gabriella

At the beginning of my series, I have a prologue with Eric losing the amulet that contains his identity and being swept away by a river. There are scattered chapter-length memories throughout the book, as well, and I know that I could go through them all without actually telling the reader that he was a King, and by rights, will be. In the second book, there's another prologue with Eric as king and talking to the Orcs about waging war somewhere. There is no reference to him again throughout the whole book, except some telepathic commands through other characters. But, again those can be written without giving away his identity.

So my question is, is it too obvious that he's King? If it is, should I make it less obvious or should I just let everyone know? I had wanted to write it so that, when Brandon finds out at the end of the second book in the series, that's when the readers find out, too, but I don't know... I'm beginning to think that it's a little too obvious. Furthermore, do you think that it would be better if the readers knew, or if they found out at the end of the sequel, when Brandon finds out? Bah, I've been laboring over that question for weeks now, and I desperately need some guidance.

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johnybob

Wow tough question hehe

if you tell the reader that he's a king in the first book then that will take away something you are going to mention in the 2nd, so if you do decide to tell the reader he is a king then youll probally have to come up with another quality he has in the 2nd book. It is your own to decide, but I keeping mystery in the book about the characters is part of the fun of being an arthur



Wheres the spell check!

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stiltzkin

Certainly a problem I've encountered in the past, especially with character development is that I tend to give too much information about the characters when they're introduced (or in the proceeding few chapters). I find that the most interesting characters are those who's past is leaked out in drips and drabs, sometimes provoked by specific events.

I think that you shouldn't make it obvious that he's King. If you're worried about Eric's identity being too obvious then perhaps a different approach could be taken to coat Eric in mystery - Perhaps dump the dreams or memories all together, perhaps have another character more likely to have been King to throw readers off. Certainly I think if you play it right the readers will get a great shock when they find out when Brandon does, which would go down a treat!

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"If you know you're insane then you're not insane" - Mr. Baynes

gabriella

I think I might have decided on something to do.

In the prologue, I'm going to have Eric and his friends mentioning someone named Tiwol that they hate and bully constantly, even though Tiwol is the son of the King and heir to the throne. In another memory, that takes place earlier than the prologue, Tiwol will actually be in the scene.

For some reason, he comes to Cartha (I have vague ideas on why, but none are final). I'm going to make everyone think that Eric, on the otherhand, is sort of a righthand man to the King, and a general, which would be easy to picture since his father was a General.

In the end, I'll have Tiwol's head spiked on the gate, so that'll make everyone wonder who the King is, and then they see Eric.

What do you think?

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You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.