Okay, so I know this might not be the right choice, but right now, my book has 4 introductory chunk POVs. Then, I think in the next segment I want to skip around those POV to continue the story at a faster pace. However, how do I make it LESS jarring and more natural for the reader to skip around now? I have tried to think of writing this in 1 pov, then looping back like I have before, but it just doesn't seem to work right now. So example: Character 1 - Into POV with like 6 chapters/backstory Character 2 - Intro POV with 8 chapters/backstory etc. And then the new bulk of the story would switch to: Character 1 - one chapter Character 2 - one chapter etc. Thoughts? How do I make this less jarring?
I'm just wondering why you are trying to do this. What does it bring to the table that a more streamlined approach would not? I'm honestly a little confused about what you are trying to do. It does seem like it would be jarring. I also don't think this would do anything for the pace of the story. I'm not sure POV really has that sort of effect on pacing.
What you're suggesting is very common. Most Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Game of Throne series... many, many POVs and disparate storylines. Nothing confusing about them at all because they were interesting and relevant. It's when you have a bloated word count to justify a POV that you get into trouble. We were talking about Clavell and Shogun in another thread. All of his books have at least 8-10 POVs. Granted they're long as hell, but it's all justified in the end.
To put it simply, I have 7 characters and I managed to cut the POVs down to 4. But, each has their own backstories that are important to their plot that I feel need to be shared. However, now that we're into the story, it doesn't make sense for these blocks of POV to happen. Because things have picked up. I also don't want to give my readers whiplash going back and forth so much. Some backstories I would have a hard time getting the character to talk about and the saddest ones are the ones that need to be told.
Oh, good to know! I just don't know how to transition properly to a free-for-all in terms of POV. Any ideas? Because now, I think it's going to be more chapter by chapter. And yes, all are currently relevant to the plot, but it feels like a puzzle that isn't put together quite right.
I would think about dividing the book into three sections: Part 1: (Character Name)'s story Part 2: (Character Name)'s story Part 3: Everybody Hopefully you can come up with a better name than Everybody for part 3, that's all I can think of right now.
