In my previous four novels, I stayed with the recommended four point of view characters: protagonist, antagonist, love interest, and confidant. In my current work in progress (WIP), The Kabulov Conspiracy (TKC), I found it necessary to add point-of-view characters who spend a short period of time on stage (since they die in the scene) but serve a profound purpose in the novel.
Readers don’t want to witness carnage without purpose, but in TKC, people will die by the billions and it is necessary to ensure the reader is empathetic to their demise. In several scenes, I introduce a sympathetic character–a cleaning lady in a soccer stadium, a dock worker in Mombasa, a child in the Philippines, and others who contract the plague Kabulov is spreading and die, but who put a face and a personality to the event.
As each minor character comes on the scene, I try and show how interconnected we are, one to another, throughout the world. While the plague and its solution take place on a monumental scale, there are still individuals involved as its victims, not just row upon row of faceless names. Following the life story for each of them would make the novel much too long, but a brief glance at who they were and what they were doing gives us a realistic perspective.
I’ll try and make it work.