Rob from the Costa del Sol writes: Many of our writing group members have been struggling to resolve the issues surrounding the
‘Point of View’ often simply referred to as POV.
Our main POV problem
lies in writing in the 3rd person and the introduction of multi
POVs. Is this permissible or must it
be avoided?
ANSWER
The use of multiple points of view is one of those areas
where you will most probably receive a different answer from every person you
ask.
For very short stories, it is certainly not advisable to use
more than one point of view, as it is easier for the reader to identify with a
single character. For longer works, there is no reason why you cannot use
several points of view, as long as your reader is able to follow what is going
on.
Changes of POV can be very confusing unless clearly
signalled, but the technique is extremely successful when used correctly. Anyone
who has read Lord of the Rings will
be aware of just how effective it can be. The POV switches were used to
increase the tension, leaving the reader gasping to know what was happening to
the characters they’d left behind, but at the same time relieved to catch up with
others.
Some writers say you shouldn’t change POV within a chapter,
but I think it is fine to switch, as long as the guidelines below are followed.
- Don’t change point of view
mid-scene
- Clearly signal a point of
view change by leaving a line of space, or inserting three asterisks,
before moving on to the next character’s viewpoint
- Make sure the reader knows from the very first sentence whose point of view they have moved to (it is
very frustrating to think you are still reading from one POV, only to find
out several paragraphs later that you are, in fact, in a different POV)
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