I would like to know from first hand, how risky is it writing a book with different point of views? Do i risk getting my manuscript rejected without an agent actualy reading it to the end? To make it more specific, I am creating a story of a girl that was born in an underground shelter. She doesnt know, how long she has been there. She doesnt know about the outside world other than the stories her mom would tell her...
Things get even more complicated after her mom passes away and she is left without anyone until she get a message from the outside world. Unfortunately, she can't read. The second chapter starts with a different character that seems to be disconected but its not. Its actualy POV of the mom and the story how they got there and how the gorl was born, but until reaching the end of chapter there's no way to know that. First chapter ends dramaticly, second starts kind of weird making you hate the writer (aka me). Am I risking loosing the interest of the agent before he/she gets the connection?
Dan Brown does something similar, but when being a first time author is it risky making your first book like that?
You can do almost anything you want if you write something you make me want to read.
Most agents will take a look at things that are technically difficult to see if you can pull it off. Automatic rejection tends to be for things like word count: no matter how great your book, 250K isn't something I can sell these days. 35K isn't either.
Most agents don't read past the point they know it's a pass. Thus "reading to the end" isn't the norm. I give a novel 100 pages and if it hasn't sucked me in, most likely it's a pass.
When you see writing advice like "avoid multiple points of view" the unspoken part of that advice is: multiple points of view are very difficult to pull off effectively, and if you're reading writing advice books, maybe you want to start with something that's not as technically difficult.
In other words, even Simone Biles walked before she flew.
One of our crit group's first published novel was a romance with two POVs: the two of the romance. On the other hand, Rowling's book "A Casual Vacancy" has about twenty POVs and it doesn't work, at least for me. So, it can be tricky.
ReplyDeleteIf the two POVs are first person, look for books written that way and try to determine how each voice changes for each POV. Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" is the earliest I know of. It's dated but he's still a master so you can learn something by studying it.
My most recent book is multiple POV which is pretty common in adult fantasy. But yes, it is super hard to pull off. I am finding it takes a good deal more revision to do it. My new WIP is a single narrator telling the story and that makes it easier - a kind of limited omniscient. I am finding it far easier to work with.
ReplyDeleteI am back to revising my last book. And the multiple POV does make it more challenging. But it is vital to make the story work the way I wish it to work. Still, so hard to pull off. Agents are NOT patient. They don't have the time to be. You have to pull it off just so. Good luck, OP.
I think the story of the underground girl sounds wonderful. I would read it!
ReplyDeleteOP I really like the concept of your story as described. I think it's a great idea. Work hard and pull off that multiple POV thing cuz that might just make your book really special!
ReplyDeleteI think the key in pulling off multiple POVs is in making sure that, even as the characters shift, the thread of tension, the handoff from one chapter to the next, remains consistent. Chapter Two should feel like Chapter Two, not Another Chapter One.
ReplyDeleteI think the majority of stories have multiple POVs and I have no problem with that. As long as they're not multiple first person POVs. That is tough to follow. And not switching POV within the chapter. And I agree with Adib that each chapter should still move forward.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely unrelated note, I just felt the need to share the feeling I got yesterday when I wrote "The End" on the first draft of my current novel. Oh so much rework lies ahead, but the past two weeks were maybe my most productive ever and it feels good.
I've been reading a lot of Tim Dorsey lately. It is some of the most unbelievably funny shit I've ever read. The first novel I read of his was Pope of Palm Beach. He wound multiple threads throughout it on different timelines. At least three or four distinct points of view. I was halfway through before I realized I had no idea how any of them connected.
ReplyDeleteYou would think I'd put it down, but I couldn't. It was just too damn funny and well written. When he pulled those storylines together in the second half of the book, I was in total awe.
He's published over twenty books, almost one a year, so I guess it works for him.
Keep working at it. You'll find your way. I am working on my eighth book in six years. There have been a few exciting moments but not one has been published. This is a long game, but nothing is more fun than watching your style and skills evolve.
Steve Forti, congratulations! What a great feeling that is.
ReplyDeleteI just read "The Girl Who Wrote in Silk." It had two timelines, a contemporary line where the protagonist found an embroidered silk sleeve, and a historical about how the sleeve came to be there. I definitely needed the date cues at the beginnings of chapters to keep it straight. If they'd just dropped me in without a clue, I would have been frustrated.
I agree with Adib. Multiple points of view can work if the POV is handed off in a way that doesn’t break the flow of the story. Effective stories have an internal structure that pulls the reader naturally through the plot. If you can switch back and forth between points of view without fracturing that internal structure, readers will follow along just fine. It’s tricky, but not impossible.
ReplyDeleteHard copy vs digital/audio: I recently read "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr: 545 pages, composed of hundreds of 1-2 page vignettes. They follow 2 major characters and a couple of minor ones, weaving back and forth in time, in about 4-5 different running time sequences over the space of about 10 years. I had a paper copy; I sometimes had to go back and check which timeline I was in, but I had no trouble following it. However, I was doing this as part of a book club, and I noticed those who read it digitally couldn't follow the story very well, while the people who were listening to it on Audible gave up completely. Something to think about if you're going to write something off-piste for digital or audio publication.
ReplyDeleteOP, multiple points of view is very common in romance, so there are a lot of readers who are used to multi-points of view. It seems to be common in YA as well (I don't read as much there, but what I do read often is multi).
ReplyDeleteI've even read cozies with multi-pov, and yet most are written as single.
I second Janet, as long as you do it well it won't matter.
By the sounds of it I'd get some eyes on it, though, because it doesn't matter how many points of view you have, you don't want the reader to be overly confused.
Best of luck.
I think in Gone Girl the 2nd POV was a third of the way through the book. But I have always wondered how that author queried that story...
ReplyDeleteGood luck, OP. Yes to beta readers. They are invaluable.
Steve congrats! that's awesome.
I've been peeking in on the discussions here the past few days. I'm glad we aren't all alike but can still basically be civil. Please stay safe, Reefers.
ReplyDeleteWell done Steve!
Thank you, Janet, and thanks to everyone else also. I have to be honest, I fell in love with my story but it is a dark and draining love. Currently, I am working on two different books and even though it sounds challenging, I find a certain feeling of relief when being able to drop a story for a while and switch to something completely different. The problem with the underground story is that it went really dark so entering the heads of my characters can make me pretty grumpy and angry at the world. It sounds silly but I don't know any other way of writing anything good other than being right there with my character and the shelter is not my fav place right now. I also want to thank everyone who stated that the story seems interesting and that they would read it that means the world to me. Sometimes when writing these books it seems like I haven't really chosen the topic or the genre because I am a very cheerful person, but it seems to me that these books have chosen me to be their writer. Maybe I just sound crazy but I like to believe that that's how it works when it is meant to be :D There is one quote that I really like that says "It's not everything in its own time, but everything in your own time." Or in Serbian "Nije sve u svoje vreme vec sve u tvoje vreme."
ReplyDeleteHa ha, my goodness, I'm so glad I haven't really read a writing advice book, because OMG I have 4 POVs in my second book: Finja, Nick, a priest, and the priest's mother.
ReplyDeleteNow I am hoping I am pulling it off... LOL.