I'm writing a short sci-fi/fantasy novel and I am considering using two protagonists, alternating viewpoints every chapter. The two characters will meet at a point about 65% of the way through the story, then part ways for a bit before the ending brings them back together.
I am curious if the more experienced writers think this is an advisable structure. My instinct is that I would be able to build some tension in the story by having each of these perspectives show a little bit more of the nefarious villains lurking just under the woodwork, and by contrasting the two protagonists (one is a naïve adolescent, the other is a cynical grown man) I could drive home some of the themes more forcefully without resorting to fable-like expositional extemporizing. I am more used to writing short stories where multiple POV characters is verboten, so I appreciate the breathing room that a novel length gives me to contrast multiple POVs.
On the other hand, it makes the story a little harder to pull off. These have to be very distinct POV character voices. The risk, I think, is that readers may cling to one POV as the relatable "main character" and the other guy feels like a drag on the story, a boring unimportant aside that interrupts every other chapter to give us some secondary perspective. So both have to have their own redeeming qualities and need to have unique motivations. For plotting, you need to weave together these two threads and keep them close enough that you can bring them together after 150-odd pages, which could be limiting for the characters. (E.g., you can't have Character A go fight the big bad guy while Character B travels across the world to do something else!)
Any thoughts? Can you point out some sf/fantasy novels that use a similar structure that are good examples? Any that are *bad* examples? I know epic fantasy is known for using a handful of POVs but I'm trying to keep this project short, around 90k max, so I would prefer to compare with books of that length.
Thanks so much,
~ rq
I am curious if the more experienced writers think this is an advisable structure. My instinct is that I would be able to build some tension in the story by having each of these perspectives show a little bit more of the nefarious villains lurking just under the woodwork, and by contrasting the two protagonists (one is a naïve adolescent, the other is a cynical grown man) I could drive home some of the themes more forcefully without resorting to fable-like expositional extemporizing. I am more used to writing short stories where multiple POV characters is verboten, so I appreciate the breathing room that a novel length gives me to contrast multiple POVs.
On the other hand, it makes the story a little harder to pull off. These have to be very distinct POV character voices. The risk, I think, is that readers may cling to one POV as the relatable "main character" and the other guy feels like a drag on the story, a boring unimportant aside that interrupts every other chapter to give us some secondary perspective. So both have to have their own redeeming qualities and need to have unique motivations. For plotting, you need to weave together these two threads and keep them close enough that you can bring them together after 150-odd pages, which could be limiting for the characters. (E.g., you can't have Character A go fight the big bad guy while Character B travels across the world to do something else!)
Any thoughts? Can you point out some sf/fantasy novels that use a similar structure that are good examples? Any that are *bad* examples? I know epic fantasy is known for using a handful of POVs but I'm trying to keep this project short, around 90k max, so I would prefer to compare with books of that length.
Thanks so much,
~ rq