One of the most fun and challenging things you can do in your novel is create the cast for your book. You can spend hours on Pinterest find the perfect model and add it to your mood board, or your character may come from someone in real life. In some cases, your character might be you.

When writing a novel, it can be hard to decide which characters are the right ones for a scene, especially if you have favorites. However, I’m going to walk you through my process for deciding which Point of View character I’m going to use and why.

Let’s get to it!

1. Identify your characters

Knowing who your characters are, what drives them, and what their personality flaws are is essential when setting up your story. If you haven’t gotten to know them yet, check out this guide for crafting characters that feel real.

Once you know who your characters are, then you are ready to move on.

2. Start with an outline:

Before we get to worry about characters, it is important to first go through the process of creating an outline (yes, even as a Pantser you should use an outline. It will save you a lot of trouble in the end).

Outlines will help you know what the end goal is supposed to be, as well as making sure you hit your story milestones. This in turn helps you to identify which characters need to show up at which points in your story.

If you need help crafting an outline, check out this guide.

3. Casting major scenes:

With your outline in hand, we are going to cast your major scenes. Things to keep in mind while doing this are:

• Which character Point of View (POV) you are using?
• Why we are following?
• What unique perspective are they giving us?
• What will they help us learn?

In your outline, it is time to look at the major beats of your story and apply which character should tell which part of the story. Once you have the major milestones covered , it’s time to go deeper. Keep going until you have a character assigned to each important scene in your book.

This one is very important. Knowing whose head you’re going to tell the scene from, can make a big difference in how you write. Male characters think and act vastly different than female characters, and the same is true with older characters versus younger ones.

Once you have determined which character you’re going to use, keep your character sheet handy. This will help remind you of how they react in certain situations, and how best to use them in your current scene.

It is also important to decide how the events of your major scenes are going to shape your character. Will they come out stronger? Weaker? Have a positive arc or a negative one? OR will they remain the same and have a flat arc?

*Keep in mind that when you begin filling out your story milestones, you may decide that a particular scene will work better from a different POV, and that is great. You will feel the nudges from which characters truly need to be seen in a given moment.

**If you’re going to do two POV’s in the same chapter, there are three ways to do this right. Split the POV either near the beginning, right in the middle, or near the end, and use a scene or section break to designate that we have switched heads. Only switch ONCE!

If you add in two many POVs to a chapter, it can confuse the reader and stall the action.

4. Character Dynamics:

From here, I look at how certain main characters fit together and what their dynamics are. If I am looking at a love interest, I ask how do they light up my main character and why do I want to pull them in here?

If I am seeking out a best friend, how do they and the MC compliment each other in their personalities? What are they each gaining from the relationship?

If we are looking at family dynamics, it’s good to determine where your MC fits. Are they an only child or have a dozen siblings? One parent or two? Are they an orphan? Royal family or peasant? All these things will affect how the characters play off each other.

Finally, consider how your MC (Protagonist) and your villain (Antagonist) interact. Are they always hostile? Do they listen, but try to manipulate the other? Is one smarter? Stronger? Faster? More magical?

All things to consider as you build out the scenes.

5. Secondary characters:

After your POV character is determined and the problem they are facing in a particular scene, you need to build out the cast by determining who else is there. Who will be the secondary characters pushing your POV character and causing friction or scene tension? And sometimes, your POV character will be a secondary character. You can get amazing insights from viewing the situation from a different angle.

*Be careful of adding too many characters in each scene because it can become hard for readers to follow who is there and slow your pacing.

Pulling it all together:

Once you have completed the large scenes, now it’s time to break them down into smaller scenes until you have a full outline of every chapter you plan to write with who the POV character is for each chapter if you plan to switch.

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Until next time,