Help! MC and POV question

Daagzahav · Apr 27, 2008

My very first post, so I'm a little...terrified...but here goes:

I don't know how to tell my story. Who should narrate it? Well, OK, not narrate it, but from whose point of view should my omniscient narrator take?

Here's my problem: My MC is a hero so I want the reader to side with him, and it's a YA so I don't want them to have to work too very hard to do it. But...the major plot twist is that the MC is not who everyone thinks he is. How do I reveal this without revealing it in the first line or fooling the reader?

Constantine K · Apr 27, 2008

Let the reader in on it. I hate when author's pull the wool over my eyes for plot's sake. Maybe it will be better having the audience in on the secret, but nobody else in the story.

Daagzahav · Apr 27, 2008

Yay, a response! But, um, I know not to fool the reader. That's not my question. My question is how to go about not fooling the reader. Whose POV should I use? The villain is who everyone believes to be the MC, so he is in a position to show the world the MC is fighting to get back to, but the MC is having a more exciting time, what with the actual quest to get his life back. Who gets to tell the story? (Thanks!)

Dale Emery · Apr 27, 2008

If telling the readers would not harm the story, tell the readers, and tell them fairly early.

If the secret is essential to the reader's enjoyment, you'll have to stay out of the hero's POV, and tell the story from the POV of a character who does not know the secret.

I find that most of the time, letting the reader in on the secrets early doesn't harm the story at all. And if it does, that's often a sign of problems in the story. Not always, but often.

One thing you definitely want to avoid is to place the reader firmly and intimately in the characters head and then give everything except the crucial detail. I call that third-person underhanded POV, and it annoys the sauce out of me.

Dale

althrasher · Apr 27, 2008

First of all, :welcome:

!!!

As far as MC appearing one way but actually being another, a good example of this in first person is L.H. Anderson's Catalyst. That might be good reading for a jumping off place. Which POV you use probably won't have as much of an effect on the way you reveal it as you think.

Be sure to check out the YA subforum sometime!

Dale Emery · Apr 27, 2008

Daagzahav said:
The villain is who everyone believes to be the MC, so he is in a position to show the world the MC is fighting to get back to, but the MC is having a more exciting time, what with the actual quest to get his life back. Who gets to tell the story? (Thanks!)

Generally: Tell the story from the POV of the character with the most at stake, or the character who will learn the chief lesson of the story. Sounds like the MC to me.

Note also that you can write different scenes or chapters from different points of view. Just make sure to establish the POV as soon as possible in each scene.

Dale

Daagzahav · Apr 27, 2008

Wow, and thank you! I think I need to have the plot entirely occur within the MC's POV. I was going to have alternating chapters (or something) between the MC's world and the villain's world, but that was stupid. (It was my own idea so I'm allowed to call it out in its idiocy, right?) The MC has ways he will discover that allow him to see into the villain's world, so I don't think I need to worry about showing what's going on there from the villain's POV, or the POV of someone living there. I was worried about establishing the world and relationships the MC is fighting to return to, but I can establish that in other ways.

I work in publishing (I'm not an editor, and I don't acquire) so I think the overwhelming knowledge I have of the industry is a bit paralyzing. (I made the mistake of reading the small print on our company's rules; they basically own my writing if they think I worked on it at work or using company property, then I would be fired, royalty-free, etc.) I need to get over that, because I really like my story.

JamieFord · Apr 27, 2008

In most cases you should go with the POV of the character with the most interesting problems.

Linda Adams · Apr 28, 2008

But...the major plot twist is that the MC is not who everyone thinks he is. How do I reveal this without revealing it in the first line or fooling the reader?

Give hints that make the reader wonder's going on (in a good way, not a frustrating way). Then drop in some new information later to add to the hint and keep doing it. That builds suspense and keeps bringing the reader along. If you want an example of this, try Tamara Pierce's Wild Magic. In the first chapter, the main characters hints that she has a secret, and then as we go through the rest of the book, we see how to secret affects that character. We don't find out what it is until the character decides to tell someone else.

dirtsider · Apr 28, 2008

Also, if the MC has a way to look into the Villian's world (which is the world the MC wants to get back to, correct?), that should be established up pretty early. That way it won't confuse the reader when you make that switch.

Rowdymama · Apr 29, 2008

A masterful handling of this problem can be found in Josephine Tey's Bart Farrar, where the question always is: is this person who he says he is, or is he impersonating the person he says he is? Some people in the story believe he is, others that he definitely isn't. I forget what the POV is, but it is probably 3rd P Omn. I agree with the others as to POV, but I'll add this: the story, unless you are using 3rd P Omn, should be told from the viewpoint of the character who changes and grows the most in the story.

IceCreamEmpress · Apr 29, 2008

Rowdymama said:
A masterful handling of this problem can be found in Josephine Tey's Bart Farrar

Yes. Except it's Brat Farrar, just in case anyone wants to find it and read it (which they should)!

where the question always is: is this person who he says he is, or is he impersonating the person he says he is? Some people in the story believe he is, others that he definitely isn't. I forget what the POV is, but it is probably 3rd P Omn.

Third person limited omniscient, as I recall--it's a third-person that's "in tight" with various people with whom Brat Farrar comes into contact, but never in tight with him.

RebelGoddess · Apr 29, 2008

There's another thread in this section about POV.

You should check it out, there are some great suggestions!

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99726

Also, I like your idea; I think you can turn it into a great story whichever way you decide to play your MC's secret.

I disagree with Constantine K though; I think that a good twist (when done well) can really make a novel good/interesting.

One of my favorite books has a twist simillar to yours, though it's a secondary character that is actually the bad guy. Well, two of them, but that's a moot point : ).

Racheal

robertmblevins · Apr 30, 2008

I have another hint for you: Don't forget to follow Allen Guthrie's famous 'white paper' regarding how to cut out the deadwood from a novel. He calls it 'Hunting Down the Pleonasms'. I know a lot of writers who have this posted near their writing area. It's been downloaded literally thousands of times. Guthrie is a crime writer from Edinburgh and an acquisition editor for Point Blank Press.

Help! MC and POV question

Daagzahav

Constantine K

Daagzahav

Dale Emery

is way off topic

althrasher

Prodigal Muser

Dale Emery

is way off topic

Daagzahav

JamieFord

giving resonant directions

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

dirtsider

Not so new, really

Rowdymama

Dogzilla

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

RebelGoddess

robertmblevins