: Re: First Person when the PoV is not the Protagonist? I believe writing in the first person gets the reader closer to the character. As far as I know, this is generally accepted as true. That's

@Martha805

Vote Up Vote Down

It really depends on the novel that you want to write. I think the issue isn't with the distance from the protagonist by having the POV character as a secondary character, but rather that you will struggle to attain depth in the protagonist with this method.

If the protagonist is relatable, or interesting, or complex, then the reader will empathize with them and want to get to know them better if they are written well. Some of my favorite characters in conventional POV = protagonist stories are the side characters, and I finish reading wishing that the story was actually about them.

So the reader can feel like they are close to the non-POV character, but without being in their head it's impossible to know everything that is going on with them. Unless they communicate everything to the POV character/ reader, it will be impossible to know who they truly are, or how they see themselves. The reader will only ever experience the story and other characters through a filter.

Of course, this can be used very effectively as a method of character development (perhaps the POV character thinks the protagonist is a hero, whilst the protagonist believes s/he is a fraud and has just gotten lucky so far), but at the very least it limits the ways in which we can understand the protagonist further.

Ultimately you aren't writing a story about the protagonist if you choose to use this method. You are writing about their adventures, but the story is about how the POV character experiences those adventures, and their relationship together. It is a fundamentally different type of story for the reader, and offers both opportunities and limitations for developing the narrative and characters.

(0)

Login to post a comment!