When You Write In Multiple Points of View

I'm working on a manuscript with two alternating points of view.  To tell the story of a community shooting in my WIP and how it affects the community, I feel like I need both viewpoints.  But I struggle every time I work on it to make sure that my voices sound different. If the chapter title with the characters' name was somehow left off, I still want readers to know who is telling his story by the voice on the page.

Recently, I was also critiquing a very talented YA writer in one of my classes, and he is writing in multiple points of view. I just gave him the advice to have each POV character describe the same character in a paragraph as a writing exercise.  When he does this,  he should pay attention to the word choice and sentence structure of each POV character,  as well as what each character notices.  This is an excellent writing exercise to do when you are starting any novel, especially one with multiple voices.

I am a huge Divergent fan, but one thing that drove me crazy in book three was the alternating points of view between Tris and Four. I didn't feel like I could always tell whose point of view the chapter was in unless I read the title. Plus, until the end of the book,  I wondered why the author chose both points of view.

That's the other thing about multiple points of view.  There needs to be a reason they are being used besides it's popular.  Each character has to reveal a new plot thread the other one can't. I recently read a great book with multiple POVs that I felt was well done and uses this device for the right reasons. The book is called The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle, and Riggle alternates between three female characters: a teenager having an affair with her married teacher, the wife of the teacher, and the mother of the teenage girl. Each woman has an important story to tell, and believe me, their own take on the teacher! 

So when you write in multiple points of view. . .

1. Make sure readers can distinguish between your characters' voices without the aid of chapter titles.
2. If you are having trouble with your characters' voices, then try a writing exercise where you describe the same person or event from different viewpoints to work on word choice and voice.
3. There needs to be a reason for all the POV characters. What is each character revealing to the reader that the others can't?

So, are you writing in multiple points of view? What are the challenges you have faced? Do you like to read books with multiple points of view? Have a favorite? 

Margo L. Dill is the author of Caught Between Two Curses and Finding My Place, both written in one point of view. She teaches children's writing and novel writing classes for WOW! Find out more in the WOW! classroom.
 

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10 comments bestsellers, Margo L. Dill, multiple p.o.v., novel writing, point of view, WIP

Writing a Best-Selling Novel

A copy of "Success with Style" research
Photo credit | Elizabeth K Humphrey

I’m embarking on a new novel and my writer’s antenna is now up to any mention of a best-selling novel.

I want one of those.

Before I get there, I know I need quite a few things:

• Conflict…and lots of it!
• A realistic protagonist who also provides an element of escapism
• An antagonist who gives my protagonist reasons to fret
• A fabulous setting and, of course,
• The language of a best seller

 I can hear you asking: What is  best-selling language? A Grammar Girl post last week mentioned a published study that used an algorithm to study styles used to produce commercial success. The results produced suggestions of words that might produce more success than others. Researchers culled the books…and words…from the Project Gutenberg to study the style of these publishing winners.

The study, in itself, is a fascinating bit of research. For example, within adventure books, books using the word recognized apparently fared better than those works using words with a more emotional tone. But this also got me thinking--and considering--how a writer might implement such a list. And I decided to return to the list of what my novel needs and add one more item. In order for my book to move into the stratosphere of a best seller:

• It needs to find its readers

The report suggests words or parts of speech from successful works, but it doesn’t tell me how to put them together to reach my audience. That’s up to me. That's for me to figure out and put word after word after word to convey something to my readers that connects with them.

So, if the next time you sit at your desk ready to write, are you looking for an external list of words to plug in? Or are you choosing the words that come from within you? Are you selecting words that resonate from your own years of experience? Or even from your character taking over the plot and fighting with her nemesis?

Sure, writers study books on craft and workshop their writing. But using an algorithm to determine a  best seller seems far removed from my heart that I pour out on the page, day after day.

The study is interesting, but I’m going to let my characters tell their own story in their own words.  best seller or not.

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living in North Carolina. Her writing credits include the Idiot’s Guide: Gluten-Free Eating (Alpha, 2014).

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3 comments bestsellers, bestselling author, Elizabeth King Humphrey, how to have a bestselling novel

Reading and Learning from Popular Books

On another blog I write for, The Lit Ladies, one of our writers, Little Lady, recently wrote a post about how her high school AP English teacher snubbed his nose at Harry Potter. He had actually never read a word of J. K. Rowling's work, and he refused to even try it out because of its popularity.

I'm just going to be honest with you all right now--THIS. ATTITUDE. DRIVES. ME. CRAZY.

I realize some things that are popular are really dumb, and some books that are on the bestseller list are no good. However, many of the books, especially children's and YA, are bestsellers or popular because they are. . . (you won't believe this) good books. (Okay, this is my opinion. But I'm right!)

As a children's or YA writer, I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't read some of the popular books out there. If it's a series, you don't have to read all of them--but read one, at least. If the book is being made into a movie or a kid's series on PBS or NICK JR., check it out and read it. Then study the story and figure out why. No matter what your goals are for your writing career--even if it's that you want to write standalone books and make no money, that's okay. But knowledge is power. You should have knowledge of--

1. What kids are interested in and reading today
2. What sells and why
3. Popular authors, their stories, their agents, their publishing houses, and the business of books

Actually, if you don't care about being published or making money as a writer, then stop reading this post now and call me crazy. Go ahead! I stand behind what I'm saying here.  Here are two examples:

DIVERGENT: I picked this up after discovering that this book was going to be made into a movie, coming in March, and it had a bunch of comparisons to Hunger Games. I was skeptical. However, Veronica Roth had me at hello. I absolutely love this book! Why? I decided it's her pacing, for one. I'm not a big fan of long passages of description or pages where a character struggles with something internally. I like fast-moving, and I like surprises. Roth delivers on both these accounts. I do like her dystopian world, although I wouldn't want to live there--which makes it an excellent dystopian world. And I also love that it's set in Chicago and uses the train system there as a huge part of the plot. I have been to Chicago several times since I live in the Midwest, and I've ridden the L.

So what does Divergent teach me? Keep my pace up. Reveal plot points along the way. Don't cram everything into the beginning. Take familiar settings and change them up a little if possible.

 MAX AND RUBY: If you've had a preschooler in the last five years, you know the two loveable bunnies, Max and his older sister Ruby. Rosemary Wells originally wrote the books, which my daughter loves, and it was made into a series for Nick Jr. What I've learned from seeing many episodes of this show as well as reading the books time and again is that picture books can be simple and deal with everyday life. Also, you can have talking animals. And there should usually be some kind of humorous twist at the end.

I understand there are some BAD popular books out there (I'm not going to name names here). But read them anyway. Then when you write your book, write the exact opposite of this popular book--however (and this is the big HOWEVER) keep the essential trait that made the book popular. That's why you study the books. Why did Twilight soar over other vampire/werewolf/human books? Meyer was not the first writer to ever write about these species. Was it her characters? (That's what I think)  Why are there so many Magic Tree House books? (Children love adventure, and they love a series. They love to imagine traveling through time in a treehouse, too.)

Soapbox over, but I would love to hear your thoughts on popular books! I promise not to debate (umm, okay, I'll try not to), and I wish you the best of luck on whatever project you are currently working on--whether it will someday be popular or not.

Margo L. Dill is the author of Finding My Place: One Girl's Strength at Vicksburg (a middle-grade novel) and has three forthcoming books under contract. She is teaching Writing a Children's or Young Adult Novel for the WOW! Women On Writing classroom, starting on October 15. To see more details, go to the classroom page here.

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4 comments bestsellers, Divergent, Margo L. Dill, picture books, popular books, young adult novel