Multiple POV stories - best way to tell

[LetsMisBehave]

As a human being, I am interested in the fact that two people can, without being totally self-absorbed SOBs, genuinely perceive the same set of circumstances very differently depending on their starting points or the knowledge of the facts they have. Conveying this as a story is not easy. Multiple POVs in the same chapter can be disconcerting, especially when the story does not easily fit into one category or another. I know, as a reader, it can distract my attention.
On the other hand, the other approach, which is to have two or more POV stories in different categories, is challenging to carry off. I am having a go at this at the moment. Technically, it is fun and choosing to write the POVs of the two least selfish/cynical people in the story is a good exercise.
It is disconcerting that despite telling readers that this is a side-by-side story, one side of the story has more than double the views of the other. Admittedly, choosing Mature and LW as my two starting points may have skewed things and the comments from those who have tried both are encouraging that some readers enjoy what I am trying for. (I have no problem with the different scores - if one goes into LW you need thick skin)
I would be interested in any experience other authors have had in dealing with this challenge.

 

[Euphony]

The examples that stick out in my memory almost always avoided POV switches and tended to employ retelling of the event, usually with the hard break of a chapter to make it easiest for the reader to recognize the hard pivot.

If it doesn't have to be so stark to fuel your motivation, plenty can be done with 3rd person to introduce the bulk of the experience then leverage context and disagreements through dialog to shape each characters position and where those shapes are vulnerable to friction.

Live POV switching in text as you are suggesting you want is a HIGH degree of difficulty. Difficult enough if I legit wanted to pull it off, I'm doing significant academic research well beyond what a forum of hobbyist can generally offer.

 

[PennameWombat]

The majority of my published stories are third-person limited, multi-POV stories, but using a reasonably traditional multi-POV structure where different sections of a published story have their own POV character. Usually limited to two to four per story. I don't try to do any sort of sliding or 'live' POV changes (at least not intentionally ). I also tend not to have the different POVs retread the same event, although there is often limited overlap from one to the next.

But I have have on occasion where different stories went over the same event or series of events, which each story having its own focus characters and their POVs, as well as other themes and events, but did interleave through a series of events that made up important, but nowhere near the total content of any of the stories.

You Promised Me Geeks: Asha & Tracy is in NonHuman. In there, a robbery and kidnapping led to the MCs meeting up with a policewoman in:

Chasing Robes and Shadows is in Novels and Novellas. It's a sequel to another story, and the MC, police woman Joyce Shaw, works through various investigations, including the robbery and kidnapping above that led her to meet the MCs from the below story.

Chronicle - Mel and Chris Ch. 04, in SF&F. The MCs from the above stories all converged in this story for a key sequence of events. These are related by each separate story's POV characters, so in this one, these MCs are the POVs (Chris and Sam), and in Chasing Robes and Shadows we get Joyce Shaw's POV, of common events.

All of the stories have good scores, but none have astronomical view numbers. Not surprising, as these are not Categories that generally attract big numbers, and the last one listed is par 4 of an ongoing series, so that's always going to have lower numbers. But, one note, you don't need to read these three specifically to understand the events. It's just that if you do read all of them, you get a 'richer' experience (well, at least I hope you do.)

As these are all in a shared universe, many of my stories have references to characters or events in others, usually meant as 'easter eggs' and I try to ensure that they make sense in the context in which they appear. Only in explicitly numbered series (like the above), do I expect a reader to have read the preceding stories.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I recently did two stories with switch first-person POV's. I switch between the MMC and the FMC each chapter (around 1800 words). I did this because I think first-person can be more intimate than third-person. And I wanted these stories to be to really get into what the characters were feeling. I also just wanted to give it a try. I've only had one commenter who didn't care for it. I will continue using it until I finish the trilogy. Pt. 3 is in the works now. Will I do it again in the future? Probably not, but it was an interesting experiment.

They are my Aunt Tina stories and you can find them through my links below if interested. If you are, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on that writing style.

 

[Altissimus]

Alternate CTP POVs here.