Hi, I've recently started writing a fanstasy novel focusing around three seemingly unrelated POVs in the same world. I'm structuring it so that you get a 'set' of chapters from the three characters, e.g. Character 1 Chapter 1, Character 2 Chapter 1, etc. When I started it, I played with the idea that the first POV is set at a later time as the other two and that POV Char 1 = POV Char 3, and main supporting character 1 = POV Char 2, set after the events of POVs 2 and 3. (I hope this isn't confusing) The idea is that you get a reveal at the end which sets up POVs 2 and 3 to meet to start the story of POV 1 as well as POV 1 revealing the true identities of the characters. I thought that it might be a bit confusing, so I've thought of changing it so that they are all unique characters and their stories don't intertwine, but that makes it seem silly (to me) that there would be three stories in the same book anyway. I wanted to know if my original idea is one that makes sense, or whether its not worth it to try and make the characters intertwine. Any comments would be greatly appreciated
I've seen pretty complex novels that were easy enough to follow -- authors have different ways to guide the reader, ranging from actual chapter titles ("Brian's Next Day") to more subtle things like voice, speech tags, and the like, so there's probably a lot of tools you can use to keep the reader from getting lost. I'd suggest trying it and seeing what happens.
Its worth trying - it sounds a little bit like what jake arnott dd with 'the long firm' - although that wasnt fantasy
You should read The Fifth Season. It's relatively similar in structure to what you're talking about, and it works really well.
So basically you have three POV characters whose stories start out unconnected, but connect later in the story? I've read a couple books like this and didn't find them confusing.
Doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with the approach. This is something beta readers can help with once it's written.
