Multiple Viewpoint Narrative

Okay, writer people, here's a question for you. :)

I've decided that one of the many not-even-close-to-finished projects I'm working on would work better as told through three different first-person perspectives. Is there a "code" I should follow to make this clear in my manuscript? I've been poking around but none of the sites I've found address the problem. Is there anything I should put in to indicate that a different character is now talking? The obvious (to me) answer is "Write it well enough and the editor / publisher / whatever should be able to tell the difference", but since such things get fussy sometimes... what's the trick?

Well the first thing I can think of (that should be obvious) is to use clear line breaks if not different chapters for a shift in the narrator. Granted that'll only make it clear that the narration has been changed, but not to who.

Other than that, it's what you said, you'll need to make it so that the three narrators have distinct voices. We should be able to tell who's narrating the new section pretty quickly based on how they phrase things, the observations they make, the amount of time they spend speculating or just acting, their vocabulary, stuff like that.

...I'm not exactly sure if that helps or not.

I've tried it a couple of times. It's...not fun, in my opinion, so I never put anything of it up.

You need to make it obvious without saying whose viewpoint is being used. Characters should have distinctive thoughts and feelings reflected, of course, but they should also have distinctive ways of thinking/talking/acting. I had one who more or less mimicked my own thought processes (it was easy, sue me) and one who didn't do much thinking at all, putting her faith in immediate and decisive action.

...I don't use viewpoints in the traditional "limited to what this character can see and here," but I don't go fully omniscient third-person either. I use a shitton of different viewpoint characters, though. I like to give them different voices, but use the same non-existent narrator for general description, with some low-key modification depending on the beliefs and opinions of the character currently up to bat...

Thanks for the help so far.

I'm only doing one voice per chapter, actually, and the voices go in order (ABCABC, so to speak). At least, I hope it'll work out that way. My three characters, as I've defined them, are a suave ladies' man; a female redneck with a seriously bloated ego; and a nerdy, henpecked entertainment journalist. I just hope all three of them don't end up sounding exactly like me.

edited 31st Aug '11 2:46:59 PM by EddieValiantJr

As long as you get a good handle on them, they won't.