How to pick your narrator(s)

Deciding who should tell your story and when those POVs should switch.

In my most recent AMA for paid subscribers, a reader posed a great question. Actually, this reader posed several questions, but a few of them make for a longer length post that I’ll be sharing today.

Yulia asked: I've been reworking my novel, and I can't decide who the main character is. I had an editor read it and she said that I do a lot of head hopping and not starting my story at the right moment. How do you decide who the main character is? Who is telling the story and from which perspective?

Yulia, you are not alone! A lot of people struggle not only with identifying their main character but also with deciding who should narrate—and when. Let’s dig in…

Who is your hero?

Before we get into choosing who gets a perspective, it’s important to identify your hero, aka the protagonist/main character. Yes, even in multi-POV stories, there is still one character at the heart of …