Young Writers Society

I recently started writing a story in third person in order to give more info on the story instead of just focusing on one character. I found that it's not as hard as I thought. I just have one problem. I was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to smoothly start talking about someone else.

Let's say I'm talking about one character and now I want to start talking about another who is in a different setting. How could I do that easily without it being to abrupt?

I hope I made the question clear. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Well, one of the best ways I've seen it done is to simply add a page break to transition from character to the next. This, for instance, is how Truman Capote wrote his book "In Cold Blood."

Another way, though it is not the most finely tuned art, is to simple swap without warning. It may seem strange to your readers at first but once the idea is continually carried through, it will become familiar. Also, this form can also be used to add hints of comedy in this way. However, unless your really up for a writing challenge, this might not be the most advisable route.

Everytime you change from one character POV to another, make sure you start a new paragraph. If you don't, it can get very confusing.

If the character is another location, then you can just leave a blank line, or do the whole *** thing.

I've seen a couple authors dedicate one chapter to each character.

E.g. Chapter one-Amy
Chapter Two-Christopher
Chapter Three-Tommy
Chapter four- Amy
Etc.

This is a rather old topic, but I think it's better to post my question here instead of making a new topic.

The novel I'm working on is similar to what ButterFlyInk mentioned, but somehow it just didn't work out. I write it in a 1st person POV instead of 3rd person POV, is that possible?

All the reviews I had mentioned the same thing, my story is jumping everywhere that it's hard for the reader to understand what's going on or which character is currently on stage.

I personally never read any book that uses my style, except for one, which is an Indonesian fan fiction of a game, a rather slang-sort of a piece of writing. I loved it so much so I tried to write in that style in English, but failed miserably.

Should I keep trying with this odd style of writing or should I just go back to write about one single character throughout the novel using 1st person POV. Either that or should I write it in a 3rd POV but changes character every chapter, like ButterFlyInk mentioned.


I hope I made sense...
Thanks!

Okay, If you read book one of advent child (located in the advanced critiques section of this site) Xunn, the writer, does a magnificent job of switching from a fight scene to people in a completely different place, doing something else to some other random person and back. He split the sections by long spaces and just expected you to pick it up after a while. I loved it; it may not be for everyone.
This only works, however, in moments of tension where a little something is going to lead to a big something everywhere all at once.... did that make any sense? Probably not.
Or if you have dual stories about to over lap; Dean Koontz does this. Ex:
Petunia was watering her garden when she saw the puppy lying in the sun, in the middle of the street. "Poor thing is probably all tuckered out from the noon day heat," She observed while setting down her hose and walking into the street; patting down her dress for the biscuits she usually had in her flower-print pockets.
Jared was cursing, foaming and spitting. He opened up the window and threw out the can of Corona, then opened another one. He could barely see the sunny neighboorhood through his filmy, bloodshot eyes. The shivering speed dial on his dashed board vibrated to eighty as he barrelled towards two shadowy figures on the other end of the street.

.... You get the idea. Back and forth until their paths collide... quite literally.

Crouching Tuna --

I think you should start this as a separate thread if you want to get good response. Sometimes people just read the first post in the thread before responding, so it's a good idea to make your own if your issues haven't been addressed.

Let's talk about your issue at any rate. Point of view is an important thing to get right when you're writing. You need to look at what advantages and disadvantages pertain to your story in particular.

If you feel that you want to get real close to each character, and show us their thoughts individually for some reason or another, for instance you want to show us how they perceive the other characters, you might write it as you have: in the first person, switching perspectives. The advantage of the first person is that it takes you inside the character's head and makes a strong connection between reader and character.

The disadvantage of doing this switch is, as you say, it confuses readers. More importantly, however, it actually can detract from your credibility with the reader's subconscious. If the reader is to become the character, he can't suddenly change in the middle of the book and say "I'm turning into a new person." Why should he have to?

It is for this reason that I prefer Kim Stanley Robinson's approach. In his Science Fiction work about the colonization of Mars, which is incidentally marvelous, he goes through the story, consistently telling the same story in the third person. But every so often to get a peak into each character's mind, he changes the character who he is focusing on. He goes through the book section by section, each following the previous one, and gives us a view of each of the primary character's perceptions of the other characters and the situation as a whole. If you write this in the third person, we may not become the characters, but we can still relate to them without getting confused.

I hope this helped.

Have a great one!