Point of View Question

[DreamCloud]

I have been going back and forth between first person and third person in a story I have been working on. It will be novel sized and I have rewritten the start many times trying to settle on a pattern.

There are elements that are best written in first person. There are also events that can't involve the narrator, but are crucial to the story line.

Question: Is it too confusing to switch first person and third person between chapters?

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I have been going back and forth between first person and third person in a story I have been working on. It will be novel sized and I have rewritten the start many times trying to settle on a pattern.

There are elements that are best written in first person. There are also events that can't involve the narrator, but are crucial to the story line.

Question: Is it too confusing to switch first person and third person between chapters?

Can be unless you make it clear to the reader. Remember, I, as narrator, is also in the story but third person (limited or omniscient )is not. I prefer the word 'perspective'.

 

[Carnevil9]

It would be confusing and disorienting without an in-story reason that allows it to make sense.

One approach: the long narrative. You can have a chapter where the main character (or any other character, I suppose) is relating a tale to a friend/therapist/barber/etc. At that point, the entire chapter becomes first person, in effect. Along with all the advantages and disadvantages (relating what the character felt, and being able to leave out information being hid from the reader, etc.). When the character is done telling his tale, it goes back to third person. It's never literally first person, of course, but it works the same way, temporarily.

Another approach is the old journal entry trick. "Harry picked up Sue's journal and began to read: "It was Monday morning; I had just gotten up for work when...." "

 

[nomoretears00]

I have a novel releasing from Dreamspinner Press on the 26th that has both 3rd and 1st POV. It has three main characters: Tal, Dolf, and Kirk. Tal and Dolf are in 3rd POV and Kirk's POV is 1st.

I did it this way because there were things I needed told from the 1st POV since Kirk is the focal point of the novel. I already have reviews out on it from ARC's and no one has mention the shifting POV as a problem. (No, the one negative so far is too much sex lol.)

But... I labeled each chapter so the reader would know whose head they're in. If you're going to switch POV by chapter (like I did), then label it. And that advice came from my senior editor.

 

[PennLady]

What NMT said is good advice. I was going to say that I've read some novels by JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts) that also employ this trick. Most of the books -- they're mystery/thriller/romance -- are in 3d person, but in some books she'll switch to first person for the bad guy's POV. It works b/c it's clear to the reader. She doesn't use chapter headings but does use spacing breaks, so it's easy to see when the switch occurs.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, Nora Roberts is the one who came to my mind on doing this. So, it can be done without losing a fan base.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've seen plenty of authors do 1st/3rd person switch without trouble.

One device for this is to present it in an "edited memoirs" style. One series I read is mostly 1st-person (and an unreliable one at that) but occasionally his editor chimes in to say "and for context, here's what was happening elsewhere". Another series uses "and here's our best reconstruction of what the vampires were doing at the time".

But you don't need those devices. As long as the shift is clear to the reader, it should be OK.

Another option would be switching between 3rd person omniscient (tell readers anything you like) and 3rd person limited (showing only one perspective - almost first-person but told as "s/he" instead of "I").

 

[CharleyH]

Depends on the story, really. Some love the changing POV. Some hate it. The most important thing to remember is: just write.

 

[Hypoxia]

Another option would be switching between 3rd person omniscient (tell readers anything you like) and 3rd person limited (showing only one perspective - almost first-person but told as "s/he" instead of "I").

I did something like that in BRIDE OF KONG (1) (2) (3) (4). Most of the tale is in 3rd-limited with a smattering of 3rd-omniscient, but some scene-setting sections are more like 2nd-omniscient, from the POV of a "magic eye". Those sections are clearly delimited to avoid reader confusion, I hope.

 

[DreamCloud]

Thank you for your comments.

I think I may just stick with 3rd person. I don't think I am skilled enough to thwart the confusion I would create by switching perspective.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Thank you for your comments.

I think I may just stick with 3rd person. I don't think I am skilled enough to thwart the confusion I would create by switching perspective.

No, don't give up.

Just make sure you give chapter titles that tell the reader about the perspective shift. Readers will follow if you guide them.

 

[jomar]

I don't think chapter headings signaling a shift are necessary. I've read plenty of books that didn't. Trust your audience to know the difference between "I ran..." and "Reacher ran..."

 

[robertreams]

I recently read a published novel containing the 1st person POV of three different characters in alternating chapters. I think the other will work. There are no set rules governing POV. I would put a sample o here and ask for opinions, discard the ones hat seem self aggrandizing and take heed of those that sound helpful. In the end, once the run-ons and the misspellings and the miswordings are cleared away, the question should be: how does it read? Is it choppy? smooth. Does the transition make the reader go. "huh"? Is that intentional for effect?

 

[HuckPilgrim]

I have been going back and forth between first person and third person in a story I have been working on. It will be novel sized and I have rewritten the start many times trying to settle on a pattern.

There are elements that are best written in first person. There are also events that can't involve the narrator, but are crucial to the story line.

Question: Is it too confusing to switch first person and third person between chapters?

Roxane Gay uses both first and third to great effect in her novel An Untamed State. It's a story about a wealthy Caribbean woman who is abducted for ransom but her father refuses to pay. The woman's harrowing experience is done in first person, but occasionally the reader needs to know what is up with her father and husband, who are not with the criminals holding her hostage. I think the secret to making that book work is that it's mostly from the POV of the girl. Occasionally there is a section done in third person omniscient and these are mostly focused on the husband but occasionally dip into the psyche of dad. There is no real pattern other than an occasional need to give the reader some information about what's going on inside her husband/father's head.

It's a recent novel and quite good. Roxane is a rising star in literary circles and quite a fascinating woman. I got to meet her at a reading when the book first came out.

 

[CWatson]

A Song of Ice and Fire (aka HBO's Game of Thrones) does what several people have suggested: each chapter is titled with the name of the character narrating it. The chapters themselves are in 3rd-person-limited viewpoint.

In my opinion, your problem isn't that you need to switch in and out of 1st person. Your problem is that you need more than one character to be a narrator. George R. R. Martin is once again instructive on how this can work. Because he uses multiple narrators, he can show The Reader what causes the War of Five Kings (the queen is fucking her twin brother, which is both twincest and treason) but keep almost every character in the dark about it (indeed, almost all of Ned's character arc is about discovering it) for close to five hundred pages. But at the same time, GRRM does not just add a bunch of narrators on because he wants to show things. The first two battles of the war (The Battle of the Whispering Wood and The Battle of the Camps) happen "off-screen," and in the case of the second, no narrators are even vaguely present for it; a beleaguered courier has to tell the whole story of it several days after the fact. So having your characters "miss" important events and need to be filled in later can be made to work.

As to switching between 1st and 3rd... You can do it, but it can really break Suspension of Disbelief. That's why I think your real problem is that you need another narrator. Switching to a different person's head, but using the same camera, is easier than switching to a different camera--especially if you plan to go 3rd-person-omniscent and not have a narrator anymore.

Free advice, worth what you paid for it.

 

[PervOtaku]

It's a fine line to tread. If it seems too awkward in your head or after you've written it out, it probably is, but if it seems like it works okay, it probably does. I would also have to consider the tone of the third person narrator. Most of the time the narration is neutral and informative, but occasionally you'll see a narrator that is self-aware of being a narrator. Having the narrator blatantly acknowledge the perspective shifts might be one way of making them less out of place. Actually, it could be that you really only have to worry about the first such transition. Once you're past that, the reader knows what you're doing. You just have to establish quickly that it's not the first person narrator talking anymore, something like "While all of that was happening to Jane, back at home her parents..."

 

[LaRascasse]

Third person omniscient gives you the most scope to tell a story without the bounds of "would he know this?" I actually use a variant of this where I focus on one character throughout, but in third person.

 

[sr71plt]

Third person omniscient is also known as the "lazy readers'" perspective. Everything is spoon fed to the reader and they aren't expected (or expecting, if that's their favorite perspective) to become engaged as part of the story--thus sort of the opposite of what you want for erotica. Good for porn, though.

 

[CWatson]

Third person omniscient gives you the most scope to tell a story without the bounds of "would he know this?" I actually use a variant of this where I focus on one character throughout, but in third person.

So... 3rd-Person Limited?

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I'm most a fan of a single POV through-out stories. I think the OP could write from the 3rd person, while expanding and contracting the view as needed. Just a thought.