POV MC introduced 20-25% of the way in?

[msstice]

In my novel (Second draft time, Yay!), which is written in close third person, I have ended up with three POV characters. Each character gets at least one chapter at a time, and mostly they get whole sections of the book at a time. I'm presenting the story fairly linearly. Here is the POV break up

Ch 1-3: POV #1
CH 4: POV #2 (~15k in)
CH5: POV #3 (~20k in)
...

The novel is at 85k currently, will perhaps stretch to 100k.

Question: Will it put you off because one of my MCs makes an appearance 20k in? The MC is mentioned in dialog, and you'll guess they may be significant, but we first get their POV 20k in.

Thanks!

 

[Guanazee]

It really depends on why we're seeing all these POVs. Certainly rotating POVs like this, even when it takes awhile to establish, has been done successfully before, but you'll really have to look at whether it needs to be done that way. Is this a stylistic choice? Is your story starting too far back? Can some of the first two POV's stories be told in the thirds POV, in order to move up that character's first POV appearance?

 

[msstice]

Can some of the first two POV's stories be told in the thirds POV, in order to move up that character's first POV appearance?

To clarify, this is all close third person.

Is this a stylistic choice?

Yes. I would like to have different view points and opinions along the main line of the story. In addition each of the three characters is, for a part of the story, isolated from the other characters.

Is your story starting too far back?

No, in my opinion it starts at the inciting incident.

 

[Guanazee]

Well, it's impossible to say without reading it, but in general, it might be a hard sell for a lot of readers, so it's worth looking at whether that approach is best, and not just what you want. Even in a close third POV, you can still have things happen to other characters. If they are isolated, would an omniscient description of the inciting event that leads into a close third POV help streamline some of the word counts at the beginning? I'm thinking along the lines of The Stand or Nightfall (IIRC, it's been a while) where the big event is told without a specific character, then we narrow focus into specific stories.

Switching between the POVs also happens more frequently in big casts like that, so you could look at whether there's something in the third character's background that could be interesting to read even if that character doesn't interact with the inciting event yet. So, if you could break up the switches a bit more, as long as you start with the inciting event, it could still be interesting to read what's happening with the other two characters. We, the readers, will know the inciting event will eventually reach them, so you can play on that while establishing their POVs earlier on.

Are you going to traditionally or self-publish? Are you a debut author? If so, you may have a hard time getting agent/editor or reader interest when they typically will only have the beginning 10 pages or so as either a query sub or a sample, so you'll have to think about whether that first bit is enough to hook and is reflective of the plot setup as described by your query or blurb.

 

[msstice]

but in general, it might be a hard sell for a lot of readers

Thanks for your reply. Could you elaborate a bit?

My thought is that sticking to one POV for a time allows better reader engagement. After a period when MC#1 (and their main conflict and stakes) have been introduced, we travel to a new location where MC#2 resides and that is a natural transition to their POV and their role in the conflict and their stakes and so on. It feels to me that the story flows naturally between these MCs at such points.

I'm analyzing your proposal of switching between viewpoints more often and wonder if you could elaborate a bit.

Perhaps the key question is whether switching between POVs more often is more engaging compared to sticking with a POV for a while.

Thanks!

 

[Guanazee]

Thanks for your reply. Could you elaborate a bit?

My thought is that sticking to one POV for a time allows better reader engagement. After a period when MC#1 (and their main conflict and stakes) have been introduced, we travel to a new location where MC#2 resides and that is a natural transition to their POV and their role in the conflict and their stakes and so on. It feels to me that the story flows naturally between these MCs at such points.

I'm analyzing your proposal of switching between viewpoints more often and wonder if you could elaborate a bit.

Perhaps the key question is whether switching between POVs more often is more engaging compared to sticking with a POV for a while.

Thanks!

Really, any way can work. As the author it's up to you to make it engaging, to feed the story at an appropriate pace. It will need to be a balance. It's not just about how much word count before you switch, but what are you saying about the character. Does the reader learn something concrete to form a connection with the character? That's the main thing.

The danger with waiting too long to establish a new POV or establish that there will be three POVs is that the reader expects to be set up for an expectation of the structure of the book in the first little bit of the book.

In my opinion as a reader, it wouldn't bother me in a thought-provoking sci-fi or literary piece. I might be surprised to the point of distraction to find that in a strongly action-driven post-apoc. Just has to do with reader expectations.

Have you looked at comps?

 

[DLCroix]

Well, I do not see the problem, although this type of structure is much more typical, and therefore more difficult to follow or understand, in comics, because in many stories (of comics, I say) there is a first chapter or scene, of preference in the distant past, the real meaning of which is understood much, much later. Ex: in Tim Burton's Batman, the scene where the penguin's parents drop him into the river and he goes into a sewer and I think, because I didn't see the comic, about the Nazis experimenting with mutants that give rise to X -Mutants. But, following the example of Batman returns, that ellipsis is closed when Oswald Coblepott, surely for campaign purposes, since he was running for mayor, I think, goes to the cemetery and forgives his parents. But the truth is we are full of structures that intersperse not one but up to 3 pov, what about Bruce Wayne, how Selyna transformed into Catwoman as a result of Shreck pushing her through a window and falling into an alley where cats resuscitate her darkly, so to speak. The only point is, to avoid getting tangled up, is that this type of approach does require a plot scheme in the same way that a comic script allows us to know what happens on the page 10 or 32, 48, etc.
Even so, from experience I can say that it is difficult to put everything together and perhaps that is why in the novels of the prequel to my saga I prefer to go with what happens only to a single POV and the scene changes, where other POVs dominate, have to be bound according to that. The reason is the one cited above by a colleague, I think, to prevent the reader from getting confused.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I don't feel like it's really an issue in "close third-person". In first person with multiple narrators, it'd be jarring to have a new narrator suddenly butt in to the rotation so far into the story. But close third is a bit different. When I'm reading and the author suddenly starts following a character who hasn't been foregrounded like that before, either I completely fail to notice or I go "This is new and interesting!"

 

[Steve Harrison]

One of my two main characters came in a third of the way through my first novel. By then I'd used about a dozen POV characters, so I doubt readers were bothered by a new character at that point (and it's never been mentioned in reviews). I did, however, make it immediately clear that she was going to be a major character and her first appearance came at an appropriate turning point in the story.

Like everything in writing, if it works, it's fine. Trouble is, you have to write it in a way you think is best before you actually know.

 

[therapist]

Personally I don't see how it could be an issue (unless of course it is painfully boring to read and detracts from the story). I'm reading Robin Hobb's Farseer series at the moment and she plays around a lot with PoVs. Whenever a character is introduced late and unexpectedly, it is always a fresh and pleasant surprise for me.

 

[HareBrain]

I've done this. In one book, my first POV change (and to a completely new character/setting) was in ch6 (p86 in the paperback). I was concerned about it and asked every beta reader if it bothered them. Some said it had taken them a bit by surprise, but no one had a problem with it.

 

[msstice]

Thank you all for the feedback. I'm trying out an experiment where I add a Ch 2 with MC #2 and the rest of the non-POV characters who will be important later on, and I'm liking it. The change of location is refreshing, and some of the backstory I had in Ch 1 (via dialog/thoughts) can be made more concise or eliminated and come in a more natural way in the new Ch 2. It also gives me a nice opportunity for building tension by preventing them from talking to each other, for now. So we see what each knows, but they can't tell each other yet.

 

[Wayne Mack]

If a character does not really contribute to the early part of the plot, then I do not see any problem with having a late introduction, even if the character becomes a POV character. One thing I dislike as a reader is to have a lot of characters thrown me at once where I have a hard time keeping them straight, so I prefer a slow roll out. Do not force a character to make an early entrance if the character does not contribute to the progression of the plot. As for POV characters, just make sure that they are each interesting in their own right. Tom Clancy would often throw in a late POV character, often for a single chapter, to have a 'hero moment' and I never had a problem with it.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

This happened a few years ago to me. My editor advised me to break it up a bit more than I had. His reason was readers possibly forgetting bits of earlier stuff because of the big gap.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

If a character does not really contribute to the early part of the plot, then I do not see any problem with having a late introduction, even if the character becomes a POV character. One thing I dislike as a reader is to have a lot of characters thrown me at once where I have a hard time keeping them straight, so I prefer a slow roll out.

Good point. Some novels with dozens of characters are surprisingly easy to follow because they do this right. The characters are introduced in small batches over many chapters, most of them stay confined to one particular subplot or setting, and it's made clear who the major players are. It is really annoying when a character turns out to be important when you've long forgotten their very existence beacuse they arrived early on in a swarm of bit-parts and haven't done much since. This has left me flicking back through the last 100 pages quite a few times.