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I have a character that is a love interest that cheats on one of the main characters (3rd-person POV). Should I write his POV for the cheating scenes to show the reader what is happening? It is the only time that character would have POV and the character that catches them in the act is also not a character with a POV.

How would I show this?

(The character that walks in is fighting with his partner [a point of view character] about the morality of the cheating partner and walks in on them to realize that he is a bad person)

I'm a newbie planning out my plot and rewriting. I feel as though it is out of place but I'm not too sure on how to display their infidelity otherwise. I was going to have it made known that the partner messages/calls the partner to tell them to avoid even their POV, but I'm not sure if this would work.

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  • Btw its all in 3rd person. Like 3rd person limited. Or should it all be 3rd person??
    – August Tran
    Commented Jul 7, 2021 at 19:31
  • If you want to show the infidelity, instead of just having it brought up (to make it more sympathetic?) then I don't see a problem with shifting POV, especially when the MC is not available to BE the POV. Otherwise, you don't even need to reveal the infidelity, it could be a rumor with the POV character discovering evidence, or they would have a blow-up fight where the MC or the minor character reveals/suggests the infidelity to be hurtful to the other person. It's entirely a style thing. There's a hundred ways to do this, and all can be good or dreadful. Sorry, that's not exactly an answer.
    – DWKraus
    Commented Jul 7, 2021 at 21:37
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    Which character is the reader suppose to feel sympathy with, the person who discovers they've been betrayed, or the person who cheats and gets caught? POV is more than a floating camera. If we are learning about the cheater's internal conflict (their flaw, why they lapse) OK. But if it's just a way for a camera to follow the action into the boudoir, nah. We'll assume what happened and why – same as the character who is betrayed. If we're not learning anything different to the obvious, it sounds like a mismanaged narrative voice.
    – wetcircuit
    Commented Jul 7, 2021 at 21:44
  • BTW you might want to check out what the average word counts are for a novel in your genre. Even the genres that tolerate 100k word counts often expect shorter works from new authors. manuscriptagency.com.au/…
    – DWKraus
    Commented Jul 7, 2021 at 22:45
  • @DWKraus ... Did you just describe The Room?
    – Weckar E.
    Commented Jul 9, 2021 at 13:53

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