Young Writers Society

So, I started writing a piece, and then took a break from it and in that break the story has continually grown in complexity from one of simple assassination, to something far more intriguing (at least to me), but something I have noticed is that in order for this to happen there has to be a fairly wide cast of characters (which is not a big deal, because they all pretty much have distinct personalities in my head anyways), and at least three view point characters- this is the problem.

When I started the story I wanted it to be about one man and his struggles with himself as he progressed though a completely separate series of events, but if I have to devote more time to other peoples perspectives then it takes away from that personal aspect that I wanted.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to have a plot with many sub plots that all need to be explained to the reader, and still keep the same view point character throughout?

I'm dealing with something similar now. I have a lot of secondary characters and their relationships to deal with, and am working in first-person. What I've done is make all the other events relate to the MC in some way, so she can observe them and be affected. She also has reason to care about these situations, because they affect her in some way directly. All of them deal with shifts in power, and the current power situation she has deemed the best for her own situation.

The tip I have is to make your MC very, very interconnected with all those other plots. Then we have reason to care about them, and reason to want to hear about them.

Thanks.

What would you do if the main character is not present for a part of the story for one reason or another? just switch to another character? or just have him wake up and find out from second hand information

Depends how often it happens, I think. If it's only once or twice, you could get away with the character finding out second hand.

Any more than that, though, and it could potentially start to get annoying, in which case you might prefer to use multiple POVs.

Really, though, I think this is something only you can work out. You have two options available to you (stick with only one POV character, or have multiple POV characters), and both have their strengths and weaknesses:

A single POV makes the reader feel closer to that character, but you will have trouble conveying events that they don't experience themselves. And having a single POV allows you to play with how reliable the character's viewpoint is, but multiple POVs can be used to portray the same issues and characters from multiple viewpoints. And so on.

You have to ask yourself which attributes you value more in this story.

Personally, I think it is very possible to retain the personal aspect and focus on one person while juggling multiple viewpoints, but, if you want to keep it from the POV of one character, that is great too!

Having the character find things out secondhand usually works rather well, or having your main character observe pieces of subplots and put together the rest. It really depends on how big the scope of your subplots is and who the subplots involve. When everything revolves around your character's perspective, just keep in mind the hints that can be picked up, the things that other characters can explain and the pieces of information that the character does not know. This can lead to some powerful reveal later on.

Again, I think it's very possible to retain a focus on one character while having multiple viewpoints (and that is just a matter of emphasis and the role of the character in the story), but, if you want to stick with one viewpoint for the story, I think you should avoid switching to other characters unless you plan to make a habit of it.

thanks!!

I think i'm going to stick with one characters view point escept for a couple of special moments when it is absolutely necessary.

What I do is to either rewrite a scene from another POV
or skip ahead in time. (I'll post it, honest!)

However, if you have several characters in different places,
this obviously doesn't work. I.e. the Wheel of Time books.