Hi all, For a subplot involving a secondary character, does that secondary character need to be a POV character? Or can their subplot be viewed from another character's POV (most likely the protagonist)?
That depends entirely on whether you want it to be through a secondary character's POV or your protagonist's POV. There isn't really any hard and fast rule for 99.9% of writing and writers have a lot more creative leeway than they think they do. If you're inquiring about whether or not you should have it through another character's POV, there's a few questions you have to answer. What would you gain from having it through another character's POV? Can that be achieved without doing this? Would it be confusing switching POVs at this point? Is this subplot important enough to warrant a POV swap?
It would depend on whether you want this story to be the kind that changes PoVs throughout, or sticks only to the main character.
Your question sounds like you're using multiple, rotating POVs, so going off that... The answer to your question has to do with logistics. What's reasonable and plausible for us to know via the POV of someone else? I'm still doggedly plowing through A Feast for Crows (GRRM), so I'll use that as my example: The brothers Sandor and Gregor Clegane certainly do have their respective subplots that they are busy living through the tell of these ponderous books, but they are never one of the many rotating POV characters. We get our information about them through the interaction of others. This means that the interaction/information in question needs to be pertinent to the characters who are delivering that info to the reader. Cersei, Sansa, Brienne, are all valid conduits for that information. Daenerys Stormborn (at least to this point in the books) is not a valid conduit. There's no reason for her to engage the Clegane subplots, so she doesn't. So for me the answer is another question: Do you have a character or characters who can be valid conduits? If the answer is yes, then you may not need another POV added to the group, though this doesn't mean that you should not add that POV. As @Zerotonin mentions, only you can know that. But your first question to answer is plausibility, in my opinion.
Ok thanks everyone. I'm trying to keep as few POV characters as possible (2-3), so it's good to know that a subplot doesn't require its central character to be a POV character.
Here's the way that I think about it: If you've played Dragon Age, or any of the games in the series, you know that each companion has their own side-quests. When you're playing those side-quests, are you required to play through their perspective? Nope. Same thing goes for writing.
My litmus test is to ask the questions a) would multiple points of view confuse the reader ?b) does the POV help clarify the MC’s character ? c) will the POVs link to my main theme and significantly enhance the interest in my story?There is no hard and fast rule regarding this issue and after asking myself these questions if the issue is still unresolved I go with my gut instincts.
