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Q&A How to make the POV character sit on the sidelines without the reader getting bored

You have multiple options. You can, as @Amadeus says, rewrite, so your character can be in the battle. You can have somebody recount the battle to your character after the fact, with your charact...

posted 5y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:57:38Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45524
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:01:25Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45524
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:01:25Z (over 4 years ago)
You have multiple options.

- You can, as @Amadeus says, rewrite, so your character can be in the battle.
- You can have somebody recount the battle to your character after the fact, with your character reflecting bitterly on not having been there, and having been unable to affect things. In this case, you don't have to narrate the three months of doing nothing - that's boring. Also, it can't be _the_ big battle of the story - if the main character misses the most important battle, readers would be disappointed.
- Depending on who your character is, they might be involved in the tactical preparations for the battle, without having to get out of bed. They might even be receiving messages and sending orders while the battle is ongoing, depending on how close they are to the action.
- If you wish to introduce another POV, you should do so earlier. As an example, consider how in _The Lord of the Rings_ we see battles from Merry's POV and from Pippin's POV, while Frodo and Sam are elsewhere. It is an option, but it would require more substantial changes than the previous ones.
- You can make this battle something the character and the reader only hear about , without much description (that many dead, that many wounded, such and such assets gained or lost), and keep the epic description for another battle.
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-05-28T20:39:09Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 17