Second POV Character?

by Rochelle
(USA)

Hello and thank you to everyone and anyone who answers my question! Here it goes...

I've written a novella in the deep 3rd person pov of one character. My story has two main characters who eventually share a love interest. The female character is a pretty angry person whose negativity is counterbalanced by the male character's personality. The entire story is written in the female's pov. I really want this story to be novel length and feel that I could add more depth to the story by adding the male's pov. I'm afraid of pulling the interest of the reader away from my female character by adding the pov of a much more likeable character. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Answer: Obviously you understand the need to develop rather than pad. Material you add should explore themes/subjects in a way that complements the existing material and adds interest.

When you switch to another POV character, you are essentially creating another storyline, since everyone is the hero of their own story. That implies the need to develop the man's inner conflict, which may have been invisible before.

Usually in romances, each of the two lovers is the impact character to the other. When in the woman's POV, the man should provoke her inner conflict by showing her a different approach to take toward problems. In the man's POV, the woman will provoke his inner conflict by showing him a different approach in regards to a different but complementary issue. In this way, each promotes the other's growth.

Typically, if one of these characters is a holistic thinker, the other will tend to be a linear thinker. This is why each can offer the other a different perspective.

So you might look for some issue in the man's life that he is struggling with. Give him a personal crisis where he must decide whether to stick with his usual approach or switch and adopt hers. (Presumably you have already given her such a crisis in which she must decide whether to take his approach.)

You may find it helpful to map out the four throughlines (main character, impact character, relationship, and overall). More info on this here...

https://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/writing-an-outline.html

But remember that, with two POV characters, you may have two main character and two impact character throughlines (therefore more material).

Finally, any event (significant change) in your plot may be told as one scene with the following dramatic structure...

setup --> complication --> crisis --> resolution

... or it can be developed into a sequence of scenes where each part is a scene in itself.

Here's more on how to do this...

https://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/length-overall-where-to-add.html

Of course, not every event must be turned into a sequence. You have to play around with this technique in order to discover which events can productively be developed and which are better off as they are.

However, the advantage of turning events into sequences is that every event in your expanded story will be part of a dramatic arc that comprises an important development in the story. In other words, no mere padding.


Best of luck.