I’ve been considering an interesting idea: a book with multiple chapters, each of which covers the entire life of a character. The chapters cover different times, but as you read it you get more and more elements until the entire story becomes clear. Does this seem workable? Could it make a good story? And what advice would you suggest?
It's workable because it's been done before and similar things have be done. For me more is needed to make a good story than just an idea to write the life of an entire cast of characters - so jury still out on that one. A good thing about this is the characters endings can vary without too much disappointment to the reader. If you have two characters you love and one gets their "happy ending" and the other fails, it can be easier to swallow. My advice Make each character very distinctive with their own voice Read, read, read - novels in this exact style Be well organised - have a clear goal for the characters and a clear goal for the story. Maybe some thorough planning would be beneficial in this situation. There is usually still a higher archy even in a novel like this so think about who are ultimate star is. Make sure you have a cast of CHARACTERS not a cast of POV's - by this I mean make sure they are all fully fleshed out not just observers that are simply reactive and commentary. This characters are ok but hardly anyone you root for. consider using and learning how to use third person limited
Yes, it's workable, but it needs lots of preparation. Assuming you want your story to cover an arch and your individual viewpoints to have impact on each other's life, you need to keep track of what each one is doing at a certain time and make sure your other viewpoints get impacted by it at their proper time. I do it with outlining and lots and lots of thinking (which isn't accounted for by word count, but oh well).
It can be done, you should brainstorm ahead of time though. Always keep the same characters that you want to switch viewpoints with.
I would be very careful with an approach like that. In fact I wouldn't do it unless there's a very good story reason for it, otherwise it would come across as gimmicky. It very well might anyway.
Yes, you have a point. However, I feel like it’s a good way to write this particular tale, as a single viewpoint wouldn’t encompass the story properly. Thanks! I do have a ‘star’, and I’m tempted to have him not be a POV to keep him mysterious. Of course, I may not.
If I'm understanding you correctly, each chapter would tell a complete story, with all the stories interrelated somehow to eventually form a more cohesive story. That sounds ambitious and could be really cool, but would require a lot of preparation/ outlining (something I have a really hard time with). I don't know if something quite like that has been done, but there are books where each chapter is told from the first person point of view of different characters. For example, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying or, for younger readers, Jerry Spinelli's Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush? Epistolary novels like Dracula might also fit the bill.
It sounds like one of those books that span generations. The only unique thing would be that a character's whole life is spelt out in a single chapter - but what would such a restriction add to your story? I'm not sure I see it as anything other than a gimmick that makes your writing more difficult, your book harder to sell, and doesn't really add anything a similar book with a less restrictive structure doesn't. Anyway, I like your avatar! Is it your own drawing?
Thank you for your critique. And it won’t exactly be an entire life spelled out, as chapters will overlap in places. One character’s tale will end early, but the last fight he takes place in is a much later chapter. Oh, it’s not mine, unfortunately.
