Changing Perspectives in 3rd Limited

[Crocolyle]

For those of you who may not be savvy with terms, when using 3rd Person Limited Omniscient point of view you tell the story in third person but include only the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of one character. Probably most novels that you've read are written in this style, because it's easy to understand and it connects the reader with a specific character.

Many writers who use this style change the perspective depending on the chapter or scene--like Orson Scott Card, Stephen King, J. K. Rowling (to a far lesser extent), and many, many other writers.

This brings me to my question. If you've written the first four scenes of the first chapter of the novel from the PoV of one character, are you allowed to change characters in the fifth if you plan on reverting back to the other character for a while directly afterward? If you're going to switch characters, should there be a regular pattern, in your opinion. Should you always start a new chapter when switching characters, even if you want to for only one scene? Any thoughts, ideas?

[Rafael Domination]

I've read the Bartimaeus Trilogy. The author has a certain penchant from switching perspectives in Third Person almost every chapter. He goes from main characters to side Foils. He even makes switched into First Person. I'm still trying to study his method of keeping the novel going forwards. Note: THERE IS A LOT OF INFODUMP...but he pulled it off. (We should add that to our Infodump Topic Thread. Even tons of infodump can work, as long as the info is interesting. His novel was branded a bestseller, and the praises for it was excellent.)

Anyhoo, yeah...this is a great topic to discuss. I'm guessing myself that as ong as the flow and interest of the novel is kept up, most of your audiences wouldn't mind. If you create a pattern of Switches, the audience can learn to expect them after every chapter is over. Mut maybe if you don't do Switches, and then place a really awkward Switch in the middle of your novel, maybe that will distract your readers. I dunno...I'm still looking into the whole matter myself.


:D

[Crocolyle]

For context, I recently begun a novel. I've so far written the first 6,000 words and that makes up the first four or five sections of the first chapter. I have two main protagonists, Gan and Shur and a somewhat more minor character named Lodash. The first four sections or five sections are told entirely from Gan's perspective, but I want to explore Lodash's relationship with Shur a little bit. And I know there will be at least one of two other scenes I want to tell from Shur's perspective. And there are other characters I want to use as well, without Gan present or seen through Gan's eyes.

I want to tell most of the story from Gan's perspective though--and therein lies the problem. I'm worried after going so long with only one character's perspective will make it feel awkward for the reader. I could break up the Gan sections with random scenes with other characters, but I'm worried that those might make the other chapters drag a bit and I have not yet fully figured out what the rest of the cast would be doing at the beginning of the novel.

[Shaun]

Hmm.
Okay, well I think this has a lot to do with what your intended audience is. For young adult authors you can get away with a lot more switching, especially in the middle of chapters, since often times the writing style is a little more eccentric (such as Obert Skye's style).
But if you're writing in general I would say that switching POVs in Chapter Two would be perfectly fine. I would be careful about switching in the middle of chapters unless they are particularly long. If you HAVE to switch, for whatever reason, you should make it VERY clear that there is going to be a break. Don't switching in the exact next paragraph, because a reader will be confused and that is the quickest way to pull a reader out. Use a scene break (***'s or something) to indicate to the reader that you're switching. I think if you do it well and it reads smoothly it won't matter if there is a bit of switching. If you do it poorly it can be a problem.
Also be careful not to have TOO many characters. Three or four is okay, five is pushing it, but beyond that you're really asking for trouble. You want to make sure there is enough space for the reader to get to know the characters and actually give a flying fig about their viewpoints.

Hopefully that helps.

[Carraka]

GRRM changes perspectives every chapter. And he has many POVs, eight or ten or twelve. Some find this incredibly annoying, because if the chapter ends on a cliffhanger, you want to flip ahead to the next chapter with the same POV, instead of switching to someone else and losing momentum.

I personally don't mind, although I think this makes it much harder for him to bring in new POVs, now that he is on the fifth book. On the other hand, these POVs are all different people, and they view the same event in twelve different ways. And it's possible to empathize with someone "evil" when you're in that POV, which might be why ... I ... -cough-

Concerning the Bartimaeus Trilogy, it definitely works. At one point in the first book, he switched POV every few paragraphs. I think it was necessary, because he really had that much action, and everyone was doing different things. It might have been more effective in only one POV, but I don't see how he could have made that work either. Fortunately, in the second and third books, he doesn't do that switch-POV-every-paragraph again. Best to be avoided.

And your questions:

I think there should be some sort of regular pattern, but don't try it if it's too restricting. The reader might prefer a pattern, but if you can explain that your pattern is to have no pattern, they might buy it. I would always start a new chapter, but if it's only one scene -- find some way to expand that scene?

[Shaun]

Well I think given the massive scope for GRRM's work it might be acceptable to have many POVs, as for the Bartimaeus stuff, that would make me put down the book instantly. I absolutely cannot stand jumping around every paragraph. It's confusing and if the way the story is presented pulls me out of the story itself I will lose interest quick, and so will a lot of readers. That's the big factor you have to consider when fiddling with POVs I think. If it has a good chance of confusing readers or pulling them out of the story, then don't do it.

[Crocolyle]

I didn't mean jumping around in different paragraphs--I meant switching like after a break (i. e. * * *).

On that note would this work:

Chapter composed of five separate sections (in other words, a break between ecah) told from Character A's perspective, the next chapter composed of x many scenes, each scene told from a different character's perspective?

[Shaun]

I don't know for certain. It could work, but that all depends on who you want your audience to be. If you do it really poorly it will isolate the vast majority of people that don't like being bumped around a lot. If each scene is a good sized chunk I imagine it could work. If you're talking rather short sections, then there could be problems with it, from my perspective. For me, if the sections are short and you're just bumping from scene to scene, it would get annoying pretty quick. The biggest problem with doing that is developing your characters. It's hard to give lots of good character bits when you are jumping about. It could work though, just be conscious of those things when you're doing it. If it feels like there isn't enough for a scene, there probably isn't.

[ScottyMcGee]

My story has so many POVs. There's a really in-depth first-person on the main character. Then there's an omniscient view focusing on that same character. There's also an omniscient view on everything in general. There's a first-person on another character but not in-depth because it's a journal dating actions. Then there's a first-person from a female that's both in-depth and a journal.

Has anyone read Faulkner's "Sound and Fury"? THAT is a definite study for using many POVs