Mary Rosenblum, your web editor, has published seven novels, and more than 60 short stories in multiple genres, as well as nonfiction.  Her eighth novel, Horizons, will be released in hardcover by Tor Books in November, 2006.   She also teaches writing, and has for many years.

 

 

Novel Characters:

Who, What, How Many?

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            Over and over you are advised to stick to a single, main, Point of View character for a short story.  But once you expand into novel form, you’re not so restricted. Multiple POV characters are fine!  But what does that mean?  How many POV characters can you have?  How many should you have?  And what’s the difference between a POV character and a main character?  Are they the same?

 

Point Of View versus Main Character

            The point of view character is the character from whose perspective the story is told.  In first person, it is the narrator, obviously.  When using third person, it is the character who’s thoughts and feelings we share.   Think of it as taking up residence in the character’s head.  We see through that character’s eyes, know what that character knows, hear what that character hears.  Every other character is scene through this POV character’s eyes and we don’t know what they’re thinking. 

            A main character is the character who is most important to the story.  In a short story, you usually have a single main character, and that character is usually the POV character.  In a novel, you might have one or two or three main character, although the more main characters you have, the more you have to work to make them important to the reader.  Fewer is usually better!  For example, in a murder mystery, your main character might be the amateur sleuth who unravels the mystery.  Your main character sleuth might be the only POV character in the novel, or you might chose to include one or more chapters told through the POV of another character, so that we get to see events that our main character isn’t privy to. 

            So while you might have three or four or five POV characters who help you tell the story in your novel, you probably have only one or two main characters. 

 

Cast of Thousands

            Why not let your POV characters all turn into main characters?  They’re interesting, they have a role to play!  The problem is that one of the strongest connections you can make to your readers is through your characters.  If your readers care about your characters, your readers will read this book from cover to cover and buy your next book, too.  But readers connect to characters through contact.  In other words, the more we share that character’s POV, the more we get to know that character, the more we find similarities that let us see that person as someone we like, admire, or consider a friend – the stronger the bond.   If you constantly shift from POV to POV so that we spend little time with any one particular character, we might enjoy the fight scenes or the wild ride through the forest, but we don’t really care about the characters.  And that, in the end, will cost you, no matter how strong your plot is. 

            While there is no ‘rule’ about how many main characters to use, you are better off to use fewer rather than more.  While Tolkien could get away with a large cast, he took three long books to tell the story! 

            There is also no rule about how many POV characters you can use.  It might be to your advantage to switch to the POV of the gardener for a scene as the old man uncovers the watch that will turn out to be a critical clue while he is cultivating the turnips.  That allows the readers to know something that your main character does not.  And that can allow readers to worry from the sidelines as they see the main character about to make a bad choice precisely because he/she does not have that information.  That adds great drama to the piece. 

            Of course if you are using first person, you probably will not change POV.  It is very very difficult to switch from one first person POV to another within a novel, or to switch from first person to a third person POV in a novel.  Yes, it can be done, but it is a difficult feat to pull off and even when you do it well, it jolts the reader.    Unless the payoff outweighs the cost, it is not a good technique to use. 

 

Switching POV

            So where and how do you switch from POV to POV in third person?  The best place to change POV is at your chapter breaks.  While you can switch POV within a chapter, it is less confusing to careless readers if you wait until the chapter break.  Readers are conditioned to expect clues about a new time/place/POV when a chapter begins.  They’ll watch for those ‘where, when, who’ details and they will make the transition from POV to POV smoothly.  Do make it clear to the readers in the first paragraph whose POV we are now in, where we are, and how much time has passed.  Remember, if you don’t tell us we’re in a new POV, we’ll assume we’re in the same POV that ended the previous chapter. 

            If you find that you must change POV within the chapter, then use a skipped line and centered * the same way you would in a short story.  Again, make the ‘who’ very clear in your transition, but realize it will be a much greater jolt to the reader than if you wait until the chapter end.  Remember that chapters do not need to be consistent in terms of length.  If your chapters are running 15 – 18 pages, and you want to change POV after 7 pages, go ahead and start a new chapter.  That short chapter will actually add a pleasing variation to your story’s rhythm. 

 

Avoid Omniscient

            Just as with short fiction, avoid omniscient POV.  This is when you simply hop from head to head, character to character, telling us what each one thinks and feels, as needed.  This simply distances readers from the characters.  Yes, they know what every character thinks, but we never get the chance to get close to one character, to care about her or him.  Instead we stand back and watch them all, and nobody really becomes the main character.  You lose intimacy and reader connection with omniscient POV.  Unless your book is highly plot driven and we don’t have to care about any of the characters, avoid omniscient POV. 

            Remember, your novel character is going to interact with your reader for a long time, much longer than that short story character.  The more deeply and thoroughly you know your novel character, the more real that person will seem to your readers.  Invite your main characters to move in with you before you start writing that first draft.  Talk with them, think about them, about their pasts, their hopes, fears, dreams.  If you entertain these ‘house guests’ for a few days or weeks, you’ll be surprised at how much they may start helping you out with your plot.  The stronger your characters, the stronger your story.  That is a given.