Welcome to my foray into the Book Bloggers Hop, where we have a question set each weekend. I’ve adopted it mainly for the last Monday of the month, or when I’m stuck for a subject. This week…
How do you feel about books with multiple narrators?
As long as the multiple narrator point of view is well done, that’s fine. I don’t mind switching between characters when we’re involved with them, but I do get a little confused sometimes when we switch to a different time/place and person. Remembering, oh yes, we were here three days ago, and I need to remember who all these people are, can be a pain.
But I’m going to be interested in everyone else’s answers, because I’m using multiple narrators in my rewrite of The Perihelix. Each scene takes a specific character’s POV, the shift depending on … things. I hope it will read better than before when I used an impersonal third person narrator – it’s still third person, but from one person’s point of view at a time.
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By the way, I finally got around to installing Yoast SEO plug-in yesterday. I’ve been saying I was going to do it for at least one year (and maybe it’s now two). I’ll let you know in a few weeks whether I think it makes any difference.
I’m with you. Multiple narrators can be very confusing if there are too many and if there are too many. it’s also very confusing from a reader’s perspective let alone the writer’s. But I’m sure it will work if you have the patience.
Thanks, Kim. It means I’m taking even longer now reworking The Perihelix, to make sure I get it right!
I’m with Kim–multiple narrators requires extra care. But being 3rd person, I think, makes it easier to keep them in order, and restricting to one POV at a time (instead of an omniscient narrator) I think makes much more sense, and will prevent head-hopping. Currently listening to an audio book that does this, and handles it well, even without the visual cues you get on paper, so I think it’s perfectly workable.
I do enjoy multiple POVs but limited to a small number. And the transitions need to be careful. The advantage is that the reader can see things from different perspectives which can change the understanding. I think the book Gone Girl got writers thinking more about writing from different POVs. Do it!