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How to Write a Novel With Multiple Points of View

The multi lens debacle!

By Aaron DennisPublished 7 years ago 10 min read
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This question was posed to me once, and I figured since someone was interested enough to ask it of me, there may be more writers out there wondering over the same topic. Here’s how the question was posed in its original form, typo’s and all:

I want to write a story (Fantasy-YA) on twins. But, I want them each of them to have their own thoughts, concerns etc. Like for every chapter, should I switch between them? Or should I state their name at the beginning chapter, along w/ chapter title indicating who point of view it is?

First and foremost, things need not be so complex, and a writer must never take the reader out of the experience. Stating the character’s perspective in the chapter, and then bouncing back and forth, is extremely cumbersome. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea; it just isn’t the simplest way to tackle the issue.

Now, let’s look at Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol. Each chapter indeed bounces back and forth from one perspective, that of the protagonist and his adventure, to the perspective of the antagonist. As the book progresses, the two characters are steadily moving towards one another for an ultimate encounter. Dan Brown is an experienced novelist with a team of editors helping his case. Regardless, the story tells itself; there is no need to announce which chapter pertains to whom, and Dan Brown does not tell us in the chapter heading whose turn it is to live the tale.

Another novel, which has a similar layout, I read way back in high school, and can’t recall the name for the life of me; it may have been Cormyr, and it was an old Dungeons and Dragons novel in which the first chapter was set in the present, but every other chapter had the protagonist’s ancestors as they faced similar circumstances; it was a neat set up, which bounced back and forth, not just between lenses, but even between past and present!

Again, there’s no need to announce in each chapter title who is living the adventure. There’s no need to use chapter titles at all, because when the new chapter takes place, the reader can glean who’s doing what from the first sentence.

That said, it’s necessary to point out that most readers prefer a single lens—to view the story from the perspective of a single character. My recommendation to debut authors is to start with a simple tale from a single point of view. Do as you will.

If a writer wants to provide several perspectives, that's great, but it may alienate the audience. At any rate, the question was specifically about twins—two characters—and two tales occurring simultaneously, so that’s what we’ll tackle first.

Should a writer be so inclined to utilize chapter headings—sometimes I do, but not always—it is alright to have something such as the following:

Chapter 1- Bob’s tale

Bob stood there, staring at the lake….

Chapter 2- Rob’s tale

Rob lied back in his hammock, gazing at the multitude of stars overhead….

Chapter3- Bob’s tale

Blah, blah, blah.

I still don’t recommend doing this, but it won’t hurt the story. It’s just repetitive to see each chapter stating Bob’s taleRob’s tale, and it gets extremely cumbersome to provide unique chapter titles with the character’s name in them.

The point in question, though, revolves around what happens when Bob and Rob meet up. What do you call the chapter then? Chapter 7- Bob and Rob’s tale ??? They are going to meet up right? If not then a writer needs to consider writing two, separate stories, and just name one Rob’s Tale, and the other Bob’s Tale. There’s no reason one can’t write two books, which are two thoroughly related adventures, which are happening simultaneously.

I’ve done this with short stories.

The best advice for the question, which was posed to me, was to treat the story as a two perspective tale; in other words, it’s 3rd person omniscient, but with two lenses instead of, say, 5. It’s a book with two main characters who don’t meet up until about halfway through. When they do meet up, nothing changes; they each have their own ideas, thoughts, emotions, etc, and there is no need to do anything special. You just tag the thoughts to eliminate confusion.

****

Bob and Rob walked across the green pasture. Man, it’s cold, Bob thought. He glanced at his brother and knew instantly he was feeling the same. I think Bob’s cold, too, Rob thought.

I’m oversimplifying, but you get the point.

****

There’s a distinction that needs be made at this juncture. Narratives come in all shapes and sizes, and the bigger a story is—a 1,000 page novel, a series with 4 300 page novels—the more characters it will have. The more characters there are in a story, the more they will develop. When a handful of characters develop, there may come a time to give them their own perspectives or thoughts, but there will usually be a single, main character, and the story is generally through that character’s lens. It’s still okay to give the support characters their own thoughts; just don’t saturate the story as such.

There are, however, numerous, great stories with multiple main characters, but these are larger, longer stories. Most of them have more than 5 or 6 books in the series, and so the tale is so vast that having numerous, main characters is of little concern because the “head hopping” doesn’t occur on every single page, chapter, etc. The important thing then is to make certain that those main characters are vastly dissimilar from one another; they must have different choice words, mannerisms, reactions, emotions, thoughts, etc.

If they aren’t developed enough to be living people, they don’t need their own lens.

For instance, when such a concept is utilized in a novella, it doesn’t work out well. The story will read like a jumbled mess of arguing minds. My advice to prevent that outcome is to just write the story down. Get it all down. Then, a writer will have a better idea of who is taking the lead, and just let that character be the protagonist. This is cleaned up further in the editing steps of writing.

For example; many of you are familiar with my series of short stories, The Adventures of Larson and Garrett. Larson and Garrett are the main characters. There are some stories in which only one of them is present but with a support crew. There are stories in which they are both present and with a support crew. Generally, only Larson and Garrett have “thoughts”.

****

This cave stinks like orc butt, Larson thought. “Hey, Gare, doesn’t this cave stink like orc butt?”

Garrett winced, and looking over his friend, he thought, What, this guy’s actually stuck his nose in an orc’s butt? The fencer just smiled, returning his attention to the crudely sketched map.

****

The support characters rarely have their own thoughts, and off the top of my head, I’m not sure they have any at all, but there’s ten stories out, and one or two of them might have a one liner for a thought. It’s not a big deal.

On the other hand, a writer might want an enormous series like A Song of Ice and Fire, where numerous characters have their own tales, their own lens, but ASOIAF is so large that readers don’t get railed by the numerous shifts in perspective because the shifts appear infrequently when compared to the overwhelming amount of words comprising the entirety of the series.

Think about movies. Movies are long, and from time to time, we see the adventure from the point of view of one character, and then the other—Reservoir Dogs. In television shows with numerous episodes, we have the same thing. Take The Big Bang Theory; sometimes the show is from Leonard’s perspective, sometimes Sheldon’s.

Now imagine if The Big Bang Theory was only a single episode. By the time you bounce around from one character to the other, the show is over, and nothing has happened. A writer needs to avoid that.

In the end, if you are writing a single story, a short story, a novella, my advice is to get the story down. Pick your main character, which should be obvious before you start writing, and then just make sure that you aren’t “head hopping”, showing everything from everyone’s point of view.

If you’re writing a novel or a series, just maintain a sense of consistency, maintain flow, and only switch from one perspective to another when there’s a need.

Hero gets knocked out by a brutish orc. The support character then has a reaction and needs to step up his game to save the day. This is fine, but if two chapters are about Hero, and Hero is in every chapter then Hero is the protagonist, and the story needs to be written as though everything is happening to Hero. Don’t have two chapters about Hero then one about support character A, another about Hero, and then two about support character B. If this is how the entire novel gets laid out then it’s probably best to break the novel into a series of short stories.

Finally, to bring everything to a conclusion, consider this: A writer must tell what lesser characters are doing, plotting, thinking, feeling when those actions pertain to the plot.

Example: It was evident to Larson that Mike was feeling ashamed of having fled the battle. The young man hadn’t made eye contact for the duration of the trip. The seasoned warrior recalled his own first battle, and he, too, had fled, but fleeing can be the difference between living and dying….

In the example, it’s obvious that the story is experienced from Larson’s perspective. It’s obvious that Mike is not a main character. The reader knows how mike feels because the reader is told how Mike feels. The reader also gets a look into Larson’s mind. There is only one lens.

If a story is so large that Mike develops into a main character, or even a secondary character, Mike may eventually get his own thoughts. Mike may eventually have his perspective take over, too.

Example: “Larson,” Mike called.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“Remember when I high tailed it from those orcs?”

“I sure do. What was that, like four years ago?”

Mike nodded slowly then sort of pointed at Bill with his nose. Larson glanced from Bill back to Mike. Their eyes met for a prolonged moment.

“What was it you said to me back then,” Mike finally asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. Something along the lines of; flee today, live to fight another day…?” he replied with a comical shrug.

“Yeah…maybe, I should say something like that to Bill.”

Mike then approached the young man, placed a hand on his shoulder, and gave him a few words of reassurance.

In the above example, the story is from both Larson’s and Mike’s lens. Now, if Bill were to have a lens, and then John had a lens, and then Mary had lens, the story bogs down.

How do you write a story with multiple lenses? Very carefully. There is no clear cut solution. Each of you will have to experiment, but writing a story is more than pounding out a first draft.

Writer your story. Get it all down. Get away from it. Get back to it, and read it as a reader. Add what needs adding. Cut what’s superfluous. Modify the rest. Find beta-readers to provide you a fresh perspective. Edit again. Hire an editor. Read it again. Make your final trimmings.

That all applies to every story regardless of how many pages, characters, perspective, whatever, but by the time you make your final trimmings, you’ll know your story better than you know yourself, and you’ll know which characters require their own lens versus just some thoughts.

Remember two things every time you write something. One, just get the story down, and then edit. Two, simplicity is elegance.

Good luck to you all. Please share this information with anyone who’s writing, and feel free to track me down at www.storiesbydennis.com. Thanks!

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About the Creator

Aaron Dennis

Creator of the Lokians SciFi series, The Adventures of Larson and Garrett, The Dragon of Time series, and more.

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Outstanding

Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!

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