Re: relate
A note to Mr. Jamesaritchie:
I'm not putting this post up specifically to argue with you. I suspect you are as fixed in your opinion as I am in mine on this issue and argument would be pointless.
I am putting this post up so the readers of this discussion who are undecided in the matter have a fuller view of both sides and will be better able to make an informed choice of their own.
Thank you.
Don't know about the research, or where you found it. However when it comes to opinions of this nature I tend to trust my own empirical standards.
Virtually every top writer today: by this I mean the top selling, mainstream writers, not the ones the critics laud, not the genre bound, but those who earn the biggest bucks, whose names are most widely known: Stephen King, Danielle Steel, Dean Koontz, Mary Higgens Clark, and so on down the list: do certain things.
They all change POV's in one way or another, to one degree or another, in almost all, if not all, of their novels. Mary Higgens Clark, I believe has been cited as the worst, I believe it was she who once used two POV's in a single paragraph, or was it sentence? Dean Koontz pretty much sticks to one chapter one POV.
I cruise book shops and talk to people buying books. Second hand book shops are especially conductive to this practice; the more relaxed, casual atmosphere making friendliness easier than the larger, more formal, Barnes & Noble type stores. Something about being in tightly cramped spaces smelling old volumes opens people up.
Many tell me how they love the type book where an author changes POV each chapter.
As to who, whom, the reader identifies with and likes the most in any given novel:
One of the things that makes the big and little screen more successful than novels is the fact they are more responsive to audience input than novelists are.
Fonzie was not the original protag / centerpiece of Happy Days. Ritchie was. People liked The Fonz: he got bigger and bigger parts.
Magnum P.I. was supposed to be the primary focus and remained so: But the curmudgeon he had to deal with every day got so much fan mail his part was increased.
The Six Million Dollar Woman was only supposed to be a guest shot on the Six Million Dollar Man. She was liked so much she got her own spin off.
Frank L. Baum chose the heroes of his next Oz novel based on the fan mail from the children who wrote him. He had the most popular series going. I think much of that success can be attributed to his responsiveness to his audience.
Piers Anthony is highly responsive to his audience, even going so far as to adjust the ending to one of his series, "Split Infinity" to accommodate the perceptions of them.
Even when you write in the first person you will receive fan mail which tells you, "OH, I just loved such-and-such" who was a minor character: often followed by, "Can you do more of him/her?"
When I get enough letters like that you can bet I'll say, "You bet."
My current WIP is an epic fantasy. Many POV's are used. Different beta readers like different characters. I do not plan on ever writing a sequel. However, if it generates enough enthusiasm I will. Guess what? The characters and conflicts that appear in any sequel will reflect what my audience has indicated to me to be their desires.