Day 3: Worldviews of Different Characters in Your Novel

Hey there, Igniter! Monica Leonelle from theworldneedsyourbook.com here. Today's content is going to be focused on day 3 of the challenge, which is all about worldviews. Day 3 of the challenge is focused on worldviews, and specifically the worldviews of the different groups and characters within your story. Uh, you can also think of this as the different worldviews that are related to your theme. So, um, you'll likely have some knowledge of your theme, and you'll probably have a stance on it as the author. You want to separate your personal stance on your theme out from, you know, what your character thinks of the theme, what the antagonist thinks of the theme, and really drill down to some of the main characters and think about, you know, where are they coming from, how can I how can I kind of relate to them, or how can I write them more realistically rather than as caricatures? A big part of that is truly understanding the different worldviews of your characters and how they cause tension with each other. So we are going to dive deeper into this. Um, so finding the worldview of your characters, uh, it really comes down to, um I have a couple different things. So one is if you have a strong opinion, um, this is how your book can say something to the world. So you may be writing a book that has a very strong theme and you are actually trying to say something with that theme. If you don't have a strong opinion or that's just not your style, you can also leave the story open-ended and allow for the reader to decide how they feel based on what you have presented to them. So the next piece of it is how the readers of your genre are going to feel. Are they going to agree with you? Are they going to be offended? This is really important if you are writing in a genre that has really specific beliefs. So for example, in romance, you know, the whole point of a romance is that you believe in love. It's really that love conquers all. And if you share certain opinions about love that are not really shared by your readers, then that's— that could be a turnoff to them. So it's not to say that you don't ever put something like that in your story, but if you want your story to be more marketable, then this may be something you want to consider. You also want to consider the protagonist's worldview, the antagonist's worldview, and think about how the, um, the story has conflict based on these opposing views. And so you can also bring in, um, worldviews from other people on each side. So that could be like the mentor's worldview, a best friend's worldview, a lover's worldview. So the protagonist is probably going to have conflict with the people that he loves or that she loves in their life. Additionally, the antagonist is going to have the same thing. So they're going to have, you know, a mentor or like a basically like a boss, like a more evil person than them. They're going to have the, you know, they're going to have henchmen, just people who carry out their orders. And they're also going to have like a right-hand man who they respect. So that could be like a, um, it could be a relationship, a lover. It could also be like their first lieutenant, essentially, that may have clash with them on how they're doing stuff. And so this is how we bring a lot of tension into the story. You also want to think about the global audience and the different worldviews that your global audience may have about this. This is going to be really important to you if you're hoping to sell rights to other countries, or if you want to shop this in other markets. Even if you are independently published, if you want to get into translations, all of that is going to be important. And it's just a good idea to have some research or even just some thought around how a global audience might react to the things that you are putting in your protagonist's or your antagonist's mouth and mind. Thank you so much for watching and listening, and I hope this content was helpful to you. If you have any questions, make sure you leave a comment below. I'm happy to answer any questions that come up. And if you haven't signed up for the challenge yet, make sure you check out the links below because that will give you all the information about how you can participate. That's all for me. Hope you have a wonderful day.