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Requesting advice for a planned series of stories

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
I should warn you: this is long. There's a tl;dr at the bottom.

There's something I've been thinking of trying. I have this immortal character, Karn. The first (and only) novel I ever completed was his story, or rather, two stories about him running parallel, with a big reveal about one in the other. I started it in NaNoWriMo 2008 and completed in in early 2009. Now I'm looking back over it; my housemate (who also writes, though not as much as me, and reads LOADS - about three books a week, usually romance or fantasy) read it recently and gave me some useful feedback, one point of which was that I hint at the larger world, the other immortals, and other stories from Karn's very long past, but don't go into any detail with them.

At the same time, the story I've been writing the last few weeks is one of those tales from Karn's past. The events of it have a strong influence on the way he does things afterwards, including in the later story I've already written (though at the time I wrote it I didn't know this). There is another story I've also been thinking about, but have yet to actually start writing, which is similarly formative in his personal character arc and in fact forms part of the legends of the city where the story I'm writing at the moment takes place.

So, getting to the point. I was thinking of telling each of these four stories - tentatively titled Fire and Wild Roses, Lutra Simis, The General's Secret, and Flame Undying - from the POV of another character in the tale (though in 3rd person), rather than, as I have been doing so far, from his POV 1st person. Basically, each story would have some scnes focussing on him, but the main character would be one of the other key players in the story.

For General's Secret and Flame Undying, chronologically the later stories, I know exactly who should be the main character: the other general, Arkin, for General's Secret, and the guy who discovers Karn's secret memoirs and goes on a quest in search of him, Ferrin, for Flame Undying. Both are already prominent characters in the respective stories and key agents in terms of the plots.

However, for Fire and Wild Roses and Lutra Simis, I'm a little stuck.

Fire and Wild Roses is the story of how Karn becomes immortal and how he learns that he is immortal (he kinda doesn't notice right away). It involves him being enslaved and escaping with the also enslaved Mea, his brother's widow. They get married and fall in love, get well away from the city that enslaved them, and settle down, but weird things start happening to Karn because he's immortal, and at the same time the people of the village where they settle start to turn against them, partly because of these weird things, but also because they believe Mea is a witch and Karn is a demon. So up til now you're thinking, well it's obvious, Mea is clearly the other major character in this story. And yes, she is. She is also the character who makes many of the decisions which further the plot. But the problem here is that she dies. Violently. At about the same time Karn finally works out that he's immortal. But the story doesn't end there; he takes revenge on those who killed her (and on the city where they were both enslaved, though I'm unsure as to whether to include that in the story, as his first vengeance is climax enough; but that's another issue entirely).

So basically, my question in this case is: Is it okay to have a main character who dies at the end, during the climax? Or should I make Karn the main focus, with Mea as the secondary character? In fairness, both of them die, it's just that Karn dies at the start of the story and doesn't stay dead.

With Lutra Simis, it's a more complex story, taking place over a time period of about two decades. It's easy not to make Karn the focus, because for at least a decade of that, he's not even in the city of Lutra Simis where the story is set. But I don't know who to make the focus.

Basically, he arrives in the city, starts a scribe business, adopts a slave as his son, but then leaves; a young aristocrat Karn once taught to write, Oram, becomes king and gradually becomes more and more tyrannical. Karn's son, and also his aristocratic patron, are key in the opposition to Oram's rule. Karn visits, but stays carefully hidden from everyone he knows, but befriends his young grandson (who is by now about 11); then he goes away again. About a year after this, the revolution really kicks off, but it fails; Oram stays in power, Karn's son ends up dead. Returning again shortly afterwards, having heard of the revolution but not the outcome, Karn meets his son's family on the road and learns his son is dead. He goes in to confront Oram, and an epic battle ensues. Somehow (not figured out how yet) the palace catches fire. As people try to escape it, and later the entire city as it burns (as there's nobody organising the fire fighting), Karn kills Oram and ends up sitting on the stone throne in the burning palace.

So the character who does the most in this is Karn's adoptive son; but again he dies before the climax. Other major players include *his* son, but he's not even born until half way through the plot; Karn's wealthy patron who sets him up in business and later is a key player opposing Oram politically, and while he knows about much of the story, he has none of the insights about Karn and his family; Oram has the same drawback, but with the bonus of being in the climax.

So what do I do here? Make all of them main characters, as the story demands it, so it's more of an ensemble cast set-up? Or pick one for preference and use the others - or Karn himself - where necessary?

tl;dr: I've got a character about whom I want to tell four different stories; but I want to tell them from the point of view of the people around him.
  • Is it acceptable/workable to have the main (POV) character die before or during the climax?
  • Is the concept of telling one character's story through other characters itself workable?
  • And in a series of four books, if three of them are very much from only one character's POV, would it be very out of place for one to have several POV characters?
 
Ok, I am unpublished and have yet to finish my first draft... see thread to be started at some future date. Why not just make each story stand alone? So books can be read out of order, or even just one if you manage to get it published. I think telling someone's story by those around them sounds cool. And workable as well then having the main character die is only a part of the bigger story arc. Everything sounds possible. I couldn't pull it off, but maybe you could.
 

Kelise

Maester
Is it acceptable/workable to have the main (POV) character die before or during the climax?

I recently read a book where the author pulls this off and does it WELL. I don't want to say the title as I want people to read it and not be spoiled, buuut yes. It's workable and heartbreaking and can be done fantastically. I can DM you the book title/author if you like.
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
Starconstant: please do. I look forward to reading it.

Sashameredith: Yes, I plan each one to be a separate book, linked by the one character, but standalone nevertheless; the later books may have references to the events of previous books, but these would not depend upon the reader having read those books for them to understand the main plots.
 
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