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Point Of View – 3rd Multiple
Nov
Definition
Multiple third-person POV involves writing separate scenes from the viewpoints of each of your characters. The author must stay in one character’s head for the entire scene and maintain proper POV rules, such as not relaying to the reader what the thoughts of the opposite character are.
Books Written in 3rd Multiple POV
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Anything by George R. R. Martin
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Example of 3rd Multiple POV
An example of an effective POV shift:
The following passage is an example of switching from a group point of view to a singular third person POV.
Grandma Elisabeth headed into the dining room and took her seat at the head of the table. Atop every plate was a small, folded piece of paper, each adorned with a name in a long cursive sprawl. The rest of the family awkwardly shuffled into the dining room. Their eyes darted from plate to plate, their faces attempting to conceal their inner thoughts— soft smiles of relief of a seat out of the line of fire, or resignation pulling at their eyes and the corners of their lips as they found their chairs closer to the head of the table. The family mechanically sat down in their respective seats in reserved silence.
“It wasn’t dad’s fault,” Joe whispered in the silence of the room. He sat in a chair at the far end of the table.
Half the family looked quickly to Joe in astonishment, the other half looked downward, deeply concentrated with the pattern of leaves and flowers on the cleanly pressed tablecloth. Grandma Elisabeth’s blue eyes shone piercingly; no one spoke in the broken silence.
Joe felt the dread of the upcoming battle, and then a surge of anger boiled up in his stomach. He let the rage wash over him and spoke again, this time more loudly with every word.
“It wasn’t his fault, and you know it.”
In this passage, the beginning POV is that of the family as a group, and then shifts to Joe’s perspective. At the beginning of the passage, the reader is shown information about the family’s actions that indicate how the family feels—how they move awkwardly and shuffle, how their eyes “dart” in anxiety.
The POV shift occurs when Joe takes an action by “speaking” and breaks the tension of quiet anticipation in the room. At this point, the reader is prepared for the argument to take place, and more specifically, from Joe’s personal perspective.
Using this shift in perspective from the collective to the individual is an example of how to give your reader an overview of the overall group feeling, and then shift to the feelings of the individual character. Everyone knows what it’s like to feel awkward and uncomfortable in a group, and the burning desire to state how you really feel no matter the consequences. This particular POV shift is highly effective not only at setting the emotional scene but at making the character more relatable.
Difference Between Omniscient & Multiple
This isn’t the same as writing from an omniscient POV. In third-person multiple POV, we don’t have a God-like narrator, and readers only hear the thoughts and experience one character’s emotions per scene. Some authors even prefer to have only one POV character per chapter.
Voice
Since you can have multiple viewpoints characters in both third-person limited and deep third-person POV, the voice will be either a neutral one or that of the POV character—which means that the will change from scene to scene or from chapter to chapter.
Advantages
Character Drive
Multiple points of view allow your reader to learn what drives each character to do things they may do.
Broadened Scope
It helps the author to broaden the scope of who should be included in the story, from main characters to secondary ones.
Tension & Suspense
Different third-person points of view keep up the tension. You don’t want your readers bored, and this POV lets you shift perspectives in different scenes, keeping the reader on their toes and providing them with more dynamic insight into the plot.
Forward Moving Pace
It keeps the pace moving. You want your plot to move briskly, and you want your reader to look forward to the next chapter. Moving from one character to another gives the story momentum.
Variety of Perspectives
Third-person POV offers the reader a variety of perspectives. It can make a story more complex and intriguing for a reader. For example, allowing the reader to watch the antagonist plot his crimes while in tandem showing the intricate details of what drives the hero or heroine.
Disadvantages
Possible Head-Hopping
As an author, you must stay on your toes and methodically maintain a character’s POV in each scene rather than head-hopping between characters and confusing your reader with too many perspectives.
Loss of Momentum
If you shift POV too much, you can lose momentum and, ultimately, the reader.
Emotional Emphasis on Wrong Characters
Shifting third-person can sometimes put emotional emphasis on the wrong characters. If you’re attempting to shift perspective simply for the sake of it, you risk throwing your character development out of whack.
Not All Genre Friendly
The third-person multiple POV won’t apply to all genres. It’s obviously not ideal for memoir-style fiction, books for younger readers, and novels with parallel narratives that are better off in the first person.
Common Genres
If you take a look at the current NYT Best Sellers List, you’ll see that the majority of the fiction on the list is written in third person multiple. Books with alternating points of view give heightened dimension to characters and are regarded as highly enjoyable by readers, provided the author is skilled. It’s a super popular technique in the modern novel that’s not going away anytime soon.
If you want a masterclass in third person multiple, pick up something by Tolkien. Tolkien is known as one of the greatest worldbuilders of all time, but his seamless shifts in POV are partly why readers of all ages become emotionally attached to his characters.
Third person multiple is also frequently used in romance writing. You can quickly recognize the style by using pronouns such as “she” and “he.” Romance authors like to use this POV because it’s extremely helpful in showing how the budding relationship expands between both the protagonist and their love interest. Even though romances are intimate by nature, dual POV romance novels allow the reader to make an even deeper connection with each character.
Handling POV Shifts in 3rd Multiple POV
One of the best indicators for switching character POV within a story is when something changes that necessitates inner input from a different character. This change in perspective can be used to provide greater insight or understanding for your reader and heighten the impact of the plot on the characters.
Be sure to make scene changes distinct. Most commonly, this will be a scene change. If you change POVs in the middle of the scene, make it 100% clear that you’ve changed. When changing scenes, make sure the story picks up where the last scene left off.
Another common error writers make when switching points of view is doing so too frequently. Some writers may use the POV as an excuse to enter the heads of several different characters within one chapter too quickly. There’s no real rule about how long a particular scene should be for any character, but switching back and forth too quickly can make the prose confusing. If you find yourself shifting heads more than two or three times in a scene, there might be a problem, and you might want to take a step back to see which character will benefit the scene the most and then rewrite the scene to hold that one person’s POV. An easy rule of thumb is to avoid head-hopping completely and stick to one POV for one scene, especially when you’re new to using the third-person multiple.
TIP: Watch the number of times you switch POV. Remember that something should change, i.e. the scene, the mood, etc., to make the POV shift natural and not superfluous or confusing. You want to make sure to use the character that’s getting the most benefit from the scene and stay in their POV before you start writing from another character’s perspective.
Choosing the Number of POV Characters
For starters, consider a few basic tenets of POV.
- POV indicates an important character, since it gives readers an intimate look into his mind.
- Using more than one POV allows readers to see things through more than one character’s mind.
- POV is most effective when assigned to the character who has the most at stake in any given scene.
In order to effectively utilize these components of POV, you must realize the more POV characters you have, the more you’re forcing your readers to spread out their attention and loyalty.
Multiple POVs can fragment your story and destroy its focus. So consider carefully every time you decide to introduce a new POV.
Does this new POV add something vital to the story—or could the scenes be reworked into an existing POV character’s viewpoint? The answer will affect your entire book.
Choosing the Number of Scenes for Each POV Character
There are no hard and fast rules for how many scenes each POV character should get. Obviously, the protagonist should receive the majority of scenes. He or she should also be the POV character in the very first scene because that will tell readers whose story this is.
If you have two main characters, they don’t need to have the exact same number of scenes, but both of them shouldn’t go too long without getting a scene from their POV.
You might want to reconsider if you have a POV character who only gets one or two scenes in the entire book. If you tell a scene from his or her POV in chapter 3 and then never again, readers will feel it’s a loose end.
One good reason to use multiple POV characters is it allows for strong scene cuts. Just as one character falls into a dangerous situation, SCENE CUT. We leave that character hanging on the edge of a pit, while we explore another character’s side of the story, until that character is in danger and. SCENE CUT, back to the first character, where we left him about to fall onto a shrub that breaks his fall before he finds himself in some other danger.
Choosing a POV Character for a Scene
How do you do it? Good question. That’s an important decision to make, especially for scenes that need to be powerful, e.g., the opening scene, the climax, the very last scene, or love scenes.
Consider:
Stakes
Who has the most to lose or gain in this scene? Usually, you should present each scene through the eyes of the character who has the most at risk.
Impact
Which character will be changed the most by the events in this scene?
Involvement
Who is the most active character in the scene? Whose goal drives the action in this scene? If the character is more of a passive observer, he or she might not make the best POV character.
Emotions
Which character experiences the stronger or most interesting emotions in this scene? The person with the most intense emotions will probably make a good POV character, especially if his or her emotions might not be obvious through body language and facial expressions.
Identification
Who do you want readers to identify with? The more time readers spend in a character’s head, the more they connect with that character.
Suspense
Choosing the right POV can help you control what information readers have. Which character doesn’t know about something you want to keep hidden or knows about something you want to reveal? If you want to keep certain information hidden a while longer, choose a character who doesn’t know. Remember that concealing information from the reader when the POV character knows about it and would normally be thinking about it is cheating.
Descriptions
Which character would notice the details you want your readers to notice? For example, if you want to describe a setting or a character, choose the POV of a character who isn’t familiar with them and has reason to notice how a person or location looks.
Motivation
Whose motivations need to be shown because his actions and dialogue don’t reveal it?
Subtext
Whose thoughts contradict his or her words or actions? If a character is saying one thing but thinking another, you might want to tell the scene from this person’s point of view.
Tips
Learning to write multiple POVs isn’t necessarily difficult as long as you attack it methodically. A lot of novice writers sometimes try to use this POV and get confused, break the rules, and lose their readers. Multiple third-person POV and head-hopping often get mixed up when they’re two entirely different matters.
Remember to keep a strong grasp on how your novel is paced and to strictly discipline the number of different views, and third-person multiple can be a great tool for your author’s toolbox. Stick to the following three tips for writing in third-person multiple. You’ll be able to effectively harness shifts in POV without falling prey to common mistakes.
Develop a Distinct Persona, Purpose, and Voice for Each Character
One of the most important rules for writing in third-person multiple POV is to make sure each of your characters is different enough so that when the POV changes, the reader isn’t confused about which character is in focus. Technically this falls more under character building than POV, but it’s a very important point to consider. To avoid this problem, ensure your characters have original and distinct traits. Give each of them very different backgrounds, jobs, ages, and personalities.
TIP: Think of the third person multiple as a tool for character building: that is, constructing the inner world—thoughts, emotions, and motivators—of your characters. Be sure to stay true to each character’s inner voice and not intermingle it with those of the others, as this can seriously dilute character development and confuse readers.
How to Balance Character POVs
If you’re a beginning author trying out writing multiple POV, choose which characters are most important to you and stick to their heads. Switch heads only when there’s a need, and never switch characters just because you can! The result can be confusing and can feel forced. Don’t sweat being unable to write from the mind-body-spirit of every character in your story.
Also, limit the number of characters in your book if you want to consistently leverage third person multiple. Too many characters with separate POVs can confuse the reader and even you as the author. You can still have many different characters, but strictly limit the number of head changes in the manuscript.
TIP: Keep your story focused. Just because you’re giving the view of many characters doesn’t mean you can’t maintain pace. Give each character their emotional weight and specific hopes and fears. Place emotional/cognitive emphasis where the readers need it, not for the sake of getting into every single head in your story.
