Write On! :: Comments :: Points of view

Due to the style, the character is telling the story him/herself, which means that the character should have a reason to tell the story, and somebody to tell it to.

This doesn't have to be explicitly shown, but I find that a first-person narrative using somebody who doesn't talk about his thoughts much to anybody and certainly wouldn't write them down as the point of view character a bit jarring. It just doesn't feel right.

That's one of the main reasons I opted for "third person immanent" (or as I like to call it, "first person but for the grammar") for my novel. The POV character is extremely unlikely to tell her own story for several reasons, and even less likely to find a person she'd be willing to tell it to. In my mind, that locked first person out immediately. I did, however, still want to show the inside of her head. The narrative, while still third person, is thus filtered by her perceptions, and includes her opinions, justified and unjustified with equal weight.

It can be tricky showing that somebody she dislikes is a nice person...

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Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?

That's a tough issue. Robertson Davies has finessed it in a number of ways. One of my favorites among his novels, Fifth Business, is written as a series of auto-biographical letters from a schoolmaster (the main character, Dunstan Ramsey) ostensibly to his headmaster. It's a rollicking good tale, whatever the presentation. In a more recent essay, the author remarks that the critics seem to have missed his point: the headmaster Ramsey is addressing is in fact God. He's justifying his life, and the one great quasi-crime he's felt guilty about all his life.

Of course, one drawback to being too close to one of the characters is that you can't have any action in the novel not witnessed by that character. So sometimes a small ensemble of POV characters can be useful. But it's important for the reader to be able to tell immediately which character that is (some novels in fact use character names as chapter titles for this purpose).
Exploring dark places since last Thursday
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A lot of characters are willing to tell their stories, but there are some that aren't, and those are the ones that I find jarring in first person.

The main character you mention, Dunstan Ramsey, apparently has a reason to tell (or write) his story, and that's great.

Of course, one drawback to being too close to one of the characters is that you can't have any action in the novel not witnessed by that character.

True enough, but then working within limits can provoke some great stuff, sometimes better than if you have as much room as you want.
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Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?
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