Topic: Writer question.
Can the protagonist in a novel be someone other than the POV character {narrator}?
I'm telling a story through the eyes of someone who meets and befriends the protagonist. I'd say my POV character is the sidekick in the novel, not the protagonist. We never get into the protagonist's viewpoint. We experience his plight entirely through the sidekick {narrator}'s observations.
I do this so that the protagonist {the most interesting character} remains a mysterious figure throughout, sort of like Jay Gatsby.
I've been told in the past that the POV character MUST be the protagonist, because the troubles all fall on him, and the reader wants to know his thinking as it's happening. In a creative writing class, my professor told me that the POV character has to want things in every scene, and face obstacles. I had shown her a clip from my novel, and she was astonished that the POV character isn't at the center of things in the scene I shared. Meanwhile, he wouldn't be. He is shy, retiring, inclined to hang back and observe without saying much. The perfect narrator, I reckon! He shares with the reader, just not the people actually walking around in the story.
I want my POV character to meet and watch the protagonist, and pretty distantly comment on problems the protagonist is facing, until WELL into the novel, when he starts to realize how deeply he's weaved into the protagonist's tale. He will have is own character arc, but it won't be nearly as strong as the protagonist's. Not until the end of the novel.
For me this works, and is exactly what I'd want to read. I wouldn't want the protagonist's viewpoint. Not in this story. I'd want the distance, and the quiet character arc of the sidekick narrator, whose own story won't be at all obvious at first.
I feel that telling the tale through the protagonist's viewpoint would STRONGLY alter the story by making it predictable, trite and obvious. The protagonist faces the most troubles. The story revolves around him. But he isn't my narrator. The tale isn't his by the end. He affects the narrator because of his story, and THAT is the story.
My gut is steering me in a way that doesn't seem to follow all the writer advice. Anyone have advice? Thanks!
- corra