Revealing your character's powers.

Gemmy

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Hey!

I have a quick question.

If your main character has some powers, do they have to be revealed in book one of a fairly long series? Or is it okay to reveal those powers in book two?

All opinions welcome!
 

thedark

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Just a random thought, but does your character KNOW about those powers? If yes, and you're in their head, it would seem vaguely deceitful not to mention them at some point. But if your MC doesn't know, then it's part of the discovery and the journey.
 

Marlys

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Depends on what the powers are and why she doesn't use them in the first book. For instance if, like a good friend of mine, your character has the superpower to always find a good parking spot--and she never drives in book one, you're fine. But if her superpower is Psychic GPS, it's blocked, and she gets lost several times but never thinks, "Damn--if only my Psychic GPS was working!" then you're cheating.
 

Gemmy

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Thank you for the speedy replies!

My main character is a witch, but she doesn't know. In my world, magic comes out in the teenage years, during a moment of strong emotion. She's 17, which is a little older than the norm, but she hasn't been brought up around magic, and didn't even know there was such a thing as witches. In book two, she's in a situation where she's desperately trying to protect someone she cares about, and in her rage, the magic comes out.

What do you guys think?
 

Becca C.

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What is the story really about? If it's about a magic world, I would expect the powers to come out quickly. If the first book is non-magic, I would worry that the powers come out of nowhere in book 2. But if the whole series is about magic, where the heck are the powers in book 1? See what I mean?
 

breaking_burgundy

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What happens in Book One? I'm guessing it's something magical/supernatural. In that case, I don't think it's necessary to reveal your character's powers, since there's already enough plot to move the story forward. (I hope.)

But if Book One is a contemporary romance with no magic at all, and in Book Two your character discovers her magic, that's obviously not okay.
 

katebranden

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If there is magic in the first book, and your character just doesn't happen to have powers, I think you're okay. BUT, if there isn't magic in the first book, it would feel a bit bait-and-switch to me. As a reader I'd be expecting more of what I got in the first book, and if the first book is realistic fic, I'm going to expect more of the same, and be thrown for a loop if magic is introduced.
 

Gemmy

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Thank you all!

Book one is about her discovering this magical world and learning that witches exist. The main plot of book one is her dealing with the consequences of entering the world. That book could stand alone (I was told that book one has to) but then in later books, the world and the characters and the situation just gets more complicated. A lot of secrets are revealed, which you don't have to know for book one to work, but hopefully adds to it.

When her magic is revealed in book two, it's in a moment where someone she loves is going to die, someone she has a supernatural tie with, so that's why it comes out in that moment and not earlier.

I hope I'm making sense!
 

Marlys

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Yeah, that sounds fine.
 

Gemmy

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Thank you!

I've drafted out the entire series and I'm polishing up book one. This is when the doubts creep in.

I really appreciate all the replies!
 

Debbie V

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If strong emotion brings out the powers, I'm concerned that she never has a strong enough emotion in book one to trigger the powers. That makes me wonder if the stakes aren't high enough there.
 
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Gemmy

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Hi, Debbie.

She has strong emotions in book one, but most of the time they are related to herself. For most of the book she is being hunted down. She's never in a situation where someone she loves is in real danger, only herself. Whereas in book two, the person she loves most in the world is about to die.

What do you think?
 

Semi_Sweet

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Sounds fine after further explanation, so long as your first book can carry itself, which sounds like it can with the outline. A series thrives on evolution for your character.
 

gcommon

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I'd say it depends on the story. You can hold off until book two if there is no need for your character to reveal his powers until then, but make sure your readers know that there is something special about your character, in book one. Like Doctor Who, they clearly make it known that he has a real name, but keep it hidden as a plot point.
 

what?

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I'd say:

You need to plot each book individually, but at the same time you need to plot the whole series. For example, while each book needs to have its own climactic crisis and satisfying solution, the mother of all climaxes and the final solution to everything needs to happen in the last volume.

If you think of the plot as a series of summits with increasing height, you can understand each book as one such "mountain of tension and relief". But the mountains still sit on one single mountain range, and it is this connection over an underlying structure that makes the volumes part of a series-with-an-end (such as a trilogy) instead of random instances in an endless series (such as most superhero comic books that you can read in any order).

The same goes for character arc. So what you need to do is think about the development of your protagonist's magical ability as happening over the course of the whole series. If the ability first shows itself in the second volume, you still need to build up for that in the first: the mountain range has to be there, and if there is a summit in the second volume, there needs to be a lower summit in the first.

Fiction is not reality. It is completely normal and happens quite often that people brush their teeth. In fiction you don't have your protagonists brush their teeth after every meal.

So while it might be totally realistic that a person discovers an ability that they had known nothing about, in fiction something must lead up to that discovery or it will appear random. If there are no dragons in the first volume of your books, they cannot simply appear in the second. Authors do that, of course, but it is bad manners.

So think how your protagonist's magic makes sense in the overall plot. Maybe she is laughed at for not having magic in the first volume and feels ashamed. That can be a short one paraghraph scene, but will lend credibility to her finding she has it and feeling relief in the second volume. Or you can have her think about how nice it would be to have magic, only to realize in volume two that it takes specific circumstances that were not present until then.

Create something in volume one that does not give away the future, but that readers can remember and will serve as continuity for them.

Hope that helps.
 

Debbie V

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Hi, Debbie.

She has strong emotions in book one, but most of the time they are related to herself. For most of the book she is being hunted down. She's never in a situation where someone she loves is in real danger, only herself. Whereas in book two, the person she loves most in the world is about to die.

What do you think?

Just make sure the difference is clear, so the reader isn't asking why it didn't happen in book 1.

Oh, and what What? said.