Currently my story is going to be told from two people's perspectives. A male, and a female. It is very much possible i believe to only have the story in the female's point of view, but then we lose a lot of interaction with the other huge character in the story, as well as a good section of the plot where the female is not involved directly. Another challenge would be that im changing my story from past to present tense. The female is in first person, and the male is in third person to prevent confusion as to who's who in each chapter. I;m a tad unsure of my skills when it comes to third person present tense, but I'm willing to learn, but then back to the original question: Should i trim my story down to one POV, or keep both?
I've read a few books that I really enjoyed both POVs. As long as it is made clear whose POV it is, then I think you could do it, and do it well.
all the light we cannot see is told in 2 POV's and alternates between a young girl and young boy. They are both told in very similar 3rd person intimate perspective, but their personalities are so varied that its not a problem to figure out which is which. So id say you dont need to alternate between 1st and 3rd if you don't want to, just make sure your characters are unique.
I'd definitely go with 2 POVs, especially if it means that you get closer to the second, huge character. Also, I've read several books that are told in 1st person from two different characters, without any problems in determining who's POV a chapter is written from. Usually the POV is indicated both by the character's voice in the narration (using e.g. different dialects, vocabularies, etc.) and also an indication at the start of each chapter (e.g. the name of the character written above/below the chapter name, or a symbol that represents the character). The latter is not necessary, but can make it easier to determine who's narrating.
Thanks for the comments guys! I'll definitely be keeping it 2 POV then I'll play around with the other MC in first person -something tells me third person present tense would sound wierd, so I guess Ill have the char's name at the tart of each chapter to clarify. The chapters will also be consistently switching -so odd numbers would the the female, even numbers the male.
Ultimately up to you. I've begun noticing almost everything asked here can be answered with that If you write well, you can make just about anything work.
I was in past tense for a long time but a trick to get the reader into the immediacy of the now happening int eh story is easier to pull off in present tense for me i think
