Hi all, Even though I did not post much here, I learned so much and I am happy to say that I published my first book that I struggled with for over 12 years just by seeking advice here. Now I am in the process of starting a new book. I work at this job that has many different personalities and characters. My coworkers knew that I like to write so they suggest that I write a book where each chapter talk about a certain personality from our department. I am excited to write it but since its a new idea I am not sure how to proceed. Any advice would be appreciated.
A novel (a work of fiction) or a book, sort of nonfiction discussion of personality? I am not sure how things will work out of the co-workers don't see themselves as you and others do. Unless you stay on polite, general terms. Then it might be kind of boring, except for the narrow crowd of co-workers--which is okay, if that's what you're going for.
I could imagine a book like that being written like a collection of short stories; each chapter is a different short story featuring a personality solving a problem or dealing with an issue of some kind. That would be a good way to talk about each person without just dumping the information about them. Did something funny happen at the department once that makes a good story? Then you could include it in a chapter featuring one of the people involved. I'm not sure if that's what you had in mind for this book, but I hope this helps or sparks some inspiration.
It's hard to judge a writing from an idea. If you're excited about it, then by all means write it! I'm not sure how you're going to tackle it, though. Usually, I would be very excited about epic tales sprawling several point of views which ultimately coalesces in a great overarching plotline with an ending that is as grand as everything else in the story. Stories with a lot of characters are common. Some even boasted about it as their main "selling point". However, they're either (1) classic historical epics, or (2) modern SF epics. In both cases, the nature of the story they're telling justifies the massive roster. But office drama? It would be a bit more "grounded", mundane, and slice-of-life-y, then, which means there's a lot more that could go wrong since you won't have the luxury of a grand fantastic setting to help lift your weights.
Dracula, Frankenstein, Trainspotting. All good books with more than one narrator (or narrators-within-narrators, like narrator-ception in some cases). It’s workable.
