Hello. I have almost finished my very, very basic outline and now my thoughts have moved on how I will write it. There will be two main characters, could I write like this: Chapter 1. POV: Character 1. Time: Point A to Point B Chapter 2. POV: Character 2. Time: Point A to Point B Chapter 3. POV: Character 1 Time: Point C to Point D And on and on and on…. Would that be readable? Enjoyable to read? Tiresome? Many Thanks. TAD
So in chapters 1 & 2 you're writing about the same events, just from different points of view? It could conceivably work, if the characters are very different people with conflicting perceptions. If I remember correctly, Orson Scott Card wrote 2 entire books that were differing POV's of the same events: "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow."
Many books are written using that format. They don't usually involve the same scenes from different points of view, most writers will have a scene or two from the PoV of one character then an totally different scene with another character's PoV. If you're talking about doing the SAME scene from different points of view, try watching the last season of Arrested Development on Netflix. They did an entire season with each episode covering the same events from a different character's PoV. I won't say it was a great season but it was pretty effective in the format they used.
Thank you guys, I explained it very badly (That doesn’t bode well, does it?) I meant follow a different character through whatever scenes that character faces. Which means that some would coincide and some would not. My bad, sorry guys. But I’m assuming that would work though? These are dumb questions I know, but I haven’t written anything since school. TAD
Oh, so you just want to alternate viewpoint characters each chapter? Sure, tons of stories use that technique.
Another good series to look at for an example that is similar to what you described is the Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan. It's not written quite the same, but I believe there are a few chapters written that way.
Oh definitely! I've read plenty of books that follow this structure and it's actually a great way to build suspense too. When Character A is developing quietly, Character B could be in chaos. When Character B has settled down a bit, Character A could run into conflict. It's a great way to pull the reader along too. Worked for me!
Yes, by all means, change POV when you want to. Just make SURE the reader always knows whose POV they're 'in' at the start of the chapter or scene, and try to avoid head-hopping in the middle of scenes. Too frequent jumping in and out of heads can become a story distraction, though. Readers like to settle in to a character's perspective and 'be' that character for a while. If you jump between characters too frequently, that sense of immersion can get lost. Referring to the other point, of showing the same scene through two different perspectives, I can tell you that trick didn't work well for me. I assumed the contrast between the way each character saw what happened in a couple of scenes would be interesting. However, my readers thought differently, and felt annoyed that they were having to watch the same scene twice. So I went back during the edit, chose what I hoped was the best POV for each scene, and only presented each of the scenes once. It's okay for another POV character to refer to a scene from his or her perspective, but only briefly and in context with how they reacted to it. I'd say resist the temptation to actually depict a scene twice. It's not impossible to do, and just because my attempt wasn't successful doesn't mean it can't be successful with the right treatment. But it certainly can fall flat as well.
