I had intended to draw together a cast of characters by introducing them one by one, as a series of events occur that ends up with several of them together in an alleyway, suddenly realizing that something big is happening and that they are caught up in it.
quote:
Now, with nights' dark tresses gathering in the alley around them, three men looked at each other, and uneasily realized that they stood in the hinge of fate.
From the comments I have received it seems that one way to sidestep the confusion and to deliver information as the reader needs it would be to, simply, write more. I could restructure the one chapter into two or three, and spend more time with each character.
I had earlier thought of using some mechanism at this stage to tie the seemingly disparate pieces together instead. I'd like to give it a try, so...
Can you put forth some examples, either from your own writing, or from published works, in which a fairly large number of characters (in my case 7) are introduced fairly rapidly? By means of some mechanism that is not overly intrusive and not too over used? I had tried to do that in a more minor way within the piece by having laughter rise from the market square, and showing the response of various characters to the sound, very different characters with very different responses.
And, finally, I had intended to end each chapter with some prose as a means to deliver background information to the reader on the rise to consciousness of a powerful entity.
Is that a newbie mistake? Like the infamous prologue?
Ideas? Comments?
[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited August 18, 2004).]
I would create a problem for one character, (assuming your main character). Then have him go search out the other two and ask for help. Carry on with those three characters for a bit and then feather-in the others in the next chapter or two. Seven is alot of characters to handle right away.
Question: How many out of these seven are going to be possible POV charcaters? Hopefully not all seven! What a headache! For you and for your readers.
After you know that, start out with two. Then add in a third or possibly a couple of the background or secondary people. Move on to the next chapter, and intro the next POV character, and a couple of other secondaries. Pretty soon you will have the whole cast intro'd and zowie that's alot of people!
Then you can show how each of those characters finds out about the awakening of your powerful entity. After that, they all hook-up in the alley. It's takes a bit longer to get there, but don't bog us down with character itroductions. It will be like a crowded elevator.
Those are my suggestions, in simple terms. I hope that helps.
[This message has been edited by TruHero (edited August 18, 2004).]
However, if you have finished the novel, then you need to brush up on the kinds of viewpoints from which you can write. Thus, you should get a copy of Orson Scott Card's CHARACTER AND VIEWPOINT as a beginning text.
But this won't be enough. POV may be the most important technique you'll have to grapple with as a writer, because it is how you'll relate to your readers. Card's book is good, but it's not enough--at least not for me. You have to read a lot of fiction, paying close attention to viewpoint. You'll have to think about how the story would be quite different if the viewpoint was changed. And someday down the road you'll want to read THE RHETORIC OF FICTION by Wayne Booth, which really blows the whole notion of viewpoint apart. Good stuff.
A good exercise you might want to consider is to tell the story of Three Little Pigs from various viewpoints, so you can see firsthand what you gain and loose with each one.
Finally, in direct answer to your question, a story in which seven principle characters are introduced rapidly, read Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE. You'll only have to read the first 30 pages or so to see how it's down. And you'll also see the drawback: You won't know which characters are impotant. WAR AND PEACE is a great novel--perhaps the greatest novel ever written--but the hardest thing about reading it the first time is that you don't know which characters are important and which aren't.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited August 18, 2004).]
I'll tell you how I might do it, and you can take it or leave it. Doesn't make no never mind to me. But sometimes suggestions can get your juices flowing.
First I think I might write a short beginning chapter to set up the impending conflict. Something showing one of the bad guys preparing, or the gathering of the dog-creatures (sorry, I forgot what you called them), or something that grabs my interest as a reader and gets me through the next section to find out what's going to happen. A bit of a cliffhanger, if you will. Because if you start out cold introducing these seven characters I'm likely to lose interest. BUT, if you grab my interest, I'll put up with seven pages of intro to get back to the juicy stuff.
Next, I'd step back (not necessarily in time, but in tension) and do a page or less on each of these seven figures. Just to give a flavor for who they are. I'd name each section something like, The First, The Second, etc.
Third, I'd jump right into that marvelous explosive conflict, following ONE of these seven until they all come together, identifying each of them with some characteristic that the reader is going to easily recognize from the previous introductions. That'll be easy for Marta and Helmut.
And bytheway, the line you quote above is delicious, IMO. Some might say a bit flowery, but that's your voice. It works wonderfully for me. I could read it all day long.
I was also thinking about how they do it in "heist" movies.
These stories use what I’m going to call a "recruitment" introduction scheme.
Usually what happens is that one person has the idea and recruits each of the other needed persons. They normally do this by having the main character interview each one of the supporting characters. They get each person “lined up” and move on to the next. Then at a later point, all of the supporting characters join the main character at the “headquarters” to get the action rolling.
But I think what you are really looking for is what King does in The Tommyknockers. Independent characters, who don’t know each other. Each doing their own thing, until they find out that what they are doing is connected.
The first book is STARTIDE RISING, and in it, he spends a chapter on each character, and introduces much more than seven characters (or so it seems to me in retrospect).
The other is UPLIFT WAR, and in it, he spends more time with fewer characters at the beginning and brings in the others later, one by one.
I think the way he did it in UPLIFT WAR works better, but you may disagree. So read both of them and see what you think.