Writing help

Tips for Switching Point of Views with Poise

1. Be clear who the narrator is right away. Within the first sentence or two, the reader should know who this chapter's PoV character is. Simply stating an action or relative position of the PoV character in the opening sentence is enough, but as with dialogue formatting, the key is to be consistent.

2. The first time a new character is introduce is the hardest. Be sure to spend a good amount of time with this character, letting the reader get a feel for their personality and goals before switching back to someone else.

3. Don't change points of view in the middle of a chapter. This is in no way, shape, or form a rule, but it can make the PoV switches flow a lot better, especially if you have more than two PoV characters.

4. State the PoV character below the chapter title. This is entirely optional and doesn't negate the fact that it should be obvious who the PoV character of the chapter is right away, even without the chapter title addition, but it's a useful bonus to help drive hope which character the reader should be focusing on this chapter.