How to Change Point of View in a Novel

Using Multiple Point of Views

Changing point of view (POV) in a novel is quite common in the literary world. Some great examples of novels written with multiple points of view are Bleak House by Charles Dickens, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Changing POV allows the reader a chance to see all the different versions of a plot through the eyes of the different characters. An author can easily switch the POV from one character to another by making a few minor structural adjustments.

Instructions

1. Decide if your novel is large enough to handle multiple viewpoints. Short stories and smaller novels are not the best venue for changing viewpoints. Changing point of view works better in larger novels with more characters.

2. Find a central focus for your novel. Your characters should all have one central theme in common. This is important when you start switching point of views. Otherwise, you will leave the reader frustrated and lost.

3. Pick no more than two or three point of views for the characters. One character may speak in the first-person, while another character may be introduced using third-person. You need to stick with the point of view that you assign each character, however.

4. Signal to the reader that the point of view is changing. You can do this by separating the changes with chapter headings or paragraph headings. Another way is to simply add a bit of extra white space between paragraphs.

5. Use diary entries to signal a change in viewpoint. The diary is an efficient way to slip from third-person to first-person point of view. Likewise, you can insert quotes or clippings from fictional magazines or newspapers to move into another viewpoint.

Tips & Warnings

• Read some novels that employ the use of multiple point of views. Toni Morrison does this brilliantly.

• Play around with different point of views until you find what works for you.

• Don’t signal a change in point of view when you don’t intend to move into a change. Check your pronoun usage to ensure that you didn’t accidentally signal change when there was none.

Resources

• The Development of Point of View
• Switching Point of View
• The 3 Points of View in Writing