Why writing multiple protagonist novels is a great idea!
All good literature invites a discourse: the writer writes, the reader reads, and each interact with the words on the page. The writer writes to stretch themselves, or to comment on issues or morals they see or want to highlight; the reader reads to expand their knowledge, influence, experience and vary their particular brand of escapism. The more depth a writer can offer, the more depth a reader is drawn into, the more they experience the levels of subtext, meaning and morals within the text, the more striking and long-lasting effect on the reader.
With the recent, phenomenal, success of Game of Thrones, multiple protagonist novels are becoming increasingly accepted by both authors and readers, alike.
Traditionally thought of as confusing by authors and publishers both, this has been nothing short of an insult to the reader; insinuating that readers cannot cope with multiple threads in a novel is ludicrous. The human brain is more advanced than any computer, and to suggest it cannot deal with reading a novel with different characters is abhorrent. After all, humans are intrinsically social beings, with threads and different interactions between numerous people being part of everyday life; to suppose that a reader would not be able to transfer the skills and memory they utilise each day and keep straight the threads of a multiple protagonist novel is, simply, wrong.
As I’ve written before, it’s our job as authors to safeguard literature, to raise standards and aspirations, and challenge readers and stereotypes alike.
Simple novels beget simple readers.
Multiple protagonist novels negate this problem.
But this is not the only benefit they provide.
For an author, tackling an issue or idea, particularly one of social or political protest or motivation, with a single protagonist can be a daunting task; multiple protagonists help alleviate the strain on one character – no longer do they have to compromise their convictions or explain the opposite of their beliefs for the reader’s benefit. This predictable, redundant, almost tacky, way of exposition can be avoided through providing multiple protagonists’ perspectives of the same issue. Having these characters interact, and act as each other’s foils, or antagonists, naturally creates more tension and heightens suspense within the novel with minimal effort from the author, and even less effort from the reader to discover the emotions of the text.
The other great benefit is being able to explore each perspective much more freely; as a writer, it offers us liberty to let our minds wander when we explore an opposing view than that of our main character. It may even give us an opportunity to consider something other than our, personal, opinion entirely, thus enriching our own scope of knowledge. It also offers us freedom to either champion both positions or to heighten one as the negative much more intensely through a character development which includes unresolvable flaws.
Multiple protagonist novels also offer writers more creative freedom in the tone and dialect of their writing; instead of writing one protagonist in the first person, or an omniscient narrator based around their tale, we can swap and change between narrative styles. Not only are we provided the opportunity to explore opposing viewpoints, but we are able to portray the numerous consequences of different characters’ actions and choices; they can each have their own ripple effect play out across your work, and those ripples can explicitly affect other characters without it being too ‘convenient’ so that it makes the novel absurd. We can write in a first person, working class dialect to depict how significant the circumstances of the plot to their lives are; or, we can write in a first person, upper middle class narrative to explore how another character might benefit from circumstances in the plot – this might be especially possible in a political or social protest novel, for example. Differing narrative perspectives like these, amalgamated into one novel can be best seen in A Visit from The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – which happens to be one of my favourites.
We can also use multiple protagonist novels to our advantage to demonstrate how small events occurring at the same time can have disastrous effects on a society; it is, after all, a combination of smaller events which lead to a larger change in reality - it is this reality which we must emulate in order to allow our readers to not only connect with our work, but become more aware of the changes in their own society in order to help prevent catastrophe in their own lives. Whilst it was Margaret Mead who originally said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has,” it was in The West Wing that I’d first heard this phrase. And this, as authors, is what we call our readers to do, what we want to inspire in the society we criticise in our literature. When you write your multiple protagonist novel, it’s important to keep this in mind alongside the question: are you hoping to inspire emulation or revulsion in the world you create for your reader to analyse?
Character arcs can also be developed in more depth in multiple protagonist novels, especially if each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective. It offers a longer time for the writer to spend creating a history and layers to a character, more time for a reader to build a relationship with that character and take them into their hearts. It adds quantity and quality to a novel, encouraging a reader to want to spend time with the characters as though they were friends. This is, after all, the benefit of reading – to make friends with the characters, to identify with them, to empathise with them wherever possible, is it not? As writers, we’re given the opportunity to inspire more and more readers to stretch themselves, as we stretch ourselves in writing these kinds of texts, to delve into alternatives than the ‘norm’ in literature. Multiple protagonist texts facilitate this.
The last, major, benefit of multiple protagonist novels is that they allow for a series to be created. As with Game of Thrones, time can be taken to move a plot carefully, rather than rush through under the guise of a stand-alone novel. More detail can be included, more nuance, and a higher number of plot events, offering a more realistic progression in the lives of the characters. A series of books makes both the writer and reader hungry for more, and allows for a greater impact of important occurrences; the reader can also be taken on a journey through each book in terms of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution, as well as have a similar pattern in the series as a whole, also. Peaks and falls occur more frequently in real life than they may do in literature; and for different characters at different times – again, each arc would help contribute to this realistic, relatable aspect of the novel.
So, write multiple protagonist novels – challenge yourself! Challenge your reader. Yes, it might take more planning, yes it might take more time, but yes, it will be rewarding beyond comprehension and will raise the standards of your own writing and a readership will thank you for it!
Until next time,
Louise.