• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Question about POV Character in an Upcoming Series

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
How do you feel about the protagonist (the lone POV character in this case) in the first book not being the protagonist for the second book? NOTE: both protagonists appear in both books and the sequel is not a retelling.

I'm pretty sure I've encountered this before as a reader and did not like it. However, it's really where my thoughts are leading me.
 

Trick

Auror
I'd think it would work a lot better if you at least have book 2's protag as a POV briefly in the first book and vice versa. That would flow better in my opinion. It would feel very disconnected if the only POV of book 1 was never a POV character in book 2.
 

Noma Galway

Archmage
If it's made clear why the shift happened, I wouldn't have a problem with it. There would definitely be a disconnect, but that could be used to your advantage, theoretically.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
Trick,

How about if I do an Epilogue in the first book from the book 2 protagonist's POV?

Still, though, my main concern is that, when there's a single POV character in the first book, I connect the whole series to that protagonist. For example, Wearing the Cape is about a superhero named Astra. Harmon wrote a follow up book featuring a side character, Artemis. Though I've read the rest of the series, I never even bothered to look at the spinoff.

Is that just me?
 

Trick

Auror
Well, maybe. The Shannara books do this but it is thematic. Each book is from a new POV, typically the next in a generation of one family. Though those books get a bad rap, they did sell pretty well at one time.

I think the part that would be weird is the only POV character of book one never being a POV character in book 2. It wouldn't feel like book two, it will feel like a spinoff as you described.

The epilogue thing would help I think but I'd still feel disconnected from book 1, especially if I really like MC #1. I'd be like, "What the hell, why is he in the background all of a sudden." It's almost like a promise to the reader being broken between books.

You could make it go a lot smoother with the right titles and finding ways to make it clear that book two is basically about someone else.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
Trick,

Hmmm.

I think the Epilogue idea is a good one either way, as I know exactly what it wants to be and how it would both sum up the first book and be a great lead in for the next.

As for the second, maybe I can make it from both POVs? I'm better at that anyway. It feels weird keeping to a single one after using eight in Rise.
 

Kobun

Scribe
I'd personally have to see how it was handled to say how I felt about it, but gut reaction is that I'm not crazy about the idea without really strong in-story justification. Trick's suggestions of use of the epilogue would go a long way toward helping readers through the transition - otherwise, it'd be too jarring. Readers become invested in the POV character, and if their story isn't completed the reader will begin to wonder why the camera focus has been taken off of them.
 
It's something I've certainly though about in the past and I think it's totally doable as long as the main character of the second book is as or better of a character than the first.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
Ankari,

Unresolved love story at the end of book 1. Kinda want to show the girl's perspective in the second book.

EDIT: One of my biggest weaknesses as a writer is showing the emotions of the non-POV character, which just doesn't work out well, from experience, when the storyline is romance-heavy.
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
I see. Well, withholding a PoV character is best used to create a sense of mystery about that person. I don't see why withholding his PoV is needed to show her PoV.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I see. Well, withholding a PoV character is best used to create a sense of mystery about that person. I don't see why withholding his PoV is needed to show her PoV.

Ankari,

I guess my thinking process with this series is that, in contrast to my epic fantasy, the first book is Zack's story, not the story of a cast of characters. Though he's got a crush on Hayli, the story is about what happens to Zack.

I thought it might be interesting to have the second book be Hayli's story ...
 
I think this sounds great, as long as, like you say, the second book is Hayli's story. Like always with POV, you want to make sure you're picking the most compelling viewpoint for this scene or story. If the whole thing is Zack's story and you're just going to use Hayli as a viewpoint for book 2, I'm not sure it's going to work so well.
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
I guess my thinking process with this series is that, in contrast to my epic fantasy, the first book is Zack's story, not the story of a cast of characters. Though he's got a crush on Hayli, the story is about what happens to Zack.

I thought it might be interesting to have the second book be Hayli's story ...

So, the second book would be the same events of book 1, but from Hayli's PoV?
 
Since you're talking superheroes, my mind immediately jumped to Those Who Walk in Darkness and What Fire Cannot Burn. The first book is Soledad's descent from bigoted but honorable to openly genocidal. By the second book, she's incapable of further development, having reached a low point from which there's no believable way to redeem her. The story starts pushing more POV onto Eddie, who'd previously been a secondary character, and then Soledad dies suddenly and anticlimactically and the rest of the book is Eddie's story. It was a bit jarring, but I feel like a change of perspective was the only way the series could continue.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
So he did. Alright. I would be bothered. I know you're (Brian) a fan of the WoT series. How much did it bother you when long stretches of the book never entered Rand's, Matt's, Perrin's (or anyone else's) PoV? Now imagine a whole book like that. It would frustrate me to no end.
 
Last edited:

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
So he did. Alright. I would be bothered. I know you're (Brian) a fan of the WoT series. How much did it bother you when long stretches of the book never entered Rand's, Matt's, Perrin's (or anyone else's) PoV? Now imagine a whole book like that. It would frustrate me to no end.

Ankari,

Really, WoT's POV absences didn't bother me all that much. And, really, if Elaine and Egwene were in the same scene, did it matter from which POV the scene was told?

That being said, as I stated in the original post, I think this would bother me.

Two things I've learned though:

1. I should question doing anything in a book that I personally would not like.
2. I should not assume my reader would like or not like something just because of the way I feel.

Anyway, I think the solution of 1st including Hayli's POV in the Epilogue of the first book and 2nd splitting the POV in the second book makes some sense. The problem, then, however becomes: what if the two of them don't end up getting together?

I'm rooting for those crazy kids, but it's not clear to me how their situation is resolved. And since the genre isn't actually romance, I'm not tied to a HEA.
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
Really, WoT's POV absences didn't bother me all that much. And, really, if Elaine and Egwene were in the same scene, did it matter from which POV the scene was told?

But this entire thread is asking just that.

In book 1, you created a character that reader (hopefully) empathizes with. You introduce a second book, the hooked reader cheers, and now you're taking away the PoV the reader is accustomed to and is comfortable. Doesn't this produce an increased chance of the reader putting the book down in frustration?

I've read stories where the PoV has changed. It's usually because the primary PoV has died, or is no longer part of the story. But this is not the case in your story. I would just have both PoV present in both books.
 
Top