Struggling to define a character without giving him viewpoint status
I am a novice working on a historical novel with four viewpoint characters. Three of them will be involved in subplots connected to the main plot, and each character will have a character arc and will undergo change. The fourth will be the title character and "main" protagonist and and will be given correspondingly more space.
I am undecided about giving a fifth secondary character POV status, namely the grandfather of the protagonist who will appear in only one or two chapters. This character has deep convictions and his life experiences have great meaning to the overall theme and so I would like to give him his own viewpoint, but I already have four POVs!
My question is: How can I give a sense of this character's lifetime of suffering and disappointment without giving him his own POV? Is there some kind of technique? Is it possible to write something like the following about him?
*John was aware of what imprisonment can do to a man. He had felt the agony himself and had seen its effects on others. The experience had changed him. He was no longer the bright young lad his father had once admired; the favored son who would conquer the world. The world had conquered him. *(Not actual text)**
In other words, I am concerned about the diluted effect of having too many POVs for a 300-page book but I would still like to make this particular character's story important and meaningful. Is it possible to do that effectively through have description rather than quoting the character's own thoughts and feelings?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/20950. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
It's usually better to plant yourself and describe the character through the eyes of the viewpoint character. It doesn't usually require too much of a change.
Carla looked at John's gaunt face, his haunted eyes. This was what imprisonment did to a man. It was a face that had felt agony and seen its effects on others. Prison had changed John. He was no longer the bright young lad his father had once admired; the favored son who would conquer the world. Now the world had conquered him.
I assume that the viewpoint character knows all this. If not, comment on what is visible, and reveal the rest later, in dialogue maybe.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/20971. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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If George R.R. Martin can have something like 47 POV characters per book, including one who is only in the prologue and then gets killed by a crow dropping a statue of a lion eating a dragon on his head, you can have a POV character for only two scenes. Go for it.
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