Ireth
Myth Weaver
So I'm having a bit of trouble with one of my novels. I'm starting on the second draft, and in looking back at the first one, I realize it has a lot of flaws. One possible one that I noticed only recently is that the villain of the story doesn't come in until about halfway through (chapter 15 of 33). He affects a certain major character earlier, but it's entirely offscreen, mostly because to actually portray it would spoil a major reveal later on. I want to have the hero learn about the villain in the first half of the story before they meet face-to-face, but it's difficult, since the only character who could tell him (the one I mentioned as being affected offscreen) would be traumatized and unwilling to speak of the villain at all.
The logical solution would be to have the villain come into the story as a character much earlier, but the story itself rather inhibits that -- for the first several chapters both the hero and villain are isolated from each other, one in his castle and the other in his underground city, and the villain doesn't even know the hero exists until a minor character brings him into his lair. Neither of them have any reason to leave their respective homes until a) the currently-undecided-on incident which drives the hero away from his new home, where he is found by the aforesaid minor character and led into the villain's lair; and then b) the hero escapes the villain's lair, driving the villain to pursue and punish him for what is perceived as a crime.
Any thoughts/comments/questions on this?
The logical solution would be to have the villain come into the story as a character much earlier, but the story itself rather inhibits that -- for the first several chapters both the hero and villain are isolated from each other, one in his castle and the other in his underground city, and the villain doesn't even know the hero exists until a minor character brings him into his lair. Neither of them have any reason to leave their respective homes until a) the currently-undecided-on incident which drives the hero away from his new home, where he is found by the aforesaid minor character and led into the villain's lair; and then b) the hero escapes the villain's lair, driving the villain to pursue and punish him for what is perceived as a crime.
Any thoughts/comments/questions on this?