Okay. I think this is a mysterious. So here is the trick. I got a novel I want the main POV to be from like a bystandered. But the thing is, she isn't a bystandered. She is the one everyone is searching for. But I want to keep that from the audience. But how can I represent her POV correctly if I always ignore the fact that she is the one everyone is searching for? In a sense, I want to give the impression that she is part of the team or knows people part of the team that are hunting the criminal down, but she is the criminal. I want to show her as a concerned party ithout revealing she is the bad guy. Can I do this? How?
Can you do it so she honestly doesn't know she is who they are looking for, but figures it out? You could create a lot of tension and conflict once the penny drops for her. If you are telling the story from her POV - we are in her head - and she knows from the start they are looking for her, the reader may feel lied to when they discover that she knew all along and never thought about it once.
You see the issue. Though, I was thinking of including alternate POVs. Including her in costume(which I thought I would make sound different) or the people hunting her too. Actually to be technical. Here is the idea. The plot is about this teenage that has adopted the identity of a terrorist. Her actions prompt the military to hunt her and the original terrorist to return. So in that sense. The plot is the chase. I figured the best opening is on the teenage out of costume. it has relivance, but can also be an outside perspective to the situation. But it seems like I lose that outside perspective since her head would obviously be aware that she is the imposter. Any thoughts?
I can see it working for a short story, or for the introductory chapter or two of a novel, but not for a full-length book, I can't see it. As long as your POV character is passive, I think you could just describe her going about her daily life. But as soon as she starts actively evading the pursuers, readers would want to know why she was doing it, and that would be tricky. You could probably have it so we know she's being hunted, but don't realize she's actually guilty... have her be a member of a persecuted minority, have her realize they're coming to get her, have her offer some of her defence verbally to another character (so you'd just report that she said she didn't do it, rather than reporting that she thought she didn't do it), and then outline her running-away actions. I think that would work, probably...
Yeah, it is making me wonder if I should just be in someone else's head more. I got so many options. The real terrorist, or the police. Okay maybe not that many put trying to pick one to be the main one out of those 3. Hard especially when I plan to have a scene with all 3 in a room together completely unaware of the fact the people that are looking for are in the room with them. Such a hard choice. I think I need to switch between all 3 but I figure one needs to be the primary.
Whose story is it that you want to tell? Who do you want the reader to root for? If it is her story then her POV will feature heavily and I don't think you can hide what she already knows from the reader. If it is vital to the story that the reader doesn't know who she really is, her motives, then I just can't see how she can be a major POV.
I am starting to think I am a failure and this idea should not exist as a book. Because those questions are kind of hard to answer. Then again, I suppose my issue might be able how I keep bouncing around the POV in my head. The real one learning who the fake is? That is a big moment for her. Just as the fake learning the real one is back, that is a big moment for her. Or the cops learning about either. All big moments and I like them all, but I guess I can't have them all. lol
Well, there's a pretty big difference between having an idea that won't work and being a failure. But, yeah, this book does sound really ambitious. Maybe something to keep on the backburner for a while as you write other things and develop your abilities to manipulate plots?
