POV character for second novel in a tril

[fluke]

Hello,

I was thinking about book 2 over the last few days and ran into a little dilemma. Book 1 is Gifts of Healing, and the POV char is a Knight Luminar named Grimthol Freeman. He is a devoted "Child of the Son" (as they call Christians). His spiritual journey is that he goes from trusting in discipline to keep him from sin to trusting in the Father. At the end of this book, 3 of the central characters are Children of the Son* (as opposed to 2 at the beginning). One of the characters who is not is Shylocke av Avery.

*Name comes from ST:OS episode "Bread and Circuses." Since it was the name of a group and not an individual character, may I legally use it?

I plan on Shylocke and the others converting in book 2, The Gift of Faith. Here's the question, the story may be more impacting if told more from Shylocke's POV instead of Grimthol's. However, book 3's climactic scene is a Grimthol scene. If I switch for book 2 is it alright to switch back to Grimthol in book 3 or should I switch to yet a third character for the POV in book 3, Signs and Wonders?

[The Blue Collared Philosopher]

Hm, i think you could. In the Door Within trilogy, Thomas Batson starts the first book with the POV of a boy named Aiden. Then in the second book he starts out with the POV as Aiden, but when Aiden meets a girl named Antoinette he switches to her POV and stays there for most of the book, then in the third book he introduces another character, and at the end of his trilogy he ended up going with three POV's switching between all three characters and Aiden being the primary character.

So if you did that you would just be adding a POV with every book you wrote. Which, in my opinion wouldn't be bad(unless you were writting like ten books!)

You could do something like that, oh, and in the Dragon Keeper series by Donta K. Paul, her first and second books were with the POV of a certain girl named Kale, and then in the third book it was with the POV of Bardon her friend.

However, i did notice that the only reason these two authors did this was because their first main characters were not really involved in the adventure.

So, in my humble opinion, i would say that you could change your POV for one book or even just add another POV.

[tranehess]

Point of View is yours to determine. Period. However, having said that, you are wise to make sure your reader can follow who the POV is. I like to do 1POV books, but my mom prefers to write 2pov romances. (She has several books published, btw). The book I'm writing currently, however, is MPOV. So far I have used at least 9 pov in it, and I'm maybe half done. I know there will be at least two more-- probably three or four more before I'm done. The biggest taboo in point of view (ha, poetry!) is to switch pov or allow it to wander within a sequence. If you switch pov, you need to either start a new chapter or else leave a white space as an interlude. Older books would do this * * * * * * * thing across the page to show a time lapse or a pov switch. . . .

[tranehess]

And by the way, I have found the taboo of wandering pov in such acclaimed writers as Tolkien and Terry Brooks. . . .

[Divides the Waters]

What you are calling "wandering" POV (I like the term) is actually an older school technique called Third Person Omniscient. It's highly frowned on now.

Third Person Limited is generally preferred for novels now (one POV per scene, although you can still switch POV between scenes, chapters, or even novels, depending on how many POV characters you have).

Didn't Stephen Lawhead change his POV characters throughout the Pendragon Cycle and the Song of Albion?

[Jeff Gerke]

For guidelines on POV and multiple storylines, please go to www.wherethemapends.com/writerstools/writers_tools_pages/tip_of_the_week.htm and read Tips 30 and 42-43.

Jeff

[Therin]

dividesthewaters said:

Didn't Stephen Lawhead change his POV characters throughout the Pendragon Cycle and the Song of Albion?

Yup. In Taliesin (Pendragon), he had two or three main characters, and he switched about every chapter. Merlin went to first person from Merlin's view, and what I've read of Arthur has a new 1st person view for each of the three parts.
Song of Albion is all 1st person; books 1 and 3 are from Lewis/Llew's view and book two is Tegid.
In other words, switching around is not a super big problem (although sometimes it is a bit confusing for the reader).

[Divides the Waters]

I really liked George R. R. Martin's approach in A Song of Ice and Fire. He keeps multiple storylines afloat with multiple points of view, but he spends time with each character, having each chapter focus on a single third person limited narrative. That way you never feel lost, despite the breadth of the story. The way he does it is brilliant, and while I have emulated him in some regards, I cannot hope to match his epic scope or narrative strength.

Just started Taleisin. Regarding Arthur: Have to say, not fond of multiple first person POVs. It worked for Stoker, but I hated what Heinlein did with it. I would rather someone intercut between first and third.