http:\/\/ruccl.org\/about one-on-one plus.html<\/a>, and information for next year will be posted soon. If you come, please be sure to introduce yourself to me.<\/p>\nOn July 16, 2015, Mikayla wrote, I have a new idea that I want to work on, and I already know that two points of view are required for it. What I\u2019m struggling with is knowing when to switch POVs (or, to begin, when to introduce the second character). How many chapters is a good average to have? And how many to establish the first character before switching?<\/em><\/p>\nThere are exceptions to everything, and anything goes if it does go, but in general, it is best to start anything major early. For example, if we\u2019re writing contemporary fantasy set in an ordinary place, say Trenton, New Jersey, but there\u2019s going to be a dragon in our story, we should bring it in early or our reader may feel unprepared and may even refuse to accept our creature. In the case of a dragon I\u2019d say the first page isn\u2019t too soon and after the first chapter may be too late. The dragon doesn\u2019t have to appear in person then, necessarily, but it should at least be hinted at.<\/p>\n
In the case of a POV switch, I\u2019d say Chapter One for the first POV and Chapter Two for the second. That\u2019s what I did in Ever<\/em>, and the two POV characters alternate chapters for the whole book although I don\u2019t think we have to be as consistent as that. Once the reader knows that there will be more than one POV, we don\u2019t need to stay regular, but we do have to make sure the reader knows whose head she\u2019s in. In my mystery, Stolen Magic<\/em>, which is written in limited third person, I shift POV among my three main characters, but the default character is the dragon detective\u2019s assistant, Elodie. She has the POV whenever she\u2019s around. The other characters take over only in her absence. The POV shifts aren\u2019t regular, but I don\u2019t think they shock the reader.<\/p>\nAs for establishing an MC, I don\u2019t think that happens quickly, so we don\u2019t have to wait before introducing a second MC. They can even both be introduced at once. For example, in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Watson is the narrator. The reader gets to know Holmes through Watson and to know Watson, to a large degree, through how Holmes reacts to him and what he says about his assistant. The two happen simultaneously.<\/p>\n
Harking back to our outliner\/pantser discussion, you outliners may invent your characters as part of the preparation process. You may work through your outlines and create character descriptions before you start the actual writing. But for this pantser, I discover my characters as I go along.<\/p>\n
But regardless of which method we use, the reader develops an understanding of the MCs as the story moves along. Sometimes, most of a story can be over before the reader has a full understanding of an MC. I\u2019m remembering Little Women<\/em> and my astonishment when Jo falls for Professor Baer. I had no idea she could love such a settled and, to my thinking, unromantic man. And Amy and Laurie! But their preferences were part of their personalities that were revealed late in the story. I don\u2019t think Louisa May Alcott changed them suddenly to make her plot work.<\/p>\nIn my historical novel, Dave at Night<\/em>, I, pantser that I am, didn\u2019t find out that Dave is a budding artist until Dave did, in an art class. And, when I found out, I had no idea how his talent would play out in my story.<\/p>\nOf course our characters have to be distinctive, and of course we establish them from the first moment our reader meets them. How does that happen?<\/p>\n
Last weekend when I was mentoring. I saw only five pages of my mentee\u2019s book, but she did a splendid job of beginning her characterization. In the first half of the first page I found out that the MC is very attached to her father, because she\u2019s distressed that he failed to wake her up before leaving on a business trip, which\u00a0told me as well that she has strong feelings. Just like me, our reader will be eager for clues to each character and will start assembling a complex personality.<\/p>\n
In The Two Princesses of Bamarre<\/em>, I begin with Addie\u2019s fears. In Dave at Night<\/em>, Dave begins by telling the reader what a trouble-maker he is. So if we start firmly in our MC\u2019s head, he can introduce himself by narrating about what\u2019s most important to him. Oh, the reader thinks, that\u2019s what this character cares about.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s just one way. We can start with dialogue to give the reader a taste of our MC\u2019s voice and his relationships. Or action, in which our MC reveals his response to a situation or demonstrates how he creates a situation.<\/p>\n
For example, let\u2019s take the fairy tale, \u201cThe Twelve Dancing Princesses.\u201d We\u2019re starting the story at night. A poor, drugged prince sleeps in an adjoining room, and the princesses are about to descend to the enchanted lake and their enchanted princes. Our MC is right in the middle, the fifth eldest princess. I\u2019ll call her Maisie. How can we introduce her to the reader?<\/p>\n
Through her thoughts. She can wonder if the prince next door is really out cold. The reader discovers that she\u2019s careful, maybe a bit of a worrier.<\/p>\n
Does she act on her worry? Maybe she does. The prince is asleep, but the casement window in his room is wide open. Worried again, she closes it, because April nights get cold. The reader understands that she\u2019s kind. Or, she closes it because she doesn\u2019t want an outside noise to wake him up. Not particularly kind, but very thorough.<\/p>\n
Or, though she\u2019s worried she doesn\u2019t check on him because she knows delay will infuriate her oldest sister, and she\u2019s scared of her sister\u2019s rage. Failure to act is acting too. The reader learns something else, which is likely to be developed further.<\/p>\n
So we have her think and act. We can have her say something too, to her sisters or to the sleeping prince, so the reader will discover how she expresses herself in dialogue.<\/p>\n
The sisters descend the staircase. Maisie puts the prince-sleep worry out of her mind. Or, the sisters descend the staircase, and Maisie can\u2019t get the prince out of her mind. Her enchanted prince will know something is troubling her. Whichever she does, the reader accumulates more data.<\/p>\n
At this point, we probably haven\u2019t written more than a page or two, but Maisie is taking shape. If our second POV character is her enchanted prince, we can certainly let him take over in the next chapter.<\/p>\n
Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2219 Write the scene I\u2019ve described. Decide what Maisie does with the prince in the next room and reveal what she thinks and does.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Write the next scene, narrated by Maisie\u2019s enchanted prince or any other character you\u2019d like to have take over.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Aladdin, in his eponymous fairy tale, has always seemed a nonentity to me. Things are done to him and for him. If you know him just from Disney, reread the original fairy tale, and you will find that the only actions he takes involve telling a genie what to do. Write the beginning of the fairy tale and bring him to life as someone who wants something and acts to get it.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and for those of you who are participating, good luck with NaNoWriMo. Save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For any of you who can get to Long Island, New York, on Saturday, November 14th, I\u2019ll be speaking and signing at 2:00 at the Longwood Public Library, 800 Middle Country Road in Middle Island. I\u2019d love to meet you! For those of you who: are eighteen or will be by next fall, are writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}