Differentiating Narrators in a Multi-viewpoint Story
by Becca Puglisi
Writing in multiple viewpoints is a great way to explore a story from more than one angle, but it creates problems if readers can’t tell who’s talking. You don’t want them feeling lost or disconnected from the story. So whether you're writing a dual point-of-view romance, a family saga, or a thriller with alternating perspectives, here are six tips for being clear about who’s speaking.
Who Should Narrate?
Before we tackle how to differentiate narrators, there’s a key question you need to ask: who should narrate each scene? It’s an important decision because each narrator will tell the story differently. As an example, just think about the first Harry Potter story being written from Hermione’s viewpoint, or Ron’s. Or Snape’s. Each viewpoint would change the story dramatically.
So when you’re deciding who should be in charge of a given scene, ask yourself: which character has the most at stake? Who will be most emotionally impacted by the scene’s events? Which character can provide new or unexpected insight into what’s happening?
If you’ve planned your story beats or outlined major turning points in advance, look closely at the key emotional shifts in those moments. The character who’s experiencing a big change, is being challenged, is experiencing the most emotional turmoil, or has a choice to make will often make the most compelling narrator.
One at a Time!
Once you've chosen a narrator for a scene, stick with that character’s point of view until the scene or chapter ends. Head-hopping—jumping between characters' thoughts in quick succession—can confuse readers and pull them out of the story. To maintain clear transitions, wait for a scene or chapter break to change narrators. This keeps the focus on one character’s experience throughout the scene so readers can stick close to them.
Give Each Narrator a Distinct Voice
When the narrator changes, readers should be able to tell.
A character’s voice is a reflection of who they are, so each one should sound different. A teenaged girl with a rebellious streak won’t think, process events, speak, or notice things like a retired detective who’s seen too much. Factors like age, personality, regional influences, education level, and emotional range will influence each character’s word choices, speech patterns, and tone. Once you know these things about your character, you can write their scenes in their voice, and readers will begin to recognize it.
This is especially important when you’re writing in first person because there are no proper nouns to remind the reader who’s talking. If narrators sound too similar, readers will have to puzzle out who’s speaking. Whatever point of view you choose, make sure each character is narrating in their own particular style. You can find more tips on nailing a character’s voice here.
Alternate Between Viewpoints or Tenses
For a dual narrative, consider using a different tense or viewpoint for each narrator. So, one speaks in past tense, and the other talks in present. Or one speaks from the first-person point of view and the other is in third person. Each viewpoint and tense has a slightly different flow and sound, so readers will pick up on the pattern, and it will be easier for them to identify who’s talking.
The trick here is consistency. It's easy to forget which tense or viewpoint belongs to each character, so you must pay close attention to avoid mistakes that will impact the reader’s engagement in the story.
Use the Chapter Title
A simple hack that works well is to indicate who’s speaking in the chapter title. When a new chapter starts, it says Jennifer. Chapter Two is Matteo, and so on. Authors often use this technique when they’re writing parallel stories in different time periods; the principle is the same, and it’s an easy way to provide clarity when you’re writing from multiple viewpoints.
Study the Masters
One of the best ways to write a story in multiple viewpoints is to study authors who do it well. Find stories with distinctly different narrators that you—the reader—could easily tell apart so you always knew who was talking. Analyze them to see what tips or tricks the author used. Find character voice exercises online and practice developing each narrator’s unique style and perspective. With a little study and a lot of practice, their individual voices will become natural and easy to write.
Multiple-viewpoint stories are a bit more complicated than those told by a single character. But when they’re written well, the payoff is often a richer story with more depth that explores themes, events, and relationships from varying perspectives. With some background work into who your characters are, thoughtful decision making around who gets the spotlight, and consistency, it will be clear who’s narrating. And readers will stay grounded in the story, no matter whose head they’re in.
Have you written a multi-viewpoint story? What has your experience been?
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About Becca
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online resource for authors that's home to the Character Builder and Storyteller's Roadmap tools.
Featured image from Pixabay.
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This is excellent and timely advice. I am relatively new to fiction, and I wrote my first story with two points of view. I learned a great deal about differentiating each narrator's voice and I was quite pleased that I pulled it off so easily (relative term). I attribute that to knowing my characters so well.
Now, in my much larger novel, I have five different POVs, primarily third person, but you have helped me solve one of my dilemmas for having so many POVs. It makes so much sense to have my darkest character speak in first person (I think). At least we'll give it a go.
Thanks for another great post!
I'm so glad the post was timely. And five viewpoints! You've got your work cut out for you, but as long as you know each character's distinct personality, voice, and way of looking at the world, you can totally manage it. Good luck!
I write in deep POV, and in my romantic suspense books, there are two POV characters (as the genre expects). I used to write two-scene chapters, one POV for each, but now with the trend of readers wanting shorter chapters, I've switched to what used to be scenes now being chapters, so it's one POV per chapter. Grounding the reader in the first paragraph of each scene or chapter is critical.
I might make a point about chapter titles. They're not usually maintained throughout the chapter, so for me, as soon as I turn the page, I've forgotten whose head I'm supposed to be in. If I've put the book down for any length of time (for me, that could be 15 minutes), I don't always know whose head I'm in, so I strongly recommend your other techniques. The words on the page should convey POV characters.
You're so right about the current trend of shorter chapters. I've noticed this in a lot of the books I'm reading, though some genres seem to be holding strong with longer chapters. It's all about knowing your genre and what your readers are looking for. Good for you, for staying on top of that and making adjustments to increase your story's chances for success.
Differentiating POVs is my favorite way to tell a story. But I had to learn early on in my writing career to avoid head-hopping. Thanks for sharing, Becca!
I think this is something we all struggle with in the beginning. My first full-length novel had two protagonists and they sounded exactly the same. Couldn't tell them apart at all. And then there was the one chapter by a third narrator who was only there to explain stuff the real viewpoint characters didn't know. /facepalm It's a journey, for sure.
I had a difficult time with a chapter in my last book, it took place over two hours and involved many characters in two different locations (with all of them coming together towards the end). Because the drama involved the heart-pounding question "Will somebody get there in time to save the horses?" I decided to let the clock be the point of view. Minute by excruciating minute. Seems to have worked, readers have really responded positively.
This is an interesting solution. Readers can be the best measure of if our techniques are really working, so it's good you've gotten some feedback.
I've done dual POV of sorts with characters in separate worlds (one imagined by the other). My current WIP is in an omniscient POV, so I can have multiple characters comment in a scene. But it is hard to make that flow and not feel head-hoppy. It's right for the story, but it is giving me a run for my money.
It seems like omniscient should be the easiest because there are fewer "rules." But I think it's really hard to do simply because it takes a lot of restraint when there aren't so many guardrails. Sounds like you're getting some good on-the-ground training and figuring it out as you go (which is how we all figure this stuff out).
I'm working on a story in First Person and both lead characters take turns telling the story. I want to make each voice distinctive and am working hard on that. I had a lot of a local dialect and cut that back significantly because it was way too much. Now I'm focused on using a few dialect works consistently. Writing different voices is very hard. One loves marine life and birds a lot. Another notices hardware and mechanical things. I am customizing fidgeting and habits. Still the in the head self-talk seems to sound so much the same. Mine. One self-doubts more than the other. One is more impatient. I've had to go back in and really revise, otherwise it would all sound the same. I have a few scenes of the Bad guy POV, too. Thinking of putting in a POV of a high profile pet, too, since it is speculative. But it definitely cannot sound the same. My big fear. Thank you for this article! Also, I use your Emotional Thesaurus.
It sounds like you're doing all the right things. In terms of thoughts and self-talk, this is going to tie strongly into the character's voice. The way they talk should be reflected in their thoughts—the speech patterns, what they notice, etc. But like you said, they'll also focus on the things they wouldn't say out loud: fears, insecurities, worries, weaknesses, etc. So I would say to focus on the voicey part—what they sound like when they talk—and incorporate that into their internal dialogue.
Great post! As a reader it's so frustrating (and confusing) when all of the narrators sound like the same person. And as a writer, having a strong voice for each of my characters is one of the things I love most about storytelling.
My current WIP is a fantasy romance, third in a series. Previously I've stuck with one POV, first person and past tense, but for this current story I'm finally going to include the other MC's POV too. My initial thought was to have the second MC's sections in present tense (he's not fully human, and his grasp of time is a little... fuzzy) but thought it would be jarring to read since the main narration (and bulk of the story) is in past tense. But this article has me reconsidering that maybe it's worth a try after all. Thanks so much, Becca!
You can always experiment by changing the tense for just one chapter, and see what you think. Good luck!
I have written a couple of multi-viewpoint stories. I've loved it because I can play with what each character knows and how they show themselves to each other. Great advice! I've run into many authors who believe that multi-viewpoint is forbidden! So it is great to see someone talking about how it can be a strength.
I can see why some people don't like it; it takes more work to flesh out each viewpoint character, and when it comes to reader engagement, you run the risk of the reader connecting less with one narrator and not being as "into" those scenes. But the pros far outweigh the cons, imo.
I love this, Becca! And it's such a great cheat sheet. I will look at it the next time I think everyone needs to have a voice. 🙂
Thanks for having me ;).
great ideas!
Thanks for reading, Denise!
I agree with everything except, perhaps, changing tenses. I think there’s only been has to be a more logical story reason to change tenses than to just differentiate characters.
I mostly write 3rd person omniscient. It works for me because I tend to have an ensemble cast of characters. I an ensemble each character is competes with others for ‘development space.’ What I do is differentiate between “thinking” and “reacting.”
So, one will be the POV character in a chapter or scene, but one (or sometimes, rarely two) will have a short internal gut reaction, set apart through use of italics. These are not full blown acts of thinking; these are more equivalent to physical gut reactions —e.g., Janet’s jaw dropped, Jack whistled, Helen shook her head. These are the thoughts that suddenly pop fully formed into your head but you will not say—e.g., “oh, shit!” “It can’t be true!” or “Of course! I should have known!”
Normal other practices must still be in place. These type gut reactions must occur in separate paragraphs clearly identifying the character reacting. But readers can quickly and easily see these are that character’s reaction, without confusing the over the scene or chapter’s POV character.