1st person to 3rd person

[hannah_dreamergirl_3]

Ok, I'm having a little problem....I am currently 250 pages into my story and am at a point where I would like to add in a 3rd person section from the perspective of the 'bad guy', however my story has been totally in 1st person from the perspective of the heroine. Is this ok to do? Do I keep the 1st person but just switch to the 'bad guy' who is to remain unknown, or do I go ahead and use 3rd person. I'm worried about continuity you see....

thanks,

Hannah

[Watcher55]

As a rule I believe that’s a (big?) no-no. That being understood:

In one of the articles linked to one of the threads, which I obviously gave up looking for, the author points out that you can break any rule as long as you’re willing to pay the price – or something like that.

Breaking a rule like this, IMO, can only alter the whole look/feel of the story. If I were to break this rule, it would be because I set out to.

Two-hundred-fifty pages in, is a little late to spring the change. If I still wanted to “set out to” break the rule; the ‘bad guy’ bits would have to be nearly as substantial as the heroine bits and woven into the story as discrete chapters or sections.

Maybe someone can help me remember which article I think I was talking about.

[cheekychook]

There was a discussion about this recently. Here you go:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2763&start=0

Hope that helps.

[hannah_dreamergirl_3]

You see I was going to have a one off chapter from the perspective of the 'bad guy' whilst the 'good guy' is unconcious, a little bit of explanation and a lot of suspense....but i think my own doubt is probably the answer lol. Thanks for the link, i'll take a look!!!
:-)

[bcomet]

The thread Cheekychock refers to helped me tremendously.

I am thinking that to do it one chapter, 250 pages in,it could be jarring or perhaps risky.

If it alternates, even every three chapters, if not every other, then the reader is more so set up to expect it from time to time.

But, in some instances, there are no other ways to go. As has been said, it could be a choice, but one to consider against the reasons why not to.

In the (groan if you have to, but I think it's an example)Twilight Saga, the POV was Bella all throughout three books and then, right in the middle of the fourth, the POV changes for 1/3 of the book. Some readers thought that was really jarring. They wanted to get back in the main POV's (Bella's) head (who Meyer's typical readers were relating strongly to) and didn't care much for this other perspective (which was male and cruder) and it probably alienated many readers for a good while.

[hannah_dreamergirl_3]

That is actually a very good point as when I read the book I was really irritated with the change...however my idea is to develop the idea of what is going on that the main character doesn't no about in order to develop the plot without having to have everything spelled out for the main chatacter. I think I'm going to take the advice given and stear away from a complete change in style. Perhaps I will have a small section rather than a chapter or I will come up with another way of introducing the 'bad guy'.
Thanks for the help and any more advice on the best way to go about this would be way cool :-)

[lmjackson]

In the (groan if you have to, but I think it's an example)Twilight Saga, the POV was Bella all throughout three books and then, right in the middle of the fourth, the POV changes for 1/3 of the book. Some readers thought that was really jarring. They wanted to get back in the main POV's (Bella's) head (who Meyer's typical readers were relating strongly to) and didn't care much for this other perspective (which was male and cruder) and it probably alienated many readers for a good while.

That was exactly what I thought of when I read the first post, it's really the only example I can think of. It felt kind of like the "easy way out" to me, and only for the purpose of divulging information that would have been otherwise difficult to convey to the reader.

Other authors have come up with clever ways of getting inside another character's head, or showing us another character's movements without a strict change in POV. J.K. Rowling employed several plot devices such as the pensieve, Riddle's diary, and legilimency; all ways through which she discloses information that Potter and the reader would not have otherwise been privy to.

For your specific situation it might be hard to brainstorm ideas without more information, but I'm sure there is some way to avoid the jarring approach of randomly switching POVs.

[Watcher55]

I don't know if there's enough room in terms of your already established voice, but if you mean first person as in the MC is narrating her own story in the past tense, then the MC can fill in the blanks in hindsight ("I didn't know it at the time but the bad guy...").

You'll have to be a bit more artful than that but - Of course if the story's told in the present tense, this won't work at all.

[sarahdee]

Switching perspective seems to be popular in crime thrillers right now. Off hand I can name Meg Gardiner, Simon Kernell and Nicci French but I am sure there are more. I've seen examples of it being 3rd to 1st and vice versa.

When its done well, which in the most the instances I have read it is, its a very good way to give a chilling twist inside of this genre. E.g. Your following the MC, but then you just get a short glimpse into what the villain is up to and thinking. In particular if it tells you something shocking such as the victim is still alive, the bad guy is trailing the mc, or just a chilly shiver form what evil deeds you realise he is planning.

The general rules seem to be (in all the cases I have read) is:

1. Switch perspective -so if you have been writing in 3rd person, def switch to 1st so the reader isn't confused. Once we read the change of voice we know the character is changed without you having to announce it in anyway. Also consider changing the tone and writing style...

2. Only 2 - any more and its just confusing. So your MC in 1st and your bad guy in 3rd is ok. Don't then try and add in more.

3. Keep the main character as the chief perspective. From what I've read it works better to be mostly on once voice and then a short chapter from the other point. Most the writers I listed above throw in maybe just a few very short chapters (literally 1-2 pages in a paperback) at crucial moments. That way we get a short view of the bad guy, we might glean some info etc but we aren't distracted from the main character for too long.

4. In some of the above books you can take out the extra chapters and still read them. So I always do, they add a chilling side to the tale, but if readers hate them they could skim through and still follow the rest. And if you have kept them short (no 3) then its not like they are skimming the whole book, just the odd page here and there.

I think yes its okay to do. Maybe do some research, see how other writers have handled it and check it out with beta readers. Did they get confused or do they find it adds strength to the manuscript?