Episode 1 Troubles

I'm working on a "Tales of" book and I'm having trouble with the first story. The basic plot is that a sailor deserts from the Royal Navy and meets with the pirate crew he joins later. Problem is, he's just one character in an ensemble cast; there is no "star". I'm afraid, though, that if he features prominently in the first story the readers might think he should be the star of all the stories. I can think of 4 solutions, but they all have problems:

1. Write a different opening story and use this one as the second. This would solve the problem, but then I'd have to think up another opening story idea that doesn't seems forced.
2. Write the story, but not from his viewpoint. It might let people know that he'll be a recurring character, but not the star. Then again, it might not.
3. Write the story from whatever viewpoint, just don't have him star in the next one; the readers should get the picture. This would be my first choice except I'm not sure it's much of a solution.
4. Don't worry about it. Since I'm writing this post, this is obviously going to be darn hard to do.

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

Thanks, guys! This helps a bit.

Feathers said:

Okay, but here's the good news: Once I read a book where in the first story, some of the other charecters were introduced and I got to know them. Then in the next story It was like "Oh, I remember you." I was a bit dissapointed about not having the same MC but I got over it, since I already knew what the new MC was like. It did help that the author gave the new MC a personal scene in the first story...I felt connected to them personally. This eased the transition.

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That's more or less what I was doing already; maybe I shouldn't've worried so much.

NicoleMD said:

Is the location consistent throughout the pieces? If so, I'd play that up a bit so much so that it becomes its own character. Or if there's another object that can move throughout the stories, you can use that to anchor everything together.

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Most of the stories will take place on their ship. I don't know if I'm talented enough to make it into a character, but it's something to think about.

lucky8 said:

Can't see a problem with this option. Maybe there's something I don't understand about what you've got planned?

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That's a good point. Now that I think about it, Option 3 is just a rephrasing of Option 4. Whoops.

The Scip said:

I've read a few books like this and i hae to agree with feathers. I felt very attached to the MC in the first story and then got frustrated when the MCof the first story did not appear in the second.

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I figured that might PO the readers; now I have 2 people confirming it.