Sorry if this question has been asked many times before.. I tried to search for it, and it was too obscure to be worded correctly. If I'm writing a book that intends to move with a medium pace, and I plan to do it in third-person, would it be worthwhile to invest in a few sets of characters to switch between for POV, just to keep the story moving and plot points relevant? My main characters are people in a single group, but I feel that if I stay fixed to them for the entire novel, it will eventually start to drag and the pacing will have to "skip" to avoid irrelevant scenes, leaving odd periods of time without description that might seem jarring. This is not to suggest I would make the second group of characters a useless gimmick.. I would write in their end. Are they needed?
Limited POV doesn't make the pace drag. Dwelling too much on description is the usual pace killer. Another is pointless dialogue. Every piece of dialogue should serve at least one developmental purpoise.
Depends on how involved the character is as a whole. If the character you doing limited in is not important to/part of/or essential to your plot, you're bogging it down. If your character is the center of attention and the story rests on her/his shoulders, then you aren't slowing anything down. Once again, depends.
It would only slow things down if there are plot-important events that your pov characters simply can't be present for. Then you'd have to find ways to get them the information about what happened without them actually being there. Also I personally think it's better to write the story and see how the pace turns out, rather than trying to preemptively fix something that you can't be sure is broken. Your pacing may turn out perfectly without the addition of extra characters, but if it doesn't you can go back and do some editing.
Its natural to havet jumps in time between One scene and another. If you are skillful in bridging those gaps they wont be a problem for the reader. It must be better than introducing subplots just to serve as filler. And no, limited pov doesnt need to slow down the story. Not if you write it well.
I don't think every bit of dialogue has to serve a purpose - irrelevant dialogue (and irrelevant details in general) can give you the feeling that the world really doesn't revolve around your protagonists. (Just because the story does, doesn't mean the world should.) But you have to make it interesting even if it's irrelevant. For example, the Harry Potter series has plenty of scenes where Harry and friends overhear plot-irrelevant conversations which add flavour to the world, such as a guy with cursed shoes in the hospital when they're visiting Mr Weasley. Some of those are my favorite bits of the series. Plus, it means she can include details which become relevant later, without them jumping out as important at the time. (This is especially important for a mystery story.)
I don't think limited POV slows down the plot at all. A badly written slow plot might do that though. I personally dislike when books jump between POVs if it isn't relevant to the story and extremely well executed. I find that shifts in POV aren't usually done very well and it frustrates me to get to know a character and then get thrown into another.
