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Q&A Is it okay for a chapter's POV to shift as it progresses?

There are two questions hiding in your question, 1. Can the POV character not be the character who's most active? Consider Sherlock Holmes as an example. Watson is the POV character, the story is...

posted 5y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:57:39Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46693
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:28:24Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46693
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:28:24Z (about 5 years ago)
There are two questions hiding in your question,

## 1. Can the POV character not be the character who's most active?

Consider _Sherlock Holmes_ as an example. Watson is the POV character, the story is told in first person by Watson, it's Watson's opinions and emotions we share. But Watson is passive. It's Holmes who is active, it's Holmes who is interesting, it's Holmes who is the focus of the story.

There is nothing wrong with writing part of your narrative in a similar fashion, with the POV character observing, while another character is more active. If that's what suits your narrative, that's certainly a tool you can use.

## 2. Can you switch POV mid-chapter?

In her novel _The Merlin Conspiracy_, Diana Wynne Jones follows two POV characters who start out in two very different locations. Each "part" of the novel is labelled with the appropriate character. Then, as the characters meet, the labels are attached instead to each chapter, (and those can be one page long,) and then they just hover over paragraphs mid-chapter, when the switch happens. It's not disruptive in the slightest, but if you think about it, there's buildup for this happening, structurally.

As an alternative, you can write in 3rd person omniscient, in which case you are in whatever head you need to be in all the time. [This question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/39246/14704) goes deeper into it.

So, to sum up, **this isn't a question about _whether_ it is OK - it is, but about _how_ to do it. There are multiple ways, you need to pick the one that works best for your particular narrative.**

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-07-17T11:01:38Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 18