Suddenly! New POV

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Amory

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Have you ever been writing a story with one POV, start down a plot path, have some plot holes, use a minor character to fill said plot holes, have more lot holes, do more with minor character, reconstruct plot so minor character is having a problem just as big as MC's that is parallel to MC's problem, and is working with MC to solve both their problems (though MC does not know her helper has his own reasons for helping her)... And then wonder if maybe the book should be from both POVs? I feel like this second plotline has gained so much importance that just telling it from my MC's POV would leave out so much... When did my minor character take over my head? :Shrug:
 

ralf58

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I've never had that particular scenario play out, but with my first novel, I thought I knew the whole plot and all the characters when I suddenly started hearing this Mexican voice talking to my MC's mother. There were NO Mexicans in the novel until this guy started talking in my head. He turned out to be a lot of fun--even if he did force me to take a Spanish class!

I say listen to what your gut is telling you and try out this new idea.
 

Little Anonymous Me

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No, not quite. But I did have one MC appear out of nowhere when I was writing a conversation. I was like "Who is MC2* talking to?" Further investigation got me a brand-new character, who inspired a major subplot! :D



*I have multiple MCs
 

rwm4768

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I've never had that problem. I have expanded the number of POV's in a book that originally had 4. Now it has about ten.
 

EnitaMeadows

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Well not quite, but for EIRE I ended up telling a good portion of the story from the title character's POV. And FYI, that title character is a gryphon. Which was...interesting. Actually it was really fun, because as the story goes on, this lil guy is growing up, so his thought process becomes more and more substantial as the story goes along.
 

Lycoplax

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Oh yeah, I've had plenty of minor characters hijack the story on me by being so much more important that I ever imagined. I write almost entirely on the fly, so a lot of those mysterious little unsolved threads of story along the way are total mysteries to me while I'm writing them. I usually get an epiphany around the time the reveal is due. Considering the word count I and my husband have racked up between us, one would think we'd be swiss cheese'd with plot holes. But we really aren't, somehow. I mean, yeah we get plot holes, but looking back on it I really wonder how we don't end up with more.
 

Anninyn

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Sort of - I've realised that for certain parts of this bok to have more impact they're going to ahve to be from another characters POV. But he doesn't even show up till the 5th or 6th chapter.
 

CJ.Wolfe

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My characters in general just seem to take over and go in directions I hadn't even thought of.
So I get what you mean :p
 

luxisufeili

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That exact thing happened to me. If you feel like it's an important part of your story, then act on it.
 

angeliz2k

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Something vaguely similar happened to me. I began to tell the story of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace from the perspective of the woman who stole the necklace. But it didn't click. I brought in her long-time friend (who later survived the French Revoution) as a POV character. That also didn't quite work. Along the way, I became intrigued by the young lady of the night who unwittingly helped the thief in her plot. She became the POV character--in fact, it's first person POV, so it became entirely about her.
 

spqrobert

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This has happened to me TWICE in the novel I'm writing, so there aren't just two characters whose stories are like broken pieces of the same mirror -- there are three! I think it's great when this happens in something I'm reading; it adds texture to the story that can be lacking in a straight-forward, linear narrative. If you follow physics (I don't read the journals, just news and Wikipedia articles about physics), this kind of thing is in vogue at the moment. It's the budding off of different dimensions within your own mind. Again, I LOVE when I read a novel where this happens because it takes into account the complexities and ambiguities of the universe and the human mind. Here's an article by a literary critic/philosopher that touches on the subject humanistically:

http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal2000/lal2000-05.pdf
 
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