How many POVs do you really need?

The only time I've ever written in multiple POVs is in my WIP where a child is pretty much "trapped in his mind" and has gone into a catatonic state, needing to be hospitalized. I write mostly from his perspective, but sometimes venture out of his mind to see how his parents are holding up, and how the different stages of his mental entrapment have changed him physically on the outside (No, he's not transforming, just how certain things that happen in his brain affect his physical condition).

I've very rarely ever found the need to write in multiple perspectives, mainly because I feel that can tend to create a disjoined and confusing story. I've seen it done well, of course, so I'm not saying I'm against it. I just feel as though it's a very difficult thing to do and shouldn't be anyone's go-to by far.

 

This is me too, but I my holotype series are The Expanse books by James S. A. Corey. Same structure.

 

I love reading books with multiple characters. It expands the story world and makes it more interesting for me. WOT is a good example of multiple characters and plots.

Do what you love, I guess. Melanie Rawn also does this well. It depends on how you want to tell your tale I guess. From one POV or a few but keep a limit or it can be quite the hop. You have to remember the character you are writing from, his or her perceptions etc. That is the tricky part.

GOT did it well in limiting it to a chapter for each character. Melanie Rawn kind of mixes it up in each chapter.

It really comes down to personal taste.

 

As many as it takes! Ideally centered around several key characters.

 

I am trying to keep my story mostly in my MC POV. However, my antagonist is very sneaky and in order for the reader to fully understand what is happening to my MC and why, I occasionally have to dip into someone else's head. For example, the nameless servant girl the sneaky antagonist employs to spy on my MC. The manservant who reports my MC's movement to enable the antagonist to set up an ambush. That kind of thing. Usually very very minor characters, and just one chapter here and there to show my antagonist's movements and actions.
The other time I use alternate POV's is for when authority figures in my MC's life are talking about events that are extremely relevant to the plot, but my MC would simply not know, bc she is not privy to the info. For example, my MC is a trainee at an army-type camp. The tides of war are rising and changing, and I have a scene where a sergeant and lieutenant are talking about what is going on in the world. It's not something that would make sense for a couple of trainees to be discussing, since it is info that was only reported to the rank at the time. But it is crucial to the final battle that the story is leading up to.
So I delve into other's heads every once in a while when it is pretty much unavoidable. But I ALWAYS separate different POVs with different chapters.

 

I feel that a multiple POV story is harder to write but can offer more rewards in terms of opening up the wider narrative and offering good twists in the narrative by looking at the other views.