Multiple POVs in a single scene
This question came up in another forum, so I thought I'd share it here. Should there be only one POV per scene? Is it OK to go with multiple POVs?
An example is a scene with two characters facing off, in a tense situation. The POV shifts evenly between the two of them, and the reader gets to see that one of the characters is in full control of their emotions and their perception of control during the encounter, while the other is mentally falling apart, but manages to keep their outward appearance strong.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/3536. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
This is fine with me. You can have just one POV, multiple POVs, you can even have multiple first-person POVs if you really want. (That might leave your reader confused, but that could be what you intend.)
The only rule might be "Be consistent." If your story is consistently from one person's POV, don't show someone else's unless there's a really compelling reason for it. (Example: The Harry Potter books are all told third-person with Harry as the focus, with the exception of two or three first chapters — Books 1 and 6, IIRC — because the reader couldn't get the information otherwise.)
If your story consistently shifts POV from one chapter to the next and you have multiple main characters, that's fine. If you have a chapter with two main characters, you can shift POVs between them as long as there's a reason for doing so.
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