Multiple PoVs in one story?

M

Mordredaggrfall

Experienced
Let's say the story is listed as 2nd person, since most of it is in 2nd person. But to advance the plot, it would have to switch PoVs, like it turns into 1st to tell what happened or 3rd to show a completely different scene. Kinda like a TV show that shows a different scene when it mainly focuses on a different character or group.

Is this a good idea or no?
 
I think it can work if you are changing perspective and telling a different type of story. But keep in mind readers are there for a 2nd person story. They might not want a story that goes somewhere else or talks about somebody else. Instead, you could do something like this...

"So there was like five guys and I fucked them all," she explains.
"Sounds like you had fun," you say, hoping she will continue.

It keeps the 2nd person but tells your first person story.
 
RejectTed said:
I think it can work if you are changing perspective and telling a different type of story. But keep in mind readers are there for a 2nd person story. They might not want a story that goes somewhere else or talks about somebody else. Instead, you could do something like this...

"So there was like five guys and I fucked them all," she explains.
"Sounds like you had fun," you say, hoping she will continue.

It keeps the 2nd person but tells your first person story.
Click to expand...

How about marking them as different PoVs? Like using [1st person]?
 
Limit it to 2 POV's. It can be harder to keep track the more you add. You could go two different directions instead of having x-amount of chapters and changing. It might be easier to do with CHYOA story layout.
 
Switching between 1st/2nd/3rd person would be a very difficult thing to pull off. However, if you need to show multiple POVs in the same story, I think it can be done in a third-person format. The choice would not be phrased as, "What do you do next?" but rather, "What happens next?" The reader thereby steers the plot, not through a specific character but by choosing where things go in more general terms. Here's a simple example:

Aaron, Janelle, Dave, and Chloe head down to the beach together.

"Damn, look at those waves!" Aaron says, whistling through his teeth. "Wish I had my own board, I could shred those like nobody's business! Just gotta make do with the rental, though."

Janelle barely hears him; she's thinking about what happened between her and Chloe the night before. She'd never kissed another girl... and now that she had, it was all she could think about. The slim brunette looked hot in her bikini, in a way Janelle had never noticed before, and it was seriously distracting!

The unusual behavior of the girls hadn't gone unnoticed by Dave... and he knew exactly what it was all about. They may have thought they were alone and unseen, but they had neglected the large mirror over the dresser which had given him a perfect view from the shared balcony between their rooms. The fact that his girlfriend had been kissing someone else should have upset him, but instead it had his mind racing about the possibilities! If he confronted them about it while Aaron was out in the surf, what might happen? I can't just pretend I didn't see it, he thought to himself. Chloe would know something was on my mind, she always does!

What happens next?
  • Aaron runs into an old flame out in the ocean
  • Dave talks to the girls... and it doesn't go well
  • Janelle can't pretend everything is normal
With this kind of story, one can switch between characters and talk about what goes on in their heads whenever necessary. It's not as "intimate" as a first- or second-person story, but it can be done.

I've also seen stories which give the option to switch the POV from one character to another, mid-stream - but this can generally be done only once, or it does get confusing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top