McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Point of view shifts

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Darwinist:
My new story has two main characters. The idea is that it could become a series, and that eventually the series will take them from being roommates/friends to enemies. With the competing POV, you get an insight into where things come together and where they fall apart. To keep it from being difficult to follow, I wrote the "hero" of the story in first person and the eventual villain (not in this book, but down the road) in third person. I know its a bad analogy, but consider the Harry Potter novels where Potter had first person and Weasley had third. You are able to establish the wow factor from Harry's view and then background info he never would have known via info dumps in Weasley's third POV. You also get to see how other people view Harry, and the possibility of an unreliable narrator contrasting from either persons POV.

My question is: in a full length novel, how often can you switch these perspectives without blowing the gimmick or losing the reader? I've seen other YA novels like this, mostly Rick Riordan, where he switches every two chapters. What's everyone's opinion on this?

LizW65:
My novel uses pretty much the same device.  Two protagonists.  One, the female, is the main "voice" of the story and first person narrator; her chapters are numbered.  The male protagonist has occasional POV chapters in third person (maybe 20 percent of the text) which instead of numbers, have a date and time, and are quite different in style. 

Aminar:
Umm...  Not to start an argument, but none of the Harry Potter books were first person...  At all.  Maybe a few dream sequences...

That said, do what you need to to tell the story.

Darwinist:
As I said, a terrible analogy. I don't know that any of the Potter series is first person. I'm pretty sure all of it is in third. I was just pointing out how it could be used in the way I am imagining it. Still, terrible analogy, I agree.

My main concern is that by switching it up often as I am, every other chapter sometimes but usually 2-3 chapters from the main (first person) POV and then a foray into the other (third person POV of second protag) for one chapter to mix it up, that I might be putting people off. Most of you have a much large reading library than I do, so I thought I'd check what your opinion of this might be.

Aminar:
Ah.  I see.  I didn't catch that it was a hypothetical.

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