Young Writers Society

Like many of you, I write novels set in the same universe. I wouldn't technically call them a series; there are five books and they follow one another in a linear progression, but they're more like stand-alone stories in the same universe, with a single shared plot thread uniting them.

Anyway, the trouble is that every book has a different protagonist. I'm worrying about that insanely, because it seems fairly common in sequential books for them to follow the same protagonist. But I just get bored if I have to write from the same viewpoint for book after book.

I'm wondering, is it going to be too confusing to follow if every book has a different protagonist? I do share characters between books, and side characters in one book can become protagonists in another and vice versa, but I'm wondering if that makes things even more confusing. Or perhaps I'm over-thinking the issue.

One vaguely related tangent: in a YA series, would having a main character who is 21 years old be too old?

Having read TeoT and seeing how many possible protagonists/viewpoint switches you have, I think you're fine.

The one thing about switching viewpoints like that is you have to consider is a good lead-in. Song of the Lioness does this well, when George gets added on as a viewpoint character in book three (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man). In Chapter eight, a new conflict with George is introduced, and come chapter nine, Alanna's out of the action and George becomes a viewpoint character. The story had progressively shifted from what Alanna was doing to what George was doing, so the viewpoint shift wasn't too sudden. Yes, seeing George's name was a bit of a surprise, but it wasn't jarring and the plot demanded it.

Even though you're doing this on a grander scale, should you focus more on the secondary character who will become the protagonist in book two later in the first book, then the shift will feel more natural from book to book. Hint somewhere very near the end that the story isn't complete, and that this character will pick up the slack.

Even if the protagonist of book two doesn't show up in book one, should you hint that the overall plot isn't over and have the overall plot pop back up early-on in book two, a new protagonist would be accepted. I saw a 9-12 trilogy where the MC was changed at the last book. Unfortunately I forget the title, but it had to do with fairies and the new MC being the grand-daughter of the old MC, and the new MC just follows in Grandma's footsteps.

As for a twenty-one year old MC, I don't think so. I've seen two where the MC was that old come about book three: Song of the Lioness and Dragonkeeper Chronicles. Since they're still a "young adult" and not completely sure of themselves yet, I'd say it's fine.

It really isn't a confuing plot element at all. It will work if done well...

I think a slow transaction from one protagonist to another works best. There's nothing worse than bonding with the main character then reading the next book only to find out they don't feature... I always go through a small withdrawal phase, which is sad but it's only a breif thing.

focus more on the secondary character who will become the protagonist in book

This is a great idea. So the reader at least gets to know the next main character you use before they become a prominant part of your next story.

However, even if you decide not to have the next mian character show up in the first book, not all is lost...
I remember reading a four book science fiction series by Scott Westerfeld "The Uglies Series" and suddenly, in the forth book, The main character wasn't the one we all knew and loved but an entirely different girl surrounded with completely new characters! Yes, it was set in the same 'universe' and many aspects remained familiar but I was pretty gutted. Not everyone did accept that new character but many- including me, did. He wrote her into the story very well and she was new and exciting- I care about the characters being three dimensional, which she was. This is just an example of a story in which it worked perfectly fine.(In the end the main character from the previous novel makes an appearance towards the end of the book which I was happy about)!

Which leads me to say you could always minorly feature one of your previous main characters into the next book? Some authors perfer to do this but others, maybe not...

21 is not old. Not every main character has to be 17 right?

my advice even if youve followed a character through out an entire book, your story demands you to be flexible. If you get bored with a character so will the reader, so switch perspectives many other writers do this to keep readers interested and informed of the many different perspectives in the story.

Switching protagonists in a series is unusual, but not unheard of. I recently read Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon, and I noticed that in her trilogy she plans to have a different protagonist for each novel.

The issue here is that a reader who picks up your first book will bond with that protagonist, and hopefully want to read more about them, and it's easier to sell the reader on another book with that protagonist than on an entirely unrelated protagonist. On the other hand, you'd have the same issue if you were writing unrelated standalones. So I wouldn't worry too much about this.

The 21-year-old protagonist is more of a problem. College-age characters fall into an awkward gap: too old for traditional YA, but possibly too young for adult fiction. (This is my understanding from reading agent blogs.) YA tends to have pretty strict age parameters of between 15 and 18. Any younger and you're talking MG. Any older and you're in that no-man's-land.

Like all "rules" of writing, you can break this one if you want. Personally, I wouldn't break it unless I was confident that my writing really was just that awesome.

Could you go down to 18?

I think changing the protagonist in every book in a series could be pretty cool. Maybe you could, like you know in one book, focus more on the protagonist, but the second protagonist should be there already to make a slow and easy withdrawal for the reader. Like example, on the first book, my main character is John who is in love with Carol, then in the second book, John goes off on a journey and so the story then becomes focused on Carol or something like that. Maybe you could do it that way, but it really depends on you since you will write the story and how it goes, and you're right, having the same main character on a lot of books would be pretty dull and boring. I think you'd do a great job!
I should stop blabbing. Bye...