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Q&A What are the advantages and disadvantages to changing the POV in the second and third books of a trilogy?

It depends on your character arcs Switching POVs to a secondary character is actually incredibly common in romance series. Each book completes the romantic arc of a single couple, and then the se...

posted 6y ago by Arcanist Lupus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:16:27Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34201
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Arcanist Lupus‭ · 2019-12-08T08:16:27Z (almost 5 years ago)
# It depends on your character arcs

Switching POVs to a secondary character is actually incredibly common in romance series. Each book completes the romantic arc of a single couple, and then the sequels pick up secondary characters from the earlier novels and give them romantic arcs as well. There are, of course, plenty of romance series with multi-book character arcs as well. But the "new POV for each book" model is alive and well.

If your POV's character arc is completed, it makes sense for them to pass the torch onto another character, so the readers can follow this new character and watch as they develop.

On the other hand, if your POV's arc is _not_ completed, then switching over to watch it be completed in third person will probably not win you favors among your readers. Watching character arcs from third person is a well established technique (eg. The Great Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, Trinity, The Master of Whitestorm, etc), but switching to it part way through a series is likely to disorient your readers.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-03-12T06:03:05Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 5