I'm having trouble with my characters' POVs and want to know how I should deal with this dilemma. I have three main characters in my series, each with their own third-person POVs. In my first drafts, I have the very first chapter feature my character Ellis' perspective. However, my other character, Aske, has much more focus on them than Ellis and gets more POVs. Would it be weird to begin the story with a character who doesn't have as much focus on her as another? When I first started writing it, I had the first chapter feature Ellis as a way to show the environment (a post-apocalyptic wasteland) and introduce the other two characters. I figured that starting the story with her searching for supplies in the wasteland would be a good way to show the reader what kind of conditions she and the other two are living in. The one thing I'm worried about is the shift from Ellis to Aske confusing the reader or being unnecessary. The genre is fantasy/adventure, by the way. Apologies if this all sounds confusing.
Switching between characters is pretty common, particularly in your genre, and shouldn’t be confusing. It could create the expectation that Ellis is going to be more important than she actually is, but if you have a clear good reason to start with Ellis then it won’t be a problem. When choosing your first chapter POV character, I would ask, who is doing the thing that is the most interesting? Who has the biggest decision to make or the most conflict surrounding them? Who has the strongest internal life or most interesting ‘voice’? Who will leave the readers needing to find out what they do next? I bring up these questions because ‘best way to introduce the setting’ is a very writer-ey way of looking at things (which I am also guilty of). The reader isn’t in this for the setting; the setting is important, sure, but it’s secondary to character, conflict, and intrigue.
I have a question: is the POV and the narrator one in the same? POV shifts are way if your narrator is separate and all knowing, which is how most stories are framed. If you’re really narrator hopping, I’d suggest finding a story that also does that. “As I Lay Dying” comes to mind, although I think they were first person.
The POV and the narrator are separate, though for some characters the narrator will sound a bit different to better fit their personalities.
From the info given in the OP, it sounds as if the right thing to do is probably to open the story with Aske. Everyone knows what it's like scavenging in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the character is always more interesting than the environment. As some possible references I'd suggest Borne, The Road, and Fallout. In general, scavenging is something we can do more vividly in video games now.
If your intention is to write this book to then sell it, then the first chapter of your book is the most important. That first chapter is basically an advertisement to customers and must grab their attention, either by mystery, intrigue, action, or suspense. So you need to pick the PoV that does that best and entices them in. Your first chapter shouldn't just be simply setting the world-building, it should be instigating the first elements of your overall story as well as the PoVs personal story within it. If it is just world-building, that will not incentivize The Reader to read chapter 2.
The answer of classical literature is "no"; the character whose development defines the story is the protagonist, and the protagonist is the first character addressed by the chorus / addressing the chorus (narrator, in essence). Anything before that is preamble & prologue.
Having read this more than once and putting the question in the back of my mind to percolate away, this bubbled to the surface today. Which character will have the greater change to face/make as the story progresses? In one respect, the starting POV is less important overall than the POV of whoever will undergo the greater change throughout the entire story. i.e. Ellis starts and ends the story with minimal changes, sort of a secondary character, while Aske goes through Hell and makes significant personal changes. In this example, I would think Aske would be a better POV to start with, because, ultimately, they have more involvement in the story line and will have made greater changes along the way. The reader would get a better sense that this is actually Aske's story then. Just another perspective to thrash around in your head as you proceed...
I use a POV particularly suited to the scene in the chapter. I occasionally use two POVs in a single chapter (never more), but only when there is shift to a different location, and I make that shift very clear, with a double spaced paragraph break (some use various symbols also). For example, my characters are escaping on foot from the Chinese court heading west, fearful every time a Chinese patrol clatters past on horseback, ignoring them, Then I shift the scene in that same chapter back to the Chinese court, where they are discussing the search to the west, where the Roman ships were located, though they have since sailed. I also don't switch back and forth in the same chapter. One shift only
