Author Topic: Thoughts on Good Story Development Practices  (Read 8627 times)

FrostedLights

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on: April 13, 2013, 03:17:01 PM
Elements of Writing

   Good afternoon! I am going to talk a little about writing an exciting and engaging work of fiction. This is partly an exercise for my own benefit but I've decided to post it online as well. So we'll start at the beginning, and when we get to the end, stop.

Starting Points

   Where should my story begin? You might find yourself thinking of the dawn of a new day. Your character waking up, safe and warm in his home, unknowing that his life is about to undergo a drastic change. What does this sound like to you? The start of a story? Yes? No! Have you ever seen an artist start drawing a character's ears, pixel by pixel, fully coloring and shading them as he goes? Well, maybe if you're watching the intro to Bob Ross's old show, but it's not a legitimate approach with artwork and it's not a legitimate approach to writing a story.

   There are a few obvious starting points. First you will need to decide what genre you're going to work in. I prefer fantasy; you will see that reflected in this write-up. Maybe you're already starting to think about details of your setting, atmosphere, magic, and the like, but first and foremost you need an objective. This should include what you want to accomplish with your story. “Entertain people” is not a sufficient objective. This might be an objective, but it's too broad, sort of like if you had answered that your objective was “write a story.” A few potential EARLY objectives are listed below.

   Exploring Interesting Ideas:
What if a regular guy was accidentally turned into a dragon
What if a normal human finds he has magic
What if society collapsed and there was no more electricity
What if a young girl found an entire other world hidden in her closet

   Maybe you recognized a few of those: The Flight of Dragons, Harry Potter, The Girl Who Owned a City, The Chronicles of Narnia? Your early objective gives you direction. It will not be your final objective. Your final objective will be more pointed. But this gives us a starting point. Final objectives will look more like these:

   Final Objectives:
Catharsis
Explore the interesting life of an interesting character
Inspire the audience
Explore the virtue of (virtue here)

   And of course you want to entertain, but a good story should make people feel something or teach them something. They should be amused or feel like they've overcome an obstacle, maybe they can see the light at the end of the tunnel in their own problems now. I am particularly fond of catharsis, the redeeming feeling of being cleansed by accompanying the tragic hero through his story and enduring with him.

   For the sake of this exercise we'll be doing a Hero's Journey Fantasy

Main Characters

   Now that we've discussed objectives and have an idea of the kind of story we want to write it's time to develop a main character. So, who is he?

   Did you start with: He's a (fantasy creature/occupation here)?

   That's a common first response, but often very unimportant. Fantasy stories often involve taking a character far abreast of his normal role. Well, but, he's still a (fantasy race), right? That's interesting! Well, on its face, no.

   What?! Why?!

   'Being' something is not an interesting detail, particularly if it is strikingly similar to humans. Darius is an elf. What does that mean? If all it means is Darius looks like an elf, and the story wouldn't change at all if he was human, you've unfortunately made a pretty big mistake in character design or world-building. It is very possible to make an exotic species become an interesting detail, but it is a common pitfall of starting writers to expect an interesting species choice to carry the character design. Imagine if I drew a stick figure of an animal and wrote “Fox” over it. Okay, it's a fox. But that's not interesting. This is synonymous to having “He's a dragon anthro” as your character's only defining trait.

   Just like illustrator fleshes out a rough sketch, you must flesh out your character concept. Who is this person? What are his core moral principles? What is his personality? What are his weaknesses? Fears?

   I would generally advise early writers to start with characters that are not magical by nature, nor are they particularly unique among their colleagues. A special character, misused, will detract significantly from the story and until you can work with a regular character, a special character will be beyond your grasp. Magic, in a character, is much like special effects in a movie. They can add flavor to the story but if you start relying on them too heavily you turn into Michael Baysplosions.

   The danger of magical abilities is that you open up a large variety of possibilities for your character and you MUST consider them all. If your character can teleport around at his whim, you've just made a God character, and any situation he finds himself in he would either solve with teleportation (boring) or not solve with teleportation (plot hole). No one is going to walk all the way to Mordor when they can zip there in an instant.

   Make your character likeable! Do not whine. Do not make them a nagging idealist. Do not make them so dark and mysterious and brooding that they hardly ever talk. Do not make them a Mary Sue! If your character is too strong/perfect, or if your character is whiny or obnoxious, no one will like them. A well-designed MAIN character should be energetic and outgoing, a Type A personality. This person is often going to be carrying your story forward. There are places in your story for timid or difficult to motivate characters, but they should never be the lead. The story will drag. A main character who is driven, has clear objectives, and a high degree of intellectual curiosity will carry the story well, give you moment, and keep you out of most sinkholes.

   One common pitfall of new writers if having their character constantly preach the virtue of some hot button issue. Do so and you will still likely alienate your audience. Some will leave because of disagreement with the issue, many others because the story will be boring with this huge, distracting, obvious author soapbox. Having a few people still around does not mean you have avoided this pitfall. Diehards that are either in strong agreement with you, addicted to the character species, or your friend, will often stick by your side even if quality has tanked. If you are touching on sensitive issues and you ever hear the words “you don't want readers like them anyway,” you've probably made a mistake. If you're writing to persuade: write a paper, not a fantasy story.

Faults in Main Characters
The Main Character needs to have at least one area of importance in which the villain outclasses him. The villain needs to be smarter or stronger or more magical or have a greater army. If there's no challenge for the hero there's not much point in the story. The hero and the villain should be closely enough matched that there's some genuine level of concern that the villain might win.

An Achilles Heel is not a sufficient fault. This is boring, like vampires, for example, having to have a steak through the heart. Not a huge problem in villain, major problem if the hero is this invulnerable. Odds should be against the hero.

Avoid making the main character stupid or naïve. Avoid going so overboard that the main character is blind or lame or mute. These are often unnecessary handicaps. Main characters do NOT need to be exceptional people. Merely being a functional person put into an extreme circumstance is often enough.


Villains
Villains on the other hand, DO need to be exceptional people, particularly if they are initiating the situation. Average people do not cause major events to happen. Make sure your villain is realistic. Very few people believe they are the villain. Hardly anyone ever is evil for the sake of being evil. They usually believe they are right, often adapting an Ends Justifies the Means mentality. Your villain should have goals unrelated to “being evil.”It is best if these goals interfere with the hero's goals in some way. Villain design is just as important as hero design. Avoid having a “Captain Planet villain.” Villains should have some redeeming qualities unless they're an outright monster (like a mindless beast or demon of some sort). Sapient villains should generally be complex enough, REAL enough, that they do not simply exemplify everything you think is wrong with the world all rolled into one little package.

Important Fundamentals

Yes! Your outline! Just like an illustrator starts with a sketch, so must you. Outline events, make sure they make sense. Consider your characters and how they interact. This is perhaps the single, most important step of writing your story. Everything should be planned in the outline. You can make changes to your outline as you go, but be mindful of where you've come from and where you are going to. If you're writing a fantasy novel your story is probably going to be about 80k to 100k words long at least. You do not want to get to 65,000 words and realize you're written into a corner and made fundamental mistakes early on.

Be willing to scrap ideas! Not every idea can fit into your story, be aware of the reality you're building, and if things seem “too convenient” you have to cut them, even if they seem neat. Consider all of your characters to be discrete, unique individuals. They will not all think like you and they will not all think like each other. Just as you hold to your core principles, your characters must hold to theirs, even if they are not well in-line with yours.

Changing a character. You have limited space in a story for character growth. Character growth does not stem from arbitrary decisions. Very few people get up one morning and decide “I'm going to have an adventure today.” There has to be some sort of “cause” behind a change. In The Hobbit, for example, Bilbo gets thrust into an exciting situation with these dwarves, and a promise that he'll be forever changed if he goes on this journey. He turns it down, and he SHOULD have. It was GOOD that he did. Bilbo Baggins does not do unexpected things. He's a respectable, typical Hobbit. It's only AFTER the dwarves have left that he looks around his house, full of nice things and comforts, and sees the sad truth: Bilbo Baggins does not do unexpected things. Today will be like tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, until he is old and grey, and never did anything splendid. The dwarves showed him excitement, and when they left, he could see the holes in his formerly picturesque life and he goes running after them. Dominoes do not fall over by themselves, the first must be pushed!

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FrostedLights

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Reply #1 on: April 13, 2013, 03:17:24 PM
Magic Systems

A good fantasy story almost always has some degree of magic. In most cases, less is more. An important detail to keep track of is the difficulty your characters face. There must be an appropriate level of challenge in a serious work or the story becomes a moot point. In sporting events, while everyone likes to see their team win, most people prefer a close game to a huge blowout. Magic is one of the easiest ways to introduce plot holes!

Consider, for example, if my character can teleport at will. This immediately subverts any number of obstacles: walls, vaults, locks, rivers, mountains, moats, doors, lava flows, you name it. Think back to almost any story you've read/watched that involved teleportation and you'll rather quickly see that this particular power almost always comes with all KINDS of strings attached. Perhaps the character has to have line of sight so as to avoid reappearing in a table and severing themselves in half? Or maybe a teleportation 'spell' can only be cast from a telepad? Star Trek, The Original Series introduced teleporters and once that bell was rung all of the rest of Star Trek series had to deal with it. The result? Writers went through all kinds of trouble to disable those teleporters.

It's very easy to wander into Mary Sue territory when you start tacking on magic abilities. Magic should be practical. Your character probably doesn't need to be a master in 5000 different schools of magic.

Speaking of schools of magic! You're not writing a D&D Manual. (Probably, anyway!)

There are a number of different kinds of magical systems. I'm going to break them down into a few basic categories: Whimsy, Natural, Divine, and Elemental. You should use, at most, two of these in a singular realm. Be aware that what we're calling 'magic' here, quickly becomes the physics of our fantasy world. As such there should generally be some level of order to it. I would almost go so far to as there should -always- be some level of order to it in order to AVOID CONFUSING THE READER.

Everyone in your audience likes magic, else they wouldn't be reading a work of speculative fiction in the first place. (Or perhaps they simply stick to Hard SF, but we're talking fantasy here since this is about magic systems.)

Elemental magic is perhaps the most common variant in amateur fiction. (Please note that amateur is not a pejorative, it is simply the proper term for someone whom is not making their living off of writing and is not a metric of skill. I, for instance, am an amateur.) This stems from its easy categorization and ease in prompting discussion. People enjoy talking about magic. Do not try to substitute a complicated magic system for plot. The best magic system in the world is wasted on a poor plot.

When building an elemental system, try to keep your number of elements as low as possible. While you might spend two years developing your world, your reader is going to spend a few hours in it per book. If you have more than about 10 schools you're going to start losing the reader very quickly. 50 schools of magic probably isn't going to improve the story (or even be pertinent to the reader's perception of the story.)

Divine magic is another very common variant. This is magic given to a character by a deity or spirit. This generally has the implication that it is not the character's power but the spiritual entity's power. Bear that well in mind. If your spiritual force is intelligent (and it probably should be, otherwise use a Whimsy system) you should not be able to “steal” this magic and binding it must be consistent with the fact that this magic does not come from the character. Video games often ignore most rules of Divine systems for the sake of balance of play, but if a character is praying to their god to cause a spell to be cast, you can only stop this caster by rendering them unconscious.

Natural Magic or “low” magic, is one of the most subtle and difficult magical systems to write. The most notable example of this that comes to mind is Gandalf of Lord of the Rings. Gandalf's magic is one of wisdom and intuition. Much of what he does is indirect and based on seemingly exhaustive knowledge of his surroundings. If someone was to ask you how Gandalf's magic 'worked' you would have a difficult time explaining. It is not flashy. It is incredibly cunning and clever. There are a few times that Gandalf acts as a Light Mage (Elemental Magic), for example, when he drives off the nazghul with the light of his staff and when he drives Sarumon's influence out of Theoden. (Forgive me if I misspelled any of those names.) In this sort of system you're most likely going to see VERY few mages around.

Whimsy Magic is something of a catchall for systems that are big and flashy but not neatly ordered into a system of faith or elemental mixtures. Harry Potter is easily the most recognizable example of whimsical magic. Spells required somatic (spoken) components, particular motions of wands, and the like. These are things that don't fit very well into a scientific system. For example, with spoken components, unless you are talking to a spiritual being, who -are- you talking to? 'Magic Words' almost always fall into whimsy or divine. I personally never use them for whimsy, as the idea seems very silly. Wingardium leviosa? What does that matter? Beyond that, why does a particular flick of the wrist with a wand do anything different from another? Even if one were to argue about magical 'fields' in the air, the idea that disrupting them in one way could cause a feather to levitate, but in a very slightly different way causes it to explode is rather inconsistent. This does NOT mean that whimsy magic is bad. It DOES mean you shouldn't try to bloody explain it. Any attempt to explain such a system is going to leave more questions and draw additional scrutiny to the oddities of the system.

Why use it then? Well whimsy magic can be good for atmosphere. Harry Potter is, at least in the first few books, mostly about fun with a bit of adventure thrown in. Rowlings abandoned this particular mixture in the later books, much to the detriment of her story (my opinion, sorry). An important note in using a whimsy system, no significant problem should EVER be solved with a new whimsy spell. Rowlings was good about this. Her characters never found themselves staring some horrible obstacle in the face and oh, by the way, Hermione happens to know how to fix this already! These solutions were always re-used old spells. Otherwise it's simply too convenient and strains believability.

How to do it right

Choose a system, explore it, and maintain strict internal consistency with yourself. Never introduce odd caveats to the magical system to allow the characters to solve a problem. The magic system should be about flavor, not about getting yourself out of a corner. If you want to elevate that fantasy atmosphere, use spells to overcome minor nuisances like broken glasses, being locked out of the apartment, unable to start your car, dinner got cold, etc. These are great ways to have a little fun with your characters' magic without distracting detours.

Avoid long magical lectures and trying to explain overcomplicated systems. If you've done your job well your magic system's facets should become apparent throughout the narrative. It's not important for every reader to have the exact same system in mind, so long as their view is consistent enough with your own view that the story makes sense.

Magical Combat
Offensive spells should use the most extreme elements of your system. If a character can open a black hole and reduce an entire city to half the size of a hydrogen atom with a flick of his wrist, he's going to do so. If two magic-users are fighting to the death, they're not going to use that level 1 fireball spell they teach to the newbies. They're going to be erupting volcanoes beneath the other guy's feet or freezing the air solid. Fighting to the death is not some surreal, dignified and respectful series of trading blows. There is emotion here. Raw emotion. Hatred. Rage. Savagery. Your characters should rip into each other with a sadistic fervor of men ready to kill.

Don't call out spells. Why would you do that? “Enemy, I'm about to throw a fireball at you, please don't use this information to protect yourself.”

But I came up with a really cool name for my spell! The Embers of Rage! Sorry, still shouldn't be called out during combat. Perhaps a demonstration? But remember, details you provide to the reader that are this specific are Chekhov's Gun. (TV tropes). If you go to the trouble to explain it, the reader will expect you to use it. Otherwise it is simply an extraneous detail, distracting from the important things in your story.

Magic in the Plot
Solve problems with the most reasonable method. Just because you can think of a cool way to address a problem, doesn't mean it is the right way, particularly if it is impractical. For example: Let's suppose that our characters get a half day down the road, make camp, and realize they've forgot the flint and tinder! No fire for you! But wait! We have a mage! First off, before we address the solution, we should ask ourselves -why- we have this problem occurring in the first place. Such a small thing is not going to have a far-reaching effect on the story. My kingdom isn't going to stand or fall based on my characters' ability to have a warm dinner this evening. What I -can- do is use this to demonstrate a magical ability. This comes back to the age old adage “show don't tell.”

For example, if I say: Aurora was a fire mage and used one of her spells to light the fire. BORING.

Aurora slunk up to the firepit and sat before the cold, lifeless twigs. With her eyes shut tight, she stretched out her hands and mumbled quietly to herself. Tiny embers fell like snow from her fingertips, hissing and popping against the wet kindling. Somewhere deep within the heap of twigs and branches, her spell caught hold and hungry flames began to lick at the night sky. Aurora opened her eyes, smirking in quiet triumph as she warmed her hands. She looked back at the others, her silver eye gleaming in the darkness.

“Well? Going to gawk or cook the fish?” she asked.

So this let me play a bit with Aurora's character and demonstrate one of her abilities. Note that this was perhaps the most simple solution to the problem of “we can't light the fire.” There were also many inappropriate solutions. Turning a character into a dragon would have also worked, but would have been outrageous overkill. Now, if a character already was a dragon, reverting to their natural form to light the fire would have been very appropriate. This is their natural ability. There's not going to be any “woah what the heck” about that.

Major plot problems should not be solved with magic. Otherwise they're not major problems. If I can * poof* a problem away it's not really a problem, is it? Similarly, if you find a problem can be easily solved with magic, you might have just created a plot hole. For example, a villain is going to be very aware of the magical capabilities of the world he lives in, so he's not going to do something stupid that's going to allow the hero to deal him a mighty blow with a simple magic spell. The One Ring, for example, Sauron would not have made it so important if it could simply be smashed with Gimli's hammer or tossed into any old forge and melted down.

If you find yourself in such a situation, realize that that villain would not have made this mistake, go back, and rewrite it. Do NOT try to justify that you made the mistake so he might. Any story based on the idea that someone simply overlooked and important detail by accident will feel very flimsy. Particularly if it's about the magic system. This would be like if you designed a security system based on making a room completely dark. So dark that your thief could never possibly find the item you were protecting, then later went “Whoops! Flashlights!” This is exactly what it will look like for your reader if the villain locks your character in a jail cell, forgetting that he can use telekinesis to levitate the keys over when the guard falls asleep. Solving problems through villain mistakes, even when involving magic, just looks lazy.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2013, 01:02:31 AM by FrostedLights »

Not Just Another Weathermare


FrostedLights

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Reply #2 on: April 13, 2013, 03:17:37 PM
Reserved for Part 3

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FrostedLights

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Reply #3 on: April 13, 2013, 03:17:53 PM
Reserved for Part 4

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FrostedLights

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Reply #4 on: April 23, 2013, 01:02:44 AM
Added part 2!

(Also is anyone finding this interesting/useful or am I just talking to myself? n.n' )
« Last Edit: April 23, 2013, 01:40:50 AM by FrostedLights »

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Virmir

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Reply #5 on: April 25, 2013, 08:09:11 PM
Some pretty good tips here-- especially stuff like not introducing a new magic spell to solve a problem.

You mention that a good main character should be "energetic and outgoing." While, yes, you should be sure your main character has a strong enough personality to drive your story, "outgoing" is a single personality trait, and there's no reason to limit yourself to that. I think you mean "energetic and outgoing" is just one example of traits in a strong lead. [;)

You also mention that villains should be exceptional and outstanding. True-- but I would also add a footnote that they only need to be this way in relation to the main character. I.e., they necessarily need to be on top of the world or anything (I think this is what you ultimately meant anyway.)

I agree with most of the rest, though! Interested in reading what more you have to offer. [:)

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FrostedLights

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Reply #6 on: April 26, 2013, 01:05:24 AM
Yes you certainly have a point there. Admittedly my comments on heroes were a little colored by my own preferences and some particular bad experiences I've had. It's important that the main character not be so unmotivated or withdrawn that the plot drags when it struggles to motivate him. This isn't to say that such characters can't be interesting, but the Narrative Requirement is important to bear in mind. I suppose a better way to approach the problem would be to say that the main character should not be someone stuck wallowing in self-loathing and depression. Dark Stranger, mysterious past, blah blah blah. Largely uninteresting tropes, frequently used to try to artificially elevate the intrigue around a character without actually doing the legwork to make them interesting. But that's for another topic, back to the Narrative Requirement!

The Narrative Requirement being the knowledge that because this is a story, certain things -must- happen. This means that certain things need to happen rather quickly. For example, consider the recent film: The Hobbit. Bilbo is a meek character, particularly early on. The dwarves drop in and try to recruit him. Consider that VERY little of this entire sequence actually focused on recruiting Bilbo. There was a lot of history given and just enough taste of adventure to wet his appetite. The basic structure of the scene is as follows:

Bilbo begins an average evening with a nicely cooked meal.
Dwarves show up unannounced, throwing Bilbo's evening into turmoil.
Dwarves make plans to retake their home.
Gandalf asks Bilbo to join, Bilbo declines
The next morning the dwarves are gone, Bilbo goes after them.

Thinking back to this ~10 minute sequence you should realize that probably less than a full minute of screen time was devoted to actually attempting to persuade Bilbo to come along and that minute, at first, ended in failure. Why is this?

We already know that Bilbo is going to go with the dwarves. I mean yes, yes, sure, we've read the book, seen the previews, maybe watched the old VHS movie, but the narrative requirement dictates that this happen. Why? Well because there's a movie playing! It wouldn't be much of a movie if Bilbo said "No, no thank you, good evening," shut the door on that first dwarf and continued to eat his supper. Cue an additional two hours of him doing the dishes, watering the garden, weeding, and trimming his little hobbit feet-hairs e.e But that would be ridiculous so we assume, by virtue of it being a story, that Bilbo is going to go, even if in a real life situation almost everyone wouldn't go. It is for this reason that stories are often about exceptions, but the exception must still be believable.

A moment ago I discussed the basic structure of events of the shire scene. It only covered what happened on a functional level. People coming and going and people making decisions, but there was a lot more going on here story-wise.

First off, the dwarves arrive. Nothing hugely special there, though we do get our first glimpses at most of them and a basic introduction. Again, no real writing magic in that, or is there? There is, and it is very subtle. Most of the dwarves begin to disrupt the peacefulness of Bilbo's home. Nearly every item they move around has some sort of history to it. Bilbo can, and often does, explain what the item is, which of his ancestors procured it, and how long it has been in the family. At first this should seem like the trite complaints of an uppity hobbit, well-set in his ways, and if you think so, you're correct! But there's some 'writing magic' going on here.

At last, Thorin Oakenshield arrives and planning begins. Now, there are two things happening here. First off, the audience is being given an up-to-date look on what the dwarves think of reclaiming the kingdom under the mountain. Despite Thorin's efforts, he has only the support of these eleven gathered. Surface stuff, again, largely for the audience, but we are not the only audience! Bilbo is also watching the plight of the dwarves unfold and in showing him the hopelessness of their situation, he can see the conviction they must all feel to be driven to undertake such a desperate quest.

Soon after, Gandalf sits down with Bilbo and attempts to persuade him to join up. How does he do this? He provides Bilbo with an amusing tale of one of his ancestors defeating a goblin king. Bilbo accuses him of making the story up and Gandalf admits that there were some embellishments made, but promises that if Bilbo comes along, he'll have a tale or two of his own when he comes back.

"Can you promise that I will come back?"
"No. And if you do, you will not be the same."

Bilbo declines. This is so important that he does this. The scene would not have been nearly as good if he had accepted.

Morning comes, the dwarves are gone. Bilbo is alone in his house, the excitement gone. He starts to clean up. Remember earlier, when he named off all those old things? It's coming back to haunt him right here. He's just another name in the long line of Baggins. He's living in a hobbit hole built by others, filled by others. Sure he'll add a thing or two of his own before he passes it on to dear Frodo, but he finds that already, he's changed. Those mangy dwarves. They were living for something, willing to die for something. What did he have? A nice, comfortable, safe home where nothing exciting (or important) ever happened.

Only now that the dwarves have come and gone can Bilbo really see the void in his life, and it prompts him out the door that he would NOT walk out of the previous evening. This change in character came from within. He altered a fundamental aspect of his character. Gandalf didn't talk him into it on his own, because it is so rare that fundamental change comes from a wholly outside force. It is so important to keep this in mind when a character is going to make a momentous decision.

So in conclusion, the question of "will you go with us" is asked, and only discussed for about 80 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_wTMDqGoFM

But it is actually being addressed by the narrative for a solid 10 minutes while history and character traits are established to the audience. This is good writing. If Gandalf had simply walked in, told Bilbo this story and asked him to go and Bilbo had said "yes, ok, sure, I'll go," it would not have been believable.

So yes, meek characters are fine, but they need to be interesting enough that people want to read about them. The thing to avoid, in the end, is a whiny, beat-down character struggling with depression. Simply not flattering traits for a main character.

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FrostedLights

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Reply #7 on: April 26, 2013, 01:06:46 AM
Augh, this is why I tell people, "Yeah it's a wall of text, but based on my stories we should just all be glad I managed to say -anything- in under 10,000 words."

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Reply #8 on: May 05, 2013, 12:43:45 AM
Looks interesting so far.

I'd add that it's helpful specifically to put a character in a position where they're forced to operate outside their favorite skills/style. Eg., I put an engineer in a situation where he has to be a leader paying attention to money, religion and other things he thinks aren't important. A character can grow by being forced to confront their weaknesses. That setup is good for comedy too, eg. putting a tough-guy character in a situation where they have to be friendly and emotional, or a friendly slacker into a high-pressure business situation. There are Hollywood actors who've made millions out of those two combinations.

In designing a villain, ask whether you want the villain to be the protagonist, "the one who struggles", and who makes the hero into the antagonist, who just tries to stop their evil plan. That structure is very common, but you could also focus on having the hero be the one who's got a plan and is facing obstacles instead. In "The Hobbit" the good guys are the protagonists because Smaug is just sitting there and the heroes are on a quest to kill him and take his stuff. In "Star Wars", Vader is the main protagonist because the heroes are just reacting to what he does -- and Vader ends up being the most memorable character. So, who's really the protagonist of your story, and what exactly are they trying to accomplish?

Also think about whether to have subplots. It's very common to have an "A plot" about the physical action, and a "B plot" about the hero's moral and emotional troubles. The hero then can't win until he learns and grows in some way, tying the plots together. Eg. Ender of "Ender's Game" struggles with how much stress and abuse he's willing to tolerate from the Battle School, and gets through it by making a decision to handle it creatively and ruthlessly. He becomes a stronger and better-defined person, if not necessarily a nice one. A cynical way of describing A- and B-plots is that they appeal to men and women, but more accurately they make for a more meaningful story together.

Finally, re: different types of magic, think about how to get plots out of the magic system itself! With "divine magic" for instance, what happens if a god can/can't withdraw their power from a believer who's gone heretic? What if someone is found who can use it but isn't part of the established church, claiming that the church is a lie and magic is really available to everyone? What if divine spells extract some heavy price from the people who forget they're basically asking their god for miracles, such as transformations or a spell fizzling in an hour of need? There are stories to tell based on any of those. That's just one example of mining your own setting for story ideas.

New fantasy book series: "Wavebound". The story of the novice Goddess of Water! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D3SW5WP