Based on ScSarahTops thread, I've been looking at the beats in my story for the first time (this is the first time in any sort of dedicated way; I vaguely implemented some beats during the writing.)
My question is:
For a story with two heroes and alternating POV, should every element be doubled? My heroes have independent lives for 2/3 of the story, then meet and are together in a common (sort of) purpose til the end. (They both want to 'defeat the villain' but for different purposes - this makes 'stating the problem' a little murky, but I hope that's OK?)
Some beats are obvious for one hero but not the other, others are stronger for one and weaker for the other. As a general rule, should I try to make sure they each have an inciting incident, a flaw, a complication, fun and games, etc?
Or, if one has a strong complication, is it OK for the other character in the alternating chapters to have a weak complication, almost providing a 'thank god this person's life is easer' sort of break for the reader?
As a specific example in my story. fun and games for one character is well developed, but her flaw is minimal - and the other character has more flaw hounding him, and less fun and games. It's not that either is missing an element necessarily, it's just more or less obvious for each element (beat).
Also, the beats are not matchy - matchy in the story. The complication might be in one character's 5th chapter and the other character's 7th chapter. I hope this is OK? Or might it be disruptive to the reader. like, 'wait, I thought we had a trajectory, and now everything's bungled again....)?
Any thoughts welcome. I can in theory pull the two storylines apart and massage them so that they are sort of 'the same' in terms of beat and pacing and strength, but that feels artificial. I suppose this is one area that I feel sort of organic, in comparison to all of the lists and technical revisions that I've been working through.
My question is:
For a story with two heroes and alternating POV, should every element be doubled? My heroes have independent lives for 2/3 of the story, then meet and are together in a common (sort of) purpose til the end. (They both want to 'defeat the villain' but for different purposes - this makes 'stating the problem' a little murky, but I hope that's OK?)
Some beats are obvious for one hero but not the other, others are stronger for one and weaker for the other. As a general rule, should I try to make sure they each have an inciting incident, a flaw, a complication, fun and games, etc?
Or, if one has a strong complication, is it OK for the other character in the alternating chapters to have a weak complication, almost providing a 'thank god this person's life is easer' sort of break for the reader?
As a specific example in my story. fun and games for one character is well developed, but her flaw is minimal - and the other character has more flaw hounding him, and less fun and games. It's not that either is missing an element necessarily, it's just more or less obvious for each element (beat).
Also, the beats are not matchy - matchy in the story. The complication might be in one character's 5th chapter and the other character's 7th chapter. I hope this is OK? Or might it be disruptive to the reader. like, 'wait, I thought we had a trajectory, and now everything's bungled again....)?
Any thoughts welcome. I can in theory pull the two storylines apart and massage them so that they are sort of 'the same' in terms of beat and pacing and strength, but that feels artificial. I suppose this is one area that I feel sort of organic, in comparison to all of the lists and technical revisions that I've been working through.