I have a story that I have been working on, but it requires one bit of background/scene setting done by character A. However, I mostly want to write the story from perspective of character B. But character B was not at the scene in question, so I can't write that scene from her POV. I'm not sure I could pull off omni - there's reasons why getting into (and staying, once I get there) the head of character B will be interesting. I'm finding that this problem is keeping me from writing the story, because I feel like I have to have it solved first! Argh. Like I need more excuses for not meeting my writing goals.

Rather, what you should be asking is these questions: Is it absolutely necessary for me to shift POV? If I shift POV, will I confuse my reader? How can I shift POV without jarring a reader from the story.

In one of the early chapters of SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, Card shifts POV in the middle of the chapter. I remember it because he seemed to break the POV rule. But what does it matter? Though I can't find the thread, I was the only Hatracker who did notice it. It's almost seemless, and I think the reason I did notice it was because I was really focused on POV at the time.

Readers readily accept a switch of POV when you switch to a scene that doesn't have the POV character. This is even okay if only one scene deviates.

Shifting from a first person singular POV to another fps POV might be a little more tricky, but it's done. Browse through Faulkner's As I Lay Dying to see an example of it. He juggles several character POVs in first person.

Recently, I was reading Xenocide, and I thought I saw a POV shift in the early chapters. I quickly realized it wasn't a shift, though. The POV character was putting herself in another characters shoes and working through their thoughts. I thought this was an interesting alternative.

If it doesn't work, examine your objective:

Why does the reader need to see a scene that B was not in? Do they really need this scene?

Is it possible that the B knows what happened in the scene, but just wasn't there? Can B imagine or dream the scene?

Is there a reason that you need the reader to know, but you don't want B to know? Does the reader need this at the very beginning, or could both the reader (and B) be told at the end (video, captain's log, etc.)?

I'm toying with the idea of just staying in this persons' POV, though. Everyone's comments make a lot of sense - that it can be tricky to manage, it might be off-putting to some editors (last thing I need is a reason to reject me, LOL) and that there should be a compelling reason to shift. I think the truth is I would like to write a novel-length story with these characters, in which case I can shift POV, but am going to try to stay in this POV for the short story while I work out some of the plot and world details.