McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Character Question (and PS hello)
arianne:
--- Quote from: aakaakaak on June 05, 2010, 04:19:57 PM ---I would agree. Sounds sort of messy for the beginning of a story. It doesn't sound like you're following a traditional story arc.
--- End quote ---
Messy = bad?
Yeah, I guess you'd say it wasn't a traditional arc as such...it kind of plops down in the middle. Well, not really the middle. It's the beginning of the story, but the middle in a chain of events.
Complicated. ;D
Aakaakaak:
Belial makes a good point on unique characteristics. Dumping readers unceremoniously into your world can either engross them from page one or confuse them for the entire book. As long as you can be clear and concise about things it might be alright.
arianne:
Hmm...that sounds doable.
Thanks :)
prophet224:
As a rule, I'd agree that this is very messy. If you are doing rotating scenes with the first five or so, it can be difficult to give them solid tags, depending on the viewpoint you are using. That said, a third-person limited viewpoint combined with separate isolated "solo" scenes should help.
Then you go on to the hero and his family. If that is all done from one viewpoint, with solid tags, as Belial mentioned, you should be good to go. I want to mention a pet peeve here though. Robert Jordan's WoT has a HUGE cast of characters, and many of them have excessively similar names. Please make the names clearly distinct from one another, and use them carefully in conjunction with your tags.
Also, write it out, and you may find you have a few short chapters rather than just a chapter with a bunch of scenes... that may help some. Finally, make sure that your hero comes up quickly, because the reader needs to know who they are identifying with.
Have fun!
arianne:
I know; I hate it when there's a John and a Joe and a Josh, and they all come out at around the same time. I once read a whole book thinking one character was actually someone else and got so confused by the ending...
Thanks for the advice!
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