Need help with multiple MC story

[Nevafrost]

Some of you might know that I'm rewriting my fiction. Now, I don't want to rush it aymore and perfect it through constant editing and rethinking the plot.
But I'm stuck on something rn. My fiction has multiple MCs (4 to be precise, all female) and I don't know how I should write about them.
I haven’t read any multiple MC story as far as I remember. I need some tips to at least start writing.

 

[KryogenTG]

I think you could start writing in one PoV, introducing the other characters. Then when the readers are familiar with the others you can start jumping around between them

 

[Indigodarkchild]

I think you could start writing in one PoV, introducing the other characters. Then when the readers are familiar with the others you can start jumping around between them

Agreed. You should do back story on each character, that way when ( or if) they meet, we have an understanding on who they are.

 

[Nevafrost]

They all are together, working on something. So, can't I just write in third person POV?

 

[Eldoria]

They all are together, working on something. So, can't I just write in third person POV?

Of course, why not?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Though different characters may take turns in the lead, most stories have one, single main character, at least for one "book" if a larger work (as an example, my own "Between Worlds" - no longer here, sadly, but on Pocket FM as Between Earth and Pyrroth, had a main cast of six (temporarily swollen to fourteen for the second arc, though only three of the added eight are really important), occasionally followed different characters, but was primarily the story of David West. Book Two, if I get that far, is mostly the story of his daughter and her twin brother and may swap between them or just focus on her (I haven't decided), while Book Three would probably be their younger brother's story.

When the characters are not together, focus on one, and follow that character until either:
1) They meet up with one of the other main characters.
2) They hit a "cliffhanger" moment, and you want to torture increase the suspense by jumping to another track instead of resolving the dilemma.
This is a style of storytelling developed for television and popularized on soap operas and "telenovellas" called a "quick take." It also appears in some "team" comic books. Ah, one other example of this is in most of the Scooby Doo stories when Fred suggests they split up and search for clues - the story either splits to follow both groups, or just ignores him and Daphne until they meet up with the other three because the antics of Shaggy, Scooby and Velma are what most viewers tune in for.

 

[Nevafrost]

Of course, why not?

I've tried to write my novel in third person POV all this time. But people said there were too many characters to keep in mind (as they are together almost all the time). I guess I need a good multiple MC book for inspiration lol. I tried to find multiple MC books but failed. There were 2 MCs max.

 

[Eldoria]

The issue isn't how many MCs you have, but how prominent your characters are. If the MCs are 1D or 2D characters who are too monotonous, they tend to be forgotten.

You need to design humane characters (3D), ensuring each MC has a unique voice that readers can recognize.

Please read this thread:

Writing - How do you make your character's voice come alive in dialogue?

Living Character Voices in Dialogue Every character has a unique personality that makes them a complete individual. Indeed, some characters may have similar personalities. Empathy, anger, assertiveness, etc, can be possessed by anyone. However, unique characters usually emphasize one or more...

forum.scribblehub.com

 

[Zagaroth]

So, I have 3 MCs, write in third person, and the PoV rotates between them.

Once I got better, a single chapter only has a single PoV, but I didn't always know how to complete a scene at first using a single PoV.

The characters all have distinct voices, and I occasionally use a secondary character's PoV for a chapter. How they view the world is a little different, and it reflects in their PoV even when written in third person.

Mordecai's view of the world tends to always have a little bit of being analytical. Not cynical, just, there's always a part of his head space devoted to puzzling things out.

Kazue's thoughts tend to wander and hop and need to be reigned in and refocused. Easily flustered and sometimes overthinks things. She's basically been afflicted with a combination of ADHD traits from both me and my wife.

Moriko tends to prefer a straight forward point of view, and finds herself amused at the quirks of the other two. They are both weirdo nerds and she loves them for it.

For other examples of stories told in 3rd person from multiple PoVs, I can point to both Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) and GRRM (Game of Thrones), though I think both of them trend towards too many PoVs.

For other progression fantasy, I would recommend Beware of Chicken. Now, BoC sort of only has one MC, but the rest of the cast are very important and have their own stories going on, and get their own arcs and such. So it also sort of has a lot of MCs with their own, intersecting stories. Depends on how you look at it.

 

[Nevafrost]

Though different characters may take turns in the lead, most stories have one, single main character, at least for one "book" if a larger work (as an example, my own "Between Worlds" - no longer here, sadly, but on Pocket FM as Between Earth and Pyrroth, had a main cast of six (temporarily swollen to fourteen for the second arc, though only three of the added eight are really important), occasionally followed different characters, but was primarily the story of David West. Book Two, if I get that far, is mostly the story of his daughter and her twin brother and may swap between them or just focus on her (I haven't decided), while Book Three would probably be their younger brother's story.

When the characters are not together, focus on one, and follow that character until either:
1) They meet up with one of the other main characters.
2) They hit a "cliffhanger" moment, and you want to torture increase the suspense by jumping to another track instead of resolving the dilemma.
This is a style of storytelling developed for television and popularized on soap operas and "telenovellas" called a "quick take." It also appears in some "team" comic books. Ah, one other example of this is in most of the Scooby Doo stories when Fred suggests they split up and search for clues - the story either splits to follow both groups, or just ignores him and Daphne until they meet up with the other three because the antics of Shaggy, Scooby and Velma are what most viewers tune in for.

Any book recs where all the MCs are together?(preferably 3 MCs or more). I can't seem to wrap my head around all the advices unless I read something similar lol. If you can suggest some, I'll appreciate it much!

 

[L1aei]

Any book recs where all the MCs are together?(preferably 3 MCs or more). I can't seem to wrap my head around all the advices unless I read something similar lol. If you can suggest some, I'll appreciate it much!

Three MC's who are always together? If you don't mind occasional the smut, I'd recommend Rebirth of the Nephilim for having three MCs always together. But it might be different than what you imagined.

 

[Eldoria]

Three MC's who are always together? If you don't mind occasional the smut, I'd recommend Rebirth of the Nephilim for having three MCs always together. But it might be different than what you imagined.

She's still too young to read it (well, I, as an adult, don't even read it. lol). You might want to suggest more friendly fiction that anyone can read. Yuru Camp, for example.

 

[Nevafrost]

Three MC's who are always together? If you don't mind occasional the smut, I'd recommend Rebirth of the Nephilim for having three MCs always together. But it might be different than what you imagined.

Usually I don't read smut but I decided to give it a try as I have to read smth lol. And saw it's RPG(?). Sadly, I don't like reading LitRPG but I'll give it try because the plot is interesting hehee.

 

[L1aei]

She's still too young to read it (well, I, as an adult, don't even read it. lol). You might want to suggest more friendly fiction that anyone can read. Yuru Camp, for example.

Very true. @Nevafrost , wait until you are more mature, please.

Usually I don't read smut but I decided to give it a try as I have to read smth lol. And saw it's RPG(?). Sadly, I don't like reading LitRPG but I'll give it try because the plot is interesting hehee.

Ah, okay. Up to you.

 

[Nevafrost]

She's still too young to read it (well, I, as an adult, don't even read it. lol). You might want to suggest more friendly fiction that anyone can read. Yuru Camp, for example.

I actually thought the cover would bear smth explicit but it didn’t. So, I thought it has smut occasionally as @L1aei said. But if it has too much smut, I would have to drop it. I don’t (can't) like reading smut.

 

[Zagaroth]

Any book recs where all the MCs are together?(preferably 3 MCs or more). I can't seem to wrap my head around all the advices unless I read something similar lol. If you can suggest some, I'll appreciate it much!

You probably picked up on this as we posted across each other, but to be sure: yes, during most of the story, the three MCs are together, or at least close proximity, and are always in contact with each other. They form a single narrative from multiple PoVs.

Oh, and no explicit scenes, though things can get a little bit heated and flirty before hand, and there are sometimes high-level overviews of what happened, when it matters enough.

 

[Nevafrost]

You probably picked up on this as we posted across each other, but to be sure: yes, during most of the story, the three MCs are together, or at least close proximity, and are always in contact with each other. They form a single narrative from multiple PoVs.

Oh, and no explicit scenes, though things can get a little bit heated and flirty before hand, and there are sometimes high-level overviews of what happened, when it matters enough.

Mind providing the link?

 

[Zagaroth]

Sure: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1063356/no-need-for-a-core/

It's also the link you get when you click on the picture in my signature. :)

 

[RavenWulfgar]

Some of you might know that I'm rewriting my fiction. Now, I don't want to rush it aymore and perfect it through constant editing and rethinking the plot.
But I'm stuck on something rn. My fiction has multiple MCs (4 to be precise, all female) and I don't know how I should write about them.
I haven’t read any multiple MC story as far as I remember. I need some tips to at least start writing.

Okay, this is one that RK and I are doing right now. The thing is, ours is sort of an anthology series that all takes place in the same universe; The Nocturneverse.

What we've essentially done is introduce characters sort of one at a time from different games. We took the notes from the solo sessions we're playing and turned them into stories.

That means each character we're playing on our solo games (We're using World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition as the setting so, our world but a darker underbelly of it) and our characters seem to have events that are coinciding. You have a party of four characters, that's already fairly gameable. I would say get your hands on something like Amazing Adventures (might as well grab Manual of Monsters too...they're free so why not?) and roll them as characters and then play the entire thing solo with something like Mythic GM Emulator and do some random rolling, see what kind of things they get into. Write that. The reason I recommend AA and MoM is because it's a universal game and you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, setting doesn't matter.

If they're starting out together, you already have an adventuring party of sorts. If not, then write about each of them separately and have a shared mission bring them together with them working out the bumps along the way. There again, the game itself would give you all the major events and you can write something to bring that adventure that happened in your mind to life on the page. If you have any questions or anything, feel free to reach out. Happy to help out in any way ya might need.

If you want to join in the fun of The Nocturneverse as practice, hey, jump in. Shoot, it's a big ol' honkin' open table. The more, the merrier.

 

[Nevafrost]

Okay, this is one that RK and I are doing right now. The thing is, ours is sort of an anthology series that all takes place in the same universe; The Nocturneverse.

What we've essentially done is introduce characters sort of one at a time from different games. We took the notes from the solo sessions we're playing and turned them into stories.

That means each character we're playing on our solo games (We're using World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition as the setting so, our world but a darker underbelly of it) and our characters seem to have events that are coinciding. You have a party of four characters, that's already fairly gameable. I would say get your hands on something like Amazing Adventures (might as well grab Manual of Monsters too...they're free so why not?) and roll them as characters and then play the entire thing solo with something like Mythic GM Emulator and do some random rolling, see what kind of things they get into. Write that. The reason I recommend AA and MoM is because it's a universal game and you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, setting doesn't matter.

If they're starting out together, you already have an adventuring party of sorts. If not, then write about each of them separately and have a shared mission bring them together with them working out the bumps along the way. There again, the game itself would give you all the major events and you can write something to bring that adventure that happened in your mind to life on the page. If you have any questions or anything, feel free to reach out. Happy to help out in any way ya might need.

If you want to join in the fun of The Nocturneverse as practice, hey, jump in. Shoot, it's a big ol' honkin' open table. The more, the merrier.

Okay, first of all, I have absolutely zero knowledge and experience in gaming. Even when my brother would binge play video games, I wouldn’t give a shit because I wasn’t interested.
So, how do you write novels like a game? (Sorry for sounding like dimwit lol. I never even read LitRPG)