I started writing my current WIP in first person. This felt very natural and I never really questioned it. Now I have encountered a problem. halfway through my story a lot of things start happening at once and many characters are involved. My MC is not present during a lot of these events and I started wondering if I should switch to third person and change the point of view. However, during the first half of my story I wouldn't be able to change POV because all events relevant to the plot only happen to my MC. I was wondering if you have any input. Should I change to third person and change POV (possibly think of a subplot to add) or should I stick to first person? Do you also have any ideas on how I should introduce my MC to those events that she does not witness if I chose to stick to first person? Thank you very much!
No reason you can't use 3rd person limited. Then you can change POVs when you need to. Tom Clancy does this all the time.
I think changing POV would be okay about a third or quarter of the way through would be okay at a push, but halfway through is too late. Also, I'm confused by what you mean that you "wouldn't be able to change POV because all events relevant to the plot only happen to my MC." I have read many books which are written in third person but only have one main character. In fact, I'm reading one at the moment. There is nothing wrong with doing this, and it would make the transition from one character to a few more characters smoother and quite satisfying. Just remember that you can also choose between third person omniscient or third person limited (look them up if you don't know what I mean). Personally, I would choose omniscient from the get-go, as if you are introducing a few more characters later on and the main character is not present, it could become confusing. Something to bear in mind. I hope I helped.
Maybe the issue is that a bunch of things all start happening at once - maybe some of those events can be stretched out in time. Then they're not piling on top of each other, and perhaps your MC can be there for at least some of them. That might work. (as an aside, what is WIP?)
Yes, third limited multiple viewpoint is also my vote. Just keep in mind that the transition of view point is very clear and preferably one viewpoint per scene/chapter.
If you are midway through your manuscript, and discovered you have chosen the wron POV, often your only recourse is to start over with a viewpoint better suiy=ted to your story. Yes, you can probably go back and edit the POV sentence by sentence but chances are you will do a better job if you are thinking in terms of the right POV or POV scheme throughout.
