Introducing IC before MC

writing
#21

“The man who knew infinity” (2015, Matt Brown with Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel),

It is not exactly what you asked, however, it starts presenting, briefly, for one minute, Hardy (Jeremy Irons) MC, and quickly switches to IC POV, Ramanujan’s youth in India (Dev Patel). It takes 15 minutes to see MC again. It’s an interesting movie in Dramatica terms, as the protagonist is the IC.

It could be helpful to think about what would happen if the first minute of the movie was removed. In my opinion, it would not change anything if we knew, at some point, that the narrator of the story is the MC.

#22

Actually I’m pretty sure Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is doing this. We don’t meet the true MC until 25% of the way through the story, and though 75,000 words makes for a long wait, you do gradually adapt to the switch when it happens.

It helps that the story is told in 3rd person omniscient, and that it drifts about from head to head relatively often.

Also interesting to note that we are introduced to the IC, Norrell, via an outside POV, and that most of Norrell’s page time is dedicated to what he thinks of Strange, the MC-- whereas the MC thinks about many things that have nothing to do with Norrell.

Just goes to show that our ultimate evaluation of a story’s structure depends upon the holistic impression we’re left with once we finish reading it.

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