POV swap

[Arkose]

Do you have any advice for switching your own writing to match the current POV?

I have three POV's. The start of the book I could go from one to another; as the characters progress and become more firm in my mind, it has been hard to go straight from one POV to another POV and back again. I have started writing with one POV, not leaving that single POV all day. I end up skipping scenes that deal with other characters and the story as a whole. I can see this being dangerous to the continuity between the characters and the eventual forgetting what goes into said scenes. What I am wondering is if other writers have different ways, or thoughts, to deal with changing POV from the writer perspective?

I am finding hard to go from a self-centered, arrogant, privileged college student to a mid teen, child soldier, that had learned he killed his parents for nothing.

 

[The Judge]

I don't have a problem with it myself, but I recall reading of someone (?Joe Abercrombie?) who, when editing, read the POV scenes of one character at a time, even though that meant jumping around in the story, in order to check consistency of voice/language etc.

If it helps you to write like this, do it. Don't worry about continuity etc, since you'll be going back over the whole thing anyway and you can correct mistakes then. I often write scenes out of order, not for POV reasons, but simply because some scenes get blocked and if I didn't leap over them I'd get nothing written at all. And even writing in order, mistakes can creep in, so you're no worse off.

 

[Mouse]

Yeah, pretty sure I've heard JA say that, TJ. But it was after he'd completed his draft, so it wouldn't have been written out of sequence.

I find it quite easy to switch PoVs when writing, but I know that at the end when I'm all written up, I'm going to go back through and make a note of how each character speaks/narrates so that I can make sure they're different.

I don't know if it'll help you, Arkose, but maybe only write one PoV in a day? So it's not like you're trying to write instantly using another voice.

 

[Esfires]

You could still write the scenes in sequence, as long as you heavily outlined the whole work.

 

[Tecdavid]

TJ's advice seems sound enough to me, but if you really wanted to write each scene in order, then perhaps you could simply try taking a brief break between POV switches? For example, if you're finding it hard to leap between one POV and another within one day's writing, then take a break after you're done with the first POV, and maybe sit down to think of the POV you'll be writing from next. Or take a walk and do it. Think about things, or people you've met, which reflect the character well, and try to snugly fit into their shoes before you continue writing.
Or maybe you could read/watch something that shows examples of this character’s type of personality, so you can fix an idea of their mannerisms/behaviour in your mind before you sit down to write out their POV.
Perhaps taking a quick break to distance yourself from the last POV, then studying something that showcases the next one will help, is what I'm saying.