Is it possible to write a novel with three different points of view?

[RodimusGT]

Being that I'm new to the writing gig I find it ten times easier to write a story in the first person. Even when reading books I tend to stick to first person novels I just feel more immersed in the story.

My issue is the one book I'm planning to write is impossible to write from just one persons point of view, and to really get everything in there I want I would have to write from three. I know it's possible to do, but in your opinion can it be done in a way that flows well? If adding that many POV's would really take the reader out of the story I'd much rather just give third person a try.

Opinions are appreciated, thanks!

[Shecky]

Read Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. Multiple first-person PoVs.

[Gruud]

Boy, I sure hope so! 

Although I'm sing limited third, not first.

Here's a good thread on this very subject.

I thought good opnions were given all around.

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,18730.0.html

[RodimusGT]

Thanks for the quick responses guys! This helped a lot.

I feel like I should just write that story in third person, then I can have access to a lot of different characters' POV, but I feel my talent is with first.

[Shecky]

Boy, I sure hope so! 

Although I'm sing limited third, not first.

Here's a good thread on this very subject.

I thought good opnions were given all around.

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,18730.0.html

Jim's own Codex Alera shifts between multiple limited-third PoVs.

[Wordmaker]

You can absolutely use multiple POVs, and to great effect. One thing I'd suggest is to note down before you start exactly who your POV characters will be and stick to that like glue. It can be very easy to accidentally slip into another character's POV without realising, describing things that, even in a 3rd-person narrative, your actual POV characters could not know.

This is also important when you have more than one of your POV characters in the same scene together. In those cases, I would advise choosing just one of the POVs to use for the duration of that scene. This helps keep the reader focused and avoids confusion.

[Gruud]

I tend to stick with one POV per chapter, if at all possible.

If the action or plot dictates that I change POV in the middle of a chapter, somewhere I pcked up the idea/trick to do a double return, followed by a single "*" centered in the page, then another double return before starting the first paragraph of the new POV.

This gives the reader a nice visual cue that something is changing.

[Shecky]

I tend to stick with one POV per chapter, if at all possible.

If the action or plot dictates that I change POV in the middle of a chapter, somewhere I pcked up the idea/trick to do a double return, followed by a single "*" centered in the page, then another double return before starting the first paragraph of the new POV.

This gives the reader a nice visual cue that something is changing.

Jim's method for in-chapter PoV shifting was a simple double return.

[Starbeam]

Being that I'm new to the writing gig I find it ten times easier to write a story in the first person. Even when reading books I tend to stick to first person novels I just feel more immersed in the story.

My issue is the one book I'm planning to write is impossible to write from just one persons point of view, and to really get everything in there I want I would have to write from three. I know it's possible to do, but in your opinion can it be done in a way that flows well? If adding that many POV's would really take the reader out of the story I'd much rather just give third person a try.

Opinions are appreciated, thanks!

It's possibly to do multiple POVs in 1st, but it can be more difficult.  The biggest thing you need to do is differentiate the voices of each character so that they don't come across as the same and so that the reader is able to tell that the POV has switched.  Another obvious way is to label chapter headings with the characters name.

I would suggest trying both 1st and 3rd for about a page or so with each POV, not necessarily anything that'll be included, just to get a feel for each character, as well as to see which works better.

[RodimusGT]

Awesome feedback! Thanks again guys. Assuming I stick to first person I definately would agree that one person per chapter is the best way to go. I was kind of thinking each chapter could be called "John Smith and the something something". Next chapter, if it dealt with another character could be, "Jane Smith and whosey whatsit".

Star you make a real good point about making sure each voice is unique, thanks for that. I'll probably take your advice and write a page or two in both formats and see which works for me best.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

If the action or plot dictates that I change POV in the middle of a chapter, somewhere I pcked up the idea/trick to do a double return, followed by a single "*" centered in the page, then another double return before starting the first paragraph of the new POV.

This gives the reader a nice visual cue that something is changing.

That's also very much the sort of thing where any given publisher will have preferences as to how to do it and it's not worth worrying too much about how you do it in manuscript; if nothing else, the visual cues for that will be different depending on whether the change comes out in the middle of a page or between pages in the final object, which I doubt is predictable in manuscript.

I don't think I have ever done anything that did POV shifts which weren't also chapter shifts except for a handful of climactic scenes where there was a very tight structure to how the POV moved (like someone getting shot five times and there being a couple of paras from different POVs flashing in between each shot) and I tend to do that with italicising the POVs other than the one whose chapter it is.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

It's possibly to do multiple POVs in 1st, but it can be more difficult.  The biggest thing you need to do is differentiate the voices of each character so that they don't come across as the same and so that the reader is able to tell that the POV has switched.  Another obvious way is to label chapter headings with the characters name.

It's worth noting that if you do that last, I will throw the book across the room, and I know I am not the only one; because if you need to do that, you are admitting you can't make the voices distinct enough.

[Team8Mum]

I use different fonts for the different characters - which is kind of vital as in one case a character has multiple personality disorder, and it's the only way to tell which persona is 'upfront'  and not all the other characters have worked out there is more than one of him.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I use different fonts for the different characters - which is kind of vital as in one case a character has multiple personality disorder, and it's the only way to tell which persona is 'upfront'  and not all the other characters have worked out there is more than one of him.

Dorothy Heydt's excellent The Interior Life did something like this with different fonts, but unfortunately the fonts in the final published version are not distinct enough to make this really clear, so I would not rely on that being enough.

[Team8Mum]

Dorothy Heydt's excellent The Interior Life did something like this with different fonts, but unfortunately the fonts in the final published version are not distinct enough to make this really clear, so I would not rely on that being enough.

My stuff is self published and on line, so I have a lot of control over the fonts, but I find using Arial for one and Times Roman for another does the trick. The different 'aspects' are achieved using the same font but in different colours (Black, dark blue, dark green, dark red)
Depends on what you intend to do with it in the long run.