POV, importance, and problems
Nov. 6th, 2010 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliWhen there are few POV characters, they are all important.
If you set up the pattern early enough, you can have bit characters show up, shine a flashlight on their, and the main characters', situation and vanish without a trace. But in that case, you will need lots of POV characters, to fill out the pattern.
If you have few, you are shining a spotlight on each new one and declaring, Look here! He's important! Especially if you introduce a character after only one POV has been used before.
Now, if you want to say, Enter the Important Character, that's all to the good, but if you still want to baffle the issue about who's really important and who isn't, if the main character is baffled by his circumstances, and you want the reader to share in that view, or if this POV will reveal more -- at some point -- than you want the reader to know, it's not.
The fun arises when you want to show his POV later. (In the same story. New POVs in a series work perfectly well.) You've already established the POV pattern, but his character arc will be really difficult without showing it from his POV.
Life is full of trade-offs. So's writing. grumble.
If you set up the pattern early enough, you can have bit characters show up, shine a flashlight on their, and the main characters', situation and vanish without a trace. But in that case, you will need lots of POV characters, to fill out the pattern.
If you have few, you are shining a spotlight on each new one and declaring, Look here! He's important! Especially if you introduce a character after only one POV has been used before.
Now, if you want to say, Enter the Important Character, that's all to the good, but if you still want to baffle the issue about who's really important and who isn't, if the main character is baffled by his circumstances, and you want the reader to share in that view, or if this POV will reveal more -- at some point -- than you want the reader to know, it's not.
The fun arises when you want to show his POV later. (In the same story. New POVs in a series work perfectly well.) You've already established the POV pattern, but his character arc will be really difficult without showing it from his POV.
Life is full of trade-offs. So's writing. grumble.