Point of View, Memoir, and the Saga Goes On ...

     I promised to update my POV problem, and how I'm solving it. Today, I'm far into the rewrite of a particular story, and find it cannot be told in fewer than three points of view.
     Sometimes a story must be told in multiple points of view. That doesn't mean we can allow ourselves to get carried away and turn multiple into multitudes. Just think about a group of people gathered at a funeral who want to tell anecdotes about the deceased to relate the most wonderful moments of his life. As you listen to the deceased's friends and family who troop up to the pulpit one after another, many of the stories intertwine. That's right, one person will repeat what another has already expressed. Sure, with a slightly different twist. And one version is going to be better than another. So, that's the point. One version is better than another. And let's face it, if many friends and family tell the story, repeating bits and pieces, the event gets to be boring, and you might fall asleep. What you want to hear about is a completely different part of this person's life, told freshly and with excitement and passion.
     To put this into your writing, listen to the crowd of characters in your story as they tell the tale. Listen well, and pick out those who are telling the same story ... then pick the best version and relate that part of the story in one character's point of view. Keep whittling the multitude of POV down until you have a workable number ... preferably no more than three for a novel-length story.
     You can always pick the outsider to tell the story, as Fitzgerald did in The Great Gatsby, especially if the MC has gone on to the great beyond, which means he cannot tell his own story. But sometimes you, the author, know that the story cannot be full and rich unless part of it is told in the MC's point of view. This because every person is really three personalities. We are: first, the person we believe we are; second, the person who others believe we are; third, the person we think others believe we are.
     How did I solve my problem? I chose three points of view: first POV, the main character who tells his story as he believes he is and how he thinks others believe him to be; second POV, the outsider who loves the main character and can tell part of his story as she sees the main character through the eyes of love; and third POV? Okay, I did have to have that third person. It's a mystery, so I had to have a detective. He's my third POV character.
     But one other thing, if you will allow me to offer some advice. Your readers are going to have more difficulty getting attached to a character because they will be jumping from his head to two others (if like me you get your cast of characters down to three). I strongly recommend that you start your story with your main character and give him lots of space on the page before you leave him and jump into your next character's point of view. I can't give you a formula, but in my 90,000-word novel I give my main character 4,000 words before I jump into another character's point of view. This allows my readers to get well acquainted with that character, to know what is important to him, what some of his strengths and weaknesses are, what he wants to achieve, and the beginning of what or whom is going to try to prevent him from reaching his goal.
     One last thing. Play fair with your readers. As soon as you establish the order in which you present your three characters, for example: John is character A, Mary is character B, and Homer is character C, maintain that structure throughout the book. And never leave one out. The entire book should read: A-B-C, A-B-C, A-B-C. If you change the routine and throw A-B-C, A-B-C, A-C at them, they'll stop reading and try to figure out what happened to B.