#multiple narrators

Seven voices – how to write a novel in multiple points of view

I was chatting on a writers’ Facebook group and this question was asked: how many points of view have you used in a novel? I used several in my most recent novel Ever Rest. Seven, actually. (Splutters in the group. And they were right; it was tricky to do.) I didn’t plan that way at first. I imagined the novel would be one point of view. Then I wrote a scene where my viewpoint guy had an…

Genre: young adult, sci-fi

Ratings: T

Tags: Alternate Universe, the british empire, royalty, Canada, intersex character, polyamory, coming of age, friends to lovers, multiple narrators, technology

Warnings: none that I can think of

Relationships: F/F and M/F

Summary: (from Goodreads) Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved, not by the cost of blood and theft but by effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world. Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendant of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history two centuries earlier. The imperial practice of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage like her mother before her, but before she does her duty, she’ll have one summer incognito in a far corner of empire. In Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire’s greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir apparent to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an unusual bond and maybe a one in a million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process —just like the first Queen Victoria.

The Power (2016) by Naomi Alderman

In this near-future, young women start to develop powers. They can shock people - even to the degree of shocking their hearts to death - and some may even be able to do more.  The Power follows multiple narrators (mostly 4, but later a couple more) of various ages and genders, from various geographical and socioeconomic lives.

The Power is told as if it is a historical document, including “found” artifacts, archival documents, and (in the most scarily realistic part for me) forum posts. I wished that they had included more of these documents - newspaper articles, etc. - and that they had made the narration into journal entries or something else that seemed to go along with the historical structure a little better. The sections count down the number of years left, leaving you to speculate as to what we might be counting down to.

Unfortunately, this feels rather realistic - some people are reasonable despite these changes, while other areas of the world have devolved into dystopian-like conditions. There are locations in an almost reverse-Handmaid’s Tale world, where women have taken power to an ugly revenge against men. In other places, men are making desperate, destructive grabs to hang on to the old ways.

As would likely happen if something like this came up, there are so many different implications. Politics run through it, from gender politics to local politics to geopolitical strategy. Religion and celebrity also run through it, including the area where religion and celebrity overlap. Conspiracies spiral and the world escalates to a place where nothing good seems possible.

There were a few sections that I thought could use a little trimming down, but overall a frightening picture of what could be.

When you’re writing multiple first person perspectives one of the most important things is to have a good sense of the different characters’ voices. That is, the little quirks and habits that they have that make their speech patterns and thoughts unique and interesting, which will give each different POV a sense of personality.

[HERE] is a question I answered a while ago about writing in the first person perspective.

As you develop your character voices, think about why these particular characters are the ones that will tell the story.

What is it about their perspectives that makes them the best for this purpose?

What unique opinions or understandings does each character bring to the narrative?

What is the relationship between the different focalising characters? Do they know each other at all? Are they enemies? Are they close friends?

Do the focalising characters encounter each other? What can we learn from their opinions about each other that we wouldn’t know from their own narrations?

Are there certain things that one focalising character knows but the other doesn’t? How does this affect the way each of their character arcs progresses?

Consider the differences in knowledge, opinion, social position, life experience, and personality between the focalising characters, and think about how these differences are going to allow you to show different aspects of the world and story through their narrations.

As to developing character voices for each of the focalising characters, think about how they speak, what kind of colloquialisms they might use, their backgrounds and their assumptions and prejudices. The way the characters think about and observe the world around them will influence the way that they describe it. 

Hi! I’m terribly sorry for not getting back to you sooner, AP tests are coming up and I’ve been paying less attention to this account in order to study. (Learning like 500 years of US history in one weekend is… challenging.)

To start off, I’d like to know whether or not you are alternating the narrators between chapters or switching inbetween scenes. I haven’t written many stories (in general, but also) with alternating narratives, but what I usually do is split it between the chapters. We get all of what character 1 experiences in chapter 1, then we get all of what character 2 experiences in chapter 2. 

(Which is the most basic way of splitting the narratives, you can be fancy and split it up by having 5 chapters devoted to one, then maybe one or two devoted to the other, ect.)

Also, consider why you are writing with two alternating narrators. Is it really necessary for the story, or is it slowing you down? If your work is really patchy then maybe two narrators just isn’t working for this particular work? 

Some things to help are: 

Use dividers. If you’ve ever read books with split narratives (which you should, always keep reading if you want to write), sometimes they have little dividers in between certain scenes. You may already be using these and know what they are, but for anyone else out there it’s usually something that just breaks up the writing and separates scenes. (here’s a link about scene dividers)

Try to end one scene with something that could lead into the next. For example, maybe Jenna has a revelation about who the bad person is, which leads into Kelly’s narrative where she bumps in to said bad person. The two people are not near each other, and Jenna isn’t able to contact Kelly for some odd reason, leading into a mess that needs to be solved. 

Try not to switch in the middle of a scene involving both characters. While this can probably be done well, I personally find it difficult to do this without making it feel like a patchwork of random scenes put together. Maybe only get one perspective of a conversation, and have the other character give their perspective later on, but typically stick to one narrative during an event. (If you’re switching during a chapter, and not switching between chapters, which is much easier-though I’ve usually seen it done during battle scenes)

Read, like, a lot. I’ll link some articles and such and other books that have split narratives in it at the end. But really, you should read other books. Nobody becomes perfect at a skill just by reading about it, (or maybe they do because they’re superhuman, I don’t know) people who practice skills watch a lot of of people do this skill. There’s probably something psychological to talk about here, but I’m not about to pull up sources for that right now. So just know this; reading books that have split narratives does help, reading in general helps with your writing because you will be exposed to different techniques and styles and it will influence your writing (hopefully) for the better. 

I didn’t mention every single thing that you can do, because some of these people just articulate it better than me! So here are some other articles you can cruize through for some other tips:

Split Narratives: Dividing Your Story Between Two or More Narrators (this one lists some books with multiple narrators in it, for extra reading)

Writing a Multiple Viewpoint Novel (this person believes that multiple viewpoints are not as good for your characters and helping them connect with the reader, however I don’t believe that, I think that multiple characters brings depth to the story.)

Writing a Novel with Multiple Narrators

A list of popular multiple narrators books (I haven’t read all… or any of these books really, but of course that shouldn’t stop you to seek out some of these books to see how these authors have written with their multiple narrators)

The Push - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A long book detailing events in the past, present, and future, with multiple narrators, all centered around an incident that happened at an innocent barbecue one sunny Saturday.

This book was truly amazing. An incredible look into 13 very different people and their lives with babies thrown in the mix. (no babies were harmed in the making of this story). The ironic bit I realized about this book was actually the title and the missing scenes of actual childbirth. Many babies were born, and yet, this story is literally about someone getting pushed. A book on babies and parenting is titled The Push; the very verb famous for childbirth, without any gruesome scenes detailing the event!

I loved the character arcs, the mysteries, the satisfying endings for most of the characters, and the way that the story unfolded; taking its time. The length of the story is important in order for the reader to get a true taste of the different lives. Each character is intricate, detailed, human, and important for the crux of the resolution. The vast differences with each woman and her childbirth story was really important and representative. Not just of women in reality, but also representative of the importance that covering up miscarriages or stillbirths, or depression, is not healthy and nor is talking about it shameful. Yes women have been having children in all of history and they never had counseling, or medications, or epidurals, or vaccines, or birthing plans. But more women have been lost to childbirth and mothering and domestic disputes than all the wars in history combined. These were important details that I found were truly what made the book. It's not just about the mysterious death, it's about the lives of these newly-made parents and their coping strategies on taking care of babies that some expected, while others were surprised by.

I loved reading this book and learning about the characters. While some were tedious to get to know, others were much easier to sympathize with.

I highly recommend this domestic drama/murder mystery because of the depth in the story, and because the journey to the end is not as important as the journey to self-discovery that the characters go through. I loved reading the mysteries as well and guessing the answers. I guessed many correctly (it did not take the fun out of reading!), and others really surprised me.

This book is intriguing in its plot all the way through, and like I said, the endings for all the characters are not wrapped up in a neat bow, but are satisfying in that the characters learn about themselves and grow as people together and individually.