The Best Way to Write Multiple Point-of-View Characters in Your Story

[@missdragon5892]

I think writing multiple POVs means you can explore more than one character's motivations, and seeing conflicting motivations in a scene, or even the same goal but different reasons for wanting it, can build a lot more narrative intrigue than if you were just in one character's head.

[@Jed_Herne]

Agreed!

[@m.j.johnsonbooks7856]

First off, Congratulations to Rob on the wedding!! Less importantly: Even getting perspectives of characters working together you get to see their hidden insecurities and that can enhance how you can write them when you’re not in their head. I love reading when an author can do that.

[@mdptg1990]

I’d love a more specific video on this created by yourself. I think this is a discussion on multi POV books as opposed to a guide on multi-POVs

[@julius-stark]

15:33 agree 100%. For my first novel I decided to to character POV, and when planning I (stupidly) thought "well, everyone should get an equal number of chapters". Stupid. No. Granted the main character got the most chapters, but secondary characters go more chapters than main characters because it was more interesting seeing events from their perspective. It takes a little trial an error, but always lean towards what best serves the story.

[@mikevoss4894]

Regarding Mike's warning about showing the same scene from multiple points of view: while it can be done well, readers may still complain no matter how cleverly it's done. The most extreme example I've encountered is when John Scalzi wrapped up his Old Man's War series from the customary mc pov, then wrote a 4th book that told the "same" story from the pov of the mc's daughter - except he really didn't. There was overlap in some parts, but the reason he did it was the daughter traveled offworld for most of the book, giving us insight into the events she experienced that happened "offscreen" in the previous book. Imo it was one of the best books in the series, but there was a pretty significant backlash from readers complaining they'd been duped into reading "the same story" over again, despite most of it really being "new" material that had only been summarized or implied previously.

[@nicholauscrawford7903]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller did a lot of that and it was really well received.

[@StarlasAiko]

17:25 I would use writing the exactly same scene from different PoV as a tool for first draft. Write both, thern choose which one to put into the book.

[@infernovoltage3378]

I just watched the Battle the World forgot. It executed the multiple POV perfectly… the main characters are a British pilot, a kid in the nazi army and a Dutch girl. highly recommended a watch

[@DAGDRUM53]

4:30 The sword & sorcery genre ruled fantasy from 1967 to 1977 when it abruptly died in the marketplace like an axe out of nowhere split its hoary skull. Robert E. Howard's story Shadows in the Moonlight displays his acute awareness and dynamic command of strict third person limited (in 1934!), the tale told exclusively from Olivia's POV, not one sentence is spent in Conan's head. Later in the same year the panoramic Conan novelette A Witch Shall Be Born switched POVs in each of its five chapters, the third brilliantly detailing a passage of time in epistolary form by a character not in the rest of the narrative at all. I only realized Howard as a master of juggling tenses and styles after marveling at Robert Jordan's cohesive viewpoint hopping. Mightily impressed by that I attempted a long chapter with seven passengers in a limousine trying to stay inside a single POV; I only cheated once. It still bothers me 15 years later.

[@FabbeNJ369]

I found that your book is on storytel! I’ve begun listening to it

[@Jed_Herne]

Enjoy!

[@Royalscriber5633]

I'm really interested in using multiple points of view because i have my mc in a position where hes technically on the run as a criminal but he isn't aware of how the law, and church, and enemies actually view his actions and i have characters that show that view revealing information that the main character may or may not be aware of throughout the story. The mcs father in my book is someone I've basically got a character arc where he discovered information that clears his sons name but he ends up in enemy territory protecting someone he never would've considered protecting before his sons "crime"

[@bazhumke4040]

hey jed-- have you ever read anna karenina? never read a multi-POV book that does what that book does. truly wild

[@nicholauscrawford7903]

A really fascinating case study in this multiple point of view method is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller! Have you read it, Jed?

[@footballfactory8797]

I think there were too many pov’s in this bloody video talking over each orher 😂😂 im sure it was the lag guys