Length of segments in rotating POV
When rotating POV between multiple characters, how long should a segment in one POV be?
I'm writing ensemble 3rd person and tend to like to let the story dictate its own pace. However, I'm concerned that as the chapters are relatively short, the POV changes — usually 3 POVs per chapter — are very frequent, and the segments may be jarringly short.
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There's no one right answer. You have to write your story and let other people read it, and ask your readers if it feels too jarring. Maybe one POV per chapter is correct, or maybe your story requires a frequent POV shift. But there's no generic template or requirement.
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I don't see the length of each segment done in a particular character's point of view as the issue. I've seen excellent stories split into many short glimpses of the world through multiple characters' eyes, and I've seen stories equally excellent split into just two halves consisting of Character A's view of the story followed by a contrasting second half from the POV of Character B.
What can be a problem with short sections in different POVs is failure to make the identity of each new POV character clear at the start of each section.
If you go for short sections, I recommend starting each section with either of
a single-word announcement of the name of the character we are following, or
stating the viewpoint character's name in the very first sentence.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/22037. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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