For a lot of stories, the choice of viewpoint character seems obvious, either because the writer starts with a character and develops the plot later, or because they start with a plotline in which one particular character is at the center of the action.
I said “seems obvious,” because the obvious choice isn’t always the best one.
Years ago, in a how-to-write book I can no longer find (I spent an hour going through my bookshelf…) I read an author’s account of choosing the viewpoint character for a short story. The story had only three characters: a vampire hunter, a beautiful female vampire, and the master vampire who had turned her. When the master vampire died, the lovely female vampire was released to be a normal woman again…at her current actual age of 70-something, so that the vampire hunter didn’t even recognize her when he went looking.
The author started by writing the story from the viewpoint of the vampire hunter, because he was at the center of the action. It didn’t work the way the author wanted. The author rewrote the story from the viewpoint of the master vampire. It still didn’t have the punch the author had in mind. The author tried introducing a fourth character to be the viewpoint, a long-time bartender who could hear everyone’s stories, but still no luck. When the author finally got around to trying the female vampire’s viewpoint, he realized that this was what he’d been looking for … and that the reason it worked was because that character was the one whose life was changed the most dramatically by the events of the story. The author ended the anecdote by recommending that writers always pick their viewpoint character by asking “Whose life is most changed by what happens here?”
Almost all choosing-your-viewpoint-character recommendations start with questions. Among the ones I’ve run across are: Who is at the center of the action? Who is hurting the most at the start of the story? Who has the most agency? Who does the writer want readers to empathize with? Who cares the most about the conflict? Who fits the needs of the plot best? Who has the most at stake? Who knows/sees/learns what the reader needs to know, see, or learn…and only/mostly that? Who is interesting (now or in the future)? Who changes the most in the course of the story? What tone do you want for the story?
The trouble with all these questions is that they come from different assumptions about what is important to the writer and/or the story. Some of them focus on the needs of the story – which character will give the right tone, solve plot problems, make it easy to convey action or plot. Some of them focus on maximizing the impact on the reader by selecting a viewpoint character who is sympathetic or appealing. Since what the story needs is not always what will make the biggest impact on the reader, a writer who works through a list like this in hopes of finding the “best” viewpoint character is, more often than not, going to get contradictory answers.
Furthermore, none of the questions listed are any help to a writer who starts with a character, rather than an idea, plot, or story, and none of them bother to ask what the writer wants or needs in a viewpoint character. Which, for my money, is “somebody you are really, really interested in writing about.”
In my experience, people go looking for advice like this for one of two reasons: either they have a story, plot, or idea but no viewpoint character, and they’re looking for advice on how to select someone from among the characters their pre-existing story will need, OR they have a viewpoint character – either one they started with, or one who is the obvious choice – who isn’t quite working and/or doesn’t feel right, and they’re trying to figure out whether they made a mistake and if so, how to fix it.
In either case, my advice would be to start by adding a question to the list. Writers who are starting with a story need a question like “What do you most want this story to do?” (i.e., take the reader on a wild adventure, explore a bunch of ideas, lay out a cautionary tale, grab their emotions…yeah, you want all of them, but what is most important? Pick that one.) Writers who are starting with a character need a question like “Why isn’t this character working as the viewpoint?” (i.e., they’re Sherlock Holmes and know too much, they have no opportunity to change, they’re repulsive and unlikeable, etc. Answering this one can sometimes tell you all you need to know to give your preferred viewpoint character what they need in order to start working).
Then take the list and put the questions in order of importance for you as it pertains to writing this book. Sometimes, the most important question will be “Who is at the center of the action?” For the next book, the most important question might be “Whose life changes the most over the course of the story?” or “Who is the Dr. Watson who learns just what the reader needs to know, when the reader needs to know it?” Once you have your list of what’s most important for this book, then start sorting out your characters into possible viewpoints.
Quite often, just working through the first question (What is this story doing/Why isn’t this viewpoint working) will give the writer enough useful information to make a decision (or fix whatever they decided on). If not, just putting the questions in order of importance for this book can do the trick, or the answer may show up halfway down the list. If you do get all the way through and still can’t make up your mind, flip a coin or roll a die – if you catch yourself hoping for heads or a four, you know who you really want. And the first person the writer has to keep interested is themselves.
It gets even more fun when you need to chose at least one second point of view. But the same rules just get shifted a little.
Since I write in first person, my viewpoint character is designed to fit with the central problem/conflict, of course, but beyond that I mainly figure out how he or she is different from me, so I don’t do anything so silly as to put myself in my novel.
(Good thing, too. “Kevin, peril awaits!” “Not now, I’m writing.” I’d be a lousy protagonist.)
But what an excellent entry this is, even above the usual! Comprehensive!
Either picking viewpoint characters is something I get for free, or else I’m blissfully ignorant about the viewpoint problems my stories have.
Also, if there’s a problem picking “the right” viewpoint character, maybe the answer is to have more than one viewpoint character in the story?
Or you are starting from a character (which might have something to do with why you find plot so hard), or from stories where the obvious viewpoint character IS the right one for that story.
Multiple viewpoints have their own difficulties, which is going to be my next post…
I could make a long list of books where there are multiple viewpoint characters but I only ever managed to care about a subset of them. At worst I’ll actually be skipping chapters because I just don’t care about that viewpoint enough. It can work, certainly, but it’s got its own tricky qualities.
I have read those too.
I’ve been puzzling over this for longer than Patricia looked for her lost book. Keep in mind I am new to writing fiction, and at my age did not bother learning the lingo of writing before I started writing. So I’ve some questions.
I tell you a story in omniscient 3rd POV. It begins with A Letter from Marica to You (as introduction), and maybe three or four times in a 30000 word story, I address you, the reader, e.g., “As you can imagine, Bebe was none too keen on the idea of a school.” Just for fun, there’s a character with my name as one of the cast, though she is neither the main character nor protagonist.
In this structure (right term?), is the storyteller the viewpoint character? Because if it isn’t I cannot for the life of me figure out who is.
I hope our hostess will weigh in; all the years I spent honing my nonfiction skills, she did fiction, and is *much* better able to address something like this.
But I’ll give it a shot. (Other commenters can testify to my willingness to give advice, and have always been kind in letting me know I didn’t actually help.) :}
“I tell you a story in omniscient 3rd POV.” With omniscient POV, there can be a different viewpoint character every scene, even. Or there can be one favored one. On the other hand, with “I tell you a story,” there might not even be a viewpoint character? I’m reminded of fables and fairy tales. (That is not a criticism.)
“Just for fun, there’s a character with my name as one of the cast…” That’s either brilliant and different, or may confuse some of your readers. Maybe both. 🙂
“…is the storyteller the viewpoint character?” Maybe so.
I hope our hostess can jump in!
If I’m understanding the question correctly, I’d say that the narrator doesn’t necessarily need to be a character in the story, so I’d agree that a story doesn’t have to have a viewpoint character. If I’m remembering correctly, Middlemarch is another example, in addition to many folk tales.
The part of the question that confuses me is that it seems like you’re suggesting that the same name is shared by 1) the author, 2) a character, and 3) an omniscient narrator who does not appear as a character, but does occassionally address the reader directly. This would be extremely confusing, and perhaps it isn’t what was meant. A literary example of part of this style might be Cold Comfort Farm, where the narrator occassionally gives opinionated commentary that is clearly that of the narrator, and not of a character.
As Kevin said, in 3rd person omniscient, you can have multiple viewpoint characters. The viewpoint character is the person whose head the reader is living in.
So, in the example you gave, Bebe would be the viewpoint character because the reader is observing her thoughts and feelings. If you were to switch to Bebe’s mother’s point of view, the mother would be the viewpoint character.
Thank you both. That was very helpful.
Who’s the POV character is one of those things I nearly always get for free. (Yeah, I start with character.) But if I had to analyze the subconscious motivation behind that not-a-choice, it would pretty consistently be “Whose point of view will be the most fun?”
The sequel I never planned on to the Book From H3ll will be from the secondary character’s POV, because watching her react to Earth and to the BFH main character will be no end of snarky fun.
I have an idea very loosely in the works which will be two alternating POVs, because seeing each of those characters from the other’s point of view will be more than twice the fun of just one. (It’ll also give me a way to do double duty on the worldbuilding, since each is a fish out of water in the other’s world — which is a nice bonus, thanks back-brain, but totally wasn’t why I “picked” it.)