Sunday, January 29, 2012

Differentiating

The other day while flipping through channels, I started watching the end of a movie about witches. It was at the climax when the bad guy was fighting with what I assumed to be the good guy. Bodies were flying about, equipment was being thrown with the toss of their hands, but the funny thing was – I couldn't tell them apart.

They both were about the same build, had the same color hair, which was cut the same way. They both even wore the same kind of clothes (long black coats). I didn't know who to root for.

Right now I'm working on a book where I have two male POV. It's tricky. I have to make sure you know who is talking just by their voice. I need to make sure their names don't sound the same.  (I once had a chapter with a Finley and a Finrod - head shakes). I need to make their character arcs completely different.

So that is what I'm working not this week. Trying to make sure my two male leads are very different.

How about you? What are you working on?

17 comments:

Miranda Hardy said...

Interesting! I'm working on a novel with twin male roles. It will be interesting trying to weave thier differences in carefully. Great post at the perfect time.

Anne Gallagher said...

Done that. I had a Mac and Marc once. Actually Mac was the nickname from his last name MacDonald. Had to go in and change every Mac to Bob.

This week I'm hoping to finish up another short story.

Joanne said...

I've had this issue with similar names. It's interesting how our minds will latch on to one word, and use it in variations and similarities unless we pay attention and change things up.

Wendy Paine Miller said...

I get this big time. One of my novels has twins as my MCs. Yowser. That was tricky, making sure they both came across as individuals.
~ Wendy

Susan R. Mills said...

Hmm...sounds like an interesting story. I think pulling off two POVs is very hard. I've tried it and I don't think I did a very good job. I did crit for someone who had alternating povs and she did an excellent job. In fact, it's K.M. Walton's Cracked. If you haven't read it, you should. It might give you an idea of how to pull it off.

Candice said...

I'm writing two books right now, and my big challenge is making sure the main characters don't sound the same!

Jolene Perry said...

I'm working on a dual POV book as well, and I'm at the point where I'm making sure that they use different words. THat HER voice comes through clearly in HER parts, and HIS voice comes through clearly in HIS parts.

I've just gone through all of her chapters, and now I"m about to go back through and just go over HIS chapters.

I love dual POV, but there are definitely challenges.

Martin Willoughby said...

I love doing different POVs and getting inside the characters' heads.

Julia Tomiak said...

I just got a critique back from my CP and need to work on voice- so it was back to the drawing board today to make sure I had a good grip on my main character. I had some inconsistencies from other revisions that reminded me of your domino analogy a few posts back :)

Connie Keller said...

I've got an award for you on my book blog. Stop by and pick it up.

Tracy said...

I just started working on a story where I have two POVs for the first time. I'm lucky that they're a male and a female...but I've still got to make sure you can tell them apart. :D All my characters want to be snarky, and that can make them hard to differentiate if I don't make one play the "straight guy" role.

Catherine Denton said...

I agree. It's so much easier to read/watch something when the characters are easy to differentiate.

I'm working on organizing my day. It keeps getting away from me. Feel free to join me on the 12 for 12--you could pick your own skills. Well, I guess it'd be 11 for 11 now, ha.
Catherine Denton

Christina Lee said...

Oooooo tough one--good luck!

Elana Johnson said...

Oh, I've written dual-narrated books, and getting the voices distinct is tough. I love that you could "see" it in a movie and translate it to your work. Best of luck to you!

Heidi Willis said...

I SOOOO understand this! I hate watching movies where I can't tell the main characters apart, even though I can SEE them!

And this past week, when I was submerged with my short story, I was doing exactly this. I had five characters sitting around a table and someone pointed out they all seemed a little too alike. So this past week when I rewrote it, I made sure to differentiate them. And now I think, Holy cow... I can't believe all that personality was hiding!! They are SO different! :) It's kind of fun finding that out.

I love that picture too. It makes me smile.

Nancy Thompson said...

It's great to have little reminders of how NOT to do things.

I'm finally starting my outline. I think I finally have enough notes and know where to go.

Southpaw said...

Writing multiple (anything more than one) is tricky. As the author we have to have a total brain change into the other character. I tend to write different people on different days.