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I am writing a book with the particular twist that between chapters it switches the point of view. For example, in the first chapter it is from the main character's point of view, then in the second chapter it is the sidekick's point of view.
How would I introduce the sidekick in that second chapter? I want people to know it is from a different point of view, but how?
Label the chapters with the character names. George RR Martin does this at the top of every chapter of his monolith books, since he easily has a dozen POV narrators per book. No muss, no fuss, crystal clear. Roberta Gellis did the same thing in her Fires of Winter, and Patricia Briggs does it in her most recent book (which is mostly from the first-person POV of her main character but has two chapters from the POV of her husband, and those two are headed "Adam").
No matter what else you do, make sure you do this:
Clearly distinguish the sidekick's personality from the main character's. Different attitudes. Different "voice," such as diction or accent or sentence structures. Different level of education. Different background. Different opinions about everything. Different desires and agendas.
Then write from within the sidekick's personality.
If you do both of those things, readers won't have trouble distinguishing.
If you want to give readers additional cues, you can label the chapters, as Lauren says.
Or use James Patterson's trick: Write the main character's viewpoint scenes in first person, and other characters' scenes in third person.
But never rely solely on chapter labels or first/third person to orient the reader. You still need to make the viewpoints distinct.
Lauren Ipsum has one suggestion. There are dozens of ways to do it. For example, you could simply start Chapter 2 with "His sidekick did not agree. Michael Fisher dumped the cheap beer over the cobblestones and went for his knife."
We the reader now know we're in the sidekick, Mr Fisher,'s POV.
But like I said, there are many many ways of doing it.
The first questions here are:
The last question is the most important, because you can tell the exact same story without switches, from only one point of view.
In her answer, Lauren Ipsum assumes that you are narrating the lives of an ensemble cast, where each character is equally important and has roughly the same time in the "center of the stage". Dale Emery assumes that you are switching between one central and several minor characters. But there are other possibilities:
Each of these and the many other "rhythms of switching" must be handled differently, and how you handle them will be dictated by the purpose of the switch:
There are as many ways to handle viewpoints and viewpoint transitions as there are novels. There is no recipe for this, rather it is an artistic decision that you must make according to your artistic vision.
One of the most famous multi-perspective novels is probably William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Each of the four chapers is told from the viewpoint of a different person, but the chapter headings and first sentences do not tell us who the viewpoint belongs to. It takes the reader a while until he realizes the identity of the protagonist (in fact many of my class mates needed the teacher to tell them). This is not a shortcoming of this novel, but obviously the author's intention. I don't want to speculate on the purpose, others have done so and you may read up on their arguments, but it is clear that you don't have to label your sections, if you feel that your novel works better without them.
One preliminary choice you'll have to make in this context is if you want to change viewpoint at all.
Personally I find that viewpoint changes tend to throw me out of the story. I have gotten into the character, am interested in his or her fate, and now I have to make an emotional and cognitive effort to get into the next person. And then back to the first person in the next chapter. And back and forth, all through the book. Which is why I seriously dislike action novels told from mulitple viewpoints.
When I read George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, I found that I began to skip over the chapters with different viewpoints to the next chapter told from the same characters's perspective. And near the end of the series I stopped reading those character's chapters that I disliked or found uninteresting.
The viewpoint switches work in Faulner because there are only four chapters and those chapters are long enough to be read as complete tales unto themselves.
I am sure there are many people who love getting into many people's heads, but I am equally sure that I am not the only person who dislikes this. During my writing I have found that I sometimes want to switch viewpoints because it makes my telling of the tale easier. It is often not a choice that promotes my vision, but a choice based on laziness and a lack of ability.
Make sure, before you think about how to switch, that you really need the switch to tell your story at all.
I once read a book I can't even remember the name of, Eternities End or some trite, it was terrible. Its one redeeming quality was that it was constantly switching between first person narratives of maybe half a dozen characters. They were only differentiated by the subtle differences in their diction (and other more obvious clues). At first it was a little hard to follow but in short order it became an exercise akin to discerning an accent (is that Scottish or Irish?) It was actually kind of a fun. It must of taken an awesome degree of control though because the shifts in voice were slight but very consistent.
I'm not sure I totally understand the question or why people believe POV switches are such an issue. In third person I often use what I call the conch technique. It is easy for readers to follow and allows POV changes on the fly.
The last person to perform an action (dialogue is action) owns the POV.
Mary stared into her coffee cup. Marrying Malcolm had been the worst decision of her life. It wasn't supposed to be like this. "Bye, sweetie," said Malcolm, picking up his car keys. "I'll be home by five, six at the latest." His wife hadn't been herself recently. Mary seemed quiet, withdrawn. Maybe bring her home some flowers. Yes, surprise her. Come home early bearing gifts. Book a table at that new restaurant. Mary remained focussed on the cup, holding her breath . . . waiting. She exhaled as she heard the car start, and listened intently until the sound of the engine faded into the distance. Time to pack.
Easy enough to follow?
As others have said, it's down to individual style, there must be a valid reason for the switch. In the following example I go from 1st to 1st using a technique that borders on fourth wall.
End of Chapter 36 . . . Charlie placed a hand on the cushion, then examined her hand. "This is bloody and wet. Katlyn, has your water just broken?" I conducted my own investigation. "I don't think so. This is too much blood." "Shall I call 911?" "It's 999, and yes, call them." "Hold this." She passed me her plastic Jesus, and proceeded to dial. That's pretty much the end of my story. I passed out waiting for the paramedics. But Charlie knows what happened next. My sister (and Jesus) were with me the whole time.
Opening of Chapter 37 . . .
Oh, man! One second Katlyn's talking to me, telling me shit I really don't need to know; she's got a bag packed, where the spare keys are, which day the garbage men come, and what garbage goes in which container . . . Mid-sentence, she stops talking, and I'm just quick enough to catch her before she falls. I'd already called the paramedics, they were on their way but I felt so dumb. What do you do in these situations? I'm standing there, holding up my sister. There's blood running down her legs.
