The opportunities and pitfalls offered by multiple POVs are both the joy and the bane of the writer’s life. On the one hand, using multiple points of view to tell a story seems like it makes the job so much easier. No limits—woohoo! But on the other hand, once you start trying to juggle multiple […]
Search Results for: multiple povs
March 26, 2014 by 60 Comments Point of ViewVicarious Love: The Greatest Advantage of Multiple POVs
Multiple points of view—should you use them or should you not? More genre books than not use multiple POVs to present multiple protagonists–or sometimes just to give readers a glimpse at what’s happening behind the main character’s back. Usually, I’m more inclined to discuss their drawbacks, because, sadly, they’re more likely to be abused than […]
May 22, 2013 by 17 Comments Point of ViewAre Your Multiple POVs Killing Your Story’s Suspense?
This week’s video cautions against sharing too much information with readers at the expense of their investment in the protagonist. Video Transcript: A trend I’ve noticed among writers—myself included—is that we tend to love writing multiple POVs. We have all these characters that we just adore, and we want the opportunity to explore the mindsets and the activities of […]
March 13, 2013 by 32 Comments Characters3 Ways to Make Multiple POVs Equally Interesting in Your Story
It can be tricky to write a story that features multiple POVs. Not only must you create unique voices and arcs for every character to whom you give a point of view, you must also manage the sheer logistical problem of juggling all these people. And then there’s the rather scary possibility that readers may […]
March 14, 2012 by 49 Comments Point of ViewThe Biggest Danger of Multiple POVs
An author’s choice about which and how many characters to feature as point-of-view narrators is crucial to the story. The narrating characters will control the tone and flow of the story, and largely decide whether or not the book works. It’s true there are many advantages to multiple-narrator books. Not only do they allow you […]
July 25, 2022 by 91 Comments CharactersHow to Structure Stories With Multiple Main Characters?
One of the most common questions I’m asked is how to structure stories with multiple main characters. If you have two (or more) characters who are equally important to the story and receive equal POV time, how should you balance them when structuring your novel? At its core, story structure is a simple equation: one […]
August 18, 2017 by 24 Comments Point of ViewMultiple Narrators? How to Choose the Right POV
If you’re writing a multiple point of view novel—whether you’ve got two POV characters or an ensemble cast of POVs—it’s critical you know how to choose the right POV character’s perspective for each scene in your story. This may seem like a no-brainer, something that happens instinctively as you write, but I often see stories […]
June 8, 2011 by 31 Comments Point of ViewIntroduce Important POVs as Soon as Possible
By the time readers get through your first couple chapters, they will have made an emotional and intellectual investment in your main characters—your important POVs. If they’ve read this far and plan to continue reading, they’ve found the characters introduced in these chapters to be worth their time and attention. Now… imagine their annoyance when, […]
July 7, 2010 by 38 Comments Point of View3 Guidelines to Determine if Your Book Has Too Many POVs
Point of view—frequently referred to as POV—allow readers to see the story through the eyes of a character. In most instances, a skillful use of POV limits the story to only what is apparent to the POV characters. As a result, writers are sometimes tempted to include as many POVs as possible in an attempt […]
July 24, 2023 by 23 Comments Podcast8 Different Types of Scenes
Any story will require many different types of scenes. Some of this variety will come from content (romance vs. action vs. humor vs. tragedy). However, much of the variety in types of scenes will arise from the needs of pacing. Authors can find great value in understanding some of the different types of scenes, so […]
