Tags:: #🗺️ Links:: [[🏠 My Home]] # Fiction Writing MOC # Story - [[Steps to ideating a great story]] - [[Write something that will change your life]] - [[7 steps of every great story]] - Show don't tell in Fiction Writing - People are always looking for things that are similar to what they already know but different enough they seem fresh and new. - The best stories aren't just literal, they should be taken metaphorically. - The best stories have symbols that exist in a symbol web. - Two questions to weave scenes together: yes but, or no and. - Make things so close to working or not working and then it does or doesn’t - Organize chapters or episodes by certain viewpoints or themes so it’s not utterly overwhelming. - 2 + 2 = 4. Whenever you can get the audience to have a relationship with an outcome. Don’t just show the outcome. Show the steps to the outcome. Asking questions makes us curious. - The best stories give a lot of their information through omission rather than what is included. - Braid. Mix description, dialogue, internalization, and action together seamlessly. - Two techniques for writing fiction prose: emotion + thought + action. Description/dialogue + internalization + action. - “Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — so the reader may see what they're made of.” - Vonnegut - Incorporate Levels, Progression, and Rewards. In Brandon Sanderson’s book Mistborn, the main character gets into a fight against seven enemies. Sanderson clearly tells us there’s seven enemies at the start of the fight. Then, as Vin knocks them out, he tells you how many are left. You see the number ticking down. A few ways I’ve seen people accomplish the same: • Lists • Signposts • Countdowns • Milestone Moments • Chapter or Act Breaks - Try and write something high concept. High concept ideas speak for themselves. They are interesting on their own. - You can have bad plot and great characters but not bad characters and great plot. - Word choice: Multisyllabic words tend to slow pace; single syllables speed it. Again, look at the two sentences in the first bullet point. Connotation impacts pace as well: a lugubrious speaker suggests a plodding delivery not just through meaning but by feel; similarly a curt one suggests haste. Lovemaking implies taking one’s sweet, sweet time; sex might get right down to it. # Character - [[5 core parts of a character arc]] - How do we relate to bad characters? Have a good character they care about or that cares about them. Make them have lots of conviction. People are attracted toward those with conviction because often we don't have conviction toward our own goals. Make them hate a character that is even more evil. Use humor to get you to like them. Maybe they're so absurd you can't help but like them. Competency is very attractive. Understanding why they do what they do. Their past could validate how they are even if you don't agree with it. - Make the decisions easy for your characters, or make them extremely hard. - [[Using humor in stories]] - [[How to write a great villian]] - Writing highly quotable dialogue is sometimes short cut by having other characters quote that dialogue. - When introducing the character have them make a decision 99% of other characters wouldn’t do. - The most engaging stories have big stakes but alive characters. The reason Elantris, The Stormlight Archives, and Mistborn are so engaging is because they are about big things but every character, side character, and the world feels alive. - Have characters have very specific ways of speaking. - [[How to write great women characters]] - [[Characters are defined through relationship]] - [[2D, 3D, and 4D characters]] - Conflict. Suspense and tensity is created from a character(s) with a desire that's blocked by obstacle. Some of the easiest forms of suspense are created from the possible death of something: identity, actual death, idea, etc. - Think of interesting ways to convey information about a character. What they would give away for inheritance, through a newspaper, or action. - Give characters statements that exemplify their perspective on the world. - One of the most interesting aspects of a character is the way they do mundane things. Like picking up a glass of water. Just that can tell you so much about a person. - Sometimes have the character do the opposite of what they really want. - The core aspects of good characters are dialogue and inner voice. - The audience doesn't care about the entire backstory of a character. We want ghosts. The few memories that still haunt the character to this day. - Don't make your dialogue do the heavy lifting of the story. Your dialogue is an aspect of the story, but the characters actions and story structure should also push the moral argument you are making. Dialogue where characters say exactly what they believe and are going to do feels forced and preachy. - Dialogue is not real talk; it is highly selective language that sounds like it could be real. - One of the best ways to show character is in how they describe a scene differently to other characters. Having different characters describe the same thing shows so much difference in character. - Show who a character is by having them do something which would normally make them feel one way, but they feel something completely different. - [[Create a character web]]. # Description And Setting - Make the world a character - How does it enhance or alter the story? - How does it change as the story progresses? - How does it frame the story? - Don’t try and stuff too much about the world in a single story. Focus on one major physical thing and one major cultural thing. - The world can be a reflection of the story and it's characters. For example some tropes are: - Forests represent mystery - Jungles represent uncertainty with the promise of treasure - Rivers represent change - Tight rooms can represent claustrophobia - Sometimes going against a setting trope can aid in a message for a story. For example, showing old Dalinar after a battle in a bright sunny day happy as can be. - Be carefull describing too much. You don’t want to read too hard on your players imagination. - Good detail is both unique and specific. It doesn’t include ambiguous words like fast or young. Fast in relation to what? Young in relation to what? When your descriptions are interesting they make the people in them more interesting as well. - Ask, does this description have purpose in carrying the story I’m trying to tell. If it’s a light blue phone it should have a reason for being a light blue phone. - Use all the six senses including intuition, not just sight. - Don’t use cliches. - some tools for describing things are analogy, metaphor, simile, and onomatopoeia. - Use description to build a character. How does their description show who they are? - If you already showed, don’t tell. - [[How to write a madness arc]] # Plot - Plotting is the art of information reveal. “The masterful management of suspense and mystery, artfully leading the reader through an elaborate … space that is always full of signs to be read, but always menaced with misreading until the very end. - [[How to make a good fight]] - Give your characters impossible decision. Two things they really want or don’t want. - Switch up the scene formats rather than having the same type of scene occurring each time. - Try and combine many plot threads into one condensed section for a climax. That’s what makes [[How to create an iconic scene| an iconic scene.]] - Plot is made of promises, progress and payoffs. - The best place to start with is progress. What type of plot do you want to write? Borrow from proven plot archetypes and adapt them to your story. Heist plots, information plots, quest plots etc. You can use tvtropes.com to find genre tropes you like. - [[6 Step scene creation]] - [[Great ways to start a story]] # Conflict And Suspense Learned From James Scott Bell: - Conflict arises from two or more incompatible things clashing together with one being conscious. - Suspense arises from wanting to know what happens next. Bring on the edge of your seat. ## Strategies for building conflict: L: create a compelling lead character O: create a death objective—avoiding physical, professional, or psychological death. C: create satisfying conflict through the opposition K: create a knockout ending A story is a satisfying emotional account of a character navigating near death experience. A story is NOT real life. We don’t want the boring parts. Cut them out. Structuring Conflict: - The classic three act structure goes inciting incident opening the second act which should happen around the 1/5 mark, the climax around the 4/5 mark opening the third act. - Try to end scenes with Yes, But, or No, And. - Good cliffhangers are new beginnings masquerading as endings. Conflict In Characters: - Make characters differ in beliefs, objectives, etc. Conflict In Dialogue: - Sidestep - Differ objectives - Answer questions indirectly Inner Conflict: - Great characters come from emotional connection. Stimulus + Reaction as well as Emotion + Analysis + Action makes us feel this is happening. Switching between action bits and reaction bits lets us know about how characters feel about things happening in the story. Otherwise they feel flat. You can use flashbacks to do this but only if necessary. ## Building Suspense - Build in twists and secrets - Prolong emotional moments. Get us in the heads of the character. - End on cliffhangers: - Something bad happens - Something bad will happen - Something bad could happen - Make the setting suspenseful. ## Premise Ideas: - The Divine Comedy. A super serious stubborn man is tasked with creating a divine comedy for the Gods. Why? Because what’s funnier than seeing a super serious comedy for the Gods. What he doesn’t realize is his journey to making the comedy, IS the comedy the Gods are watching. And through his journey he learns to take himself less seriously and laugh at the absurdity of life. - Corporation that searches for wise people to put into political positions by putting people into cruel situations and finding the wise among them. Class is attacked by terrorists and person who volunteers to sacrifice themselves is the one left alive and everyone else is shot. - **The Last Inventor of Eldoria**: In a kingdom where science and magic are indistinguishable, a brilliant but disillusioned inventor creates what he believes to be the ultimate tool for peace, only to discover it could be the weapon that ends his world, forcing him to dismantle his own creation amidst a society blind to its own downfall. - IFS novel. One character is absolutely incredible. Shows all the eight C’s. They represent the Self. Every other character is a part of that self. The whole story is taking place in the characters head while they are talking to a therapist. - **The Last Inventor of Eldoria**: In a kingdom on the brink of a scientific revolution, a brilliant but disillusioned inventor creates what he believes to be the ultimate tool for peace, only to discover it could be the weapon that ends his world, forcing him to dismantle his own creation amidst a society blind to its own downfall. - 1. When a rift in the space-time continuum threatens to consume the galaxy, Woid, the Universesinger, and his lighthearted apprentice are forced into an uneasy alliance with a humorless, ancient android warrior, sworn to protect the realms of existence. Their quest to close the rift takes them through dimensions where physics are dictated by musical scales, with the android's rigid logic challenged by the chaotic creativity of the Universesingers. - 1. **Symphony of the Space Whales**: The universe is in peril as space whales begin to sing a song that literally rips holes in reality. Woid, his apprentice, and a no-nonsense, cyborg whale biologist (who secretly wishes he were a pirate) must conduct an interstellar orchestra of unlikely musicians, including a choir of tone-deaf asteroids and a drum circle of rebellious robots, to harmonize with the whales and save the cosmos. - 1. **The Disco Ball of Destiny**: The trio is tasked with recovering the Disco Ball of Destiny, a cosmic artifact that forces anyone in its vicinity to dance uncontrollably. Their journey leads them to a planet where the stoic, battle-scarred warrior must win a dance-off against an alien Elvis impersonator to gain the artifact, challenging his disdain for both dancing and frivolity. - In a universe where culinary expertise can control the elements, Woid, his apprentice, and a stoic, environmentally-conscious warrior chef embark on a quest to recover the ancient recipes that can restore ravaged planets. Their journey pits them against a fast-food corporate empire that thrives on destroying nature for ingredients, leading to culinary battles where dishes have the power to terraform or devastate worlds. I should create a magic system for using the ingredients to create different foods which can do things for you. - 1. In a future where synthetic food reigns and real ingredients are a forgotten luxury, Woid, his apprentice, and a grim, militant botanist embark on a dangerous mission to rediscover lost plants and animals. Their journey across abandoned earth-like planets, cooking with what they forage, becomes a galactic sensation, sparking a movement that challenges the synthetic food industry and rekindles a connection with the natural world. I should create a magic system for using the ingredients to create different foods which can do things for you. - A man begins getting the memories of people he doesn’t know every day until he doesn’t know who he is anymore. ### How Plotting Works In Fiction - [[Story Plots]] ### Themes I Want To Explore In My Fiction - The Unfairness Of Life - being principles is valuable even if it doesn’t lead to good rewards. Like The Idiot. Sometimes you should tread on them a little, but not often. - Intelligence and creativity are only important with wisdom. You can’t create without thinking how your creations will be used. - Everyone is everyone - A kind deed is never wasted - Deal with the devil and you will be disappointed - Trusting someone exposes you to being hurt, but it's better than not trusting at all - Bad Things Happening To Good People - Hero's Are Not Born, They Are Made - Wisdom Is The Ability To Hold Two Contradictory Beliefs In Mind At Once - Reflecting And Thinking WHY You Are Doing Something Is Incredibly Important And Undervalued - The power of having a zest for life - Keeping your curiosity/open mindedness for life - The difficulty of finding genuine true love in a romantic partner. - What true romantic love is actually like. - Living a simple, boring life in the midst of people hitting themselves with dopamine and comfort technology. ### Settings I Want To Explore In My Fiction - A world on the cusp of a cultural and scientific revolution with everyone racing to be the one to invent the next big thing. ### Genres I Want To Explore In My Fiction - Sci-fi mixed with fantasy. Inspired by one of medieval, Swedish, Japanese, or Mexican history. ### Character Ideas For My Fiction **[ChatGPT Character Archetype Generator:](https://vine-perch-730.notion.site/The-Character-Creation-Toolbox-How-To-Fill-Your-Story-With-Unique-But-Believable-Characters-5c2d2dfd47c945aab8fd53a59e78bbb3)** - The Universecook: Traveling storyteller with godlike powers but rarely uses them out of fear of becoming greedy with his power like others he knows. Wise and witty. But doesn’t take the role of mentor themselves. Nore do they see themselves as wise. Knows a wide range of odd skills and knowledge. Helps grow others into their best selves through storytelling and guiding them through difficult moments. - Self-Riteous archetype: person who believes their self-improvement journey makes them better somehow than other people. - Child who sees the world with completely open and curious eyes. Hasn't had their innocence taken away yet by experiencing the world. - Simple cook okay with being on the sidelines who sometimes shares a bounty of wisdom. - A person who speaks in poems and big phrases to hide behind his lack of understanding and intellectualize his emotions. - Someone that wants to be better. A good witty funny person. But they can’t be consistent. They’re perfectionists. Either do a great job or nothing at all. - Old hero who no longer has a pull to help others. Fallen from grace and taken to every addiction under the sun. - The asleep person: someone that's just going through the motions when something lurches them to awareness. This sends them on a journey to self-discovery. - Witty bookworm who must learn to apply theory into practice and become the leader everyone wants him to be. - A energetic, bubbly, zestful person gets exposed to the tragedy of the world and falls from their pedestal only to rise back up again - Traveling actor who doesn’t know who they want to be. So they impersonate people they have met to slowly come to their identity. - Cynical pessimist who actually has a right to be so because of horrible life circumstances. - Character with godlike powers who defers their autonomy to someone else so they don’t have to experience the pain they’re inflicting. - Warrior addicted to battle, leadership, and courage stuck during one of the most peaceful times in history. - Biographer, singer, or storyteller, who sensationalizes the lives of others but secretly wants to live a life of their own. Witty and clumsy. - Incredible inventor and intellectual who doesn’t realize they are creating things for the wrong side the whole time. - **The Harmonic Savant**: A musician whose melodies can influence emotions and environments, using their talent to calm tensions in the galaxy. **Flaw**: Suffers from crippling stage fright stemming from a traumatic performance in their past, hindering their ability to harness their full potential. - **The Empathetic Android**: A highly advanced android capable of experiencing and understanding human emotions more deeply than its creators intended. ### Line's Of Dialogue I Love: - I would rather be hurt trusting someone, than be an emotionless husk and trust no one - Someone has to do what is right for the people, wrong for the person. ### Plot Archetypes I Want To Explore In My Fiction: - 1. **Quest:** Central to many fantasy narratives, this involves characters embarking on a journey to retrieve something valuable, gain knowledge, or achieve a significant purpose. This quest often drives the main plot and shapes the characters' development. It starts with the character not really wanting to go on the quest but embarking none the less after some pushing. 1. 1. **The Mentor:** A classic archetype in storytelling, the mentor is an experienced individual who guides and trains the protagonist. This character imparts wisdom, skills, and often plays a crucial role in preparing the protagonist for the challenges ahead. 2. **Identity Crisis:** Here, a character struggles with understanding their true identity or grapples with amnesia. This internal conflict adds depth to the character and can serve as a driving force for their actions and decisions. 3. **Stranger in a Strange Land:** This theme involves a character from a different culture or background experiencing life in an unfamiliar setting. It's a powerful way to explore themes of adaptation, cultural conflict, and personal growth. 4. **Body Swap:** Characters switch bodies, leading to situations that are either humorous or insightful. This can be used to explore themes of empathy, identity, and the contrast between external appearance and internal reality. 5. **Parallel Lives:** The story follows the interconnected lives of multiple characters. This allows for a rich, multi-layered narrative where different perspectives and storylines interweave to form a complex tapestry. 6. Fall from Grace: honorable good person falls from their pedestal. ### Resources - [[100 Timeless Plot Archetypes]] - [[Gaming, Meet Storytelling]] - [[6 Shapes of Stories]] - [[Sorkin's Drive Shaft of Drama]] - [[7 Writing Lessons I Learned the Hard Way]] ## Related MOCs ```dataview list from #🗺️ and [[]] and !outgoing([[]]) sort file.mtime desc ``` ## Related Concepts ```dataview table Status from [[]] and !outgoing([[]]) and !#🗺️ sort file.mtime desc ```