Breaking POV

[gravesbane]

I am writing an Urban Fantasy Novel (who isn't) and it is in first person. Now it seems to me I can build more suspense if on occasion I break first person and do a little foreshadowing with other characters (only a few sentences or paragraphs at most). My question is does breaking the POV ruin the work as a whole or will it be too confusing to the reader.

[DragonEyes]

For me, crazy POV games make my head hurt. I'd prefer if an author stuck to one POV unless there is an obvious explanation why, such as with Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series. In which the metastory is in third person, but when Kvoth is telling his tale is done all in 1st. Most writing instructors suggest that you keep away from crazy POVs until you are very comfortable with your writing. If you are comfortable, break whatever rules you can get away with.

[cenwolfgirl]

you see i am actualy doing that with my book
its all oviusly conected and i use POV becaue i have diffrent charictors in diffrent places at the same time
its fun to right and the person who has read it thinks its amusing
however if you do it you have to be clear whos vew point you are using as other wise yes it gets confusing
what i try to do i change the chapter when the vew point or location changes that way its easia to say whos where and when doing what and what they are thinking about the events going on
hope that helps

[gravesbane]

Thank you both for your insights. 

[LizW65]

My novel is primarily first person, single POV with occasional chapters in third person from a second protagonist's POV.  Ratio is about 4-1.  I felt it was necessary in order to get some action into the story, since the main protagonist, by nature of her profession, is stuck behind a desk for much of the novel.  Obviously I have no problem with this; the trick is to do it in a way that doesn't feel clumsy or contrived, or confusing to the reader.

[Lanodantheon]

The best piece of advice I can give on this is that when you are using a narrative tool, use it in a consistent way. Keeping it consistent is the most important part of any artistic endeavor. Even if you do something weird and incorrect, as long as you do that thing the same way every single time you do it, the audience will forgive for it.


When shifting POV, maybe use italics or some other obvious formatting to ease the reader into what you are doing and allow them to easily identify when you are changing POV.


I would recommend that you start your story with the non-1st Person Perspective with the different formatting so that upfront the reader is open to another point-of-view. From there, ease the reader into the 1st Person Point of View with a direct signal, "This is your narrator. This is what he was thinking at that moment..."


If you did it the other way of starting in First person and then pulling out into 3rd...you'd have to be quite the wordsmith to be able to keep an audience's attention. When a reader is used to even a chapter of hearing a character's 1st person narration, the move to 3rd person will be really jarring.


The key is to clarify for the reader who is talking when.

[gravesbane]

All of your insights are very helpful and giving me some clues on how to do this. Thanks again to all of you.

[Delarith]

I have read books that had multiple POV's in them.  Normally it was one character for the first part of the book and then another after about 1/3 and then again another for the last 1/3.  I have also read series where each book was from a different character's POV.  It works as long as you don't get a character that the reader could care less what they are thinking.

[cenwolfgirl]

yep it has to be relivent to the plot if not now then latter
its realy easy to do forshadowing if you do POV shifts
i do it more reguly the 1/3 but thats becaue i didnt have a plain as to how long the book will be / exactly what will happen i just sate wroght and watched the fur fly in some cases now i have to neaten it all up
(its one aproch only do it if you get writters block)

[hank the ancient]

I've been experimenting with this myself by inserting archive/encyclopedia entries as stand alone chapters. Of course, the point of this is to blast through a lot of retroactive exposition (the work is future scifi, so setting up the universe is a bit of a chore).  If you really want to tell the action of the story from multiple points of view, I'd recommend cracking open a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula for inspiration. The whole narrative is told through newspaper clippings, correspondence, and journal entries.  Moreover, the character's repeatedly make statements in their own entries which only provide for "oh crap" moments because the reader just read an entry by someone else. You spend the first two thirds of the book screaming at them to compare frigging notes.

[Quantus]

For what it's worth, Ive thought about the same issue, and the best example I have found is how O.S. Card did it in Ender's Game:  He opened each chapter with a bit of disembodied dialog between people you only later realized you knew.  It gave a brief window into the "other side" while clearly distinguishing it from the main 1st person story (or was it Limited 3rd? in either case...) 

I found that way neatly sidestepped any confusion, and did well in building suspense by giving the reader those little details and foreshadows that the normal structure didn't allow for. 


0.02