The Ultimate Guide to Harry Potter Fanfiction

Multiple Viewpoints

Personally, I've never written a multiple viewpoint Harry Potter fanfiction. What I have written are multiple viewpoint Hunger Games and crossover fanfics, and I'm working on the early stages of a multiple viewpoint novel (third person, but still).

So, while I was researching this novel, I realized that there might be people who want to make a multiple viewpoint Harry Potter fanfic, and I decided to share this awesome article I found from novel-writing-help.com! Here it is!

Writing a Multiple Viewpoint Novel
Let's start with the basics...

A multiple viewpoint novel is one in which two or more members of your cast list are viewpoint characters – that is, those characters through whose eyes we witness the events of the novel and whose thoughts and feelings we have direct access to.

Or to put it even more simply...

If different chapters are narrated by different characters – chapter one from John's point of view, chapter two from Helen's – you're writing a multi-viewpoint novel.

Multiple viewpoints are common in novels, so it would hardly be a risky choice if you chose to write one yourself. Before you can decide, though, you need to understand...

The Pros and Cons of Using Multiple Viewpoints

Is it better to stick with one viewpoint character, or does having two or more characters in the spotlight add dimension to your novel? And does writing a multi-viewpoint novel make the planning and writing more difficult?

First the "difficulty" issue...

While it's certainly the case that writing from more than one point of view is more complicated, it isn't much more complicated.

You have to learn when and how to switch viewpoints effectively, but if you follow the advice on how to do this lower down, you won't have a problem.

Using several viewpoints also makes the planning of your novel slightly more complicated, in that the chapters told from each viewpoint effectively constitute a separate subplot. But, again, it really isn't a problem.

A bigger issue than difficulty is that of "focus"...

Put simply, the more viewpoint characters you use in a multiple viewpoint novel, the less time the reader gets to become familiar with each one, which can result in an unsatisfying read.

It's like going to a party and having to move on to talk to somebody different every twenty minutes, just when you were getting a good conversation going.

My best advice? Stick with just one viewpoint character unless you have a good reason to use more.

What constitutes a good reason? The story you are telling, and nothing else.

If you believe that sticking with one viewpoint character is too limiting and that you won't be able to tell the story as well through one pair of eyes as you could through several pairs, write a multiple viewpoint novel.

But even then, keep the number of viewpoint characters to the absolute minimum required to do the job.

Third Person Multiple Viewpoint Novels

Virtually every novel featuring two or more viewpoint characters is written in the third person point of view, and for a good reason: it's the most logical viewpoint to use.

A third person story, remember, is told by a narrator (someone who is not a character in the story), and it seems perfectly natural for this narrator to slip inside not just one character's skin, but several.