More screen time--

[ZannaPerry]

I am finding my MC is having more screen time than my hero. Is that likely in most cases? Granted, my story is being written mainly through my MC's POV, but I am finding she is being a hog. I don't have enough scenes with my hero. . . .

[David I]

I'm not familiar with this problem, as my main characters are usually my protagonists/heroes. In fact, lots of folks use the terms interchangably.

Is this a Gatsby kind of thing, where a first-person narrator is relating someone's rise and fall? Or is this some sort of romance thing, where the hero is the MC's love object? I'm a little unclear on what we're working with here.

[Shadow_Ferret]

Yeah, my MCs usually ARE the heroes. That's why they're the MC.

[MidnightMuse]

SuzyB, are we confusing your question? To many -- if not most -- of us, the MC (main character) IS the hero, or protagonist, of our stories.

[ChaosTitan]

I think Suzy means MC = heroine. Her heroine is taking up all the screentime and not giving the hero enough.

When you say he isn't getting enough screentime, do you mean he simply isn't present during the scenes? Or that you aren't writing his POV often enough?

[ZannaPerry]

ChoasTitan understands what I mean. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. My MC is my heroine, and she has a love interest, the hero, but I feel I am not giving him enough scenes. He is spoken about often through my heroine's POV but I'd still like for him to have his own little scenes until they eventually work together through both POVs.

[ChaosTitan]

Don't force him into the book if he isn't meant to be there. Adding scenes just to give him more "screentime" could be more detrimental than helpful.

[David I]

I think Suzy means MC = heroine. Her heroine is taking up all the screentime and not giving the hero enough.

Ah. The romance thing.

Is the narration first person or third?

[clockwatcher]

I don't think this is a problem. It happens in a lot of novels especially of the so-called chick-lit variety.

[ZannaPerry]

third person, David I. I think the hero will come to me when the time is right.

[KTC]

i don't have a hero, per se. but the heroic one is in mine less than my MC, which is my narrator. I think your narrator will be the one with the most screen time.

[KTC]

oh...i just read that you're in 3rd person...i think that changes what i just said. hehe. mine is in 1st person.

[Nateskate]

I am finding my MC is having more screen time than my hero. Is that likely in most cases? Granted, my story is being written mainly through my MC's POV, but I am finding she is being a hog. I don't have enough scenes with my hero. . . .

Some writers map everything out, and others are more spontaneous. I tend to have the core idea, and then follow where inspiration takes me. That means some characters will slip into oblivion while others will come into the spotlight.

I wouldn't worry about a formula as much as making sure the story stays coherant and you make each character memorable.

One of my Beta readers fell in love with a character and wanted so and so and this one to fall in love. If she wrote the story that would have happened. Lol. But sometimes I'll wait to see if I want that to happen, and in this particular case, I already had different plans for the character and didn't give in to her whims.

[Wolvel]

I just watch the stories in my head and write what I see.

[maestrowork]

I am finding my MC is having more screen time than my hero. Is that likely in most cases? Granted, my story is being written mainly through my MC's POV, but I am finding she is being a hog. I don't have enough scenes with my hero. . . .

The POV character usually does have more screen time. The other characters are revealed through his or her POV. The alternative would be to make your hero also a POV character, then he could have more screen time as well.

[ZannaPerry]

He is a POV character. Just with fewer scenes than the MC.

[maestrowork]

I guess the question is: Whose story is this?

You need to know what your story is, and it's okay if one character has more "screen time" than others, as long as they serve the story.

But if you think they should have more equal screen times, but your MC is "hogging" -- that may mean you don't have enough plot developed around your other character, or that your other character is weaker, or that subplot is weak. Sometimes it's good to step back and look at your story from a fresh perspective.

I remember when I first started writing fiction, I had a rather "passive" protagonist. Then someone said to me: hey, I think Character B should be the protagonist; he's more interesting... that's when I realized I had the wrong protagonist and I was writing a Great Gatsby-ish story (the narrator is not the protagonist).

[Soccer Mom]

I just wanted to second what Ray said: it may be that you need to think a little more about the hero and what his function is-- other than just being the heroine's hunk of burning love.

[wayndom]

ChoasTitan understands what I mean. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. My MC is my heroine, and she has a love interest, the hero, but I feel I am not giving him enough scenes. He is spoken about often through my heroine's POV but I'd still like for him to have his own little scenes until they eventually work together through both POVs.
I'm with those who say you shouldn't give your hero more "face time" just to do it. If your heroine is the narrator, and she's going to end up with the hero, then her connection with him has to be real. If there's something between them, she'll bring him into the story as much as is necessary.

And another thing: The all-time most popular Sherlock Holmes story is The Hound of the Baskervilles. It's also the Sherlock Holmes story in which Holmes gets the absolute least "screen time." (In case you're not a Holmes fan, Holmes sends Watson to the Baskerville mansion, while he secretly [and unbeknownst to the reader] checks out the local scene in disguise. Holmes doesn't appear in the story until about three-fourths of the way through the book.) So I'm not sure how important a character's screen time is to the success of the story, even if it's the central character.

[jodiodi]

I understand what you mean, Suzy.

One of my current WiPs has the heroine's PoV, but nothing from the hero. It's all from her PoV. I've never written from only one PoV before so this is an experiment on my part. I think I had a t hread about the Hero's PoV somewhere in the romance forum.

[ZannaPerry]

Since I have finished my full outline for my current WIP, my heroine definitely has the most scenes. Yes, she's the most important character in the story, and the hero is in most of her scenes, or at least talked about. But my hero is an intriguing character, yet as I look back through my story, him being almost absent fits him entirely. He's not one to socialize.