Im getting ready to start (aka procrastinating) on my second novel. I don’t want to give away too much, but here goes: In this book, I have two important characters; T and Max. The story is told in first person POV from Max’s perspective, but there’s the thing; T is a sentient AI in Max’s head. I wrote the story plan assuming that Max is the main character (his initials are even MC) but today I had an idea. One of the ‘hidden’ themes is about Ai and whether it makes someone any less human/alive and I feel like T should be the main character in the story to achieve this. Max would, of course, have a character arc (of learning to accept T as a person) but I feel like T should be the one the story focuses on. She learns more than he does, She is the more interesting character. I know stories told From first POV but about another’s character are a thing, but I haven’t read any and it’s a finicky situation. They share a body, and Max is still a major character. I’m not sure if this POV is normally told by an important character or a far less important one, or even if it would work if i made the reader think Max is the focus when T is more important. I’m not really asking for a ‘is this okay’ answer, but more of a ‘would this work?’ Sort of one.
From what Lady J said when I loaned her The Hellbound Heart, it smoothly transitions between characters POV in 3rd. I never noticed, so Barker must be pretty good at that in that book. So it is possible. You just have to start writing it out, and see what other's think about the MCs, and you can't really do that as well in first cause there will be more defined lines in the way they portray themselves. Also when secondary characters say their names. Unless they can be largely nameless through out the story. Though each can be an unreliable narrator to the story, which would force the reader to think which is telling the story and which is embellishing things a bit to skew the POVs. Or you can make your more interesting character the lead MC.
In my opinion, how someone else sees a character can be just as interesting a viewpoint as the character's own. If your POV character Max is more or less the main observer, but T is actually the protagonist, this can work very well. Sometimes it's more interesting to judge and learn about a person simply by watching them, listening to them, and forming an opinion of them ...rather than being told directly what they are thinking, feeling, etc. So make Max's observations count. What does he see or hear that makes him come to the conclusions he does? This is what will make the story work for the reader. I feel that my own novel does this, to a certain extent. My most 'interesting' character—and the one whose actions underpin most of the story—is never used as a POV character. We, and the other POV characters in the story, can only judge this guy by what he does and what he says. He's a mystery to all the other characters, including the ones who like/love him as well as the ones who don't. And his core essence remains a mystery ...ultimately nobody ever really 'knows' another person, do they? It's actually one of the themes of my story, but I didn't realise it till just this minute!
My novel is in first person, but the POV character is not the main character. I believe this approach was taken in Sherlock Holmes. I think it can work. Where I am now in my novel, I can''t imagine it differently. Just be careful about trying to trick the reader. As a reader, I don't like to be tricked. I do like to be surprised bit not tricked. And please don't worry about theme, especially before you've even written the story. I think themes should come out naturally and unintentionally. Trying to include a hidden theme is sort of like asking the reader, but did you really get it? Who cares what the themes are? Your job is to tell a good story. Focus on the story. In writing it, bigger and better themes you might not have even thought of can come out. But that really doesn't matter too much. You want your story to be a good read, not a theme finding mission. It's just not the best focus to have starting a project, in my opinion.
I don't really understand why it should be a problem to make the story about T. Each story has a focus: sometimes it is a person, sometimes a value, sometimes a journey, or any other of a million things. A romance often is about two persons and their attraction. A thriller i.e. for the detective to find the missing child. Why should it not work to make T and her character-building the focus of your story? It's perfectly admissable to write about T from Max, equally so if we hear from T about herself and her struggles; but the way you write from Max's POV will tell me who is the focus of your story for real. If he focusses on T—well. If he doesn't and instead chooses another problem to occupy his time with, you leave the reader with a different impression.
I finished the first draft of my novel in 2005, and I'm only just today realising what the theme is! Slow, but I get there eventually.... Sherlock Holmes is a great example of a protagonist who is not the POV character. Can you imagine what the story would have been like if HE had been the one relating it? My lord. Aside from the fact that there wouldn't have been a mystery for long.
"Learning to be me" by Greg Egan has almost this exact same concept - it is told from the POV of the AI, but you don't know that until the end.
I believe there is at least one story where Holmes is the narrator, but I can't remember which one it is.
I'm doing something similar in one of my books. The first two books had two sisters going on adventures, Indiana Jones style. Or that was the intention. The problem is, one of them died in the second book. So how can I continue writing a third one? I had a rather crazy idea, but it actually worked really well. Right from the start, the surviving sister is trying to watch TV, but the other sister is annoying her (like sisters tend to do sometimes.) Everything in the scene seems normal. They talk like normal, act like normal, and so on. The only thing is... only one of them is alive. The other one isn't even real. She's not a ghost, just part of her sister's imagination. Of course, once they meet other people, the "dead sister" more or less vanishses for a while. She's sometimes there, sometimes not. But she's just a part of the other sister's imagination, so only she can see and hear her. And even better, she knows the dead sister is a part of her imagination, and not real or a ghost. Of course, you'd have to be pretty crazy to see someone like that, but that's fine. Crazy doesn't mean you can't have a normal life, and I'm leaning more and more towards the dead sister being created by the other sister's guilt for letting her die. And as a bonus, have you seen the movie "The man with the screaming brain"? It stars Bruce Campbell as a guy who lost half his brain, and had to get the other half transplanted from a dead guy. But as a hilarious result, the "dead guy" now lives on in BC's body along with him. And they are not exactly friends, haha. I think it's a great movie, and it's a hilarious take on "one body, two people".
If I understand you correctly this was done in Stephanie Meyer's The Host. She made it work. Though it was third person it was the consciousness controlling the body whose POV was taken.
Yes, I think having Max watch T blossom into a mature personality would be a great idea. However, one thing that all the writer's help books I've read (and there's like over 50 in my kindle library) stress is Never EVER try to deceive or trick the reader. At ALL. People do not like being deceived, no matter how good the book is. You can and should withhold information to intensify interest but just don't try tricking the reader. Put yourself in your reader's shoes. Lets say one of the books you're reading gets your nose hooked then you suddenly realized you were tried, deceived, lied to even. Now, would you be so scandalized that you would throw down the book, or would you continue reading but with mistrust clouding your perception, constantly vigilant for another deception? I would be the first, and I have done it to numerous books. I tried to get back to them later but with that cruel feeling of being lied to hung in the air whenever I would looked at it. I wound up ruthlessly deleting the book from my kindle account. However, I suggest that you start out in MC's first POV then gradually shift to him, and the reader, being more interested in T's development. However, don't forget about MC's perceptions. Never lose sight that it is MC observing T. Allow the reader to share MC's experience, the conflict, the bemusement, the interest, the wonder and outright joy of each stage of T's development. I highly recommend that you read a few Sherlock Holmes novels. I believe they now qualify for the public domain but I'm not sure. After a quick look, yes he is! So go bonkers and read how Sir Arthur Doyle took the reader on Dr Watson's adventures as he followed behind the best detective in all England, Sherlock Holmes. Although it is an old work, Doyle is a master story teller and an excellent study for any writer who wants to improve their art, not just the first POV ones. The reason I stress Sherlock Holmes is because your tale of a First point of view character watching and following someone else's adventure reminds me of the Holmes novels and should be an excellent study on how to go about it. Doyle even does the facial expressions and body language. However, just remember it's 1900s writing, and not modern day. The styles of that time is completely different than today's writing. Today's reader wants to be inside the character's head, to escape their hum drum reality and go on a fantastic adventure with you as the pilot. Enfold the reader in your world and make them forget about that tea kettle whistling on the stove. Make them afraid to read your book until all their chores are done so they won't burn their food. If you can make the reader do all that then you know you are a great author.
hey, I cant help it if I don't like being lied to. My parents drilled into me that honesty is the best policy. There's nothing psychotic about that. I'll let a little bit slide but when its a down outright lie, and it seems to poison the book for me then I will put it down.
oh! I see, you should have said Psycho the movie. I thought you called me psycho Edit: If it is expertly done it's fine but until you are secure in the writing world with a few popular published works under your belt it's best not to deceive the reader. However, I cannot stress enough to study study study other people's work. There are writing books out there, I recommend Rayne Hall, Judy Renner, Ginger Hanson, and Mary Buckham. As for writing techniques told in a silly Goldilocks and the three bears continuation, when Goldilocks is an adult wanting to write a book, I suggest How to Write using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson. There are multiple techniques, helpful tips, guidelines and was written with the snowflake method. Here is the article briefly explaining it. Personally I'm more of an organic writer, otherwise known as y the seat of your pants. Then I spend months, maybe even years refining, adding and just making it sparkle before showing it to people. I often put in my data in the snowflake method software that I accidentally bought with the full price, 100 or even 50, if you put in the code snowflake. I didnt look near the bottom of the page so paid 100 bucks. I felt it was a little steep but I found it an invaluable took when it comes to organizing my thoughts, and making sure I keep track about the details like the color of eyes, ect about my book. I've used it to create guidelines for books I want to write later on down the road. His newsletter is where I got Scrivener from so he will always hold a soft spot in my library.
You know, George Lucas said the main character of Star Wars was really Darth Vader. When you looked at the story arc over the first six episodes, it was Anakin Skywalker all the way ... how he got started, what happened to him, and how he eventually redeemed himself. His story was told from an outsider's point of view ... first Obi-Wan's, and then Luke's. And I've always wondered why, after he became a Force Ghost in episode six, he didn't come back as a Force Ghost and tell Kylo Ren that he had it all wrong and slap him upside the head in some sort of ghostly way. Maybe that's something they're saving for Episode Nine.
I forgot about that scene. Remember that they didn't know they were siblings. Don't mean to gross anyone out but there is an actual thing known as sexual genetic attraction.
hmm, that darth vador thing makes scence, actually, if you think about it The Lucas did know how to tell a good tale.
Yeah, Lucas and I have a few things in common, both of us was/is fly by writers (as I call seat of the pants writers) and our characters often surprise us. I thought for sure that a minor character would stay minor in book one, yet become a major character in book two. However, in the most recent rewrite, I had some great ideas. I discovered that Trent muscled his way in and became an integral part of the second half of the book. Now, instead of dropping off the hero at his destination, Trent's forced to come along and becomes Aden's partner as he infiltrates enemy territory and they eventually become BFFs. Would I seriously consider trying another method like the outline or the snowflake method? No and yes, respectively. I just could' t do the outline style in school when they made me write short stories but my stories were always hailed as organic and original when I did it the fly by writing way. The teacher would see me scribbling away until I reached the end of the short story, rewrite it a few times Then make the outline they wanted. The snowflake method works pretty well for me, in reverse. I fill in all the details after I write my novel and refer to it as I pour over my work to make sure it sparkles, or enter details as I think of it. I bought the software.
What would be the point of deceiving the reader? Is it to hide the ending like an unexpected death? I've read a few books with the observer character as the one who narrates, but the main hero is their friend or mentor. I read a book just recently about a crime reporter going on a police patrol as they try to find a serial killer. He wrote about the Deputy who was in charge of the investigation, but didn't get to see any action. He was just reporting to us what he saw. But the Deputy was the main focus, without her, there was no story for our guy to tell. You can have multiple main characters but I don't know if you could deceive them easily or if the audience would appreciate that. I was always told to be up front with readers, even in crime novels. Don't be underhanded. Like fail to mention a key piece of information that would have helped them solve the Mystery.
