How do I change the POV?

Question

I am writing a novel in the 1st. person. I wish to bring in more characters, so how do I without suddenly changing my 1st. person POV, to include another or more characters? Do I, for instance, cont. in the 1st. person 'voice' and introduce another character is that the correct way. My story is 1st. person (me) and three other men, at different times throughout the story.

Answer 1

Read a book written in first person and see how it's done. No succesful writer ever made it without reading first.
But to answer your question straight forward, there are two ways I can think of:
Have one of those weird stories where the POV changes from one character to another at each chapter, as in Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."
Keep it in first person with the 'me' character, as is most common. I will assume you are in past tense, as that is most usual and much easier than present. So here's an example, introducing Charles Manson:
I entered the cellblock, wincing with the screech of metal doors scraping across the concrete floors. The hall was long and smelled like an outhouse. Three cells down, I saw why. An inmate we'll name Jimmy refused to utilize the plumbing facilities provided, choosing instead to relieve himself in a corner of the cell nearest the bars and closest to his bed. He looked up at me with yellow and black teeth, his fingers stained with filth I don't wish to identify.
The man I came to see was halfway down the hall. I stopped at the bars, standing on the imaginary line that stretched down the center of the corridor, signifying that I was safe from the clutches of the demons groping for me from either side. Charles Manson, complete with the swastika on his forehead and disheveled, graying beard, stared at me with neither a smile nor a frown. His eyes were just as neutral, and he tilted his head as he approached the bars, extending his hand. I shook my head. I didn't want to shake that claw. I didn't want to catch whatever he had.

And so on. Pretend you're talking to a friend, telling him a story about you and three other men. You can only see their facial expressions and actions. You can't know what they're thinking, but you can make educated guesses and hint at it with their physical behaviors.

Answer 2

You don't need to change POV to introduce new characters. Just have the main character some how introduce them into the story. Maybe he meets them for the first time. Or perhaps he discusses his thoughts on the other characters with the reader by directly talking to the reader.

Hope this clears some things up a little.

Answer 3

Hmmm... I'm having an issue that's vaguely like this right now - I'm writing in close 3rd but want to incorporate the great 1st person voice I just found another character to have. It's a tough question.

Are you just introducing other characters or do you want to include their thoughts and feelings as well? If you're just having them as characters, all you have to do is talk about them. If you want to include their thoughts, I'd try alternating chapters or sections within chapters, but make sure you say who is speaking at the beginning of each section to prevent any initial confusion.

Answer 4

You should try reading the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Each chapter is written in a different POV of a main character. There were three main characters: Bartimaeus ( 1st POV), Nathaniel (3rd POV), and Kitty (3rd POV). Hope that helps!

Answer 5

1) You don't have to change it, you can use a witness-narrator through the whole story.

2) You can have several characters tell the story from their own POV.

3) You can always rewrite everything and use an omniscient 3rd person narrator.

Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages, it depends on the story and wich one fits it the best.

Answer 6

countless the acceptable English novels are written from diverse perspectives. Dracula case in point is written utilising the epistolary type. The narration comes no longer basically from various characters yet from their correspondence via utilising letters, so as that the attitude is often changing. additionally, John Updike, between the greater valuable present day fiction writers no longer basically transformations attitude in a number of his thoughts, yet in addition own voice and annoying. There are rules to writing, of direction, yet as quickly as you recognize the guidelines, you may harm them interior the acceptable suited way. What i could recommend is changing the attitude countless circumstances, no longer basically as quickly as. in case you do it basically as quickly as, it's going to appear as if an accident. in case you will replace the attitude, confirm you have equivalent get admission to to each and all of the narrators. via that I mean that if the 1st narrator is punctiliously open to the objective marketplace and all of us be attentive to each thing happening in his head, the 2nd and 1/3 narrators that pop up could be an identical way. i've got seen this variety of element performed a pair of circumstances. you basically could desire to make it sparkling to the objective marketplace right this moment whilst the attitude transformations between characters. case in point, you may identify the chapters via the call of the narrator. Or if the narrators swap out and in, you may replace the font for identify of each financial ruin, so as that each and each narrator has his or her very own font. i don't be attentive to, there are a number of stuff you're able to do. Disclaimer: that's no longer a technique i could recommend once you attempt to jot down the subsequent super AMERICAN NOVEL. it is going to likely seem unprofessional and uncoordinated. notwithstanding it the reader is going into the unconventional with the expectancy that that's going to be a pulpy (albeit exciting) crime novel, it's going to do precisely high-quality. you have have been given to positioned on the acceptable suited tie for the celebration. that form of element.

Answer 7

Not understanding you, do you want to have more than one narrator?

If that's the case, you can change by the paragraph or by chapters, but an easy way to do it is to separate your strory into parts, like everything in Part 1 is one narrator, everything in Part 2 is another, etc.

Answer 8

First of all let me confess that you have a genuine problem, probably a result of ever increasing thoughts bombarding your mind which you can't properly channelize. A close reading of Emily Bronte's master piece "Wuthering Hieghts" can solve your problem, where there are more than one narrators.
Hope it helps you in your project.