I have been brainstorming my first novel for awhile, and writing several character sketches. What it comes down to though is that I cannot decide between two characters as the main character, and it would greatly effect the fantasy novel. Setting: High-school / Home life / Suburban town. The main character discovers that what at first seems like a normal high-school is actually home to a small group of several students that are far from normal. The two possible main characters have gotta be sorted out. One would be a main and the other would become a less defined secondary character. Currently the group of secondary characters contains teens that are: a catholic priest's daughter(Has powerful holy magic through prayer), a druid (shes going to be a goofy activist girl who cares about animals and plants -- and just happens to be able to talk to and give them suggestions), a werewolf, a vampire/sorcerer(depending on the outcome of my choice), a fighter, a ranger, and possibly even a thief. (Some of these may seem ridiculous but my character sketches have it all worked out. It wont sound like a world of warcraft novel). There will also be a group of 2 or 3 edgy angry "bad" teens i have yet to write sketches or back-stories for. ------------------------- **A teen is made into a vampire against his will. Later he finds out that, for some mysterious reason, he also can influence animals with his thoughts. He has to make friends with the social pariahs at school so that he can have a "supernatural" group to hang out with. People he can relate to. Secretly his main motivation is to find the vampire that changed him. Hes not actually a full-vampire. He was given the blood of his maker but not killed. He develops some powers such as strength, speed, etc. But he is able to travel in the light. He is eternally thirsty. If he were ever to drink *human* blood the transformation would be complete and kill him. He would cease to be a day walker and become a full-vampire. He has a strange control over animals. This is not fully understood until later in the novel. Big plot twist. ----------OR---------- **A teen hiding from bullies in an abandoned house finds a book of magic. The book contains basic spells. Little does he know that the book provides spells based on what he currently is capable of doing, and changes over time. The spells that the book provides are general, and basic. Later, it becomes apparent that all the spells it provides only fall into one school of magic. This would lead into a plot later on in the series about a cult or evil magic users seeking the powerful book collection.
Perhaps you have two separate novels, not one. But it is your story (or stories), and only you can decide who to treat as the main character, and what POV you will use. As you correctly surmised, these decisions result in different stories.
If they're both in the same world and their plots are linked, just tell both of them - alternate between the characters. If the ideas are that similar they should work together fine, and you have good plot motivation in drawing them together over the course of the first half of the novel or something.
I second Melzaar the Almighty; if they can be told together, combine the ideas. Or, perhaps start with one and do a sequel with the second idea.
If I was to read the blurb to both the stories I would choose the second one. You can combine them if you choose or use one later.
You could write it as the same story, but form two different perspectives, making two novels in total, with neither one taking place before the other. Aside form that, I can only tell you which one I like best (the second one). But what good is my advice for how to tell your story? That's up to you.
Thank you all for the prompt replies. This was certainty a good community to become part of. As far as possibilities for future books, the 2nd idea has more potential (I.E. there are more books and an evil group is looking for them.) The first idea was my first main character. When developing a back-story for the side characters I found that I had a lot of ideas revolving around the sorcerer. So much in fact, that he had potential to form a better plot line than my first character. I am not sure how to go about writing a dual-point-of-view book. Probably the best example of that would be George Martin's A dance with dragons. So many good ideas though. I think that finally trying to get feedback on two concepts to find a better one is helping me sort out the confusion. If any of you ever read the Salvatore books, or played the old online games, my ideas are most attracted to spells like these. Instead of weaving your hands and shooting a fireball, many of the magic spells would be component based. You cant just shoot a fireball, you gotta go get bat dung and sulfur and mix them together, or something wacky like that.
A dual point of view book is easier to write, I think, than you're thinking. Simply, you write one chapter from one point of view, and another chapter from another point of view. Alternate, and you have yourself a story. Try it! Write a chapter from each point of view, see how it feels. If you still can't decide, just keep going. It sounds like a very interesting concept, and I would like to see how it all pans out.
