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Hello all! It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, but it’s good to be back 😀 I have a plotting conundrum that I’m hoping to get some advice on.

To start, this is fantasy series that I’m working on, and for ease of remembrance I’ll just say that my protagonist’s name is Marie and the other primary character is Tom. My outline for their arcs goes like this:

Book 1: Positive arc for both Marie and Tom.

Book 2: Disillusionment arc for Marie, negative arc for Tom

Book 3: Positive arcs for both again.

My trouble is with book 2. In the previous book, both Marie and Tom will have alternating POVs. Yet in book 2 Tom’s POV scenes end at the midpoint of the story and he isn’t seen again until book 3.

I originally chose to do this because in book 2 after the midpoint, Tom gets caught as prisoner of war and is, well…tortured (though I promise it’s necessary for thematic reasons 😛 ). His story from there on cuts away from the main conflict and leads him into the depths of despair, though that’s really preparing him for a breakthrough in book 3. (I intended to reveal what happens to him in book 3 as well)

Simultaneously in book 2, Marie is experiencing a similar descent to despair via the plot events, even though her side of the story is less hopeless. Yet if I paired Tom’s tragic arc with hers…that’s one depressing story.

But here I run into my problem: is it even a good idea to cut off a major character’s POV halfway through book 2 of a series? Considering all that happens to Tom, I would have to practically reintroduce him in book 3. Which could work, since the story is primarily about Marie, and it would impact her arc when she finally learns what happens to him and it would also be a nice surprise for readers. Yet if I did include parts of Tom’s prisoner of war scenes in book 2, in book 3 the tension of readers knowing that Marie doesn’t know what happened to him could also be strong.

I hope that made a bit of sense at least. I know you can essentially pull off any kind of tricks in a book if you do it right, but I’m wondering if cutting off Tom’s POV is a wise decision to make and might distance him too much from readers. Any thoughts would be appreciated 🙂

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