The POV of a story

[69Michi]

Personally my story is told under the POV of 1 single main character, but everything about the story is more or less highlight another main character more than anything. From time to time I would shift the story to show little action coming from the other main character (not dwelling too much into their thought though), I call this a "hint", or maybe a sort of foreshadowing. It's usually something very ambiguous and vague to keep my readers guessing. I like this sort of "throwing hint" because it allows people to piece together all the hint to come to a specific conclusion about the character.

[ratique]

When reading a book, I do not enjoy stories that are told from the perspective of one character. I have gone so far as to check the first page to see if the main character is narrating their own adventure. If it is that kind of book, it has a low chance of me reading it.

Not having side side stories makes it hard to truly understand the other characters or the world. And to me, that is more important than sticking to one person.

[eslameldeeb]

my best experience with a work full of POVs is with Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä (the manga)
while you read, you slowly jump from a character to another, each one has its own moral code, affiliations, goals, locations and concerns, plus they are moving at the same time in a big detailed world
so, it was impossible by all means to compress all such POVs into the MC's
i think using multiple POVs requires a good talent and a lot of pre-planning

[ErithEl]

I like stories told from two or more POV's if it's the type of story where those storylines eventually converge. It's fun to read the clues and hints along the way on how those characters will eventually meet up – and if the character development is done well, it's fun to speculate on how your two protagonists will react upon meeting each other.

For me, two POV's work best if those storylines are so completely different from each other you can't help but think the whole time "How in the world is this going to come together?"

[Greg_Dickson]

I like seeing multiple POVs get used, because if things are only from the main character's perspective, it can get very one dimensional and annoying at times, like nothing isn't allowed to happen without the main character being in the shot. Having multiple POVs allows you to see how different characters react in different scenarios without the main character being involved. Events that weren't on screen don't have to be explained to the main character. Instead, they're shown to the audience, which I find gives a more personal connection between the other characters and the audience. I couldn't picture my comic if I did everything through my main character's perspective. As much as I love using her, that's too much of her (not to mention it would be boring always drawing every scene with my main character present). Even right at the beginning of my comic, I have a scene where she's not even present, and my audience is loving watching my villain rage at the current event that's unfolding. I intend to show a lot of different stories and sides to many of my characters, and I don't think that I can accomplish that effectively by always sticking to one viewpoint.