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In my novel, there are two characters, amongst others, called Samantha and Alex. Samantha is his mother, and from the very start of the story, there is a simmering tension between the two.
So far, I am using a single viewpoint, which is from Samantha's perspective. I should also note that I am writing the novel in the 3rd person. The thing is, I am finding this quite difficult. There are times when I really want to say what Alex is thinking as well as Samantha. I know I can do a lot of this through dialogue, but there are times when both are in different locations, and that is when I want to display their contrasting emotions.
Therefore, I would like to have 2 viewpoints running throughout the novel. But it's when to use them I am a bit confused over. So far, I have written 4 chapters that are all under Samantha's viewpoint. What would be a good gap between switching to different viewpoints? I don't want to cross between them from chapter to chapter, as that would upset the novel's stability I think.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Of course, you can tell the story from two perspectives by moving between them more frequently, even within the same chapter, as long as you leave some white space between each. But after 4 chapters in one voice it is a bit late to do that without it seeming odd to the reader. I am reading Birthday Girls, a novel by Annabel Giles, at the moment. It is written in 6 separate chunks, each told by a different character having a birthday, ranging from young child to pensioner, but they all link together so the characters from one section appear again in the others.It works well in getting a different viewpoint of the same event, when we suddenly see it through different eyes.
Viv, so what your saying is that I could do with introducing Alex's viewpoint somewhere within those 4 chapters? Looking over chapter one, there is a chance to do that, but I've heard it's not a good idea to switch viewpoints within a chapter. It's difficult to know how to introduce Alex's viewpoint into the story. I want him to play a vital role throughout the novel, but feel he and Samantha deserve to have time to show their side of things. I'm not keen on changing viewpoints from chapter to chapter, or indeed throughout a single chapter.
Dedicating sections of the book to them sounds like a better idea to me. I could have one half of the book from Samantha's viewpoint, and then I could switch to Alex. At the end of Alex's section, it would then switch back to Samantha for the final part of the novel. I'm at a point in the novel where Samantha needs a break. It's not that she is becoming a cardboard character, but now would be a good opportunity to show what it happening through Alex's eyes.
In general, though, I need to go away and think about this a lot. I don't want to get into a situation where I am nearing the end of the story, and then suddenly realise I should have done it all differently. To summarise, the main focus of my novel is on both Samantha and Alex. I can't do the story justice without giving Alex a chance to show his feelings. All I need to decide on now is how to show their viewpoints, whether it is in sections dedicated to each character, or more frequent changes of the viewpoint.
Any further advice would be appreciated.