I am thinking about writing this chic-lit novel and I was wondering about a few things. It's got 4 mc/pov-characters and I am thinking about how to go about writing the story from so many perspectives. each character has their own story and they all know each other. a)writing the story from one POV at the time, scene by scene until ready, then starting with another and repeating the procedure until ready and then cut it all (copy and paste) together like a movie so that the scenes jump from different perspectives as the chapters go by, like many books do. b) write chapter by chapter cronologically and switching pov while writing. I also wonder about the perspective: is it even possible writing from 1st person pov when having more than 1 POV character? I think most chic-lit novels are actually written in 1st person but then they rarely (from my experience) have more than 1POV character... Third person comes naturally to me and I write better this way but will it get a feeling of being less personal, less involved in the characters life, make them lose the feeling of reading someones diary that seem to be the reason some people like this kind of novels? also, when outlining (for those of you who do) do you outline all of it before even starting to write it or do you outline and write a chapter at a time? it feels a little overwhelming right now to plan the entire story before even starting to write, plus i don't have the whole story clear yet, but I think ideas may come by once I get started, but in the same time it's nice to have some kind of roadmap... please share your thoughts on this.
Either can work, provided you signal the POV changes clearly. Yes, if you switch POV. I don't see how you could have 2 POVs at the same time. The only way to know is to write it (or at least a sizeable chunk of it) both ways and see which works better. And write is to you like it first and foremost.
yes, I thought of maybe concentrating on one character at the time in the writing stage and when they're all ready cut and paste them together to have something that makes sense. I didn't plan on having one part of the book for each char or something like that. it's just a working strategy, to be able to concentrate on one of their stories at the time without having to go back every time and check where I left off...
The novel "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk switches between multiple different 1st person narrator POVs throughout and was critically very well received (he won the Nobel Prize in Literature not long after it was published in English). Maybe worth a look to see how he pulled it off technically? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Red http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375706852/?tag=postedlinks04-20
Although that worked well for Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone and for the film Hero, so it's not ridiculous.
I can imagine it works for some kinds of novels, but in this case much of the story is the four chars being friends and acting together on many occasions. I think that will be the glue that tie the pov's together, when copy/pasting the various POVs to one story. guess that will be the last part to write. dryriver: thanks for the links and suggestions, I checked it out at amazon I already have one book by him at home (Masumiyet Musezi, sorry I don't have the right "u" for it to be correct) but I haven't read it all yet, and it seems like it's only one POV there If i'm not mistaking, so that one will be to no help in this case.
For a published example, check out George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Each chapter is from the point of view of a certain character, all of which are in third-person limited. The way he presents and organizes it is wonderful and fairly easy to understand. Often people with POV chapters do end up interacting with other, but the POV sticks with which chapter its under. He doesn't vary it within a chapter, so you don't get confused on who's thinking what.
I've read a few books with multiple POVs, where more than one is in first person. I read a good one not long ago where one of the character's POV was even in second person, though the others were not. Worked just fine.
Really, you can do it however you want as long as you pull it off well. In the book I wrote with three POVs, I had three scenes per chapter with each person's POV. The important thing is that it's clear who's who. Another thing to consider is that all the characters' storylines should be equally exciting/suspenseful, or else readers might just skip past the other POVs to keep reading more about their favorite. I know that I've read books where one character was consistently dull and I just started skipping that person's scenes.
thanks for your advice. I was curious to know because I have never read a book with multiple 1st person POVs, but obviously it does exist. still wondering how to do with this but i guess the best thing is just to start writing and see what works, then. Ever since I wrote the first draft of my first novel I'm a little against 1st person, but to me it seems the genre more or less demands it, maybe I'm wrong (hope so)? And without more than one POV how would I be able to follow 4 people, if im not using omniscent POV, which I have never done and feel I don't even know how to do properly.
