually finished, asking about the process specifically).

Any benefits/draw-backs to writing all of the POV chapters for one character, and then repeating that process so you just consistently focus on one person at a time?

 

[Droflet]

Generally my pov is from the mc's standpoint. During rewrites I very often see others pov on the same issue. Is the mc right? Is he wrong? Is the new pov person concerned for the mc? That sort of thing. I write close third person which works for me. But occasionally switching pov helps move the story along. At least it does for me.

 

[sozme]

Generally my pov is from the mc's standpoint. During rewrites I very often see others pov on the same issue. Is the mc right? Is he wrong? Is the new pov person concerned for the mc? That sort of thing. I write close third person which works for me. But occasionally switching pov helps move the story along. At least it does for me.

Sorry I should've clarified - when you are writing in the style where each character POV is its own chapter (i.e. like Game of Thrones or the Expanse series, for example)

 

[tinkerdan]

This might depend on whether you do an outline or pants-it.

What I did in my first novel was to run as far and fast as I could with the MC and then began filling in with parallel chapters with the other characters. By the time I reached the end I still found that I had to jockey some things around for continuity.

The second I had a bit more planned out and everything come out better chronologically speaking.

On the third I've been definitely going linearly through the story.[Swapping back and forth] But as I got to about half way there were some diversions partly to get a closer sense of things near the end and to allow myself to put the first part aside to go over some time later to discover which part was causing me enough problems to bring me to a screeching halt. And at this point I pretty much go where it takes me.

Edit::

Well then: that would be closer to the third novel and I've been writing their stories in parallel chapter-wise up until about half way at which point I started groping around and put it aside while writing random chapters near the end where the three stories collide into the climax.

I think there is at least a small argument for trying to run as far as you can in one character just for the fact that sometimes jumping back and forth can involve time getting back into the head of that character. But my character's stories only overlap in as far as they are in the same timeline and not so much interaction with each other until after the halfway mark. I think when they overlap it could go either way-especially if the intention is to give a different POV for the same scene.

I mostly try to avoid too much overlap in story- so when I switch POV where the characters are in the same scenes, I try to pick up where the last one left off.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I tend to write in a linear fashion but when I'm editing I will sometimes read or review pov arcs individually (depends how the strands work. For Inish Carraig, for instance, with three main entertwining story arcs, each separate from the others, I did it in more detail than for Abendau's Heir where there are some clear povs and some drop-in ones* and where the story has a more central focus)

* having said that, it is rare I don't review for voice and ensure they don't leak into each other, particularly with Kare and Lichio.

 

[LittleStar]

I rarely write in any other way but linear, right through till the end. Though often there is at least one or two chapters or scenes that I know have to go in somewhere that just aren't as exciting to write at the time, or only get written in a very drafty way, so I know I need to go back and rewrite rather than edit.

As for writing one character all the way through, tinkerdan's makes a good argument for it. Staying in the character's head/voice is certainly needed in close third. And when editing I would definitely go back and read through the single arc as per Jo's suggestion, to make sure it's all as it should be.

But for the most part, whether writing or editing, until i pick up other tricks or methods somewhere down the line, I go straight through from start to finish

 

[Venusian Broon]

Depends on the story I would imagine. My multi-PoV sprawling epics seem not to have mighty standalone arcs for the characters. They always seem to complicate things by getting together in the same place then splitting up again at inopportune moments!

Well there are some standalone arcs, but not lengthy ones, and I knew that being a plotter, so it always made sense for me to start at chapter 1 and just focus on continuity as I switched PoV chapters about in a way that (hopefully ) moves the plot, characters and world along in an interesting manner.

My guess is that if you decided right at the start to focus just on one character at a time, you will be more likely to write quite 'hermetically sealed' story arcs. Which may be easier for a really big story.

 

[Brian G Turner]

do you ever try to write all of a single character's POVs for the entire story

No - I follow the logical sequence of the story. It's not uncommon to find a chapter that I might assign to one character instead goes to another. Additionally, sometimes the characters surprise so that a certain direction that I was sure of ends up going in a different one.

However, it's as tinkerdan says - are you able to plan the entire frame of your story from the start, or do you write organically? I don't know of many who can plan an entire novel from the start.

 

[Ursa major]

I don't necessarily** write in a linear fashion... but except where a whole story strand*** is from a single viewpoint -- the other PoV characters are elsewhere, reacting with each other but not with this, separate strand -- I don't stick with a particular PoV until their story is told.

Note that my chapters are not based on PoVs:

• my PoV scheme is based on scenes, so a chapter may (and generally does) contain scenes experienced by more than one PoV character;
• the progress of time through a chapter -- and through a series of chapters -- is usually linear (within the constraints of having events experienced in parallel, but described one after the other, i.e. there's no split screen effect);
• almost all chapters contain the events of a single day or part thereof (identified in the chapter title), so linearity is preserved (except when the separate story strand*** is given its own parts of the book).

** - Because I have a good idea where various story lines are going, I reserve the right to write later scenes when I find myself unable, temporarily, to capture earlier ones satisfactorily.

*** - This story strand has, at various times, either been integrated with the chapters of other story strands or had its own identifiably separate parts of the book to itself (whose chapters were, naturally, single-PoV affairs).

 

[Toby Frost]

This is something I find hard, and as I've written longer books I've had to start planning them more so that they don't all default to the same plot. Writing a 4-POV story, where the characters are largely separate from one another, I have written the chapters in "cycles", so A, B, C and D, and then back to A for the next cycle. What this means is that I'm able to understand who's doing what at what time, so the different characters' adventures can impinge upon one another and the pacing can change appropriately. That way, in each cycle, the reader hopefully gets 2-3 chapters of action, and 1 or 2 chapters of intrigue, discussion and so on.

However, I have left one character to the end, as I wasn't sure what to do with him. Going back and writing all his chapters in a row has been interesting, especially since the other three POVs are more or less there and what he does can reflect them. I'm not sure I would have liked to write his chapters together before the other three, though.

 

[MWagner]

I focus on a single character POV for a chapter or two at a time, which usually works out to a couple weeks of real time. By then I've typically lost steam, or need to catch the story up from other POVs, so I switch horses. I find that helps keep the story, and my writing output, flowing. When I'm blocked, I can always get kick-started again by switching to a character I haven't touched in a few weeks (I have five POV characters).

As someone who only very loosely outlines, I don't think I'd be comfortable with writing out a single POV straight through. I'd loose opportunities for improvised surprises and unplanned character interactions.

 

[LittleStar]

I don't know of many who can plan an entire novel from the start.

I guess I'm a rare breed. I've thoroughly planned out my four novel series, scene for scene, and am currently 28k in after day three of writing. I am writing it in a perfectly linear fashion, so far, just as It was planned that way.

It's A little bit of a cheat, as it is a one POV story, but I think the same still applies whether you have one or ten POV's. And as I said above the only rare point I might 'skip ahead', is because a previous scene wasn't as exciting to write on that particular day. In which case I would gloss over a scene as very bare bones before continuing linearly.

@Toby Frost im intrigued. As you write in cycles like that, does that stay linear? Or do you chop and changes after you written them trying to slot them in where they seem to fit best, taking into account all the pacing and playing-off-each-other they would already have?

 

[Michael M]

I default to the main character's POV throughout the novel, but there remains scope for shifting to another major character if the plot or the tone of the section requires a variation. If the section involves a major character and a minor character you should generally opt for the major character for the POV. There may be circumstances when using a minor figure as the POV is effective, so I would not set a rule on POV, but keep the POV with as central a character as possible.

 

[Toby Frost]

@LittleStar It does remain linear so long as I follow the rough plan. So I'd plan something like this:

A1 - A escapes duke's assassins
A2 - A recuperates and befriends healer
A3 - A and healer go to see B
A4 - A and B fight duke but A is stunned by curse

B1 - Investigates rumour of undead in village
B2 - Follows mysterious figure and discovers duke is responsible
B3 - Gathers followers for showdown
B4 - Fights duke and rescues A. Healer removes curse on A.

Now, A2 can't come before B1 in the story, but it could come before B2 or after it. So that means that I can rearrange the chapters in each cycle as I want them - to prolong a cliffhanger, or show that there's a time gap, etc. But A4 has to come before B4. So, the fight with the duke is the longest part of the story, because it's being told first from A's POV and then from B's because they are both POV characters and both there at the same time. It also means that we can see different things about each person because they're being observed from their own POV and someone else's. At the end of the book, I did shuffle a couple around, but not very much.

I hope this makes some sort of sense. It seems complicated now I'm writing it down, but it might be completely obvious. And I can't guarantee that this works - it's not got a publisher yet!

 

[J5V]

I do linear, mostly one POV. Where I've done multiple, all changes are at a clear chapter break, so the user is not confused.
Beware inconsistencies of narration style in the book; if you suddenly have an omniscient narration (e.g. for privileged insights on multiple POVs), it's very jarring, and loses credibility.

The limited amount of mainstream best-selling sci-fi that I've read: often jumps around two or three threads, each having a different POV, and they inevitably meet near the end using one chosen POV. As a reader, I think of it as being 'daytime TV format' where action is sliced into digestible chunks, and I'm suspicious that the content itself is likely not good enough to sustain interest if any one thread were to be taken as an isolated unit.

 

[Martin Gill]

I'm currently writing my second 3 POV character novel. I planned the rough story, then chapter by chapter planned each of the 3 characters' stories. Then wrote the chapters on 3 different colour postits and worked out how to stagger the 3 interwoven threads. I'm now on chapter 6 or 7 in terms of writing and I've done 4 of one character as I found I got into it. I then hit a roadblock with her story so I've gone back to the start on another character.

Last time I wrote 99% linear apart from one chapter where I left some notes, skipped it then came back to it a while later because I know what needed to happen, I just didn't have a cool way for said thing to occur.

I'm a planner.

Also personally I don't like stories where POV characters float in and then disappear.