Having said that, let’s see reasons why main character may not be telling his own story...

•Perhaps our main character is one that readers won’t sympathize or empathize with.

•Or main character will not view highly with our readers

•Or viewpoint character knows all facts and can tell story better

•Etc.

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Let me give you an example of a secondary character telling story of a main character…

Let’s say your secondary character is a psychiatrist and main character is patient. Depending on what’s going to go on in story, we’ll have to choose who’s in a better position to tell it. In this case, I will choose psychiatrist.

I’ve done this because patient is confused, being one with problems. The psychiatrist knows all facts and his opinions will make things clearer to readers.

So, as secondary character (the psychiatrist) unravels story, we’ll become involved in main character because it’s main character’s story that is been told.

This may get a little confusing to beginner writer. As they write they will have to keep in mind that secondary character, although he’s telling story, is NOT our main character.

The secondary character is there to do perform a task. He’s only voice. It’s main character we’ll become involved with.

A secondary character doesn’t play such an important role as a main character does. Therefore, information about secondary characters should be kept to a minimum. It’s not his story – it’s main character’s story and spotlight must, most times, be kept on main character.

Take above example for instance. It’s no relevance to story how psychiatrist started his career or where he received his diploma – what’s important, is what he has to say about main character, his patient.

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Introduce your main character straight away, as close to beginning of story that’s possible. Enable your readers to form a bond and that will keep them hooked.

Is your main character established at start of your story?

•They now fear for their safety •Their friends and relatives are constantly harping at their door asking for assistance •Etc

This second scenario creates more problems for characters, so it’s more interesting for us readers.

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The preparation stage is there to prepare before you write. It’s our workbench where we figure everything out. We test our theme, we test our plot and once everything passes test, then we begin writing.

You can change theme as many times as you feel it needs changing, while you are in preparation stage.

The main thing is to make your story interesting.

It’s not a good idea to keep changing theme when writing story because then you will have to keep changing story. This means rewriting.

Figure everything out then write.

Have you tested your theme against your plot?