Most stories tend to follow a main character, with a few secondary characters. However, I've published two novels that have no "main" character. The plot is told through several characters, only a few of whom are even necessary to the story. So that got me to thinking about how readers feel, and whether or not main characters are necessary.
For some stories, sure. Hard to tell A Christmas Carol and not focus on Ebenezer Scrooge. And Harry potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is tough to do without Harry Potter being pretty prominent. However, Harry Turtledove managed to do it well with his Southern Victory series that followed what the world after e Confederate Victory. Although some characters were more featured, such as Irving Morrell or Jake Featherston, they were merely vehicles through which to move the plot rather than the focus of it.
This has come up to me again as my new novel doesn't really have a character focal point. Many of the characters are necessary - hard to talk about magic without at least one prominent wizard - but the story doesn't hang on one of them(maybe it hangs on eight of them...can there be that many "main" characters?). My earlier novels focused on a main guy, but my focus has always been on story over people, so creating someone just to be "the guy" doesn't sit right with me. Additionally, I'm not sure I'm all that great on creating characters that aren't me in some way, and I'm sure readers can find that tiring.
Character or story, which means more? I'm torn, and I don't know that there's a correct answer. Do you?
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