I am working on a novel where I spend the majority of the time from the view of what I would call the main character. But what I'm kind of wanting to do is throw in a scene here and there from someone else's point of view. For example:
First Scene is from character 2's view. The next ten scenes are from character 1's. Then one form character 3. Then another ten from character 1.
Would the abrupt shift in PoV to another character, combined with how brief it is, be distracting or otherwise ... bad?
Does this happen much in the industry and also what is your opinion as a reader?
Sometimes it's very effective. Sometimes I just find it annoying, as if the writer was merely being lazy. What makes the difference? Have to think on that. Maybe it's if there is a good reason for the shifts -- to goose up the tension (though sometimes when it's blatant, I find that really annoying) or shed a different light on part of the plot or a character.
If you're just throwing it in because you can't figure out how to tell a part of the story from the MC's POV, well...maybe that deserves some re-evaluation. If you're doing it on purpose to create suspense, that's probably a better reason. Even better yet would be to show what's going on somewhere really far removed geographically from the MC's environment - but somehow connected. And better yet if the connections aren't readily apparent but begin laying out a puzzle for the reader to solve (the connections are there but the reader has to read a while to see all the threads.)
My suggestion, based on having read this kind of POV shifting in stories of late, is to avoid hopping between many other characters. Pick a few other POVs that you need and return to them throughout - rather than doing Char 1, char 2 for 10 scenes, char 3, char 2 for 10 scenes, char 4, char 2 for 10 scenes, etc. It would be more jarring to do it that way, in my opinion.
I read about an author, I forget who, who reads POV-changing books as a serial process. They go through and read all of Char 1 POV's chapters, then go back through and read the other character's chapters. Sounded interesting. Tells you another way some people look at multiple-POV books.
When any shift doesn't work for me is when it's not consistent with the level of psychic access to a character's thoughts and/or consistent in temporal or positional relativity. Close third person should (must) keep in touch (KIT) with the focal character and be relatively immediate in temporal and positional relation; immediate and now-like from right here. Limited third person doesn't need to remain as tight, but should KIT. An objective third person is welcome to move around as though the narrator (regardless of whether the narrator's a part of the action, just an interested bystander or remote to the MICE) is journalistically reporting on a milieu, idea, character, or event after the fact when all the pertinent information is known.
I've found in my reading that shifting around in character-oriented stories is complicated due to potential issues arising from the countering benefits of close psychic access; introspection and emotion narrative modes. Milieu, idea, and event easier to move around, event perhaps easiest, at least when the story is reporting on an emotional level.
When a shift works best for me is when my curiosity about what's going on elsewhere that's relevant to the story's dramatic action is strong and wanting satisfaction.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited March 02, 2009).]
[This message has been edited by Denem (edited March 02, 2009).]
Most of the time, I think the shift flows. That is, dialog between MC and Character B, in MC's POV. Next scene in B's POV as he does something based on that dialog. Then back to MC's POV.
When I shift to another character that is far away from the MC, I try to do that as a separate chapter--except during the climax, where I don't want to slow the action down that much and I'm only going to spend a very short time away from the MC anyway.
Recently, I've actually been inserting some short scenes that are from my villain's POV, both to build tension and to give a glimpse of what his motivations/goals are. Especially since his goals evolve (or devolve) somewhat during the story.
I have one scene that I haven't fully worked out, though. This one concerns a birth and I really want to show what both parents are thinking/feeling at the same time. (They're not both in the room) I haven't come up with an elegant way to handle that, yet, so right now that scene is kind of a muddle.
In my case I am only jumping between the 3 characters. The first character, who leads the first scene, his PoV is never returned to again. In fact his whole character disappears and a large part of the plot is the effort to find him. My main character, whose PoV dominates 95% of the writing is the main person pursuing the disappeared character one. The third PoV that I will jump to oh so rarely is mostly to gte a second opinion on the hunt, and to help the reader understand her character and motives a bit more. Since the main character sees her as something of a nuisance and I want the reader to see her a bit deeper than that.
Just an aside: The author of The Poisonwood Bible wrote the entire novel from every character's POV and then picked her favorite POV for each chapter.
Melanie