sherlock.pngToday I read about sixty pages of an ARC that shall remain nameless. Fifty pages is usually my limit and about the time I started seriously contemplating quitting, I looked down and saw I was on page 50. I finished the chapter anyway and closed the book.

Here’s the deal, as a writer you generally don’t want to lay all your cards on the table in the first chapter. Maybe not even in the second or the third. In fact, probably not until the end. But you have to give your readers something. You really can’t expect them to read on and on to find out “what horrible thing happened to your character over the summer” or why they “hate their step-dad” or whatever if you don’t give them a hint or even a downright fact once in a while.

I think this book’s biggest problem is that it’s told from four points of view and the chapters are way too long. By the time I hit page 50, I was only partway into the fourth person’s POV chapter. Yeah…each character was given around 15 pages, consecutively. They each had some big mystery, but seriously, by the time I got to the third character, I couldn’t even remember who the first one was, let alone the hints of trouble I’d been given in Chapter One.

You can totally tell a book from four points of view. An excellent example is 6X. I sometimes wonder how a book like this makes it through all the steps to become a published book without someone, a friend, a spouse, a critique group member, an editor saying, “Hey, if you break these chapters up and mix them together more, this will work better.” The writing was fine, the characters interesting…but if I can’t keep track of who is who…well, I’m just not going to work that hard. I’m here for the entertainment! If I want to work, I’ll do my own writing.

Can any of you think of any four points of view books that work well?

P.S. If I sound a little snarky, I think it’s a combination of cabin fever (16 days of snow) and the fact that I’ve struck out on several books in a row and really need something fabulous to keep me from going bonkers! I know what Alix would say, “Get a TV! There’s all kinds of good stuff on TV!” Trust me, Alix, I’ve been thinking about it!