For my NaNo, I'm planning a story in which there are about 14 MCs, crazy as that may sound. It's young adult realistic fiction, basically telling about a group of high schoolers from all different groups who come together to write, produce, and perform their own play completely on their own, and have to work together and get along despie all the craziness and drama in their own personal lives. Each character or pair of characters has their own story, and they all connect (obviously) mainly in the central theater plot, but also at varying points outside it. Because I would like to give the reader connection and access to all the plotlines, I combined them as much as I could in my outline and came up with four narrators who would do the best job of telling the whole story. Is it possible to switch POVs while writing in first person? Most of what I've read in looking around makes it sound as if switching POVs needs to be done in 3rd, which would be harder for me because I connect with a character and feel their voice much more if it's in the 3rd person. Or else, do you think it'd be possible, with my story, to somehow tell it from only one perspective, perhaps with creative formatting, and still get the stories of all the characters across? 1st person switching? 3rd person switching? 1st person single? 3rd person omniscient? I like the idea for my story, and all my characters are strong, so I'd really like to write it well. I"m just not sure how to do it.
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198 / 50,000
Okt 12, 2008 - 20 07
I'm going to be bold and say that under no circumstances should you attempt first person with this thing. I'd go with third person limited, that way you can get deeper inside the point-of-view characters' heads without driving the reader crazy by switching around the first person narrator.
----------NaNo 2007 - The Spite House Affair: A Spectacular Failure at 13,231 Words
Nano 2008: Tales from the Strange Quark Pub
7,348 / 50,000
Okt 12, 2008 - 20 37
One of my favorite series of switches between three characters, so this my not help you as you have 14, but he wrote one character in first person, whose personality was such that he was constantly referring to himself in third person during his narration. He used third person for the other two main characters. The way he handled the chapters was by naming each chapter after it's main character. It was very effective and easy to follow.
I'm actually writing an eight novel series with a cast so totally vast that I am a bit in the same boat as you right now. There's a quote by someone (can't remember who!) that I try to always remember when I overwhelm myself with questions about the "right" way to do it. I might be totally screwing it up, but it goes something like this:
There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.
I like that, reminds me that eventually, my characters will work it out amongst themselves however they best see fit. Just go with your gut, you will have plenty of time to edit/change POVs later. Just write it how it's easiest for you, and then deal with the mess you've made later!
Good luck, I can totally feel your pain.
PS I like your story idea!
114,200 / 50,000
Okt 13, 2008 - 00 38
I'm agreeing with No34, please do it in Third Person. That's the obvious and natural POV for a story like the one you're describing. Third Person limted, and since you've picked out those four characters already, let the Third Person be one of them for most of the scenes.
You can make it a rule, if one of them is in a scene, they have the POV. If more than one of them is in the scene, then they'll just have to fight it out. ;-) I mean, you'll just have to decide who's POV will be more interesting for that particular scne.
But yes, please, stick with Third Person. There's another dimension to Third Person, and that's "distance". If you go for close third person limited you can be as deep into the characters head as you would be in First Person. You can put in their thoughts directly, without "she thought" tags. If you're firmly in that characters POV the reader understands that it's their direct thoughts.
Multiple 1st person should, in my opinion, only be done for very strong stylistic reasons, not because "well I like writing in First, but the story needs multiple Points of View."
1,787 / 50,000
Okt 13, 2008 - 11 27
Thanks so much for your responses. junkfoodmonkey, reading your quote of why I said I wanted to do first person especially made it obvious that it's not the right choice. I think I'm going to go ahead and attempt 3rd person limited from my four chosen points of view, and just see what happens with it- maybe I'll need more characters telling the story, maybe less. But that's the joy of Nanowriomo, eh? So thanks!
114,200 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2008 - 02 50
Yeah it is easy to stay in our comfort zone with what we're good at and try to shoehorn that into the current project. But you have to go with what's right for the story. I'd never written first person at any length before my first NaNoWriMo back in 2006, but that one just HAD to be in first person, so I went for it and it worked and I learnt a lot.
And NaNoWriMo is a great time to try something new anyway. For one thing, if it fails, well big deal, it was only a month. But it's also a heck of a crash course in something new! If you've never written 3rd Person Limited before I can guarantee by the time you've written 50,000 or more words in it inside of a month you'll know more about it and what to do and not do than any number of books or classes could teach you.
50,214 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2008 - 12 03
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that 1st person IS possible. Multiple views ("multiple" here meaning "a LOT of") are juggled in first person really well in the book "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes. She manages it by having strong voices for all of the characters, and by having one consistent character who shows up as the narrator every few chapters, and who references the other characters, almost as if to remind the reader who everyone is. I'd highly recommend checking it out if you want to go for 1st person. It's a juvenile book, geared to 12 and up... though it's one of those children's books that is every bit as interesting to read as an adult.
Anyway... it IS possible... you just need to be really clear and have strong voices for each. And you should probably title each chapter after the character's name.
----------Working Title: Mrs. Charming
Genre: Humor/fantasy
Mood: EXCITED! NANO'S STARTING! SQUEE!
General: Have a great one-liner but no actual plot. The story doesn't know what it wants to do but enthusiastic about getting there. It's in adolescence, basically
10,097 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2008 - 15 31
Here's a link to a similar thread that you might find helpful:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3019486
Happy Nano! :-)
------------KatRobbins--
Nano 2008: Kandinsky's Fugue
(Southern / Humor / Romance / Mystery)
2,031 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2008 - 19 05
You can do it in 3rd person, but still use unique voices for each person, the Song of Ice and Fire series does a pretty fair job of it, I think. I wouldn't use 1st person, I've seen it done, but it's really confusing for the reader. I personally don't care for the 3rd person omniscient narrator.
50,058 / 50,000
Okt 21, 2008 - 12 05
Life of Pi presents 2 pseudo-POV's by starting each chapter with an intimate thought in Italics. The thoughts are like flashbacks and are really intense. If you wanted to dabble with switching, I would say that something brief in Italics to start things off might be fun without having to commit to one way or the other.
Life of Pi uses it to sort of contrast the thoughts we can control and the things that just come to us/wash over us.
If you have to say something omnicient for the reader's sake, you can follow it with 'but he [I] (MC) was too tired to notice'
If you use the italics thing, you can switch at some point so that the italics are the body and the normal text is the small interruption at the beginning.