Changing POV in a scene.

[DAgent]

So, the scene I'm working on at the moment is meant to shift focus between two characters. We basically open up following one, a young woman and her point of view going into her office, having some back and forth with her colleagues, before an older man there realises he needs to be somewhere else and the rest of the scene then switches over to him as we see him realise this, talk to everyone,grab his things, talk some more and then run to leave the room before we continue to follow his POV as he runs down the corridor.

I'm thinking of this a passing the baton as the plot will need to follow him for awhile before we come back to our original POV character so she can continue her part of the story. No one else's POV is being looked at during this scene,it's all on her to begin with, then switches to him later on.

Now when I've been reading through how other guides about how to handle this transition, some say to just leave it all in the body of the text,others say to have a line break or insert an astrix to show the change over.

Personally I'm in favour of leaving it in the same body of text as it's all part of the same scene,even if the location has changed, but I am wondering what everyone's else's take is on this?

 

[HareBrain]

Whatever you do, make it clear the POV has changed. This is obviously much easier if you have a line break or some kind of asterisk/symbol break, so that's what I'd recommend. But having it in the same body of text could work if handled carefully, and would have less of a "jolt", if that matters to you.

 

[Deke]

I just wrote a POV switch mid chapter. Though I didn’t do it on purpose, looking back I added some context to help the reader along with the POV switch.

It’s third person limited, so it’s a bit easier to do than if your writing in first person.

The context was, we were on the bridge of a ship, talking about sending off a boarding party. The MC says character X will be leading the party, some exposition, then the switch.

It’s double spaced, so I just hit enter three times to make a big gap in the page. Started with “character X sat inside his dropship checking his weapon” so we know who it is and what they are doing, and it’s clear we have changed POV so the story can continue in a more interesting manner than if we had continued where we were.

Hope that helps.

 

[tinkerdan]

All of my first paragraphs in a scene have no indent.
So what I do for scene change is at least one blank line and then the paragraph of the new scene starts with no indent.

I have also recently done all caps on the first four words of a chapter and the first three words in the subsequent scene change--but that is just an internal stylistic decision.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I would break it into two scenes. The scene break will give the reader an indication that something has changed. Would it work to have everything inside the office done from the young woman's point of view, section break, and start the older man's point of view once he is outside the room and in the hallway? The change in setting would justify the change in point of view.

 

[DLCroix]

I think the easiest thing is to be guided by the meaning or central idea of each paragraph. In addition, I seem to see that, 1, we have an exterior descriptive action, the woman who enters, greets and talks with colleagues, until, 2, we reach that man, who, from the moment he remembers that he must be in elsewhere, an interior descriptive scene begins. Therefore, as you say, this can perfectly go in the same paragraph, especially in a scheme more to tell than to show precisely because it summarizes more and saves pages. Except ...
Now let's see possible variations:
For example, in the first part, the woman may also have thoughts, let's say that one of the guys who greets makes her smile because he is a womanizer who harasses her, or she may shake her head when she recognizes a very gossipy secretary, etc. But, when we get to the second part of the scene, according to the thoughts that your older man has, you are given the possibility to play with counterpoints, a little detail here, someone who delays him there (and makes him uncomfortable) , for which you must study what effect suits you best, that is, observe what dialogues can work for you and if it is convenient to put them separately (although anyway only the Latino type Angeles Mastretta seem to be completely unaware of the existence of the separate points, since their The only intention is to blatantly force the page flipper). I am not saying that it looks bad or should not be done, but, as I said, it is an option that is up to you to evaluate. For example, if you see that even you suddenly lose yourself reading, it is a clear sign that it would be convenient to study where paragraphs can be separated. In addition we also have to think about the reader. In fact, this same paragraph that I am writing is an example, as there are at least five parts where you can make a jump or a separate point. A matter of options, as I said.

***

Now, regarding asterisks, I recommend using them to mark a scene change that continues the general idea of a chapter, although I have observed that other authors only make three blank line breaks, they do not use asterisks and yet it is understood. But, for example, this new scene may be something that happened overnight, the next day, or even the following week. That continuation of meaning is actually the only thing that avoids putting that scene in a new chapter. In fact, the easiest way to realize is that if you have about 2k and that scene comes you don't even ask yourself, you only do it because it seems the most natural to you but above all because with 2k you still don't have a long chapter. Different is the case when you already go over 5k. In short, the line to decide these matters is very fine. But again, all of these considerations have to do with the reader. You want to make things easier for him, right?