I have a story from the same world as the last two that started with Cordell’s Rebellion. The main character was a side character in Hour of Consequence. The story arc is complete. Unfortunately, there is no character arc. Oops!
What do I mean by this? In most interesting stories, the main character has an emotional connection to the activity and there should be some change in that character as a result. We map the change from the starting state all the way through to the end state. Right now, my character is simply an artifact passed around by other forces in the story. That’s not good.
Why can’t I see the character arc or his internal actions? I don’t know his motivations or his life experiences well. I’ve not spent enough time with people like him to have an understanding of their world view. In the previous story, he was mysterious to good effect, but that won’t work for a lead character.
I could try to find people with similar life situations and find out more about them. That wouldn’t be creepy at all. I could do some research and read quite a bit, but that’s not quite the same; it would feel like a copy of a copy.
Another option would be to change the character into something so unique that no one could compare him to anyone else. He would also be unrelatable. It would destroy everything he was in the previous novel
It may work to tell the story from the point of view of a different character. This would still leave my hero flat with no emotional connection. What’s more, I think it would be disrespectful to the character and to the real-life humans who are similar to him. This just isn’t a good option.
For now, I think I will set this story aside and work on something else. The tale has a lot of potential, but only if it can be done honestly. At the moment, the honesty does not manifest.