I have a coaching client who does everything I tell him (bless his innocent little heart). Every suggestion I make he takes. Every recommended change in wording by me or his proofreader, he makes.
About six years ago, when we first started working together, I told him he needed to rewrite the first book he’d written. It had about fifteen different points of view including those of very minor walk-on characters who are seen and heard from once in the book. I told my client that he should have—at most—four points of view from the four major characters. Already that’s a lot of points of view, but I could understand he would want, at least, for the reader to see the world through those eyes.
Since I made this request, the client has managed to rewrite half the book—and write and publish eight other books. Also, since that time, other books have been published—and even listed on the NYT best seller list—with five, six, or more points of view including minor characters who are seen and heard from once or twice in the book.
Today, my client finally admitted to me that he just couldn’t do it. He’s been struggling to rewrite his first book and it’s been eating at him that he just can’t do it. He asked if this was all right.
I wanted to scream, “This is your book! You do whatever you feel is right! It’s yours!”
My advice is just that—advice. He doesn’t have to follow it. And, as I pointed out to him this morning, I have been proven wrong.
Yes, it is the generally accepted wisdom that you should only have a limited number of POV characters. This keeps things simple for readers and allows them to get close to those few characters.
However, if you don’t care about that, go ahead and do what’s right for the book.
My point is, your book is yours. You should write it how you want, how you believe the story should be told.
The only caveat to this is that if you do write the book your way (however that is, dismissing accepted writing craft wisdom) and the editor of the publishing house which has agreed to publish your book says to change it, then you do need to change it. If you don’t, or you argue and defend your writing, as I’ve recently heard of one author doing, then be prepared to either not have your book published or not be contracted by that publisher ever again.
If you are self-publishing do what you want. Readers will tell you whether it worked or not through purchases—or lack thereof—and reviews.
Yourself, your readers, and your publisher are the only ones who can tell you what and how you should write. And yours is the most important voice you should listen to.
Note: It was recently pointed out to me that many people now see m-dashes and think that AI wrote the work. I do not, and never will, use AI to write my blog posts. I just happen to really like m-dashes and use them a lot in my writing.