forum tips for changing character povs each chapter???

Started April 04, 2019 by @flora.books

tune

?????

What are you looking for?

haha whoops was i not specific enough– but anyway so i'm trying to write a book and i want to have like each chapter be a different character's perspective yknow but iiii suck at that and i basically have no idea how to do it sooo any tips lol?

The tips I have for switching the povs is to make sure each character’s POV is distinct enough that the reader should be able to tell who it is with seeing the header. Easiest way to do this is so they have different ways of thinking. Some examples could be; one is British and the other is American so they call the same thing different words, or they have different beliefs towards something. They should have different enough end goals. They could share the same umbrella goal (idk if you’ve read One Of Us Is Lying but I’m gonna use that as an example. They all have the end goal of finding out who murdered Simeo) but give each of them a, what I like to call, sub goal. Every character in a book should have a sub goal. But a sub goal is basically a personal goal the character has that doesn’t entirely have to do with the other characters. (Examples: become more out going, find out about their past, etc). Sub goals are basically just character development in a way. But the main thing to do when writing different POV is to make sure it sounds different enough from the other(s). Now I’m going to switch to a slightly different topic, how many povs is too much. When you start writing you should start off with less povs. Typically I would say one to two povs, maybe three. This is for the reasons of 1. It makes it easier for you to make sure each piece is different enough from the other 2. It isn’t too confusing for your readers to know what is going on. And finally 3. So that your reader doesn’t feel that one perspective is much more interesting than the others. They will mostly skim through the “boring chapters” so they can get to the part they like better. If you have too many povs they will often miss more part of your book. It’s almost impossible to make each POV just as interesting as the other(s), but doesn’t mean you can’t try. Most published authors can’t do this, so don’t be too upset if you haven’t mastered it yet. The results of a chapter being “interesting” or not also depend on what the reader likes. So there is no guarantee that they will love both povs the same. Writing different povs can be really fun and it helps change things up when you get to a point of which you are stuck. I hope I helped, and good luck with your book!

woAH thank you so much that was actually super helpful!!

Agreed. Good wall.

I’m currently writing a book with different character povs and I’ve done a little research. Ironically it was last night lol

Isn't it amazing how that works out.

I mean, Suga Lover said it better than I could, but make sure that all of the characters have different enough voices. For example, Children of Blood and Bone has 3 POV characters (Zelie, Amari, and Inan) and each has a different voice. Same with King's Cage with Cameron, Mare, and Evangeline, they all sound different enough and have different perspectives.
For these two examples, COBAB is told from a girl with magic, the runaway princess, and the prince.
King's Cage has Mare (a captive), Cameron (a Newblood soldier) and Evangeline (a Silver aristocrat).