Which Way Did They go?

Bubbling at the top of a pot of characters is the hero and the villain, and the idea is to develop both and show how they are different and maybe not so different. That is easily done when they interact, but what if there is a long-distance relationship? Case in point, the main character or characters are moving about, preparing to launch an attack on the villain to free kidnapped victims. The villain is moving about several hundreds of miles away laying a trap and preparing for the attack. How to bridge the gap and develop each character? A technique is to use multiple points of view.

Typically, using different points of view has advantages.

1. It solves the problem of the main point of view character being unreliable.
2. It shows how the hero appears to others.
3. It is one way to contrast the hero and villain which is central to a good story.
4. It can show precisely how dangerous the villain is.

When using this technique the writer must be wary of a couple things. One is to give sufficient warning that a shift occurs if within a chapter, and two, be careful about "head-hopping" which can confuse and/or pull the reader out of the story. So, why and how am I applying this technique?

In a work under development, the hero and villain are miles apart. Yes, it is possible to TELL that the villain is evil, but SHOWing that he is evil and why may be preferable. The simplest method is to devote a chapter that introduces the villain, describe the kidnapping, and a disregard of the lives of innocent people; however, this story is part of a series that has another villain, an individual who will become a serious threat to the hero's family, who is responsible for launching a 400-year vendetta that focuses on the hero of the parallel series occurring in our era. It is in this chapter that he is also re-introduced. The relatively brief appearance and in another chapter later is all that is necessary as the focus is on the villain of this story. In order to further flesh out this character, I switched the viewpoint in additional chapters to demonstrate just how vicious and depraved he is and his justification for such behavior. As the story is told by an omniscient narrator and the shifts are done within entire chapters, the reader shouldn't become lost or distracted. There is a different aspect to using multiple points of view, and that relates to scene-hopping within a chapter.

Switching points of view within a chapter can work as long as the writer gives sufficient warning of the changes. How the writer does this is up to them. I use the same technique as if making a shift in time, a visual page break, centered on its own line.  Sometimes I use ~, other times *, whatever works so that the reader is alerted to a change and can easily keep up. Utilizing this shifting technique is important as the story unfolds into the rescue of the wife and son of the protagonist's mentor, who were kidnapped and supposedly being held for ransom -- actually a way to lure the mentor into a trap to kill him. Underlying is the hope this tactic will lure the main hero, too, as the villain really, really wants revenge on him. 

The shifting of view point comes into serious play at the conclusion of the story. From the beginning, the reader is introduced to a number of "minor" characters, each playing a significant part. In the attack, we have the mentor commanding a fleet of four ships that makes a frontal assault on the fortress from the sea. There is also our hero who takes a large force ashore to cross over the island and attack from land. He is also charged with the actual rescue. We also have another player and her ship of children who first spy on the fortress to gain needed info on defences and the exact whereabouts of the kidnap victims. She also establishes a working friendship with the local Carib natives so that a land attack is possible, and then is responsible for taking the rescued wife and son aboard, to getting them out of harm's way.

To accomplish the spying and moving the kidnapped victims to safety are two of her crew who pose as Caribs. When a major complication arises the protagonist's son enters to warn of trouble and while he is supposed to stay out of danger, becomes involved in a fight with defending soldiers. Finally, there is another character, captain of the ship that transported the hero and his troops to the island, and then engages a warship to prevent the villain from attacking their rear. Scene changes within the battle chapter are, in a modest word, as frequent as raindrops in a downpour. This multiple view point approach is important as each change focuses on events and information that the reader will want and need. Transitioning appropriately and smoothly will prevent losing or frustrating the reader so to show what is happening and set the scene for what will or can happen.

There is just a lot more that goes into a story, requirements and tricks that must be learned and practiced before a writer can just sit down and transfer what develops through imagination into a visual media. So, how do you use this technique?