Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? II

[Lhundulinwen]

For me, it really depends on how many characters are in the story. Like in LOTR, at some points in the story, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, Frodo and Sam are all in different places. If made more sense to follow each of the groups up to a certain point and then go back and pick up another group. But if a book has a main character who is withdrawn most of the time, or is alone a lot (without monologues of course) there is no way for the reader to really know what is going on during most of the story. Plus, when you're not in a character's head, you can figure out the other characters personalities without having to see it through there eyes. I once read a book where you root for the main character through most of the book, but at the end you find out she was really a horrible person and leader. It was an odd book.

But then again, when you get into a character's head, you can see where they are coming from a lot better, especially if they are acting unrational on the outside. So, if a character is say, beating up their best friend, for example, you won't know why unless you've seen the action that caused the reaction or the character tells someone why. So, in that case it would be better to be in their heads I think.