How To Write Dual Protagonists: How To Write Them Effectively

What makes a good protagonist? What makes a bad one? Very often, the best protagonists are the ones who are the most relatable to us.

A character who is the same as the reader will be more enjoyable to read about because they will be able to understand them better.

However, too much similarity between a character and the reader can lead to boredom. It is important for there to be some sort of difference or barrier between the protagonist and reader so that there isn’t too much connection between them.

The dual protagonist can be a villain and a hero, such as Dracula and Dr. Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

In this case, Van Helsing’s goal is to destroy Dracula, but he can’t do it without help from Mina Harker and her friends, who hope to find a way to save Dracula.

This type of dual protagonist appears often in horror movies and novels.

Another type of dual protagonist is when two friends or family members are trying to reach the same goal but meet all kinds of obstacles along the way.

In “The Little Prince,” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author writes about what happens when a pilot meets a little prince from another planet who wants.

The Function Of Dual Protagonists

When it comes to storytelling, dual protagonists are a tried and true trope. From King Arthur to Romeo and Juliet, to the bickering couple of Katara and Sokka in Avatar: The Last Airbender, stories with two main characters always seem to be more interesting than their single protagonist counterparts.

The first reason for multiple protagonists is because it’s a classic way of showcasing the theme of the story. When you have two main characters, they’re able to represent parts of the theme like Yin and Yang do.

In Romeo and Juliet, the Montague family is heavily associated with Red while the Capulet family is associated with White. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katara represents Water while Sokka stands for Earth.

When one character gets into trouble, by representing a part of the theme, it forces the other character to come up with a solution that brings balance to the theme represented by both characters.

When your story has dual protagonists who stand in contrast to one another, they also serve as foils for one another as well. For example, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson represent two different types of intellects (Holmes being scientific and Watson being medical). The relationship between them also allows for humor since Holmes often acts rude.

Empathy For Your Protagonist

Empathy for your protagonist is the ability to feel her emotions as your own. It is an essential element of good storytelling because it allows you to connect on a very personal level with your reader and provide insight into your character.

Treating your protagonist poorly can make for an unpleasant reading experience. If you are cruel to the character the reader may begin to feel cruel towards the character. […].

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Having empathy for your protagonist, whether it’s a novel or any story you’re telling, is vital if you want to write characters that feel alive and real.

The best way to develop your ability to empathize with characters is to get out of your own head. When you’re telling a story be sure to ask yourself what the character wants, how they feel about it, why they feel that way and how their feelings are shown through their actions.

Ask yourself what your character wants in each scene. We all have our own emotional baggage and insecurities that make us who we are. Your protagonist is no different.

In one scene you might want them to be angry, the next sad and then happy. This isn’t a flip-flop of emotions but a full range of emotional development over the course of your story. You also need to show how these emotions affect their actions and decisions while they struggle toward their goal or desire.

Dual Protagonists In Literature

A dual protagonist occurs when two or more characters are shown to share the same story arc. This is common in narratives where there is a single antagonist and both protagonists must oppose it. Dual protagonists can be seen particularly clearly in stories that use a team of two protagonists; such as the film, Thelma & Louise.

The first use of dual protagonists was the Ancient Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice, who both descended into hell after Eurydice’s death. Since then, dual protagonists have been used by many authors across many genres.

Dual protagonists are used specifically to play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses, creating a better resolution for their story than one protagonist could achieve alone.They are also used to develop character motivations and behaviors that would otherwise be impossible to accurately portray with only one main character.

For example, if a writer wished to show how an idealistic character changes over time due to personal trials, a dual protagonist provides a way to illustrate this change easily through two characters who start out similarly idealistic but end up with very different outlooks on life after their encounters with the antagonist.*

Dual Protagonists In Screenplays

When writing a screenplay with dual protagonists, it is important to understand why and how to write the two characters with similar qualities. There are many different ways to do it and you have to be careful about your choices.

From a story standpoint, dual protagonists should mirror one another. They have to have the same obstacles and face the same challenges together. Writing Dual Protagonists: The good news is you are not alone in this endeavor.

There are countless examples of dual protagonists that have been successful, including such classics as Casablanca (Rick and Ilsa), Thelma & Louise (Thelma & Louise) and The Departed (Cahill & Dignam).

Each of these films has two main characters who are on equal footing both in terms of screen time and development, but they are still distinct enough that they could not easily be interchanged.

There are several disciplines that can help you make your dual protagonists work side by side without stepping on each other’s toes or confusing the audience:Give them common goals – Give them different perspectives – Make them alternate narrators – Give them different arcs – Give them contrasting traits

Give Them Common Goals – Your protagonists need a common goal that will drive the entire story forward. This goal must be clear for

Dual Protagonists In Films

There are many types of protagonists, but there is one type that we have seen more and more often in the last few years that we wanted to discuss today. That type is the dual protagonist.

We have all heard of the one person who stands out as a hero, right? Well, this new kind of protagonist has two people who stand out as the heroes, not just one.Toby Jaffe, an executive at Universal, says he believes this new trend began in 2007 with “Juno.” This was followed by “Knocked Up” in 2007 and “Superbad” in 2007.

He says it was only later on that these two characters really began to stand out from other typical protagonists such as Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker. The two main characters of this new kind of protagonist were Seth Rogen’s character and Michael Cera’s character in these three movies. Although these actors were not the overall heroes of the movies, they were still extremely important and memorable characters within them.

So how do you manage to incorporate these kinds of dual protagonists into your own movie? What kind of characters do you need for them to be successful? How can you best utilize them? Let’s take a look at some things to keep in mind when utilizing this kind of storyline

   

How Do Dual Protagonists Work?

If you’re writing a novel, movie, or television show with two main characters, they’re called dual protagonists. They don’t have to be friends or even like each other; they just have to share the spotlight and drive the story forward at roughly the same pace.

You can use them to create conflict or balance out a story. Either way, there are three basic ways to balance dual protagonists: Use them as foils. This is the simplest approach. If you have a pair of protagonists with similar personalities, one can be a bit more cynical, while the other believes in things like hard work and perseverance.

Or one could be from an upper-class family and the other from the slums. One might be practical, while the other is more idealistic. Let them play off each other. This works especially well if you make one character more extroverted than the other — he’ll draw in most of the action and meet most of the people that his more introverted partner meets.

Give them different reasons for pursuing their goals. One character might want revenge on somebody who betrayed him or her; another might want to save mankind from imminent destruction. Use contrasting goals to provide both motivation and action for your novel or screenplay.

How Writers Use Dual Protagonists

Good writers can make a reader feel like their character is real. Here’s how they do it: Two Protagonists One of the most common things that helps us believe in a character is a dual protagonist, or two main characters that you follow through the story.

This creates a great conflict and also allows for an interesting point of view from each character so you have a better idea of what’s going on in their heads. Tension and ConfusionA dual protagonist can also be used to add tension to your story.

If your main character doesn’t know something that another main character does then there is now a source of conflict in your story. It could be as simple as one person knowing one thing and the other person knowing the opposite.

A lot of tension can come from this alone and it can help keep your readers turning the pages.Adding to the ConflictAdding more than two characters can help to create more conflict in your story, but remember that too much conflict can make it seem forced or unnatural.

The trick is to use this technique sparingly, only when it makes sense for your story, otherwise you risk confusing your audience and losing them all together.

Distinguish Your Dual Protagonist

Let’s face it—the dual protagonist is a tough nut to crack. It’s a tough story to tell and it’s a tough story to read. How do you do it? Make sure that your hero has a unique voice. Make sure they have different goals. And make sure their respective journeys are as different as possible.

You also need to make your hero distinct in other ways, like:

The overall arc of the story—in terms of genre, don’t make your book too similar to books like The Hunger Games or Divergent. While these are great books, you don’t want someone who loved those books to be disappointed when they pick up yours.

The identity and role of the protagonist—your protag needs to have a clear purpose and identity. Why is he/she important? What is his/her world view? How does that change over time? What are his/her skills? How does he/she use them in the story? What does it look like for him/her personally to win the day (or at least not lose)?

Personality—how does your protagonist feel about the world around him/her? Dialogue—dialogue is one thing that can really make a character Dual Protagonists Don’t Let Your Duals Duel (Too Much) In a mystery novel, the protagonist is often a detective.

The detective investigates two parallel cases. One concerns the murder of a family member, the other concerns the disappearance of a small boy. The detective has to find out how the two stories are related and who is responsible for each crime.

Trouble is, what do you call this protagonist? How do you translate his name into another language? What is James Lee Burke to call his detective in his series about Dave Robicheaux?

Well, it’s easy for him to solve that problem: he calls his protagonist Dave Robicheaux. And if he wants to bring in another character, who also happens to be called Dave Robicheaux, he just calls him Dave Robicheaux 2 or Dave Robicheaux Jr. He doesn’t have to explain that they are one and the same person – the reader will understand that easily.

But when you have two protagonists with different names and you want to translate your book into another language, they are no longer one and the same person. In French there are two different words for “one” and “one” + “the other”: un (masculine singular), une (feminine singular),

Your Dual Protagonist’s Journeys Mirror

Your protagonist is a hero (or heroine) in your story and a villain in the antagonist’s story. The antagonist has the same goal as your protagonist, and the two will clash until one of them achieves the goal or gives up on it.

I have just put together a list of helpful tips that will help you create an effective dual protagonist structure for your novel.It is vital to know who your dual protagonists are going to be.

Before you begin writing, you should have a clear picture of each protagonist.You will need to write both stories separately, until they reach their climaxes.Although they share a common objective, their stories are still different, and must be portrayed as such throughout the novel.

After each character’s journey reaches its climax, they should be forced to face their inner demons.Your main characters must justify their actions in the end by either achieving their common objective or by sacrificing themselves for others in order to save humanity/society/the world etc.,

which will ultimately result in them being viewed as heroes by the reader and society at large – even though they actually failed at their original objective.*Another way to make your dual protagonists