Writing Great Point-of-View Characters

Point of view characters in Edge of Tomorrow
Major Cage: Point-of-view character in Edge of Tomorrow

WHAT makes for a great point-of-view character? In her book, The Novelist’s Guide, Margaret Geraghty offers us the following advice.

A great point-of-view character is one whose problems fuels the story; the character who has the biggest emotional and physical stake in the story—the most to lose if things go belly up.

Writing Point-of-View

Such a character is at the center of the action. Passive characters who merely observe rather than act are not vehicles through whom we want to experience the story. Imagine if Edge of Tomorrow‘s Major William Cage, played by Tom Cruise, was a mere observer to the alien invasion rather than a key figure in defeating it.

“The thoughts, feelings and actions of point-of-view characters are the most intriguing and absorbing.”

A point-of-view character is the most complex. The Nostalgia of Time Travel‘s Benjamin Vlahos is such a character. Guilt, nostalgia, and longing, coupled with a powerful intellect have brought him to a stalemate. He can’t go back and he can’t move forward. Not unless he finds the solution that has eluded him for thirty years—to prove that time travel to the past is possible.

Other point-of-view characters may appear deceptively simple, but only from the outside. In Hemingway’s, The Old Man and the Sea, the old man seems straight forward. But his tenacity in holding onto the fish, even when all seems lost, speaks to a deeper reason.

The old man has a reputation of coming home empty-handed from his fishing expeditions. No one wants to go out on his boat with him any more. He appears habitually unlucky and this has cast a shadow over him. It is something he needs to shake off if he is to hold his head up high again.

Interestingly, complex and emotionally invested characters who have the most to lose, then, are great candidates for the point-of-view role.

Summary

Complex point-of-view characters who express complex emotions and intentions make for absorbing stories.

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