When writing a story, is it alright to switch from one character's POV to another's in one chapter?

Question

What I mean by this is, say there are two characters in the same scene. Is it alright to immediately switch from one character's point of view to the other character's?

Answer 1

There's nothing wrong with that one my favorite books called Jason and Kyra by Dana Davidson is written like that. Just do each chracters point of view in a diff chapter. What I mean by that is have chapter one the boys POV and chapter 2 be the girls POV and it could be the same scene.

You can do it just make s ure you do it to were it makes sense and keeps the readers interested.

Feel free to email me from my profile pg with any question about what I mean.

Answer 2

as long as you are able to provide evidence enough to let the audience know whose POV it is.  it can be rather confusing, but, depending on the subject matter, it can be enlightening.  if its in the third person, imagine everything like a film, and slowly move into the other persons area.  don't be abrupt, and choose recurring properties and quirks to each character to make the transtition easy.  

Answer 3

Not in just one chapter it would get too confusing.

Answer 4

You really shouldn't if you can avoid it, unless it's just a story that you're posting online... I usually break the "rules" of writing in fanfictions and stories that I write for online communities.

Answer 5

I think you can depending on the way you write the story and the way you put things together. I think it's usually a no though because you don't want to confuse the readers. You can use one point of view for ch 1 and another point of view for ch 2 though.  

Answer 6

Literary instructors generally will not advise new writers to try switching POV within the same chapter; but a skilled writer can and will use a switch to create interest. Your storyline should flow from one character in third person POV to the other POV. An acclaimed author who utilizes the switch is Gail Tsukiyama, who writes about the Japanese-American experience. Most of the time, though, she will change POVs in the next chapter. She is also known to switch to a distant character to end her story, which I find unsettling ... but she is published.

Practice the switch by writing a natural pause into the first character's story, and then moving on to the next character's POV.  

Answer 7

Generally, no, unless that's the style you're using for the whole novel, in an effort to be clever or funny. It's much too confusing to keep switching characters in the middle of a scene. But one thing you can do is finish up the chapter from Person 1's POV, then begin a chapter from Person 2's POV, and include a flashback to the previous scene where it's retold from their side of the story. I'd only do that if it's essential to the plot that we get both character's reactions. You have to be careful not to bore or confuse the reader.  

Answer 8

not really, but if you keep it consistent it might work. Some people can pull it off. Mainly it's depending on the story.

But if inconsistent, and random, your story might end up seeming as like an unstructured fanfic.

you could try alternating chapter's.

i.e.   a husband and wife in a troubled marriage. the even chapters can be from the husband's perspective and the odd from the wife's or vise-versa.