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Fiction Writing Made Easy

#139: 5 Multi POV Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)

Fiction Writing Made Easy

Savannah Gilbo

Education, Fiction, Writing Tips, Arts, Bestseller, Writing, How To, Author, Writing Community, Books, Novel, How To Write Fiction, Writing Fiction, Writer, How To Write A Book

4.91.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Telling a story through multiple viewpoints can be a great way to create a more expansive (and objective) look at your characters, world, plot, and/or theme. But with each additional viewpoint character you add to your story, the more room there is for mistakes. In this episode, I'm sharing the 5 most common multi POV mistakes writers make and how to avoid them in your draft.

Here’s a preview of what’s included:

[2:10] Mistake #1: Including too many POV characters without an intentional reason for including each one.

[6:10] Mistake #2: Not developing each POV character as if they were the protagonist of their own story—they lack their own goal, motivation, and conflict.

[9:01] Mistake #3: Not tying the characters' storylines together via a common plot problem, a central relationship, or binding their fates together.

[11:47] Mistake #4: Head hopping between different POV characters without making the switch clear to the reader.

[14:56] Mistake #5: Rehashing the same scene from different POVs without offering the reader new and potent information.

Links Mentioned In This Episode:

Want to write a novel but not sure where to start? Click here to grab a FREE copy of my Story Starter Kit workbook that'll help you get clarity on your characters, setting, theme, plot, and so much more!

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Want to write a novel but not sure where to start?

0:02.5

Grab a copy of my free story starter kit workbook by going to savannaGilbo.com

0:06.7

forward slash starter kit.

0:08.3

In this free multi-page guide, I'll walk you through the first five questions to ask and answer before writing any story.

0:15.0

You'll get clarity on your characters, your setting, your theme, your plot, and so much more.

0:19.8

So one more time go to Savannah Gilboe.com forward slash starter kit to grab your free copy.

0:25.3

This is one of the reasons why multi point of view stories

0:28.2

are harder to write.

0:29.6

You have to develop each character

0:31.4

as if they were the protagonist of their own story and give them enough time

0:35.5

and space on the page without writing a story that's too long compared to the average word count

0:40.5

length of your genre. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast.

0:46.0

My name is Savannah Gilboo and I'm here to help you write a story that works.

0:50.0

I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming.

0:53.2

So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies

0:59.1

that you can implement in your writing right away.

1:01.5

So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned

1:04.0

author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get

1:09.0

started. In today's episode we're going to talk about five mistakes to avoid when writing a story with multiple point-of-view characters.

1:18.0

And this is something that I've wanted to do an episode about for a while, so I'm very excited to dig into this topic with you today.

1:25.2

Now telling a story through multiple viewpoints can be a really great way to create a more expansive

1:30.9

and objective look at your characters world, plot and or theme.

...

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