ADDING/SWITCHING PROTAGONISTS IN A STORY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ม.ค. 2019
- What's up, my friend? Today's question is a little tricky: is it possible to add or switch protagonists throughout a story without losing the reader's interest? This is a challenge I had to face while writing my latest novel and here's the (very important) lesson I learned about it!
Comment below and tell me: what is a story YOU LOVE that switches or adds protagonists?
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multiple protagonists is the best stories to write
Agreed!!
Another great example (although debatable) would be Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender. He starts out as a villain, but switches sides in book 3 and becomes someone we root for and care about (maybe even more than Aang). Very interesting question and analysis!
idk about you but i remember and im 12 now now i watched atla at 9 and i was honestly always rooting for him just cuz i thought he was really cool
zuko! BEST REDEMSHON ARK EVER!!! He's my fave character in atla!
The moment I clicked on this video I immediately thought of A Song of Ice and Fire
wow that's an awesome example
Ugh, thank you so much for this! It's a struggle I've been dealing with for a while. In the story I'm working on, my protagonist actually dies at the midpoint, leaving his partner to take up the reins and finish out the plot for her own very personal reasons. Seeing this was a delightful reminder that it isn't *that* far out of an idea, and that others are doing it too. :) Thank you!
The Magicians trilogy does this pretty well. They switch from Quinten's POV to Julia's POV at some point in the books (2nd or 3rd book, I can't remember which) because her story is hugely important to the plot. So we get to follow her journey for a while. It's really well done.
Awesome!! I'll have to check that out! 💛
Zac- I mean Phillip. 😂
I know I'm very late to the party but this vid has just saved me from going back and forth on whether to have a second character or how to bring them into the story. So cheers
In the 1992 comedy/horror Death Becomes Her there is a third act shift with both the protagonist and the genre.
I stumbled onto your Channel a few months ago and have been watching them like crazy, I now feel like I can write my first book and then series. Eeeeeeek. You are amazing and crazy inspiring. I am making myself slow down and watch all the videos before I crank something out. Thank you. Oh and you mentioned in one video you live in VT so then I just liked you more! Miss the snow!!
Thanks a bunch for all your fantabulous vids 😍😍 they're a great help ♥️♥️
I am working on this kinda story and this vid and all your other vids I saw were indepth and so so useful. Thanks for what your doing! Keep rocking! All the best on you future endeavours ♥️
I LOVE YOU! I love The Greatest Showman and the journey of all the characters ♥
Anyway, great tips! so useful!
I know is not in the same book but I was thinking of The Vampire Chronicles from Anne Rice and how, just before we read about Lestat in Interview with the Vampire is when we get the oportunity to read his point of view in the following books of the series. We need to know him through Louis (and Claudia's) eyes first and then, when we read his point of view of everything, we can fall in love with his character.
Can't wait to read your stories published! ♥
SAAAAAME. Honestly everything about that movie is so well done :''') thank you so much!! I'm so happy you liked this video! 💛 I've never read that book but it sounds like a perfect example!
Can’t wait to read your book Abbie!
Thank you so much!! 😊
I'm mulling over a story in my head with specifically what you said in the first few minutes and I'm having second thoughts about it so I hit up TH-cam and I found your video quite helpful! Thanks so much!!! 😁
Thank you so much for this video! I'm in a similar situation with my WIP, so I clicked the second I saw the title. :) I was already planning on introducing my secondary protagonist when the two characters meet, but this video made me trust that decision more, and I'm definitely going to make sure to follow rules 1 and 3! (I also love your character questionnaires. Thanks for the wonderful videos!)
I'm so glad this video came at the right time for you, Maggie!! 😊 I'm sure you'll do an AWESOME job with switching protagonists in your story! thank you so much for watching! 💛
OMG! this is soooo cool Abbie!! I am doing exactly this at the moment! I enjoyed watching this and would love to hear more if Kate and you are willing to chat about introducing another MC "in the middle of the book" in your podcast!
I had found this video a while back and came to rewatch it as I work on my latest book! Thank you SO much for your clarity, I have written the first half and was getting really worried that I would leave people confused or not liking my second mc because of how late she and her sister come in since the sisters will literally be the main characters and swap so the first girl is a side character now… you hit exactly what I’ve been working on and reassured me that I’m plotting the right way!!😁 it’s also a sequel, so I’m using the wrap up of the journey from the first book to intersect and bring the readers into the new plot🤪 I thought I was going crazy the way I was writing it, but you made me realize that’s exactly how it SHOULD be progressing! This has made the book project so much easier to write:)
If you watch the movie Psycho, this sort of happens. The protagonist is killed halfway through and a secondary character becomes the protagonist
Cool
watch death note not gonna say anything but trust me if u see this u need to watch it
Yeah you should watch death note
Spoilers
I still cry thinking about light and l everyday
That anime gave me trauma.
@@greenbunz lol same
@@greenbunz
Spoilers about Death Note....
Just curious. Does N replacing L make you lose or downgrade your interest to show ? Because I heard most of the people didn't like N just as much as they love L and I'm afraid that's gonna happen to my story....
Thank you for this video! Trying to figure out how much time to give to a secondary character in my story because it feels like he has a more dramatic character arc than my main protagonist (it feels like how Zuko is more interesting than Aang, but Aang is still the main character). Anyways, I'm still trying to figure this out, but your video helped a lot.
When you were talking about making the audience care I thought of two (non-literary) examples: First is My Hero Academia. I'm a few seasons in and there are DOZENS of characters that I care about. The secondary characters are all introduced via their interactions with the main character, but then there are these side moments (or entire episodes) where we follow them. At some point they'll say very point blank what they care about/why they fight and, even in the case of the villains, you develop this strong empathy with them. Brilliant writing! Every time they get into a battle, I get scared for the characters because now I care about them!
Second example is The Last of Us. SPOILERS!!!!
At the midpoint, the character you've been playing as is mortally wounded. Then the screen goes blank and it says its been a few months. The game opens again with you playing as the companion character; the main character is nowhere to be seen. Did he die? Why is the companion character by herself? It makes it really tense from that perspective, but it also feels natural because you know who this character is. You've been getting to know her over the course of the game as an NPC and now suddenly you control her.
Similar for me: At the end of part III, the protagonist completes the most important step of his arc in facing his fear. Now his love interest essentially becomes the protagonist of part IV, with him taking the role of the paragon / mentor. Thus fulfilling your "let her learn something from a man" criterion for a "strong female character" 😂. But also, if my readers are going to perceive the protagonist as the mentor now, they might start fearing for his life more... for known meta-story reasons. Thus making his plot armour less apparent.
Thanks for the video. I'm struggling with that aspect right now.
The Lunar Chronicles does this very well in my opinion :)
Ok, I'm writing a book about travelers in the end of the 19th century. There are a bunch of characters, because you weren't able to travel alone through the wild, that would be just dumb. The main character is a teen girl, but there is also a young (29 is young, right?) pastor, he is damn anxious and is against violence. But during an attack on a village they were staying in he sees that someone is in danger and picks up the gun to kill the bandit. His following arc is about him trying to distract himself from such a trauma, cope with it and later on settling down in an ethiopian town as a teacher and family man.
He isn't connected a lot to the main-main character (the girl), he's just part of the group and is closer connected to a German doctor, who's also on the journey.
If I think about it, quite a lot characters from the group get at least some sort of side story, which develops not only by themselves, but also by interactions with other group members. The books have the girl, who leads the reader through the stories of the team members and her own.
Idk, if you have any tips, I would be interested to read them.
Now I'm so curious how the FC's world was flipped upside down by meeting the MC, arghhh...
YOU SHALL SEE ONE DAY… muahaha ;)
thanks! great video
What about having my protagonist in act 1, then having her and her brother switch POV in Act 2? Is this possible? Her brother becomes important to her when she goes to the new land, and they will learn together what self-worth means.
A very good video! I am struggling with this very issue at this very moment!
I'm so glad you found this video helpful! thanks for watching!
Works well in Books and Shows. It can be very difficult in films.
Yay! The greatest showman!
YESSS
could you do a video on switching villains? i know this stuff would kinda apply but im still not quite sure how to do that
lol, off topic, but I was watching this and my 12 year old daughter came in and screamed, "That's the hair style I want." So my daughter likes your hair.
Abbie always on time! ♥
Thanks for being here, Ester! 😊
I have two protagonists in my current WIP, and we start with both of them. But man is it hard to balance those two storylines as needed...
Im writing a story where the first protagonist is introduced on their own side of the story and then the antagonist comes in and brings with him the other side of the story. the entire story should feel like the flipping of a coin. is that a good approach or a pov disaster waiting to happen???
I love your video content! So many great topics I don't see on other channels!
Personally, I feel cheated when a new protagonist gets introduced more than halfway through the story. A really bad example is ACOTAR (don't like the book for several reasons but it has one of the best examples of this.) In ACOTAR, Rhysand is a MC that is introduced halfway through the book. I personally feel cheated since the added character is kind of a cop-out. A "i didn't know how to use the current cast of characters to move the story forward so I'm just going to add in another character." I guess this is different from what you do since you always had the character in your book, you just changed the spotlight. I'd be interested in seeing how you did it. If you ever need a CP, I'd be more than happy to help.
I'm so glad you like my videos! Thank you so much 😊💛 WOW HAHA that does sound like a really bad case of adding a protagonist! Like…why should you care about the new character, then? *forehead smack * you can definitely tell when it's just lazy writing and the author didn't know how to use the cast, like you said. Thank you so much for watching!!
In my current story, I’m starting with one character who’s trying to become king. The plan is to hype up the current queen in the first few chapter until the og character’s first plot point, which leads to her inciting incident. Her false victory is the original character’s fall from grace (he has a negative character arc) and her climax is the climax of the book. I really, really hope I can pull it off
Curly headed Weirdo 20 Thank you!
Oh. I have a story outline that this can make better. I didn’t know we were allowed to do this 😂
Kinda reminds me of the movie Melancholia where the story is told in two parts, but each gives incite into more aspects of the story
Is there anywhere I can find your books? I'm so curious 😄
I'm going to be publishing my first novel this summer! official announcement coming soon 😊 (btw it makes me so happy that you want to read my books!!)
That's so great! I can't wait!
Bro, everyone and their cats want to read your books.
Can you change the pov in the second book of the series? I want to write a trilogy and each one neds to follow a different person.
A movie that does this in a really interesting way is the made for TV movie Prayers For Bobby, which is based on a true story. Bobby is the only protagonist, a gay kid who you feel for and follow the story of, trapped in a homophobic religious family and when he kills himself midway through the movie, suddenly his mother becomes the protagonist. They do it amazingly well. The switch is so rare to see happen in a way like this but gosh is it a powerful way to tell his mother's story. Instead of trying to make the focus her all along, idk it just works amazingly well kinda like a novella and its sequel or something... Idk how to explain it
Question: so if you have two or three main characters, is it okay then to share both povs? Like you aren’t adding any characters but they are all main characters of the story that share one goal even though 2 of them are a little more important than the 3rd
i am DYING for her to do an analysis on the acotar series lol
I need this. While I wrote my rough draft in 3rd person close from one POV. I find that the 2nd MC POV matters. However, I didn't want to introduce the 2nd MC POV until after the big mistake MC1 makes (not going to spoil it), so he'll appear in Chapter 5 or 6. He will also not have as many chapters as MC1, about 3:1, Thanks for the advice Abbie.
So what is my biggest takeaway (I'm working on a novel with two protags who got separated). Dedicate equal portions of the story to one specific character after establishing what they mean to each other early on. And then you're able to switch between the two leading to the finale (since these two are separated. I decided to dedicated a portion to one guy and a portion to the other and a final potion that switches between the two where the reader sees the world in different eyes bit by bit. Like seeing the same scene in different PoVs... and it all leads to the confrontation they will have in the end)
Do you think this approach can work in the Nolan's Dunkirk way?
I like having more than 1 protagonist. I've had up to five.
I was struggling with this myself in my book, thanks for this video. I wasn't sure if I was "allowed" to switch between MC's this way, either, since a lot of what I read is first person and it's uncommon to see MC's added. Significant parts of my book are devoted to the arcs of both MC's, and they don't conventionally alternate. A lot of the time they are mutually exclusive, but of course each one's decisions influence each other's journeys. Much like with The Greatest Showman, I'm afraid my second MC might steal the show from the first XD
ASOIAF
I have two main protagonist but around the mid point. I do want to separate them but still continue what they're going through. Im struggling how to make it less confusing
Psycho. It's a classic.
Oh yeah... great suggestion! Thank you!
What if I only bring in my secondary protagonists POV when needed? For instance, if my protagonist becomes unconscious, but the readers need to know what's happening, then I switch to my other characters' point of view? Or if there's something happening around my secondary protagonist that affects my main character, but my protagonist isn't there for that scene, so I use a different POV? Does that work, do you think?
Definitely, Meghan! Those all sound like great uses of switching POV. it can also open up some cool possibilities for your secondary protagonist learning something in a scene that's going to majorly affect the main protagonist, even though they don't know it yet. rising dread! 😍👏
@@AbbieEmmons Thanks for the reply! That's really helpful. :)
That’s gonna happen a lot with my comic
I’m currently reading a book with 23 protagonists. It’s one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read!! :)
Edit : well one of the “protagonists” is actually just a rat, and there are only a couple lines in each chapter for it. The words mostly consist of “smell” and “food.”
Wow! Can I know which book it is?
@@adyayeerout2150 It's called The Watch That Ends the Night. It's written in verse and is about the Titanic.
I’ve got five protagonists so this was so helpful
What pov would suit this type of story?
Give your antagonists POV. That's the best thing an author can do. For most of them do it when their mystery is showed so attractively from the protagonists that we would love to enter the head of those evil people with such interesting qualities. And get to know why they're like that. And don't make your protagonists good guys, make them face problems and traumas big enough to put them in existenciall crisis, make them fall into the dark side to later see their flaws. That's real world.
Fairy Tail / My Hero Academia / RWBY
before last night I thought i had a good plan for my book, I've been outlining and developing for months. But something didn't seem right, and during my 87th lap of walking around the kitchen table, I suddenly switched my protaganist with his love interest, and the entire plot just changed. 2am writing sessions be like that
The first story that came to mind for me that switches "protagonists" was Death Note. After L dies, Near comes in and takes his place alongside Light, the other protagonist. Even though Light & L / Near are enemies, they each seem like a protagonist in their own right
I’m thinking for writing a series that switches POV’s in each of the books.
Each book would have a different Protagonist.
I had originally planned this for my current book series, but I don’t feel like it would fit well.
Erin Hunter's Warrior cats series does something similar. I love that series so if you do it right I think that it turn out really good. :)
Good content, but the music in the background is quite distracting.
Abbie: ...even when you have two protagonists
Me: how about 5?
I already have a lot of characters but halfway through, one of the side characters takes on a more main role so I'm utterly confused now 😂
I have to disagree with you Abbie, “The Greatest Showman” was not as good a movie as I’d hoped it would be. Also, I don’t think there really can be two protagonists. Protagonist for me, always meant the person who changes the most over the course of the story unless you’re writing a flat arc character.
I do like Phillip more then Phineas, but I don’t think he’s another protagonist. I’d like to see how you handle this in your book, sounds really cool from how you describe it.
"The reader" (or "the movie audience") isn't a block of people who all think the same. You have multiple characters in your story and different readers will feel different about them.
So, who says that the side character you promoted to a protagonist in the middle of your story wasn't my favorite from the beginning, and I would feel disappointed if you hadn't eventually used his or her potential?
I resign.