: Re: How to quickly change people in first person view? So, I'm trying to write a book in first person, but have trouble when there's any form of action involving in groups. After all, it's about

I don't know that there is a single answer to this dilemma; the most common advice you'll likely hear tossed about for rapid POV switches is 'don't, unless you really need to.' That said, one can make just about anything work with enough skill, so if it's necessary for your story, there are a few things that can help.

Hard Breaks: Horizontal rules, extra line breaks, whatever makes sense for the format you're publishing in. Give the reader a clear signal of discontinuity in the narrative so they're primed to accept the change.

Internal References: Consider a team of six with an even gender split. A scene opens with the following sentences: "The remaining flights of stairs up to the observation point could best be described as 'far too many.' I wasn't exactly an athletic girl like Ann and Beth." Process of elimination immediately tells the reader this must be Carol. You can't overuse this, of course, as it would start to stand out, but it's a useful tool where it fits.

Context Clues: People dress differently, carry different equipment. If it's relevant to the scene, mentioning a unique accessory can give the reader a point of reference. If the team is split up, some of them may also be in visually distinctive locations that would warrant immediate mention in the narration.

Narration Style: It's difficult for this to make an immediate impact on the reader; for most narrators, the differences could take a few sentences or even paragraphs to jar the reader out of their assumptions. That said, sufficiently unique narrators can make their presence known earlier; perhaps they use words the others wouldn't, or have a tendency to slip into foreign-language references. Maybe they just swear a lot.

Just Say It: This is generally only useful at chapter breaks, but if you make a habit of switching characters along with chapters, it's not necessarily a bad thing to simply include the character's name as a subtitle to the chapter. This can occasionally work at scene breaks as well, but usually only in certain types of fiction; stories written as a log, for example, might preface every scene with the time and location, and in such a case could include the character as well.

A hard break is the only element I'd say to always use; of the rest, pick whatever fits the scene. Whatever you do, however, do it as early as possible, and then, if you can, reinforce it after a couple paragraphs. Sometimes readers need a couple knocks to the head to change tracks.

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: Re: How to quickly change people in first person view? So, I'm trying to write a book in first person, but have trouble when there's any form of action involving in groups. After all, it's about

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: How do I ensure that my temper is not affecting my writing? Usually, when I read my old blog posts, one thing I evidently observe is that my posts are affected by my temper at that time.

: Help! How do I transition from a character voice to a narrator? How do you successfully transition from a first-person narrator, who is present only for the first few chapters of a book, to

: First, consider how much you actually want the love triangle element. If you've managed to write a compelling, believable couple with good chemistry, you've already done better than a lot

: MS Word correct the style of footnotes I am having an issue with a bad documents that one of my colleague formatted. The footnotes appear to have a Return too much... I tried clicking everywhere

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