Firewriter23

I'm writing a story that is in 1st person but the story is being told by two people. Like both girl characters are telling the same story in their own point-of-view...how would I do this well enough that it would still be a good story?

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“People always leave, but sometimes they come back.”
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Ruben

Are you constantly switching between them throughout the story?

NOTE: I'm guessing this thread should go in Writing Tips & Advice or Research

Firewriter23

Yes I am, and i'm not sue how to switch it to another place, lol.

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“People always leave, but sometimes they come back.”
"Everybody can't be popular, because if they were -- nobody would be popular."

Ruben

Yeah don't worry, I already contacted a mod.

And constantly switching? Like, each paragraph? Are you sure there is a need for that, cause I could easily see it happen that people would simply skip the 2nd version each time, or read a few words of it. Switching per chapter not an option?

Firewriter23

It's like one will talk for like a page or so then the other will talk...

Thanks

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“People always leave, but sometimes they come back.”
"Everybody can't be popular, because if they were -- nobody would be popular."

Ruben

I suppose you could note each POV-switch with a small title including the narrator's name, but such continuity could certainly start to annoy after some time. Then again, you can perhaps pull it off if you make it interesting enough. I suggest you simply write an exert of some sort and let us read it.

(this is starting to look an awful lot like a PM-conversation converted into thread spam, so this'll be my last post before I sign off, over and out)

patthager

Many writers get away with having one parralel story getting really far ahead (chronologically) of another and have better stories because of it. This is hard, but I think it's totally worth it (not to impose a style on you, it can just rock). You can make the switch per chapter and make it really obvious the first 2

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Marsieux

Chapter breaks or ***stars*** between altering POVs might fancy well, or perhaps you could try ending in an ellipses for one parapraph...

...and starting the next with one. Technically, you'd have to have four periods so you could signify the end of the other speaker and the beginning of the next. The only other idea I can think of at the moment is to end each storytelling POV with some kind of symbol, like when Girl A ends you add a flower at the end of her sentence to signify the end of her narration. Then, when Girl B speak, you have a symbol of, I don't know, a dolphin to signify the end of her narration. Help any?

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cacafire

Those are all good ideas. I usually just switch and hope for the best. I don't give the reader any heads up, and it usually comes out all right. Usually, the reader tends to merge the two POV's into one super POV. Meh, huh?

-Cacafire

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FrankBlissett

What's that Japanese movie (you know the one!) that involves several POVs. I haven't read the book, but it could give you some ideas.

If it's a short work, you could use different formatting - ie one in italics.

IMHO, chapter breaks would look tidier though.

-Frank

mwd

Or even different fonts, a la House of Leaves. (Which also shows that there's no need whatsoever for it to be short. You can keep it up for hundreds of pages.)

Firewriter23

Well I was also thinking of writing it like one long story but like I tell the whole story in 1st person for the first girl, then do the same thing with the second girl. then finish with a surprise lol.

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“People always leave, but sometimes they come back.”
"Everybody can't be popular, because if they were -- nobody would be popular."

Ralizah

Rashomon is the movie you're thinking of.

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valeca

First, stop using 'like' so much.

Second, decide if it's really necessary to the story for it to be told from the first person POV of both girls. What aspect makes it so important to the story?

Third, check out some of the authors that have used this approach and pay special attention to how they've done it. Barbara Kingsolver's The Poinsonwood Bible tells the story from the point of view of four sisters. She titles each switch in POV with the name of the character only. She also does uses differing POV's effectively in her novel Prodigal Summer, but I can't remember exactly how she did it.

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Straylight

I've seen this done before. The best example I can think of is Susan Kay's "Phantom", which was broken into several, longish chapters, each with a different POV character. Each had a distinct voice and it worked quite well.

That said, it's not the easiest thing to pull off. You have to have a strong sense of voice for each of your characters, so their prose is different, otherwise it will feel artificial.

~SL