Writing from multiple points of view

One of the joys of historical fiction is to provide insight into the motives and emotions of characters living through historical events. Story writers plunge into characters’ minds, exploring their thoughts, in a way that is impossible for historians.

Many novels are written from the perspective of a single main character. But this can be limiting. Readers see only what that character sees, and know only what that character knows.

To illuminate historical events, you may need other views. You need to write from multiple points of view.

Here are tips to gain the advantage, and avoid the pitfalls, of multiple points of view.

Whose point of view best tells your story?

What story do you want to tell? Maybe you are writing about a powerful leader. Whose observations best illuminate that story? The leader themselves? A servant, who witnesses reactions to the leader? A soldier, who sees the consequences of the leader’s decisions?

Maybe you can bring complexity and nuance by telling the story from all three perspectives.  The leader may be convinced of God’s guidance. The servant, safely in the capital, believes in the leader’s righteousness. The soldier, seeing the carnage in the field, has a different experience. Readers understand those differences better if they ‘live’ them with the characters, rather than learning by hearsay, perhaps from a letter or newspaper. Here lies the value of multiple points of view.

But, beware.

Don’t let your points of view proliferate

Delving into too many minds can be tiring and confusing for readers. It’s like trying to talk to everyone at once at a party. You’ll enjoy it more if you talk to two or three people and get to know them well. Readers need time and space to bond with characters. Hence, consider carefully whose views you need, in order to tell your story. In our leader example, do we really need two people with the city perspective?

Ideally, each POV character needs something with which readers can empathise, as this helps them bond with that character.

Each person has their own story

Your POV characters experience historical events. But history is only history after it happens. While living through it, each character has a life of their own, their desires and worries creating their own plot line. This can be especially useful when the main historical events are well known, so provide little of the story tension needed to keep readers reading. A POV character who is not famous, or entirely fictitious, can introduce that tension, through their personal story. It might be a romance, a mystery, a quest – but it must be their own story.

However, all the characters’ plot-lines needs to tie together at the end, to give coherence to the overall story.

Who is the narrator?

You record your story through the points of view of several characters. But who is the ‘voice’ of that writing? Does each character contribute in first person, the ‘I’ of writing?

Or is the ‘voice’ not a character, but an invisible persona, writing in third person (he/she/it) but so close to a character, it’s as if readers were inside that character’s head, seeing the world through their eyes, and hearing their inner thoughts?

Or is the ‘voice’ a god-like, omniscient, all-seeing persona? Able to flit anywhere and delve into any character’s mind at will? If this is the case, it is wise to consider the narrative distance – how close does this narrator get to each character?

Don’t head hop

Having carefully chosen your POV characters, and the ‘voice’ that will report their thoughts and feelings, don’t confuse readers by head hopping – constantly flitting from one POV to another.

How to avoid confusing readers? Stick to one POV in one scene – or, better, one chapter.

Make it immediately clear whose head the reader is in. You might name the character. Or they may be identifiable by their setting (our soldier in a dug out), or their action (our servant dressing the leader). Speech patterns, repetitive tics, anything that you have established as unique to a particular character, will serve to identify them.

Whose point of view?

If two POV characters are present in the same scene, select one POV to write from, and express the other character’s feelings through actions that are perceived by your POV character.

But who to choose?

You may write the POV of the character with most at stake, whose emotions are strongest.

Or, you may write the one with less to worry about, in order to withhold information and build suspense. Whose thoughts do you want readers to share AT THIS POINT in the story? It may not be the main character.

Don’t repeat scenes from another point of view, unless there’s some special reason for rewinding time in your story. That’s not to say that another character can’t reflect upon their experience, at a later time.

Are all POV characters equal?

Maybe each POV character receives an equal number of chapters, balancing each perspective. But maybe one’s story is bigger than another’s, yielding ‘main’ and ‘minor’ POV characters. You may deliberately decide to focus on a main character, who bonds with readers.

However, don’t let a minor character become so minor that the reader ‘loses touch’ with them. If they don’t merit many chapters, consider whether they need to be a POV character at all. Or, are you neglecting their personal story?

Are your POV characters in conflict?

You might choose to tell a story from two sides, to show the complexity of a historical situation. However, readers may balk at spending time with characters they feel are on the ‘wrong side’. It’s worth considering something in each character that readers can relate to: a parent’s love for a child, perhaps.

This is how multiple perspectives illuminate history: conflict is lived by people: people who all share our humanity.

Helen Johnson is a guest contributor to The History Quill. She has spent a quarter of a century writing about Yorkshire’s people, places, culture and heritage. What she learned inspired her to bring Yorkshire’s past to life through historical fiction. She is currently working on a novel set during William the Conqueror’s genocide. Helen also publishes articles, reviews and short stories. She is a beta reader for The History Quill, a reviewer for the Historical Novel Society, and leads workshops for Promoting Yorkshire Authors. Visit Helen’s website for more information.