Corrupting Power
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A quick poll about Quaranteam Book Two
🕑 Added 2022-06-29 22:10:24 +0000 UTCSo I'm just starting to get some of the planning for Quaranteam Book Two done in my spare time, scribbling down notes on scraps of paper or whiteboards around my writing space, and I find myself with a conundrum I want the audience's thoughts on.
So Book One was written entirely from Andy's perspective. That said, we've gotten insights into how other people are thinking and feeling via side stories like Phil's Tale, Piper's Prelude and the upcoming McCallister's Madness.
With Book Two, I have three major paths in front of me, and I haven't decided which to go on yet, so I thought I'd ask you, the readers, what you want from Book Two. Feel free to write comments supporting your argument and trying to convince others.
Path One (Classic): Write Book Two, like Book One, entirely from Andy's perspective, keeping him as the lone protagonist of the story. Pros: Story continuity is a little easier to maintain, the audience has more attachment to the protagonist. Allows space for "side stories" to fill in other things from time to time. Cons: Difficult to show multiple sides of anything without side stories, Andy's perspective is consistent but lacks variety.
Path Two (Modern): Write Book Two with multiple protagonists, a la The Expanse books or the Game of Thrones books, with Andy being one of a handful of main characters in the book, who we shift between here and there. If I take this approach, I'm imagining 3-5 protagonists, not the full revolving door approach of Brewster's Brood. Pros: Lets the story have multiple perspectives and allows the story to focus on things happening away from the House of Rook. Andy doesn't have to be the center of every scene. Cons: Multiple protagonists sometimes causes confusion in the audience, continuity gets a bit trickier to maintain, takes some focus away from the House Of Rook.
Path Three (Hybrid): Write Book Two mostly from Andy's perspective, but with interludes, every 2-4 chapters, written from a different character's perspective, as the story needs. Andy would still be the protagonist of the story, but we would have regular breaks to other characters, letting us see parts of the story that aren't contained within just Andy's point of view. I anticipate Book Two also running 50 chapters in total, so you'd probably be looking at, rough guess, 35 chapters of Andy and 15 chapters of other people. Pros: Still has a strong central protagonist the audience is already attached to, but gives some flexibility to show relevant things outside his scope. Still allows for larger "side stories" to fill in parts people are especially interested in. Cons: Cuts away from the protagonist people are attached to maybe characters they care about less.
My final thoughts: Obviously, there's pros and cons of each of these approaches to me, but you people have been so fantastically supportive of me and my work that I want you to have a say in this. Those of you who are regulars to the polls will notice there's no fun/jokey answer here, nor an option for "do what you want" because, well, I don't know what I want. Not yet. I'm very interested to hear what everyone thinks I should do for Book Two, and thank you once again for everything. The poll will be up for a week, and you're welcome to talk about it in the comments section or on the Discord.
Comments
CuyahogaKingKong
My suggestion would be primarily Andy, using POV sections from the other girls as periodic "act breaks." Using one of the other guys as alternate POVs creates the issue of having to establish at least some of those guys' own household of potentially two dozen girls each, which would be just a headache for the reader.
Cynthia Parker
I would go classic but the hybrid wouldn't bother me
SP Rupert
You had me at The Expanse.
Hugh Peeble
My 2 cents would be a preference stack rank of classic then hybrid then whatever you prefer. I tend to think of what you have done with Phil, Piper, and soon to be McAllister as what the hybrid would look like anyway.
Old Dragon
Assuming a slightly different perspective, Book One is not just our current main, but it's three off-shoots as well. In this case it is in it's own way already path number 3, the Hybrid. Book Two takes this very successful format and formalizes it into a primary protagonist, and then blends into it several lesser points of view. I think this is by far the best suggestion.
Justin
I like the hybrid approach. You still maintain Andy as the main character but you get more background information or points of view like with Phil’s tale that can add great value and information to the main plot and story. Which ever way Book 2 goes I am very much looking forward to it as well as the conclusion of book 1 and how the new hidden rooms will play into both.
I would like to stay with the classic I enjoy the series, and you have done a good job on the side books linking them back to the main story allows to keep the characters in sync and awesome reading.
patient1
I'm leaning towards hybrid. I liked the way the Niven & Pournelle novel Lucifer's Hammerl approached an apocalypse from different perspectives. Hybrid lets the door open for a chapter of background about what's happening with a family of Andy's in-laws elsewhere upon the Earth before he gets sucked into a side quest because he has an airplane, or the Air Force is looking for a back-channel deal to move people or microchips or baby formula or something, or Emily has a scheme.
Mark
I like the hybrid approach, but specifically wanted to suggest minimizing PoV changes within chapters. Some stories I've read change PoV from scene to scene, and even within a scene, without being clear about signaling the PoV change. I find the results very disorienting as I have to mentally switch from a story consumption mode to figuring out where The PoV went.
LightningCasino
I would much prefer the hybrid option. Within that hybrid option what about a perspective from a character that isn’t exactly having the best of, you know multiple partners if any, no mansion or safety estate. Just a thought of mine and I can’t figure out any other info to add. Anyway. Thank you for everything it’s amazing to read these as they come out. All the best mate =)
