How many POV characters should my book have?

[TheAlchemist]

I am new to this community, I created an account because I need some advice.

I am working on a novel that is meant to be the first part in a series. However, as I started plotting the story I discovered that I may have too much characters. There are seven main characters, each has their own storyline. Halfway through the first book they will meet each other and their storylines will collide. From there on out the story becomes a lot clearer. But my problem actually lies with the first act. I think it lacks a bit focus, partly because the seven main characters all have their own quest. I thought about merging some characters together, but discovered that each of them serves an important part in the story as a whole. But because of this, I think the first act lacks a bit focus. I don't want my reader thinking "who was this character again?"

Now I know that there are tons of fantasy epics that feature a lot of POV's, for example A Song of Ice and Fire, but those books are also very different. They take a lot of time to establish characters, and are not really about a quest or an adventure.

So my main concern is that my novel lacks focus, because it jumps from character to character, but I am also too far into the story to throw away some characters. Does anyone have any advice on how many POV characters an adventure novel should have?

Thanks

 

[Brian G Turner]

Hi @TheAlchemist and welcome to the chrons forums.

So my main concern is that my novel lacks focus

This sounds more like it IMO from my experience - that the problem isn't that you have too many characters, as much as your characters lack drive, motivation, conflict. If they are struggling with something, grappling with problems, facing adversity, then they should be interesting to read.

However, the initial challenge with multiple POV characters is setting up their story arcs so that they tie-in. Perhaps more difficult is developing their emotional development arcs, which is effectively about how they struggle with each part of their journey. That's what should draw the reader in and make them memorable. Otherwise the danger is that characters simply serve as observers of plot points and that's not enough.

I found Save the Cat by Blake Snyder a great help with explaining this, though it still took a while to sink in.

That's my initial thinking anyway.

 

[The Judge]

Brian hasn't mentioned his own book, but from memory I think he has a good half-dozen main POV characters, and while that might have caused him some problems, getting all of them bedded in without overpowering the reader and losing focus, he worked hard on the issue and has had good reviews for The Gathering, so it might be worth buying a copy and seeing how he managed it -- Chronicles of Empire isn't exactly a quest, but it's certainly an adventure-type story.

Meanwhile, is it necessary for you to show all seven of your characters before they meet? Could the backstory of two or three of them be left until after they've come together?

Otherwise, my advice would be to choose one of the seven to be the most important, and to focus on him/her in the very beginning, with several thousand words/two or three chapters in his/her POV before going to someone else, and then returning to him/her before jumping to the third POV, and so on. That at least gives a focus to one character before they meet.

 

[TheAlchemist]

Hi Brian, thanks for replying.

I do think that each character has their own personal conflict. They all have their own morals, and emotional arcs (one even turns bad by the end of the story) the hardest part is probably to tie-in all seven characters, like you said. I will check out Save the Cat, and I am interested in your novel.

Thanks for replying

 

[TheAlchemist]

Brian hasn't mentioned his own book, but from memory I think he has a good half-dozen main POV characters, and while that might have caused him some problems, getting all of them bedded in without overpowering the reader and losing focus, he worked hard on the issue and has had good reviews for The Gathering, so it might be worth buying a copy and seeing how he managed it -- Chronicles of Empire isn't exactly a quest, but it's certainly an adventure-type story.

Meanwhile, is it necessary for you to show all seven of your characters before they meet? Could the backstory of two or three of them be left until after they've come together?

Otherwise, my advice would be to choose one of the seven to be the most important, and to focus on him/her in the very beginning, with several thousand words/two or three chapters in his/her POV before going to someone else, and then returning to him/her before jumping to the third POV, and so on. That at least gives a focus to one character before they meet.

That may be an option, I could work in a way to have some of the characters pop up later in the story.

What I try to do is focus on one character per book, as in, that character gets more chapters and backstory etc.

 

[Ursa major]

If it's a quest, can't you treat it like a train -- or a bandwagon -- where the story follows your main character (even if he or she is merely the first amongst equals) and gathers up the others as they come on board? That sounds a bit more natural than having a chapter or two devoted to each of a half-a-dozen or so characters before their (initial) part in the quest -- before the nature of the quest itself -- becomes apparent to the reader.

You may know what your story is about -- or what you want your story to be about -- but the reader knows nothing about this until it's revealed to them. That you think that your story lacks focus, even knowing what it's about, doesn't bode well for the reader, who may well find it all rather bewildering. And by setting all** your PoV characters' arcs in play from the beginning, but doing little more than that (because the story isn't coming together until half-way through your book), you risk the reader deciding to skim (because it doesn't feel relevant) or losing interest entirely.

Worst of all, you're expecting the reader to take it all on board and to remember it all until its relevance to the overall story becomes apparent. (And if they don't need to know it all, why is it even in the book?)

 

[TheAlchemist]

Worst of all, you're expecting the reader to take it all on board and to remember it all until its relevance to the overall story becomes apparent. (And if they don't need to know it all, why is it even in the book?)

The book starts as a sort of puzzle. The main characters have to solve it before they can start the quest. Because each of the seven characters discovers something that is relevant before they start their quest, plus, you get to know them, who they are and where they are coming from, and what they are fighting for. So the information is relevant, and that is exactly my problem. I think the train idea is a good way, that's how most quest/adventure stories start. I think that may be the best way to start the novel. Maybe devote one chapter per character, explaining their backstory etc.

Thanks!

 

[MemoryTale]

If you've already tried eliminating characters and found it harmed the overall narrative, I'd say the problem isn't too many characters. It may instead be that you haven't got them all realized inside your head yet and got to know them - things that will only come with time, practice, and a lot of writing. As you continue to develop your characters, you'll get to know which will try to charge head first through an object, which will think outside the box, and which is likely to say "Stuff this for a game of soldiers".

Having a large cast of characters is going to impact on your readership. I personally don't mind huge casts, because I have an awesome memory for entertainment trivia, but others on the Chrons have told me they like smaller, tight knit casts. Since neither answer is ever going to be "correct", sometimes you have to say "This is how I want to do it, so there".

And welcome to the Chrons. Most of us don't bite

 

[tinkerdan]

My only advice would be to try to keep each character POV within their own chapters until you are ready for them to meet. Start with something interesting in each chapter and end with a question or an unresolved piece that will make the reader want to get back to that story and then make the chapters in between small enough that they get back to the story in a timely fashion. It will be like juggling. Your the only one who knows how many you can keep in the air at one time. Good luck with it.

Can it be done? Has it been done? Sure.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I've read a book recently that intros 3 POV characters without fully embedding each and it's like asking me to be hooked three times.

I write multiple POV books (my Abendau books have 16 povs and counting). It's all about how they are introed and so I'd challenge the structure you seem wedded to

Why do you need each story only having a chapter of intro? What's wrong with four chapters, or three or seven?

Why is each story equal? Who is your main character and can they have a longer lead in?

It's just - sometimes we feel a story has to be laid out just so and there are other structures available. If it were me, I'd look at that before the much harder job of hooking a reader seven times....

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

There is really no way to answer this question if you are still at the stage of outlining your book. It's in the actual writing that you will discover whether your multiple POVs work. Some things may turn out better than you think they will; some may turn out worse. Solutions to problems may evolve as you write.

First drafts exist for the purpose of exposing problems and finding out which things aren't problems, after all, but opportunities instead.

 

[zmunkz]

There will be a real challenge in executing a book like this. It can certainly be done, but you need to be very aware of the complexities you are introducing and have some deliberate strategies to tackle them.

Let's take one complication as an example: a big danger is that your readers will not be able to invest emotionally in the characters if they are introduced all at once, and caring about characters is one of the fundamental components for a powerful story. If I meet a new character for a couple thousand words then don't see them again for six chapters (6x a couple thousand words), I'm going to have a hard time caring much about them. I hardly know them!

Off the top of my head, there are several ways you might take steps to address this. You could start with just 2 POVs and give us a couple chapters each, then bring in 2 more and give us a couple chapters there, etc. A more gradual introduction. A second option is to go for much shorter chapters (or else shorter scenes within each chapter) making sure we don't have to go too long between seeing people. A third option is to craft your story more like ASoIaF, where the "story" is really unfolding at the world level, not so much in any one character (which is incidentally why he can kill so many people).

There are plenty of other options. You will want to consider how best to establish stakes and motivations for so many people, and also to make sure the plot has some sense of progress despite so many (initially) disconnected threads. All these things are workable, it just takes some planning.

 

[Steve Harrison]

There are no limits on the number of characters. The only important question is, can the reader easily follow what is going on?

My novel is told from the POV of twenty-six characters, but there are only two main story strands, so it was relatively easy* to make everything clear for the reader. And it was a fast-moving action adventure story, so this method was great for character development as everyone was seen through each character's eyes during through the story and I didn't have to slow the pace.

I can see that seven separate strands presents its own problems and I could not have done that in my book. Have you considered starting the story at your halfway point when they all meet? You could then establish the characters in general and flash back to follow the journey of each one in turn in between chapters in your 'present.' There would then be the opportunity to remind readers of the characters in between each individual story as the 'main' quest progresses.

Anyway, just a thought and good luck!

*Ha!

 

[Juliana]

My novel is told from the POV of twenty-six characters, but there are only two main story strands

I can see that seven separate strands presents its own problems

This is what I was thinking, too. I don't have a problem with multiple POVs - I have several in my Blade Hunt series, too. But they all revolve around 3 plot lines, which merge at the end. I think it's not so much the 7 POVs that might be confusing, but the 7 plot lines.

 

[Dan Jones]

I think it's not so much the 7 POVs that might be confusing, but the 7 plot lines

This sounds like a sensible deduction to me. I've also got 7 POVs in my novel (though one of them only appears for one chapter), but really there are only two major plot-lines, and how the characters are anchored to it.

If your 7 characters all have different plot lines, then that would get seriously confusing. But at least it sounds like you've already diagnosed that, which is great. To resolve it, you might want to think about your overarching plot lines and how the characters relate to it, and then threading their POV sections into that, rather than their own quests. If there are clear commonalities between the characters (be it history, political background, geography, situation, world, etc etc) which they can all discuss or relate to, then emphasising that will make the whole seem more connected.

 

[EJDeBrun]

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet so I will ask. What person are you writing from? 1st person? 3rd person limited? 3rd Omni? I think that might help determine things. 1st person sounds like it would help you a lot since each characters "voice" can be unique to them and that helps differentiate between them. Saying that I think 7 at once is a bit much. If your issue is grounding you start, pick one character to intro your world and the main conflict and then pick up the threads of the rest later. That would be the easiest solution I think.

Also consider other formats. You could write in a journal entry format (a la the Martian) that might help too. Good luck and welcome.

 

[Aleph]

For anyone new to writing, or on a first novel, my advice would be to stick with one character.

By the time GRRM wrote GOT, he was an accomplished TV and novel writer. POV was a walk in the park by then!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

For anyone new to writing, or on a first novel, my advice would be to stick with one character.

By the time GRRM wrote GOT, he was an accomplished TV and novel writer. POV was a walk in the park by then!

Like any writing advice - it depends on the writer. My first work was a multi point of view trilogy. I don't regret it - I was brave because I knew nothing. It could never have been told from one character - I would never have ignited the passion by writing something else....

 

[Susan Boulton]

All I can say is write the scene from the POV you think it needs to be written to get the draft done. You can always re-write it from another character's POV when editing. I have added and taken away a number of POVs in everything I have written. Current WIP 1st book has only two at the moment. 2nd book had about 4 at the moment. Both will I am sure be subject to change. I tend to worry about this sort of stuff after I have written the novel. I have a huge fantasy novel with a good number of POVs (never counted them), I keep trying to edit the thing, but it won't play nice. Maybe at some point the 430,000 words will turn into the three books it should be...

 

[HareBrain]

For anyone new to writing, or on a first novel, my advice would be to stick with one character.

I did that on my first (once-abandoned, but perhaps soon-to-be-resurrected) novel, and yes, it was probably the right choice for me.

It was only later that I realised how unusual it is for a third-person novel to have a single POV character, especially fantasy. I think when I wrote it all those years ago I was taking after Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, which prompted me to write it in the first place. But that's a children's book, in which it's probably more common. Stephen Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane does the same (of necessity, so he doesn't give away if the Land is real or not) but he abandons this in the second book of his series. I can't think of any others off the top of my head, I suppose because most writers would go for first-person if they only want one POV. (Though I think third can increase reader sympathy.)