blog Insider and Outsider Viewpoints

featuredauthor submitted a new blog post:

Insider and Outsider Viewpoints
This article is by Mareth Griffith.



In crafting a protagonist, one major factor to consider is the main character’s relationship to the story’s setting - whether the protagonist is an insider or an outsider. A protagonist’s connection to the culture or world in which the story takes place sets up key assumptions that help determine the story’s arc, as well as the nature of the main conflict.

Outsider Viewpoints

Outsider viewpoints are stories narrated by characters who are strangers or newcomers to the world in which the story takes place. These viewpoints are present almost by definition in portal fantasy and stories involving time travel. Outsider viewpoints are also present in epic fantasy, or any narrative large enough that the protagonist’s quest extends far enough to allow that character to become an outsider themselves. For example, in The Lord of the Rings, while the story begins in the hobbits’ home ground of the Shire, by the middle of the trilogy, the hobbits are enmeshed in the completely unfamiliar settings of Rohan, Minas Tirith, and Mordor.

Outsider protagonists often have story arcs that involve discovery and adaptability. The protagonist has to survive, and pursue their goals while trying to come to terms with the strictures and demands of a world very different from the one they started in. The main conflicts in the stories are more...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.