How to Write a Good Story

Writing From more than one Point of View

This chapter is from a random website online, and I found it pretty useful.

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Let's start with the basics: a multiple viewpoint novel is one in which two or more members of your cast list are viewpoint characters - that is, those characters through whose eyes we witness the events of the novel and whose thoughts and feelings we have direct access to.

Or to put it even more simply: if different chapters are narrated by different characters - chapter one from John's point of view, chapter two from Helen's - it is a multi viewpoint novel.

Multiple viewpoint novels are common in literature, so it would hardly be a risky choice if you chose to write one yourself. Before you can decide, though, you need to understand...

The Pros and Cons of Multiple Viewpoint Novels

Is it better to stick with one viewpoint character, or does having two or more characters in the spotlight, as it were, add dimension to your novel? And does writing a multi viewpoint novel make the planning and writing more difficult?

First the "difficulty" issue...

While it is certainly the case that writing from more than one point of view is more complicated, it isn't that much more complicated.

You have to learn when and how to switch viewpoints effectively, but if you follow the advice on how to do this lower down, you won't have a problem.

Using several viewpoints also makes the planning of your novel slightly more complicated, in that the chapters told from each viewpoint effectively constitute a separate subplot. But, again, it really isn't a problem.

A bigger issue than difficulty is that of "focus"...

Put simply, the more viewpoint characters you use in a multiple viewpoint novel, the less time the reader gets to become familiar with each one, which can result in an unsatisfying read.

It's like going to a party and having to move on to talk to somebody different every twenty minutes, just when you were getting a good conversation going.

My best advice, then, is this: stick with just one Viewpoint Character unless you have a good reason to use more.

What constitutes a good reason? The story you are telling, and nothing else.

If you believe that sticking with one viewpoint character is too limiting and that you won't be able to tell the story as well through one pair of eyes as you could through several pairs, write a multiple viewpoint novel.

But even then, keep the number of viewpoint characters to the absolute minimum required to do the job.

"Mangling viewpoint shifts is one of the sirens-howling signals of an utter beginner - as bad as saying 'ain't' in front of your strictest teacher."
- Ansen Dibell

  Third Person Multi Viewpoint Novels

Virtually every novel featuring two or more viewpoint characters is written in the third person point of view, and for a very good reason: it is the most logical viewpoint to use.

A Third Person Story, remember, is narrated by that invisible, godlike witness to the novel's events (or the magic camera, if you prefer that analogy) - and it seems perfectly natural for this narrator to choose to slip inside not just one character's skin during the telling of the story, but several.

What seems less natural, at least to me, is for two different first person narrators to sit down and tell their respective stories at the same point in time after the novel's events are over.