I am sure this is an easy question for most of you, but for me it’s a new problem.

The main character, call her Alice, tells the story in first person for about 40k. Then I switch to Robert, who tells his unrelated story in first person for about 30k. Now I need to switch back to Alive again to complete the book.

The problem I ran into is ‘transition’ from one to the other in telling the books story to the reader. When the character, Alice or Robert, is talking to the reader (not dialogue), how does the reader know who is talking to them, Alice or Robert? I want to signal clearly to the reader that the book has switched from Robert back to Alice, but it does not seem to work out well by doing it on the ‘same page’.

I wanted to start a chapter with Robert talking to the reader and then half way through the page, have Alice take over the book. Then, she would be the one addressing the reader. I never could get it to work.

What I finally did was give them each their own chapters. Robert’s last chapter ends, and the next chapter starts with Alice talking. This seems to work better, but I still need to somehow send a signal that this new chapter is Alice talking.

I hope I have not make this confusing.

I remember reading book once, where there were five people in the story, and in each chapter a different character would take over the story from their point of view. I was very confusing to me. I would just get comfortable with a character, and suddenly in the next chapter, I had to start all over again with a new character’s point of view. I didn’t like that book.

My book’s story is told by two characters, which is enough for me.

Thank you
Azel

I'm sure you've thought of this, Azel, because it seems so simplistic, but why not just put the character's name at the top of his/her sections like a chapter heading? Otherwise, the reader will no doubt pick it up by the difference in voice, anyway, but this way there is never a monet's confusion. Lots of books do it.

Rosy.

<Added>

Doesn't Andrea Levy do this, for example, when switching between her four first-person narrators in Small Island? I've lent my copy to a friend so can't go and check!

Joanna Briscoe did it in... er... what was it called? Sleep With Me, I think. Good idea.

Alternatively, make it clear at the very start of each chapter by making it unambiguous in the first sentence - eg, "Anne felt cold as she waited by the bus stop". This will require a little thought in order to avoid it seeming too blunt and unsubtle, but shouldn't be a major undertaking.

Deb

Your characters should also have their own distinct "voice" which readers should be able to pick up on when they start reading. They should know who the section is about just by the way they are telling their story.

EmmaD does this in TMOL and my mum, who is an avid reader (not many books she hasn't read!), says it's the best example of this she has ever read. She knew exactly who it was and there was no need for names. As a reader this was one of the best parts of the book for her.

I seem to remember Nick Hornby's A long way Down started each chapter from the pov of a different character. I find it jarring too, but after the first couple of chapters you come to expect it.
Putting the person's name at the top of the chapter is a good idea, or if they are separated by time or locality then use a date or a place name - if the editor thinks it is unnecessary they can always delete it.
You might consider starting the chapter off as a continuation of that character's previous chapter, or with the character reminiscing, to re-set the scene for the reader.
As you've mentioned, simply having the character's name in the first line of dialogue would probably be enough.
Sometimes I think we underestimate our readers.

- NaomiM

Ooh, Eve, that's nice to know.

In TMOL both the narratives are first-person. They do change within the chapter, with a double line space between, and I worked very hard to make sure that the first sentence of the new character was particularly characteristic, both in their voice, and in mentioning a name or a place that was unique to them. The idea was that by the second sentence the reader would be thoroughly dug back into that narrator.

As there were double-line spaces between sections within the narratives as well, in the published version my editor decided to put a fancy squiggle where the voice changed, just to keep the inattentive reader on track, which seemed reasonable to me.

I've got three narrators in the new one, and I'm heading each section with their name for now, plus for two of them the date/time of this section, as they're rather episodic. I thought I might be able to drop the names but I don't think I shall. Those two narrators are a 15th century brother and sister, and their voices aren't so different (tho' I'm doing my best!) that I can rely on keeping the reader straight purely by voice.

Emma

Those two narrators are a 15th century brother and sister, and their voices aren't so different

I've always thought that was part of the problem with "different voices" - that characters who hang around together, either because of social status, job or upbringing will have some or many similarities in the way they think and talk, because we pick things up from each other.

Obviously some characters may not hang around together for most of the book and thus may be very different from each other.

Deb

Men and women do talk differently, though I'd have trouble putting my finger on the differences. And my two have very different characters. Plus the circumstances of their narration are very different. One is chronological over years, one is a single day, with flashbacks, so the sections have different flavours in that sense.

It's not all vocabularly, though: you can do very basic different things with sentence lengths and structure, and styles of grammar and punctuation and thought, according to character. That's what I started from in TMOL. The fifteen year old doesn't do commas: I had to do a lot of unpicking from my US copy-editor's entirely proper corrections!

Emma

I'm not sure I can see that men and women talk differently, but they probably talk about different things, which is a little different. Next time I hear men and women talking I'll see if I can spot a difference.

As for rhythms of speech, surely they are largely absorbed from those around us? Which was my point - that we usually speak similarly to those around us.

I agree it's good to try to have different voices, but when I'm writing I try to do that by "going into" the character, so it's more to do with their different view of the world than their speech patterns, but might "come out" in the speech patterns as a result.

Deb

As for rhythms of speech, surely they are largely absorbed from those around us? Which was my point - that we usually speak similarly to those around us.

I'm not sure I'd agree, though obviously there are group characteristics, but I think it's also controlled by character. Obviously in how chatty someone is, or how articulate (not always the same thing), but also in age - vocabularies change - whether they're always in a hurry or more relaxed, whether they use slang deliberately or naturally, or more formal language. A lot of it comes by instinct: the two sisters in TMOL shared a lot, inevitably, but I found they spoke rather differently. But it can be helpful, as the writer, to have some rules of thumb that you apply to the different voices, since there will usually be a tendency for them all to move towards your own 'natural' voice if you don't keep on your toes.

Emma

I guess you're right. I suppose I only differentiate by instinct when "inside" my character, and never do it consciously, but I do sometimes notice it after I've written something.

Interesting idea to do it consciously - useful if you don't feel it's sufficiently obvious when you left it to your instinct.

Deb

Hi

Just to clarify.

So in an episodic novel, would having changing POV's from say 3 or 4 major characters - one per chapter with chapter headings [e.g. Chapter 1 = Fred. 1930. Chapter 2 = Gwenda 1940 Chapter 3 = Fred 1935 etc] be acceptable and less jarring [or more?].

Jen
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I think it would certainly be acceptable to give a heading, and it would make it very clear. I'd certainly be tempted to do it if there were different periods involved, or the time-scheme of the novel zig-zagged. But if you're operating in third person it would be perfectly possible not to, just to write the opener so it's clear. With first person it's that much harder to make clear, because it'll all be 'I' and it's much more likely the reader won't pick up on it.

It really all depends what you're trying to do with the switching viewpoints. Main thing of course is to tell the story, without losing or confusing the reader. I used multiple viewpoints in Taking Comfort, but they were 'close third' rather than first person pov. I actually liked the idea that there might be some voice overlap or even momentary confusion in the reader. One of the themes was identity - so a blurring of voices seemed to work with this. All my characters were products of the same culture, so the influence of that culture in terms of homogenising ideas, desires, language, aspirations, etc.. was something that I wanted to explore.

I think readers will go with you more than you imagine and sometimes I think the best way is just to leap in and let them catch up.

Thanks Emma and Roger.

Just one more thing and many thanks for helping me with this, if an episodic novel has two very strong plots that in theory should come together at the end to fulfill the story arc, would this technique [this changing of POV's per chapter] work?

Does that question even make sense??

Thanks

Jen
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