Introducing POVs later

AnyaKimlin

AnyaKimlin

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I sort of know the answer to this, but I'm asking for opinions.

I've been writing Black's Nest from the point of view of sixty-eight year old Ian and his fifty year-old son, John, alternating chapters. (it's third person limited) At chapter seventeen I would like to write a chapter from the point of view of John's oldest son (he's seventeen and meets a girlfriend and I really don't think a chaperone is a good idea).

And for the epilogue I want to tell it either from the point of view of Ian's grandson, Harley or Ian's brother, Andrew. Andrew is a priest and it's a way for me to tell the reader something without telling Ian.
 
I don't see an issue if it works in the story. It's only a problem if that much later POV turns out to be the MC!
See Treasure Island. It's all Jack POV, one later chapter is the Doctor.
I think the reader just has to know (slightly), in advance, that the character exists.

This a readers opinion, not my opinion as writer. The how you actually do it is something I'm less qualified to have an opinion about.
 
I've seen books that used POVs of people who weren't the main protagonists, and been fine with it. A good example I can think of is Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. The vast majority is written from Vime's perspective, but sometimes there are crucial scenes he wasn't present for, so the POV switches between Watch members. If memory serves there were about half a dozen POVs during the book.
 
Jo Zebedee said:
It's fine. I didn't introduce Sam until 3/4 of the way through Abendau's Heir and only @HareBrain was disencombulated by it. Ditto Neeta in Inish Carraig. That's what third is for - using povs for what suits your purposes. :)
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Ha and I didn't even notice lol. It's very much out of my comfort zone to have more than one point of view - two at the most. But I really like the idea of Michael having a life outside of the crap being thrown at him. And the epilogue is unavoidable.

I'm just concerned because I probably won't use them again.
 
If it is something that needs to be included it should always be told by someone who is/was there unless you want it to be considered unreliable; because second hand stories tend to be unreliable. Or of course you could still chaperon them, but that might change the expected outcome.
 
tinkerdan said:
If it is something that needs to be included it should always be told by someone who is/was there unless you want it to be considered unreliable; because second hand stories tend to be unreliable. Or of course you could still chaperon them, but that might change the expected outcome.
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I'm not really aiming for an outcome with the scene. It moves Michael's life on rather than the story but I've just written several intense chapters and I think it needs a more chilled out one and both my MCs are embroiled with intensity at the moment whereas Michael is on the fringes of it.
 
That's the best reason of all to do it. Novels are not like a video game. There needs to be breathing room. If you've had a lot of intense chapters, then a quiet one would likely get more attention for it being a change of pace. I'm not concerned about bringing in new characters later in the narrative. Like Jo's first book worked well. These days, readers are more comfortable with the "serial" style storytelling.
 
Denise Tanaka said:
That's the best reason of all to do it. Novels are not like a video game. There needs to be breathing room. If you've had a lot of intense chapters, then a quiet one would likely get more attention for it being a change of pace. I'm not concerned about bringing in new characters later in the narrative. Like Jo's first book worked well. These days, readers are more comfortable with the "serial" style storytelling.
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:) And now I'm wondering about adding other POVs.
 
If you want some story that the existing POVs can't know (or not till too much later for the flow of story) and don't want omniscient narration, then you need a POV for that part of story, so as to have it in the time line rather than recounted too much later to an existing POV.
 
It's my preference not to introduce new POVs later in a book. It screams "plot device". That's not to say they can't be written well and fleshed out in their own way, but from a reading perspective it can be a little jarring when we're flowing along, in the comfortable company of our main characters, deep into the plot, when this newbie pops up and demands that we get acquainted with them from scratch.

From a writer's perspective it feels like I've missed something if I'm introducing a character late in a novel, like I've painted myself into a corner. However, my prejudices might be the result of me doing this exact thing in an early draft of my first novel, which is now indefinitely "car parked".

Caveat: in my WIP I have a new POV occurring at (roughly) chapter 40 out of 47, but it's only a single chapter, and concerns an established character we've known since the very beginning. The reason for inclusion so late is purely for dramatic effect, which probably (hopefully) makes more sense when reading it.
 
This sounds like what I do. I tell the story from different points of view, but I make sure each point of view is separated by chapters or noticeable chapter breaks. I think it's okay as long as it's clear right from the beginning of the chapter whose point of view it is.

I agree with some of the comments above that it may be a bit out of place to introduce the point of view of a character late in the story. However, I've done it before and I think it worked out well because the character was a part of the earlier story and the reader had a feeling he was going to be trouble. It wasn't until I provided his point of view that the reader discovered what exactly that trouble was. If I had just let that character do what he was going to do without introducing his point of view, I think it would have seemed out of place. It may be argued I could have provided other clues through the MC's point of view, but I personally felt it would have been too forced.

On other words, go for it and see how it turns out.
 
DG Jones said:
Caveat: in my WIP I have a new POV occurring at (roughly) chapter 40 out of 47, but it's only a single chapter, and concerns an established character we've known since the very beginning. The reason for inclusion so late is purely for dramatic effect, which probably (hopefully) makes more sense when reading it.
Click to expand...

Michael isn't a new character he has been well introduced. He's gone from a snotty teen who hates his dad for cheating on his mother to offering to help his dad out with his new baby sister because his dad needs a nanny and he wants a gap year etc
 
I can't see any problem dropping in any type of generic character though... a dog, an ogre, a stereotype of any type. Could actually be awkward to intro them before they are needed.
 
Absolutely fine... I've read several books that do this sort of thing, and it was never a problem. Even smoother if the character is known/mentioned prior to entering their head. Granted in these examples, it was done for the right reasons, so it worked.

Which leads me to one caution/reminder... it is OK not to show the reader everything. If the story arc is not about John's oldest son, then we probably don't need to be sitting on that date at all, however important it is behind the scenes. Obviously I don't know your specific story, but I would suggest you seriously challenge yourself to consider how the story would look if you had to leave that out and instead learn about it later, the way John's father actually would. How does the story look then? Can you be clever about it?

Adding a POV just to fill in an off-camera scene can be damaging. Not in all cases of course--again I don't know your story--but give my challenge at least a passing consideration before you assume the scene is necessary.

And if it is necessary, then go for it. As I say, I've seen it work just fine before.
 
Is the scene necessary then possibly not. I'm inclined to have Michael not tell anyone about her. The main purpose of the scene is to give the reader some breathing space from the raging intensity of two murders whilst not completely halting the story.

With John I've added an entire unnecessary point of view. His only real purpose was to bring in the fantasy earlier than chapter 17 or 18. I'd been shoehorning hints of fantasy before that.
 
I imagine a murder mystery where the pov is the detective or the butler or whoever. There comes a scene later in the book where there is a murder. The only two present are the murderer and the victim. You'll have to use one of their points of view unless your pov character is the murderer. This doesn't seem to be a problem. There are lots of cases where you have to switch the pov.
 
There is a book called My Name is Red (heard about it on Writing Excuses)
The story is from multiple points of view talking about the man murdered, and one of the POVs is the killer, but does not tell that they are and lies, and throughout the story, the reader tries to figure out who the liar is and hence, the killer.
 
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