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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/29886
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Wondering if anyone with great wisdom can help me...

I have 2 problems really that have pretty much stopped me writing anything decent for a few weeks. I'm on my first ever novel and have no experience with writing apart from trawling the internet for advice and articles.

1) I feel my story will span over a few books because there is so much to tell. So I don't really want to "present" my antagonist until near the end of the first novel. Instead she tricks another character into doing her bidding as the world she wants to take control of is protected from her, but only for now.

However, as I write I'm finding the antagonist's story goal less than intriguing and if I'm honest very samey and cliché in comparison to so many other stories: She wants to destroy the institution for what happened to her as a child as payback. Now, one of the MCs will ironically share this passion to destroy the status quo, or at least part of it after what she goes through herself so I think that's a decent link there. However, the antag has to murder the last living heir in order to take full control of a state that has wronged her so she can run it better.

2) This is the "In over my head" part: I have a good few characters who are geographically separated throughout the story. I have been writing the chapters as multiple POV's (Every chapter sees a diff POV - like GRRMartin) I'm just wondering if this is ridiculous to try and manage for my first ever book?

I have no prior writing experience but now that I've been mulling this over for over two years, writing bits here and there, it's like I owe it to the book and myself to finish it now. There's no question, I have to finish it.

I really don't think I can write it any other way other than using multiple POVs. It seems to be working fine up until the point where I suddenly realised my antagonist's goals started to feel flat and boring. (See point 1 above) I want her to be feared tremendously, with an air of mystery what with not been seen in years etc. and I don't want to write her POV as to give away what she is thinking etc but there are at least five to six other characters that are or will be linked together. This seems like a good sign to me although they are not linked together by the antagonist but will turn out to be.

So I suppose my two questions boil down to: Is there possibly a way to spice up my antagonist's goal? I have her backstory tucked away in the corner of my brain somewhere but I think revenge has just been done to death at this stage or am I being too hard on myself?

And

Am I being completely crazy to attempt multiple POVs on my first novel?

If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you very much!!

Original score: 3