Have I taken too long to introduce the MC?

Speaking as a reader, my answer would be a qualified "yes." (I'd let it slide if I found the characters from the first part interesting enough to carry the story... but, then, I might wonder where they got off to when the "real" MC takes center stage.) This sounds like one of those multigenerational sagas, where the reader will be expecting a cast change as the family moves through the years. In that case, you probably don't want to think of just one latecomer as your "real" MC; you'll want some pretty well-developed characters throughout.

I don't suppose you could start with the MC, jump to backstory/flashback, then catch up? That way, I (as a reader) would know she's going to take up the reins again at some point. Again, you'd have to have some fairly interesting material in the interim to keep me reading to that point.

JMHO...

The first chapter should highlight the MC in some way.

Try to find a way to circle the MC or make someone else the MC.

The MC, MC, MC. He/She is the reason you should be writing the story, base it upon him.
All the backstory has to involve him, directly.

Maybe you're writing backstory because you feel like its needed to be said, or the reader won't understand the story without it? I would say: Skip it.


I have to do not do a flashback(Sorry Brightdreamer). The problem with flaskbacks and any long backstory spoken from the characters, is that the backstory is more interesting than the real story on hand. It's like saying, "Enjoy the candy, but I've got better candy over here. But you need to like what I just gave you more."

Wanna know my method to avoid backstory: Write a novel of it.

My WIP is the backstory, to the real story I want to write. I started out with the main characters and their relationships. But as I wrote them in, I found the backstory to intrude a bit. I wanted the story to shine, more so over the backstory.

But, I had to start in the past. So then I wrote down a basic story and filled it into a novel.

Sigh...


What you're aiming for is this: Think that I promise you, "I've got a great guy for you, I'd like you to meet him." Alright, so I take you a coffee shop. You meet Eric, his bashful and shy but a real cutie. You like him, almost instantly and you two connect. However, Eric isn't who I wanted you to meet. Now, meet Mark. He's more of a hard soul, but he's got large weak points. As you talk to him, you slowly grow to like him. But he's not the guy I wanted you to meet. Now, meet Billy- By this point, you are almost fed up with meeting new characters, without any real commitment to them.

A reader won't read your book if you're exchanging characters like this. You need to establish a firm placement towards a character. The reader wants to attach to a character and grow to care for them. If you're putting anything else in the way of this; it's like above.


Maybe, you need to strip down and rebuild your story. Form it around the MC, strictly. You can have sub-plots with other characters, but keep constant pressure towards the MC with them.


Here I'm speaking of this, and my WIP doesn't even touch on the MC's POV for 50 pages. Why? Because each character is either viewing the MC, worrying about him, learning about him or somehow connected to him. The first chapter is not of the MC, but the MC left in the wild as a infant. The second chapter is of the MC, his father and the man who will raise him. The third chapter is based on finding the MC around a the man who will raise him. The fourth chapter is about the MC, from his future-lover's POV--and she's a big part of the story. The fifth chapter, the MC isn't in, but heavily foreshadowed and POV character of this chapter is told of the MC. Then, I introduce the MC.

Hope this helps.

As you describe it, Chapter 1 sounds like a prologue. I see two options that I think could work well. I don't think having a part 2 that is about 15% of the book with no MC works.

1. Have a specific MC for part 2. I think you can switch MC's later with the time/generational switch. But we need someone to hold on to at the start. Maybe make this part a little more substantial. (actually, I think writing this part from the point of view of a child (your later MC) could be interesting)

2. Get rid of part 2. It's backstory that we shouldn't need and the details can be incorporated in part 3 where your MC is found.

There's always other options, but they get harder to pull off well the more complicated you make it.

Part 3; Chapters 9-50+; Setting unchanged, 1956-1958. The younger daughter is the main character, although there are other minor characters with important POVs. As mentioned above, I'm prepared to reduce the number of POVs.

Click to expand...

To me, the above is where your story starts, all the rest sounds like back story that could be woven into the main story as needed.

I don't mind waiting for the MC to be revealed, so long as I am not sloshing my way through chapter after chapter of a history lesson or world building. Nine chapters is not a lot to wait for the MC to arrive, but from what you state about the previous chapters, I am not sure you are starting in the right place.

Just my observation, your story, your call...

Parallel story lines may be an option:

1. A story told in the past - basically material of part 1
2. Main story told in the present - material from part 3
3. A story bringing the above two stories together - part 2 material

Chapter headings could include dates. Promises to be difficult though.

What you want to avoid is the reader getting attached to someone other than your preferred MC.
As I understand it, you have the pregnant girl, the guy she tricks into believing he's the father of her son, and a younger daughter (presumably the tricked guy's actual child?) who is your preferred MC.
And the big reveal later is going to be that the boy isn't his 'father's' son?
Why not just start with the MC as a girl, sometimes noticing odd things about her family? Either her mother is always pushing her big brother into her father's company, or trying to keep them apart? Or they make odd little remarks with an edge to them, but everybody pretends nothing is going on?
It's not so unheard of, esp. a generation or so ago, that a pregnant girl would latch onto some other guy, quickly, quickly, and pass off the child, that you'd have to spell out every move. Maybe that's why she was pushing for immigration, to cover her tracks.
Taking 8 chapters to dance around this seems a little slow.

I'd start with the girl, too, and through careful reveals, illuminate her father's past, her grandmother's past, etc. Put the grandmother in a nursing home. Have her parcel out info to her inquisitive granddaughter in neat little bunches: you bring me cookies, maybe I'll talk a bit in my rocking chair. Have gramma slowly get dementia and the girl knows she needs to speed the process up.

Meanwhile work the rest of your story forward the way you want it to go. If you do it well, you hook the reader into following two story lines, not just one.

Btw incidents like this are not so uncommon. Wasn't it reported a few years ago that upwards of 20% of babies are not born to the father who thinks they're the father? (The range for this varies on location, but I am talking about cities in the US.) I'm not talking about the tabloid-type TV shows where men take tests to determine who fathered the girl's most recent baby. I'm talking about DNA tests administered at random in certain areas.

And in my own family we have a few of these (in the past), but we don't talk about them much and those involved are either gone or are too mentally unsteady to tell us anything. On talking to friends about this, several other similar stories popped up - oh, yeah, that's like my cousin, or my great-aunt and etc. etc.

My current story has something similar to what Jaksen describes. The mc starts the story, then learns something that piques her curiosity. The next chapter tells the real story from the pov of someone else. Then the novel returns to the mc. I establish a rhythm between the two story lines, always trying to connect them from the mc's viewpoint.

My betas so far haven't objected...

Yours sounds like a good story - I'd read it...

Assuming its well-written I don't see anything wrong with the structure as given in the original post. Think of it as a Generational Saga. Make the parts of approximately equal length, each about a third of the book, each with the same number of chapters.

Generational saga is what I was thinking too, though Uncle Jim beat me to it.

So if you view it that way, you might have to expand instead of cut...

I haven't read the whole list of suggestions yet, but I did remember a pretty brilliant idea for revealing substantial backstory that I have seen handled successfully.

Instead of telling it linearly, have a few chapters of the main story and then a chapter of the back story. Kinda like weaving the two together. Have an mc for each to tell his or her part.

Without actually reading it, it's hard to say. People have different opinions about this sort of thing, obviously. I'd say chapter 1 sounds a lot like a prologue, since it happens before the main story starts and involves a different character. Sometimes prologues are less needed than a writer initially thinks (some readers even make a habit of skipping them). The question is, will it be possible to tell the story in a way that makes sense by starting with chapter 2 and filling in the backstory as you go? It can be a tough call.

As for breaking the pov character between parts 2 and 3, this is done sometimes. I've seen it done in novels that span generations, for instance. The thing you might want to ask yourself is who is the actual plot driving character in the story (the character without whom there would be no story or the story would be so different it would be unrecognizable). It doesn't necessarily have to be your pov character, but if you have one person who is the focus throughout but is not the pov character, then it may make sense to shift the pov halfway through to someone who is interacting more closely with the plot driving person.

If the plot driving character actually shifts halfway through, your story is in essence two books linked together. This can work, but make sure you tie things off for the first character's story by the time the torch is passed to the second.

Again, it's hard to say without reading what you've written so far.

Without having read it, you might want to take this with a grain of salt, but my gut feeling says "hell yes! Way too long." Start where the action is; the rest of it is back story, which no one is interested in.

And part of my gut feeling stems from the fact that if you have to ask, then you probably should know the answer already.