I have an idea. Instead of having a single protagonist throughout the entire plot, each chapter has its own protagonist. Some are sympathetic, others… not so much. Each protagonist’s story contributes to the overall plot.
Are any of you aware of any similarly-structured stories? Do you think it would work?
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Naked Came the Stranger did that back in 1969.
Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon uses that structure.
Game of Thrones is 5 books, a couple novellas and some short stories that more or less does that. One reason why despite the pretty decent writing I dislike it intensely. I hate books I need to keep a sticky note in reminding me who is who.
This movie, in some sense:
Slacker (1991, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
Asimov did an award-winning novel – THE GODS THEMSELVES – where three spouses in a polygamous marriage so rotate for each chapter of the book’s middle portion: one is the protagonist, and then the second, and then the third, and then the first one again, and on and on, and on and on, for a novella-length story.
(So why did I say it’s a novel? Because that section comes after the opening chapters – presented somewhat out of order – showcasing yet another protagonist, and contributing to the same overall plot; it’s all then followed up by yet another other protagonist taking the stage in the closing chapters.)
I thought the OP was suggesting that there would be no going back to previous protangonists - which is what happens in Godbody.
"The novel uses the technique of having multiple characters speak sequentially in the first person, with no announcement that the first-person speaker has changed. A first reading can be confusing, but subsequent readings reveal that Kesey always provides a clue, quickly referring to the previously-presumed first character in the third person. "
IF I’m reading you right… well, the idea is pretty old. As far back as the 1860’s, Willkie Collins used the gimmick of multiple narrators and multiple protagonists for each chapter of the same story in ***The Woman in White ***and The Moonstone.
Some of the narrators are good, decent people that we root for… but a few are evil, and some are wholly unlikeable, even when they’re not criminals.
It’s also been used in video games. In Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, you play as a series of viewpoint characters stretching from a Roman centurion in 26 BC to a college student in Rhode Island in 2000 AD. The sequence isn’t strictly chronological, instead skipping around as various characters interact with different elements of the antagonist’s plan, with a frame story of the most modern character experiencing their stories.
Recently, Nick Hornby has done this.
I would think The Sound and the Fury fits the bill.
It’s not exactly an idea. It’s a device, and one that has been used by numerous authors before this.
The good news is that this, plus an actual idea, equals a book proposal.
To the OP… Only way to find out if it’s good or if it’ll work… Is to write it.
“Haunted”, by Chuck Palahniuk, does something I think is pretty close to what you mean, and does it quite interestingly.
“Number of the Beast”, by Robert Heinlein, also switches POV from one character to another, with first-person narration, periodically. I enjoyed the book, a lot of people don’t.
I haven’t seen it but isn’t this the way Cloud Atlas is done?
Dragon Warrior IV/Dragon Quest:The Chapters of the Chosen employs a similar structure, where each part of the game is divided into “chapters” and in each chapter you play characters in one part of an over-arching story arc that comes together in the final chapter.
Planning on it. I’ll post it on my blog when it’s done, then share it with the Dope.