Your opinions, please, on a question about Ambition/Relationships

[julieswanson]

Whether or not I should scrap a story--a story I've worked on for years--hinges on this: I have a definite problem, something the character wants more than anything in the world. I have obstacles that get in her way, people who want to hold her back from her single-minded pursuit of her goal. But my question concerns the character’s growth. If she

Comments

[julieswanson]

It's funny that you suggested this because this was sort of one of my thoughts last spring. I even called The Editor Who Was Interested in This up and asked her what she thought of my writing the story from the point of view of the character's best friend--so that I could show her learning to let go and her realizing that this character's ambition was one of the reasons she liked her in the first place. Sort of along the lines of "If you love something, let it go, and if it comes back to you it was meant to be yours." Sort of. But she didn't like the idea. She said she liked the original character and didn't think I'd be able to get in the head of the other girl as well. Well, I beg to differ, because now, where I am in my life, I am, in a sense, that other girl (strangely, I am both the driven in one respect, AND the one dealing with someone equally or more driven in another respect.)But I could tell she really didn't want me to give up the one character's first person POV.

But your idea is a little different, and the posts on Verla's about this switching POV between chapters did get me wondering about this, too. Maybe if I still had at least some of the chapters in the original characters POV, I could please The Editor AND I wouldn't have to worry about whether anyone agreed that there was enough growth in the athlete character, because I could show the growth in her friend. And there's plenty of growth there, to do what she has to do, don't I know that!

Thanks, Anne Marie.