My tale revolves around a wet nurse and her ward. Why can't I seem to focus on developing either character? I keep trying to, but it all seems forced. Not realistic at all. However, a minor character, who thus far is only for comedic relief and won't even be discussed at all in a few chapters I can't leave alone. I think it is because his mannerisms I am molding around my own son's. But I keep writing scenes where he is involved and starting to think maybe I should change the focus of my story, but then the entire story line gets altered and augh. What do you do in these situations? It is easy to picture his face (though vastly different from my sons), and his verbalisms. It's easy to see how he interacts with different characters. However, I can't even make up my mind as to what my main antagonist is going to look like, let alone the protagonist.
Well, maybe you should switch protagonists then. I have seen many stories I thought would've been more interesting if told by a different perspective - if only because all such stories get written from the same perspective. (When's the last time you saw a Chosen One story where the Chosen One wasn't the perspective character? Only one I can think of is Willow, and that twist basically made the movie.) Another thought is maybe you could swap personalities between the minor character and one of the more major ones. But I don't know if that would work.
I think the issue is, I do well with children. Grown up thought processes are beyond me haha. So I'll get all befuddled again when the kid grows up anyway.
^ With this in mind about yourself, do you have a child protag? If you can't switch protags to this guy -- for example, if your MC must be someone in your current MC's shoes to to have access to certain information and actions and whatnot -- then you could consider using the type of POV where you alternate every few scenes or every few chapters, whatever works for you. Or you could keep POV as it is, but make this other guy's mannerisms, actions and words quite noticeable in the background, whether it's obvious or subtle. It could follow into "very important things to pay attention to in the background, because it will become important later" category. Whatever you do, don't ignore this character. But also don't feel like you have to make him the MC in order to fully develop him.
Well, if your main character is the wet nurse, maybe you've got the wrong main character. Given the kind of relationship that would naturally come from a wet nurse and her ward, I'm inclined to believe that focusing on the ward would be a lot more important.
I think this is an excellent idea. You should tell the story about the wet nurse and her ward from the perspective of the comedic character! It seems kind of shakespearean, don't you think?
The ward will become the main, however...as a newborn...kind of hard to work a POV into a newborn. Basically emotions revolve around hunger and full nappies. LOL
