I'm writing a crime story about a woman in her late 20s who has a special ability. Not a super power, just a special ability. She witnesses something happening to a friend of hers that could put her in danger, and she tries to help get her friend out of trouble, without telling him that she knows about his situation. And when he gets killed later on in the novel, she blames herself. She has three close friends, and I want to be able to develop them and their individual stories as well, but i'm afraid that the "special" nature of my main character might be lost if I choose to write in 3rd person limited. I've written the first 20-30k in first person and I'm only now considering the option of the 3rd person POV because my characters have started to thrive and take shape and I feel like their stories could be intermingled with my plot. I hope that makes sense. Do you have any thoughts or opinions on this? What would you do in my position?
There are books that maintain the 1st person POV for a main character, and still develop secondary characters by switching POV and writing those characters in 3rd person. It worked just fine in the ones I've read, so that's an option that allows you to keep the special connection you feel with the main character in 1st person and still switch viewpoints.
Write her friends stories in first person as well. Give the chapter's names like, "John's story" and just keep writing them as if they were telling it. If you like you can pretend it's a collection of statements given as evidence (that's very popular), or compiled by a reporter. Or you can just leave it as it is, you reader is fully equipped to switch gears.
3rd person limited multiple viewpoint might be your best option. It can be used like 1st person pov when you desire and still enjoy all the advantages of third person writing. And it sounds like that's what you need.
