Does the start of your novel offer close-ups?
When I saw at the library the latest novel in an alternative-history series, I snapped it up.
Why wouldn’t I? The previous dozen volumes had not only explored an intriguing premise, but they’d show it to me through the perspectives of an well-developed cast.
Not the latest novel. The prologue, after briefly introducing one character, immediately brought another on stage, then yet another.
Would there be one or two main characters, people in whose shoes I’d enjoy walking? I couldn’t tell. At the start there were too many characters, none with more than a walk-on role.
Still, this is just the prologue, I told myself. Things will improve with Chapter One.
Instead, I encountered more of the same, but worse. Rather than simply introduce a half-dozen or more characters in one setting, the chapter split its large, shallow cast between two locations. I couldn’t keep everyone straight, let alone care what happened to them.
I closed the book to return to the library, grateful I’d not paid retail for the hardcover.
As much as I like intriguing scenarios, they’re never enough. Show me how a few, intriguing, three-dimensional characters respond to it. Then I might be interested.
