For this month’s Novelist Writing Challenge I encouraged writers to try writing from the point of view of a character they wouldn’t usually write from. This challenge isn’t closed – it will remain open indefinitely – so if you’d like me to link to a piece you’ve written for it, get in touch with me (a comment on this post is possibly the easiest, but you can use Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr if you prefer).
First up, here’s the piece I wrote – from the point of view of Edric Carlisle, a character only referred to as Ed in Violante’s Daughters, and only seen through the point of view of Max Howland, one of my major characters. It’s almost entirely spoiler free (it reveals something that happens in the first scene Ed appears in, but nothing else), and I aimed to make it stand alone fairly well so you don’t have to have much understanding of the setting to follow it – hopefully! Because I’m incapable of following even my own rules, it also includes brief point of view sections from both of his parents (who, I guess, technically, are characters whose point of view I don’t generally write…).
No Son of Mine
Cleo Rose-Nash
It was agony for Godric Carlisle, waiting downstairs as his wife struggled through the long, difficult labour. He was a surgeon, all too familiar with the myriad of ways a birth could descend into desperate decisions and fatal mistakes. He paced in the hallway, passing in and out of the light that streamed through the painted windows. The coloured shapes threw patterns on the floor – a choice of Erica’s. He couldn’t see the value in it himself, and found himself irritatingly compelled to fit his footsteps within the blurred outlines.
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