How would you handle the transition to a new generation in a first person novel?

[Astro Pen]

A spur of the moment "thinking out loud" question which I may resolve after sleeping on it tonight, maybe it isn't even a problem but I'll ask it anyway.
Reaching a point in the WIP tonight where we move on to the next generation from the one we opened with. We have build a strong lead character and got to know him and the men and women of his crew intimately as well as his full knowledge of everything that led to where we are.

Now we have to wait for a generation while a 30 year 'fall of Rome' scale situation to plays out elsewhere after which his daughter picks up the reins.

Should I run a 'crossover' window where he educates his daughter in the history with him as POV saving her perspective until after he dies or should I make her the new POV who is educated by "father" now?

To be clear my problem is not with the story, it is with how and when the first person POV is swapped. I am leaning to a clean break with the daughter POV opening the next section.
Anybody run into this one and dealt with it?

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

How about a journal entry that gets cut off when the lead character dies, and then in the next entry is picked up by his daughter--after which you merge into her full, non-journal perspective?

 

[Abernovo]

If she's mentioned earlier, you can have his last entries leading up to something portentous (or it could be unexpected) and, then the daughter could take over the telling of the story her father started. Her entrance as a POV character could even be her attending her father's funeral, or reminiscing on his death -- "it turns out the (Chekhov's) blaster he saw on the wall was to be the one which killed him".

The closest I ever came to it was a mixed-POV story, with each POV having several chapters, where events seen or caused by Person A in space then had an effect on Person B on the planet.

 

[Astro Pen]

How about a journal entry that gets cut off when the lead character dies, and then in the next entry is picked up by his daughter--after which you merge into her full, non-journal perspective?

I'll just add that the book is first person present tense (because I like a challenge ) so is effectively a real time journal anyway. I begin to think that it is logical to stay with him, including the handing down of wisdom, until he dies (which will be away from her) .
Then open the new section with a...
"Pinning back my hair I can see I have his face, those high cheek bones making my face a little harder than the other girls, an exotic look, slightly Russian perhaps? It has been 14 years since my father was lost in the ill fated assault on £$%^ Now it is I, Astrid, who must carry etc" (Though not that corny obviously)

 

[Land Under Wave]

In cinematography, one way to help sharp scene transitions is to carry a theme of the previous scene to the next. Say, have a character seated at a desk, writing a letter--next scene, second character is standing somewhere, reading a letter. Of course, that will heavily imply it's the same letter as the one in the first scene, but you get the point. A common thread to ease the scene-cut.

Alternately, if it's contrast you want, you could have the first character seated at a desk, writing a letter--next scene, second character is hanging out with a group of friends, laughing and talking. Highlights the differences when you have them side by side....

Knowing these principles has really helped me with switching third person in the past, but I'm not exactly sure how that would carry into writing first person--which I haven't done all that much.

I hope this helps, though!

 

[AMB]

Depends when you pick up. Anniversary of death gives the option "the gravestone/memorial reads '[name of character], loving father.' It doesn't even begin to do him justice." Or if there is an object, or place, anything that was emblematic of the character that the daughter can use to reminisce about him. Whatever it is, though, ought to be relevant. And not "I looked in the mirror, now I shall describe myself for the reader".

 

[Astro Pen]

Depends when you pick up. Anniversary of death gives the option "the gravestone/memorial reads '[name of character], loving father.' It doesn't even begin to do him justice." Or if there is an object, or place, anything that was emblematic of the character that the daughter can use to reminisce about him. Whatever it is, though, ought to be relevant. And not "I looked in the mirror, now I shall describe myself for the reader".

Yes I know that was a standard cliche which is why I said "Though not that corny obviously."

 

[Brian G Turner]

Reaching a point in the WIP tonight where we move on to the next generation from the one we opened with

I'm sure I've seen a few books do this, where they simply divide the book into parts - part 1 for the original characters, part 2 for a following set of characters. No infodump required - you can drip the necessary information through the experiences of the next generation characters.

 

[Joshua Jones]

I'm really curious about this as well, as I've only played around with this without the reader knowing its a perspective change between chapter 1 and 2 (more specifically, the chapter 1 antagonist is the chapter 2 protagonist who is also the father of the chapter 1 protagonist so they share a family name).

I like the letter idea. As you're doing a present tense first person you could have the father sit and write something to the effect of, "My dear Astrid, I'm dying, and I want you to know who your father was. {Insert opening line of story]...", making your first part effectively the letter to Astrid. Of course, that would assume you want her to have access to the narrative from the first part...