How do you break a story when it consists of two parallel developing stories? How do you let the reader know that the piece of the story has now ended with the eyes of the first character and the piece of the story has begun with the eyes of the second character? I have a problem with how to build a transition between stories and characters, but at the same time not to confuse the reader. How would you make the transition?
With a new chapter? With whatever action being somewhat resolved in the previous chapter. Also if there is a p.o.v change (which it sounds like there is) then I try and do this with a new chapter.
This works with the first and second chapters. But what if in the third or fourth chapter the reader cannot understand whose perspective the story is now. How to start a chapter so that the reader understands exactly whose story will be now? How to make sure that the transition is clear to the reader? Or if I just divide the characters' stories into chapters, then will the reader understand everything himself? Or it may be necessary to make a small introduction in each chapter to remind the reader who the main character of this chapter is and where we stayed in the story of this character?
The chapters can be any length although it is good practice to keep them fairly consistent. I think it is more about saying what you need to in a chapter and moving on. I would maybe write the chapter objectives on a pad and refer to them. It is not exactly plotting but it is a way to remain clear about immediate objectives. The transitions should then come naturally.
I feel like I've read some works where the chapter title itself tells which POV the character's from -- so as an example would be the chapter title would be: "Character A: The moonlight stroll" and the next chapter would be: "Character B: The rolling storm" -- but I think those works were all online works where the rules are more relaxed than traditional publishing. For other online work, I've seen people simply putting a long line between the paragraphs separating the POV. Even if you don't get what's happening at first, eventually you'll pick up on the line correlating with the POV switch. If you want to be really ballsy and challenge yourself set your character's environment and thought process at the forefront of the POV change and try to be as distinct as possible, but that really only works if your character's are complete opposite. So I guess what you want to ask yourself is: How different are my characters? Can I be distinct enough in my writing to show/tell the difference right off the bat? Am I okay with inserting lines between my work to show POV change? And based on those answers act accordingly. Personally, as I've mostly worked online, I just put a single dot between paragraphs to show change of POV.
Well I've seen a few different ways that I'll list here. All of which are from popular fantasy series. Have the chapter title include the PoV's name. Have the first page of each chapter have a graphic/visual indicator of the character (this will be tricky since you'll need to get an artist on board) Have a double space or other scene change indicator and then quickly mention the character's name in a way to indicate that we are now in their PoV.
Simply write your new action/chapter from a single point of view and remain in that point of view until the action or chapter is completed. Characters can share a scene, but, not point of view (perspective) in the same scene. That is what is called head hopping. The reader will instantly pick up the point of view change and they will not tolerate it being swapped continually. That is why we have to make sure we do it right otherwise the reader is jolted out of the story. They may have to go back and reread which just wrecks their immersion in the story. It seems you might be referring to point of view and not character perspective, although it could be said they are one and the same. For clarity make clear separations between point of view by using chapter breaks. Following p.o.v comes transition. It should come naturally if you are clear on point of view. However, it is a whole other subject and what is a common pitfall of transition is changing action too quickly. For instance, jumping from one scene to the next without good reason. This is not head hopping but transition hopping (I just made that up, but you see where I am headed?). If you can begin to master p.o.v you will also do the same with transition as the rules are not dismilar. It is all about consistency and gently guiding the reader through the story and perspectives of your characters without causing confusion.
Richard's advice is spot on! If you're having trouble figuring out if you are in a good spot to transition to the other story line, think about if it were a show on TV. There are many popular shows that utilize parallel story lines to keep audiences interested. Observing similarities in their transitions might be just what you need. At least it would be a foundation to start from.
