Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: When you start reading a novel, do you prefer to be plunged right into the action, or do you prefer a slower, more descriptive introduction to the plot and characters?

Typically I suppose I prefer something in between.  I like a chance to get to know a world and characters before too much action is happening, but I want something happening in the opening chapters.  I don’t want to be plunged directly into the Battle of Helm’s Deep with a lot of people I don’t yet care about, but I also don’t really need to go strolling through the Shire, listening to an extended history of Elvish linguistics for the first three chapters.  So to speak.

Mostly, though, I think this is not unlike my thoughts about multiple narrators—it’s all fine, if done well.  A book can start mid-action and reveal plot and character while a lot is happening, or it can start with less action but still hold interest.  It all depends on what’s right for the story, and how skillful the author is.

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: How do you feel about books with multiple narrators?

Ah, now this feels like the kind of question that might come up at my writing group!  I frequently enjoy (and often write) at least two point of view characters (or narrators).  It’s a common practice to write a novel from the alternating points of view of the two romantic leads (I knew immediately how a triangle would turn out in a romance once, just because of this).  Sometimes that’s been the case in my own books, though not always.  I guess it always has been the case that my two point of view characters are the pair that forms the most significant relationship in the book, romantic or otherwise.

Huh, I actually never thought about that before…

Three narrators is perfectly reasonable too, and maybe four…though the more you add, the more complex it becomes and the harder it gets for the reader to keep track.  That can go badly sometimes in ensemble cast novels, with six, eight, ten narrators.

That higher complexity is definitely something we’d warn about in my writing group, if someone was thinking about how many POV characters to write (the question has come up often).  Two other things: it’s crucial to make it very clear to the reader when a POV is switching.  I generally do chapter breaks, sometimes just a scene break (but a clear one).  It’s equally crucial that different POV characters have different voices.  If they all sound the same, the reader will have a much harder time keeping track (and possibly grow bored besides).

But if those pitfalls are avoided, and if all is written well, then I like multiple POVs just fine.  But I like most storytelling choices, if they’re done well!