It’s true there are many advantages to multiple-narrator books. Not only do they allow you to delve into the heads and personalities of multiple people, they can also present a more rounded view of the story and give readers a look at scenes that would otherwise be off-limits.
However, for every benefit to multiple POVs, you also have to avoid a potential pitfall. The pitfall I want to talk about today is the simple possibility of ending up with readers liking one POV dramatically more than they like the other. It’s understandable that readers aren’t likely to fall equally in love with all your characters. Even authors usually have some characters we like better than others. This isn’t necessarily a problem except when this imbalance occurs between POV characters who are given equal amounts of time on the page.
As readers, we can probably all attest that what happens in this situation is that, as soon as we have to leave the POV of the character we like in order to enter the POV of the character we don’t like as much, we grow restless and frustrated and maybe we even start skipping pages to get back to our favored POV.
As you’re selecting POVs for your story, consider how they’re going to affect readers. You will never be able to perfectly foretell reader reactions. But keep in mind that readers should prefer your main character’s POV above all others. After that, they will probably favor amusing or interesting minor characters. Bad guys (unless they’re extremely well written) often come last. With that in mind, weigh the costs before implementing a POV that will force readers to spend long chunks of time away from their favorite characters.
