Take One Down, Pass It Around

How many POVs is too many?

I've gotten away with stories (fan fictions) that switch the point of view character every chapter and come back to any of the same ones very rarely. I've also done stories with some twenty-four POVs—hardly equally weighted—and some with about three or four. But what's the farthest you can go, either way? Is the story too one-track-minded if only the main character gets to carry the POV? Is it too incoherent if a long series of characters keeps passing on the baton?

I certainly prefer books with multiple POVs. Not dwelling on certain Hetalia/Hunger Games crossovers, original works like the Unwind dystology do a great job with POV-switching. There are certainly main characters that carry more POVs, but still other characters get their own voices, and even inanimate objects carry the story every once in a while for a change of pace.

Of course, I'm sure there are plenty of ways to go about multiple-POV stories the wrong way. I can't think of any actual examples, though; most books seem to be almost entirely single-POV.

There's nothing really wrong with that, though, right? A novel tends to be the main character's story—that's why the protagonist is the protagonist. Of course, many other characters' stories are entwined with the main character's, but does that mean they have to tell it in their own voices? Dialogue can cover a lot of that, and, of course, the other characters are moving along with their own actions as well.

What do you think? Who should get a POV? How is switching between multiple POVs done right, or wrong?

Order Chronological Writing In

You know how they always told you to do all of the hard problems on a test first and then go back to the easy stuff? Apparently it's supposed to be exactly the opposite of that when it comes to writing. Write every scene that comes easily, that you see in your head, in whatever order you feel like writing them, and then go back and put in connecting writing later.

It seems I'm just too "OCD" to do either.

Maybe it's just because I'm used to publishing chapter by chapter, and usually at a pace that wouldn't allow me to jump around if I wanted to. Maybe it's my need for a sense of completions—I'd rather write a finished chapter than a disembodied scene.

In any case, other authors advise working like this, and it does seem like a good idea to churn out what wants churning out. Just the other night, I was held hostage (i.e. awake) by a variation of a future scene in The Long and Winding Road. Is that when I'm supposed to cast away the bedsheets, run for the computer, and write it? I think that would have been possible, but I'm already wary of editing a normal amount—having to go back through the earlier scenes that I would write later to go back to the future scene and adjust some mindsets, wounds, etc. would not be a lot of fun. And it would probably be as confusing as it sounds. I don't mind challenging myself, but... shall I mention again that I am "OCD" about these things?

I'll never know how much this kind of technique would benefit my writing until I try it, though, so I may experiment with one of my less serious New Fiction Ideas. If it turns out to be too conducive to writer's block, I can always scrap the idea and start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, might I add).

How do you do your writing? Follow the inspiration? Take it chapter by chapter? Utilise some other odd technique that works for you?