A quick poll about Quaranteam Book Two (Patreon)
Content
So I'm just starting to get some of the planning for Quaranteam Book Two done in my spare time, scribbling down notes on scraps of paper or whiteboards around my writing space, and I find myself with a conundrum I want the audience's thoughts on.
So Book One was written entirely from Andy's perspective. That said, we've gotten insights into how other people are thinking and feeling via side stories like Phil's Tale, Piper's Prelude and the upcoming McCallister's Madness.
With Book Two, I have three major paths in front of me, and I haven't decided which to go on yet, so I thought I'd ask you, the readers, what you want from Book Two. Feel free to write comments supporting your argument and trying to convince others.
Path One (Classic): Write Book Two, like Book One, entirely from Andy's perspective, keeping him as the lone protagonist of the story. Pros: Story continuity is a little easier to maintain, the audience has more attachment to the protagonist. Allows space for "side stories" to fill in other things from time to time. Cons: Difficult to show multiple sides of anything without side stories, Andy's perspective is consistent but lacks variety.
Path Two (Modern): Write Book Two with multiple protagonists, a la The Expanse books or the Game of Thrones books, with Andy being one of a handful of main characters in the book, who we shift between here and there. If I take this approach, I'm imagining 3-5 protagonists, not the full revolving door approach of Brewster's Brood. Pros: Lets the story have multiple perspectives and allows the story to focus on things happening away from the House of Rook. Andy doesn't have to be the center of every scene. Cons: Multiple protagonists sometimes causes confusion in the audience, continuity gets a bit trickier to maintain, takes some focus away from the House Of Rook.
Path Three (Hybrid): Write Book Two mostly from Andy's perspective, but with interludes, every 2-4 chapters, written from a different character's perspective, as the story needs. Andy would still be the protagonist of the story, but we would have regular breaks to other characters, letting us see parts of the story that aren't contained within just Andy's point of view. I anticipate Book Two also running 50 chapters in total, so you'd probably be looking at, rough guess, 35 chapters of Andy and 15 chapters of other people. Pros: Still has a strong central protagonist the audience is already attached to, but gives some flexibility to show relevant things outside his scope. Still allows for larger "side stories" to fill in parts people are especially interested in. Cons: Cuts away from the protagonist people are attached to maybe characters they care about less.
My final thoughts: Obviously, there's pros and cons of each of these approaches to me, but you people have been so fantastically supportive of me and my work that I want you to have a say in this. Those of you who are regulars to the polls will notice there's no fun/jokey answer here, nor an option for "do what you want" because, well, I don't know what I want. Not yet. I'm very interested to hear what everyone thinks I should do for Book Two, and thank you once again for everything. The poll will be up for a week, and you're welcome to talk about it in the comments section or on the Discord.