/lit/ - Literature

I am writing a novel that takes place over several centuries. Someone might remember me, I'm the guy who is writing about a privateer throughout one very long section. Anyway, the way that this book is formatted is a series of chronological journal entries from different authors over the centuries. I'm getting close to starting to write this section of the book, and the basic premise was for there to be two brothers, identical twins, who serve as co-captains on their privateering vessel. One would take the night watch, and the other would take the day watch. And I'd switch between entries from these two. I figured I could do a few neat tricks with this, and maybe even raise the stakes a great deal by having one of them die. Then I spent today mulling over my plans for this section of the book and think I want to do something different, and I'd like to hear from you guys if you'd care to comment.

Rather than have them serve as co-captains, what I have really done is set them up as captains on two privateering ships purposefully built to the task, sister ships. They look exactly the same, and even use the same name when out at sea, but they rove in two different places of a general area (the Gulf of Mexico down to the Caribbean), so that when enemy vessels report on their location, or the enemy navy is told of where they were last spotted by pensioned out prisoners from some of the captured ships, they constantly receive conflicting reports and generally making it much harder for them to be rundown for their poaching. However, I abstain from revealing this to the reader. To the reader it just comes off as there being two different captains on the same ship, and any discrepancies in exact locations can be accounted for by different dates on the journal entries. However, I intend to make it so that the enemy navy has had enough of their shit and sends out a third or second rate ship of the line to deal with what they believe is one ship. Then, and only then, when this battle occurs does the second ship arrive to even the odds, revealing to the reader plainly what has been going on, and allowing the twin brothers and their crews to overwhelm the enemy.

So, do I go with this, or do I just go with two guys on one ship handling the same job at different hours, and still fighting it out with a ship of the line (albeit a lower ranking one).