Writing with Multiple Characters

How to balance all the different views

In my most recent work, I’ve been working with eight different points of view. It can get a little chaotic in my head sometimes, especially when all eight are extremely different.

But why do I do it, and how do I get it to work?

First off, this is my first time every using multiple personalities and perspectives to tell one story. It can be hard to keep up with everything that’s going on and who needs another turn to show their viewpoint.

Typically, you only have one character to work on, to plan out, and write. There’s one set of eyes that you are looking through and perceiving their world by. There’s one person’s actions and mind that you have to follow. It’s complicated, but still simple. You only become one other person as you write.

I have become eight.

However, I love it. As someone that’s always been very interested in psychology and sociology, seeing many different people’s perspectives on the same thing is utterly fascinating. How do their stories affect how they perceive things? How do the people around them affect their thoughts? What breaks a person? What makes them unstoppable? How can one person smile while the world is falling and yet another completely loses themselves?

Though all my stories before had only one person that was the main lead, I had very strong and dominant characters beside them. However, they never got to truly show how they thought and perceived the action and drama of the book’s events. There’s a limited amount of connections that a reader can make there, as the main characters are limited.

However, with many different views, I have a greater chance of having a character that’s relatable to a reader. Also, with multiple views, I get to play around with personalities, theories, and social situations without actually leaving my computer. (It’s the introverted scientist in me, I know.)

I do believe that having more there that could be relatable is the biggest perk to the many main characters. Does my reader have anxiety? Well, there’s Verity. Family problems? There’s Daniel, Kylee, and Hadley. Missing a parent? Hadley, Daniel, Alexander, and Wilder. Are they neurodivergent? Nathaniel and Verity. Struggling with depression? Hadley and Verity. Nostalgia? Callie would work. A perfectionist? Kylee. People pleasing? Callie.

It wouldn’t be realistic to put all of these traits into one person. That poor person that would have all of those struggles - oh I couldn’t imagine! But now, think of all the people that might relate. Think of those that will finally understand the pain of some of these problems. The problems are there for comfort and understanding. They aren’t needless torture methods - they are with a purpose.

But, do I want to write eight different books about completely different people with different struggles in different parts of America as they go through a similar situation? Uh, no. I don’t have the time or mental energy for that.

Instead, I can put them all into one book.

The planning and plotting of The Silent Summer was crazy. There was so much to keep track of. I had eight people in eight places in eight situations. I kept getting them confused while I composed the plot. No mind was messier than mine during the pre-planning stage.

But I think it was worth it.

One other thing that really makes me love having multiple main characters is that it is harder to get writer’s block. I’m notorious for getting stuck in books, and it’s pretty annoying. I’ll make it about 50,000 words in, then stop because I’m just lost. Well, with eight different people to bounce around, I think I’ll be able to get through without my typical lost love of the main character and forgotten plot line. If I get stuck with one, I just move to another. And, to make it better, I have more plotted out this time, so there’s actually a plan in place.

So, I would love it if you would try writing with multiple leads, especially if you struggle with writer’s block. I have found it very fun and helpful, even though my poor little mind needs to write out a list of all the names because I’m a bad character parent and I keep getting them mixed up. 😆

For example, I called Daniel’s brother, Morgan, the name of Daniel’s best friend, Mason, in my last post. I still need to go through and fix that, because right now it looks like his friend is also his brother, which is frightfully confusing.

What styles of writing have you found to help you? Please share them in the comments for other writers!