Melanie Nilles

Once you’ve read Dragon Prophecy, you may want to ask, “How do you work with so many characters?”

I have to say that I don’t sit and analyze how I do anything.  I’ve found that, when I do, I have trouble focusing on the story.  After the fact, I can sit and analyze all I want, which is often how I find plot holes and figure out where the frell the problems are.  A lot of times I make fascinating discoveries about the story that I didn’t realize were there too, which always feels good.

Since I’m in the midst of a WIP now that involves multiple characters, after having written two YAs with only two or three POVs, I’ve looked back on the Legend of the White Dragon series.  Throughout the four books of that series I counted over two dozen POVs.  I laugh maniacally because I have no idea how it happened!  Bwuhahaha!  You shall not have my secrets!
Kidding!

Okay, seriously,  I do whatever the story guides me to do.  I find that I prefer 3rd person close POV.  First person is too close for me, but I have to have some closeness.  I can’t read first so why would I write it?  I also cannot write from only one POV.  It’s dull and boring.  Other characters are like the spice that adds flavor to the mix.  Some stories are about more than one character’s experiences.

In the case of the Legend of the White Dragon and my current WIP, there’s a larger story arc affecting the characters and touching their lives.  I try to limit how many POV characters I use, and I did write out a few from the series in rewrites, but I still ended up with quite a number.  None of them has a small role, though.  Each of their lives is important to the overall arc.  In fact, it’s what the story is about–how the plot events affect each person and how each of their decisions moves the plot.  It’s so intertwined they can’t be separated.

I love seeing into the different lives of the characters.  Each has their own motivations and skills.

So, how did I do it?  It wasn’t easy.  I worked slowly.  It can take me a while to get back to a character once I leave a scene.  I have to write linearly once I have an outline.  I cannot write a scene that takes place any time ahead, but I can make notes about what I think should happen.  But by the time I reach that point in the future, something may have changed.  (I hate rewriting.)  That means that I write one scene, switch character, and have to find that character again.  By the third book of the LOTWD series, it was easy, but in the first book, I didn’t know who the characters were right away.  That took some discovery.  I often found myself returning to a character but needing to go back to read a previous scene from their POV to get the feel of that character.  It’s like an actor who has to get into character.  That’s what I do when I switch characters.

My current WIP has the same aspect to it.  But with only seven POVs, I don’t have as much trouble switching among the cast. Did I say “only”?  I’m bad for that.  I get this grand vision in my head and feel that it has to be told by several characters.  Not all stories are like that, mind you.  Dark Angel is focused on three and another YA WIP I’ve completed has two.  I just cannot do one POV.  My mind does not like the limitation.

I think in the end, it depends on the story and the writer.  Some writers, like myself (and GRRM comes to mind), see something bigger that needs more, something with a large plot that just wouldn’t shine without meeting a wide range of characters.  Others, like JKR, have a knack for keeping up the mystery, which is best seen through one POV to discover the answers with that character.  And last, I believe that the writer determines the story (obviously–duh!) and the story wraps itself around our unique personalities, which is why we each write the POVs we do.