So I think I've established Third Omniscient. But Questions.

[Naruzeldamaster]

Does one usually establish a 'focal' character for the chapter/story that gets their thoughts dived much deeper into than others?
I think I've been doing that because that's how I write, but ?

Second thing is I kind of handle different characters in relevance to the story, regarding how deeply I dive into them.

A character that would be an 'NPC' doesn't get much exploration. But someone more relevant to the plot (in different stages) does ? At least I thiiink that's how it works?

 

[Malik]

I'm not sure I understand this correctly. There is a main character to the story, of course. An omniscient narrator will be primarily concerned with the MC's story, but will fill in details from other characters' perspectives (and even unseen goings-on, at times), and will do it through a unique voice that is distinct from every other character. It really is you telling the story; as you go, you're giving the reader ancillary information that you, as the author, feel they need to have in order for you to deliver the story, the theme, and the subtext.

(Dons tweed sport jacket, lights pipe.)

This is a reason that "Deep POV"--which is just third limited subjective; whoever coined the term "Deep POV" didn't go to college for writing--falls flat so often. When you limit your POV, you limit the information the reader receives. And that's fine, but you need to know what information the reader needs in order to make your point.

It's extremely common for authors to think they're "doing it right" by writing in "Deep POV," but they never deliver all of the information that would really make the story land--things that other characters see, know, and do--so at the end of the book you have a story that might be entertaining, but that has no deeper meaning beyond the adventure you just read. Regardless, it's been technically "written correctly" since it's all in Deep POV/close third subjective.

That's not a novel. That's a long story.

A novel uses exposition, foreshadowing, symbolism, metaphor, irony, theme, analogy, satire, tone, mood, imagery, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I admit I snoozed through in third-year theory (but thank God my editors didn't!) to tell an entire other story without actually saying it out loud. That "hidden" story is your subtext. Your choice of narrative voice is going to make or break your subtext.

Screw word count; subtext separates a novel from a long-ass story. Asimov's The End of Eternity was 25,000 words. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is under 40K words and has subtext out the ass. Jesus Christ appears (allegorically) in it, FFS. So does Santa Claus, quite literally.

You need to know the stories you want to tell--the theme (main story), the subtext (what someone would write in a book report under "what this book meant to me"), the point of the book (which may be entirely different from both!)--and then sketch out some scenes and figure out which narrative structure is going to work to tell the reader what they need to know in order to grasp everything that resides in your novel.