Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A To what extent can a first person narrative tell someone else's story?

I've recently been working on some stories written in the first person from the point of view of what, in the grand scheme of things, would be called minor characters. Examples include a junior bri...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Ash‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:18:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37438
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Ash‭ · 2019-12-08T09:18:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
I've recently been working on some stories written in the first person from the point of view of what, in the grand scheme of things, would be called minor characters. Examples include a junior bridge officer's point of view while the captain of the ship tells most of the story or a minor functionary meeting the bridge crew of a famous, lost ship. So far, for short works, this "worms eye view" approach has, I feel, worked well.

Now I'm writing something longer and larger in scope, this from the point of view of the reluctant bodyguard of a VIP, and before I get too far down the rabbit hole I need to know if this minor character first person style can work without the narrator taking over a story that isn't properly theirs.

So how can I avoid a minor character, from whose point of view the story is being told, becoming the protagonist instead of the person whose story I want to tell?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-07-04T18:00:51Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 3