What's up, my friend?
Abbie here, and welcome back to WritersLife
Wednesdays.
Today we are talking about dual point of views,
writing them and outlining them.
Basically, two characters telling the same
story.
Awhile ago I did a video about adding a protagonist
about halfway through your story, or switching
a protagonist, and making your reader care
just as much about that protagonist as the
first protagonist, but today we're taking
it from a slightly different angle and we're
talking about having two protagonists from
the outset.
When you're writing two protagonists, their
stories will be running parallel to each other
and probably interweaving and affecting each
other a lot.
They both have their own internal conflicts
and in the end will have their own separate
aha moments, but you want to make sure that
you balance their stories well.
That's what we're going to break down and
discuss in today's video, so grab a notebook
and let's get started.
I love writing dual point of views for a few
reasons.
First, because it's just more interesting
to write and read, in my opinion.
A story from the perspective of two different
characters so you get to see both sides of
the story.
Secondly, because you can double up on your
theme.
Chances are your story will have one big overarching
theme, but it can also have two different
separate themes based on the truths your protagonists
learn as a result of their journeys.
And third, I love writing dual point of views
because I write a lot of cute contemporary
YA romance and it's always nice to see both
sides of a relationship and how your couple
looks at each other.
Okay, so maybe you're like me and you love
writing dual point of views, but you aren't
sure how to go about balancing these two different
character's perspectives and inner conflicts
and journeys and aha moments, while still
staying true to the overarching plot of your
story.
The thing about having two protagonists is
that they're constantly interacting with each
other, clashing with each other, and affecting
each other's internal and external conflict,
which just amps up the conflict of your entire
story.
But let's just back up for a second because
I want to talk about where to start.
See, most writers come up with a story idea
and maybe they write a little bit of an outline
or a plot, but they're focused more on the
plot than they are on the characters.
Don't worry, we do just the opposite around
here, so you're good.
But this is where a lot of writers go wrong,
because they'll outline the plot and then
there'll be like, "Yeah, well, I want to switch
back and forth between two different characters."
So they start writing it that way and they
run into a wall.
When should I switch between points of view?
What does character A think of character B?
What does character B think of character a?
Should I write the whole story from character
A's point of view and then write the whole
story from character B's point of view.
I am so confused.
This comes from being unprepared to write
dual point of views.
See, the writing process is pretty straight
forward when writing from one protagonist's
point of view.
We have this one protagonist so fully developed.
We've outlined her character profile, we know
her desire, fear of misbelief, we know her
inciting incident, her decisions, her plot
twist, her aha moment, but then you throw
another character into the mix and you're
like, "Okay, here's another protagonist we're
going to follow.
Whoa, okay, hold on a minute there."
It's a lot to handle, and that's why we have
to prepare, and by prepare I mean outline.
I would recommend outlining both of your protagonist's
story structures, first separately and then
together.
I did this recently for a novel.
Then I'm going to rewrite.
I copied the basic three-act story structure,
pasted it twice in a row and wrote at the
top of each one, Blank's Side of the Story
for my two main characters.
Because I'm going to be alternating points
of view, both my characters are going to have
different perceptions of what is going on
at every single story beat, whether they're
the one inflicting the action or they're the
one with the action being inflicted upon them.
I keep this very brief at first, almost like
a bullet point list and I'll put the bullet
point list of the story structure in the description
box below this video if you want to try this
out.
After I make each of my character's brief
outline of their side of the story, I then
combined both of them to create one coherent
three-act story structure.
Then I fill it in with more information and
emotion to create a detailed outline.
This is leading into what I like to call a
character perception map, essentially keeping
track of what both your protagonists perceive
at every story beat.
I've found that the best place to develop
this is within your scene cards.
You might've heard me talk about scene cards
in the past, but if not, definitely check
out this video I made about my scene cards
and how they work and why they make your scenes
and chapters the strongest they can possibly
be.
In that scene card video, you will see how
you can really track not only what your characters
say and do and the consequences of their actions,
but why it matters and the realizations that
your characters have as an effect of the cause.
Now, once you have your three-act story structure,
your outline, and your scene cards ready to
go, it's time to write.
So let's talk about the actual writing part,
writing dual point of views.
Three important things to remember when you
are writing two protagonists.
One, make their voices unique.
I just recently posted a video all about writing
strong character voice.
Check that out if you haven't seen it yet.
But basically you want your two protagonists
to have very unique voices from each other
so that your reader doesn't forget whose point
of view their reading.
A no brainer, but easier said than done.
Quick tips, I would recommend giving both
your protagonist's very opposite personality
types, changing up the font every time you
switch point of view and assigning certain
phrases and linguistic styles to each character.
But definitely watch that video for more advice
on character voice.
Number two, show their direct correlation.
Just like we talked about a while ago in that
adding or switching a protagonists video,
you have to show your reader why these two
characters matter to each other.
It seems so stupidly obvious, but actually
it's not that obvious to a lot of writers.
I've read many books where the writers seem
to have just selected randomly two characters
out of the whole cast and decided to switch
back and forth between them with no real rhyme
or reason, never really shows me how these
characters matter to each other, never really
shows me how they affect each other's internal
and external conflict.
So showing the reader that direct correlation
between these two characters and why they
matter to each other and how they came to
matter to each other, that is very important.
Number three, the misbelief is everything.
If you do nothing else, do this.
Always remember your character's misbelief.
I know we talk about internal conflict so
much on this channel, the desire clashing
with the fear, but don't forget your character's
desire and fear come from their misbelief.
It's all rooted in their back story.
It all comes from this highly emotional moment
in their past that cemented this lie as a
truth to them.
I will take every single opportunity I get
to talk about this.
See, our brains function like a computer program
and what we've downloaded in our past becomes
our present and future reality, because of
the beliefs we hold as true, which are rooted
in past experiences, they're highly emotional
or traumatic ones.
Neurons that fire together, wire together,
which means your protagonist's living with
this misbelief is constantly reaffirming it
as true, not through rational thought, but
through the feelings and emotions associated
with that memory.
Oh gosh, I want to make a new video on backstory,
but for now, if you want to hear me ramble
more about backstory and the importance of
it, check out this video right here.
Okay, boom.
That is not all I have to say on this topic,
but that is where I'll stop because it's a
good place to start when writing two protagonists.
Comment below and tell me, are you writing
a story with dual point of views, with two
protagonists?
Do you prefer to write two protagonists, or
one protagonist?
Let's discuss.
Smash that Like button if you liked this video,
and be sure to subscribe to this channel if
you haven't already, because I post writing
videos and publishing videos every single
Wednesday and I would love to have you here
in the community.
Also, be sure to check out my Patreon, because
that's where we go beyond videos and take
storytelling to the next level.
The Patreon community is not only the best
way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube,
but also connect personally with me and get
better guidance on your story.
So go to Patreon.com/AbbieEmmons and check
out all the awesome extra content I've made
for you.
Until next week, my friend, rock on.
