I have had some harsh feed back from people about my opening 2 chapters. Well i stick by my ideas. But this time I thought it might help if i had some advice that was not second rate. - Sorry mum. My idea is, and has been from the start that my main character dies at the end of the first chapter. Then continues to return in the second chapter, alive.
Why does the character die in the first chapter and then return alive in the second? I'd certainly like to know. Depending on how you've done it this can kill or make a story. Many good tales start with the reader knowing what would happen but at other times it's just a total plot killer. This kind of plot device is all about execution and that's something that may be more trouble than it's worth.
I do explain it in the third chapter, but the main character only returns in the first paragraph of the second chapter.
Well, you don't give nearly enough info for people to tell whether the way you've written this idea works or not. It could work. Pretty much anything could work. Purple elephants drinking milkshakes on the moon could work. If the writer does a good enough job of pulling it off. If there've been complaints about how you wrote it, then perhaps you didn't manage to pull it off. That's not to say that the idea itself is bad, just that you might need to work on how you write it. But not seeing the story for myself, I couldn't say. *shrug*
It all depends on how you write it. If you can sell it to the reader, great! If not, you need to find a way to disarm the reader's bullsh!t meter, make the reader stick with you long enough to find out what really happened.
So are you saying it would be a cliffhanger kind of ordeal were, as far as the reader knows, the character is dead but the reader then finds out he somehow survived the source of his apparent death? (sorry if this confused you )
Yes, i want the reader to read to keep reading. Not just for the sake of reading, but also to find out what happens next.
Not many people I know who read just for the sake of reading. Anyway, the key to writing something mysterious, like the spontaneous revival of a character is to hang a lantern on it (i.e. acknowledge it in your writing) If the character is just simply alive in the next chapter, the reader will be confused. So, you have to make it obvious that it's a mystery you intend on explaining later. You could have the character wake up and be shocked to learn he's still alive, or have flashbacks. Something to assure the reader you're not just insane
Well linear, but there are two story's running at through the novel. The main plot and a sub plot in dream sequences. Basically its goes chapter one - main C 2 - Sub C 3 - Main thats where I'm up to so far..
By the way, just an off-topic comment. I probably would have named this thread: Dead. But feeling much better now.
