Okay so I'm starting a new novel. In the novel the two main female characters , Lia and Rem have been friends since childhood. They grew up in an orphanage together. Their childhoods are significant because one of the girl's parents was mysteriously assassinated , and the other girl's father is a demon while her mother was executed by the government for being a demon cultist. I'm wondering should I start the story with their childhoods or what. Several very significant events happen during this time and I want to show these scenes . However the other two characters , the two male characters have nothing to do with this and I am wondering if it would weaken the story to start out way before the male characters even enter the scene. Lia is the main character of the story and I want to focus on her (and the source of her anger , her parent's murders) and make sure she is established as a character. Also I would like the write the story in third person limited , from the point of view of Lia, but I am somewhat afraid that if I do this I won't be able to display the other characters very well. So any advice ? It would be much appreciated !
Maybe you could start it in the current day, and keep flashing back to their past or having memories, so that the whole story of their background is only gradually revealed as the story goes on? It might be more intriguing to read that way, in a 'the plot thickens...' sort of way.
I would probably begin in the present also, with reference back to past events as they become relevant. I don't much like the term "flashback", which to me implies a jump in story time, and there is more than that one way to accomplish it. Third person limited does leave some leeway to make planned departures to other viewpoints as necessary; more so than with a first person POV. Nevertheless, I would limit the POV excursions unless you are planning to have one major secondary POV used throughout. Often that will be an adversary, where you wish to show that person's perspective in a different light than your protagonist would see it. In your case, though, if Lia and Rem are currently living separate lives, you could begin by alternating between their lives on chapter boundaries until their lives converge. At that point you may want to mostly have one of them dominate for the POV, with infrequent shifts to the other to show certain key events from each perspective. More than one POV is a bit trickier to write, as you have to pay closer attention to narrative voices.
