Switching from one character to another

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 12:36:07 UTC #1

Hey guys! I am working on a novel where I have 7 main characters, I suck but I got help from you guys and now am working on a different approach for starting the story but the problem I am facing now is that it's really getting hard for me to switch from one character to another. The seven of them have their different lives at different places and everything is totally different and when I try to change from talking about subject A to B it is not going smooth. Every time it just feels so imposed or just does not fit in. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Please do not that I am a total noob. I am 19 years old and English is my second language but I love writing and I have been since who knows how long but for just myself to read so even if it had errors or it sucked it was not a problem since I could understand and enjoy it by myself lol.

So do know that there is not single advice in this world that will not be helpful. Thank you and have a great day!

Kelheor 2019-11-13 12:40:36 UTC #2

Have you checked out A song of Ice and Fire? =) Martin does this switching between his million of POVs pretty good.

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 12:42:23 UTC #3

I have not! Thank you, will do now!!

Thanks for the advice!

Kelheor 2019-11-13 12:45:29 UTC #4

Btw, this switching is nothing special, maybe you're just overthinking it too. Maybe try putting here some example of what you're writing so people can help you out, because it's easier to find the problems (or their absence) when you see the actual text ^^

JRHoch 2019-11-13 13:17:41 UTC #5

When you work with multiple points of view, you lose the immediacy you have when there is only one. However, you do gain the advantage of creating a more complex work.

The important thing is that each different point of view should help move the plot, and also illuminate, when possible, the other characters. This way the reader feels it is less jarring when you jump from one character to the next because there is familiar ground that supports the cast.

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 13:21:40 UTC #6

Oh, I see. I will try doing it and see if it is any better and also I figured after reading a few chapters of the song of ice and fire that I could just do 1 chapter for 1 of them each.
@Kelheor I am working on the first chapter right now as soon as I am done I will post it here!
it would be great if you could then give me some pointers.

Theredrose 2019-11-13 15:29:28 UTC #7

I will wait for your first chapter to see how you do it.
Since I'm also having a few troubles with POVs.

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 15:43:15 UTC #8

I am working on it will post in a hour or so when i am done!

IndigoShirtProd 2019-11-13 15:48:13 UTC #9

Do you have an outline of the story written out, or at least a general idea of how your story is going to go and the roles your characters are going to play? It's fine if you don't, though it would make the writing process a lot easier if you have a framework for your story.

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 16:05:48 UTC #10

@IndigoShirtProd
yes i do! i have written like the basic story for all the first book or more like first 30-40 chapters. on how it would go! its just that when it comes to writing with all technicalities it's hard!
I am still working on the advice you gave yesterday! so i changed the way story starts maya and carla and stuff i am going to put in the end when disclosing the whole back story! I am really grateful to you for your advice! also do checkout what i have written now! its not complete but i published its the first half!
Do tell me what i can do better! and also this is the point where i need to make a shift to a totally different character.

and i also worked on explaining the surrounding a bit better lemme know if it's any good.

burginlewis 2019-11-13 16:21:55 UTC #11

I'm doing this in my story here on Tapas, and taking two very different paths in the same novel.

The red/Ridge chapters follow a gang of 3 bad guys. Those are all written in 3rd person camera POV (this has a few names, camera makes the most literal sense), where you're not in anyone's head ever, and all the reader gets to see is what's going on physically as if they're looking through a video camera at the scene. You can cover as many characters as you want going this route but your scenes will feel cold. This works great for my villain scenes. Not sure the atmosphere you're aiming for.

The blue chapters in my book are in the heroine's POV instead. They're written in the more traditional 3rd person limited, where you get her thoughts and see the scene through her eyes. And they're written to sound warm, emotional, and like an angsty female college student, not like cold killers. The difference is pretty stark.

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 16:48:06 UTC #12

Got it! thanks i am going to read it now !

Maps 2019-11-13 17:03:23 UTC #13

I agree that George did it well.

This is similar to how I do it. Each chapter I write might be from a different character point of view. I have three characters who I follow, and I usually switch them around after every chapter. When the point of view switches from each of them, and you get to hear their inner thoughts along with seeing their actions.
It’s pretty fun being able to get into the minds of the different characters, rather than just one. Almost feels like acting I’d suppose .

So you can basically write something similar to this:

Chapter 1: character 1 POV
Chapter 2: character 2 POV
Chapter 3: character 3 POV

And you don’t always have to write them in order. You can always have chapter four go back to the point of view of character 2 if you need to.

Episode 4 is a character switch from the first three. I got lazy with his chapter titles and just named them after him... might change that later. The other two have normal titles:

IndigoShirtProd 2019-11-13 18:54:50 UTC #14

Your writing is better. There are a few long winded sentences and typos though. You should ask a native English speaker to look over your drafts to tell you if anything sounds off. Overall, good work

hannahlaine 2019-11-13 19:28:42 UTC #15

So I switch between 2 characters in my book.

One idea is to start a new chapter each time you switch characters and make the chapter name the name of that character.

Chapter 1: Character Name

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Another idea is you can create dividers inside your chapters

CHAPTER 1

Character Name

I wrote Lady Death in 3rd person (he, she, they). So what I did is I wrote in sections but I don't label them.

Chapter 1

Railynn did this that and the other thing.... bla bla bla. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Seth did this that and the other thing... bla bla bla. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 19:37:35 UTC #16

Ohh i see! that is a really good idea and i think i will go with that for now! thank you so much!!

R.R.Raymonds 2019-11-13 19:38:11 UTC #17

@IndigoShirtProd Got it! thanks you for the response! means a lot to me!

JRHoch 2019-11-13 20:30:18 UTC #18

Yes, only do one point of view per chapter. Otherwise it usually becomes a mess.

FenneFox 2019-11-14 21:06:53 UTC #19

Honestly, I would say the easiest way to switch perspectives is to do it between chapter (in that one chapter we follow one character and then the next we follow another). I believe you could also make breaks in the text, although I've more so seen this used to signal a scene transition rather than a full on perspective switch. The key one I can think of that did that with a perspective shift was The Saga of Tanya the Evil light novels, so that may be one series to give a look at for ideas.

OttoGruenwald 2019-11-16 20:58:21 UTC #20

I'm about to switch POV in my webcomic. We're going to move from Stardust to Spectro. I hope I do a good job!