Advice needed: should I add the name of the character's POV in the chapter or not?

[Rookieqw]

Sorry to bother you. My current story has quite a few main characters instead of just one central one, and the narrative sometimes shifts between them within a chapter (for example from Szarel to Ruda and back to Szarel here https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1950602-overcome/chapter/1951750/ ). I was wondering if I should make a note, like:

Rustam​

At the beginning of the chapter or where I use **** to indicate a transition from one POV to another? Or will it look ugly?

In your opinion, what will be more convenient for the reader?

 

[LightHikari]

I personally dislike the saying whose POV it is before the chapter. I always just lead with the character that has the POV in the first paragraph.

Something like this:

Hikari opened a thread and saw a comment asking about POVs...

And if the next chapter was your POV, I would start it the same way:

RookieQW listened to Hikari's nonsense and decided for his/her self...

 

[empalgepuk]

When you switch PoV often like me, you'll eventually learn that every character of yours has distinct speech patterns and behaviors. If you're in third person PoV, you'd use something like "Character A yawns and picks his nose as he stares toward the empty field before his watchtower" by the first or second paragraph. Readers will automatically assume that is A's PoV.

First person PoV is trickier. But could even be easier if you keep all your characters distinct enough. Make readers realize whose PoV it is by the context of the character's behavior or situation.

That is why using "Character A's PoV" is redundant IMO.

 

[Arkus86]

You should certainly make it clear whose PoV it is, but how exactly you do it is less important - just be consistent with it.
Assuming your readers will just pick up whose PoV you are following without signalling it properly can be annoying for the reader, especially before they get used to the distinct patterns of individual characters, if there are any to speak of. Imagine you are halfway through a chapter before a character is finally identified - and it's not the character you assumed it was.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

If it is first person, then you probably should, at least until your audience gets a feel for each character's "voice" - my wife was listening to an audiobook where the shifts were jarring (especially given that a woman was reading it and two of the three narrative characters were male).

 

[Rookieqw]

If it is first person, then you probably should, at least until your audience gets a feel for each character's "voice" - my wife was listening to an audiobook where the shifts were jarring (especially given that a woman was reading it and two of the three narrative characters were male).

No, third person:

The teeth of the siege saws grated, slowing down and breaking in the thick layer of metal covering the command tower. The red-hot flames erupting from the nozzles splashed harmlessly across the gray surface, unable to melt it. A siren wailed inside the assault capsule, warning of a targeting cannon. The harnesses unbuckled, releasing soldiers, a single medic, and a tall figure clad to the chin in black power armor.

Szarel el-Farah lifted a hand, and the artillery piece on the deck crumpled into a pancake. Invisible streaks of force created by his telekinesis struck the stubborn surface of the tower, creating a crack no wider than a finger. Szarel’s will formed hooks, driving them into the breach, widening it enough for the nose of the pod to squeeze through with a deafening screech.

“Magister, let us be first,” asked Butylin, the support platoon leader.

And

The battle raged in the corridor leading to the engine room. The raiders had piled up empty barrels and crates in an attempt to create a makeshift barricade. El Satanini kicked through it, bringing his mace down on the mutated machine gunner’s head. He fired a hand cannon, hitting a grenadier in the chest. The woman fell back, and a grenade without a pin rolled out of her limp hand. The commander stepped into an explosion that scattered the rabble in his path. He caught a flying-by bandit on his wrist and crushed his head against the wall.

Ruda squeezed past the knight, reaching Ney, and together they impaled the necks of the Blessed aimed at the commander’s back. Satanini resembled a live firework; bullets bounced off the plates of his armor, his tabard caught fire, and a spear scraped across his chest, drawing a jagged line.

And

Szarel hurled Latif past the hanging sphere and smashed him against the wall with such force that a crack appeared on it. The magister strode through the destroyed bridge, clearing fire, corpses, and fragments from his path. There was not a scratch on his suit, and if not for the red dripping from his nose, ears and flowing from under his watery eyes, he would have appeared completely unharmed.

(Of course, this is not the entire chapter.) This is how I introduce the characters in the chapter and how I later switch between them (as they are in different places).

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Oh, then you're just following a different character? Yeah, you should mention their name as early as practical but not shove it in the reader's face.

 

[Rookieqw]

Oh, then you're just following a different character?

Yep, that's the gist of it.

 

[TASTYLEADPAINT]

I would. I didnt for awhile and readers complained it was hard to follow who was who.

 

[Eldoria]

If your characters are numerous and complex (they have different personalities), you should specify whose POV they are from. You know, not all of your readers will start reading the book from the beginning.

A good chapter should provide a good understanding of the conflict, characters, and worldbuilding in a single chapter. That's also why character descriptions, worldbuilding, and conflict are often explained again in the latest chapter, even if previous chapters have already covered them.