Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Action
Action and conflict are two separate things. Action is the result of conflict. Conflict is the reason for most action.
Many writers think they are the same thing. So they put fights and explosions in their stories as a substitute for meaningful conflict. Audiences walk away from these stories feeling empty. In their heart of hearts they know what they just saw was fireworks, nothing more. There was nothing to remember or care about except for some flashing lights.
When action is used as a substitute for conflict, you have a meaningless story Oscar Wilde said it best: “The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.” Action does serve a purpose, but it should never be used as a device just to keep the story moving along. The true source of momentum isn’t action scenes. Don’t forget that.
When you set out to write action scenes, you need to create a sense of causality. We either need to see what lead up to this action, or we need to understand why it’s happening if we’re thrown in the middle of it. As we discussed before, we need to know who to root for. We need to have a sense of why we should care about any of this. It can’t be just a bunch of flying bullets and crashing cars. Everyone has seen that a million times. What they really want are good reasons for it all.
Action scenes also need to flow in a realistic manner. Too often comic creators do fight scenes that have little or no motivation and don’t make any sense when you follow them. Character A punches character B through a wall. In the next panel, character B kicks character A in the head. How did they get from flying backwards into a wall to flying forward and kicking someone? Whatever happened to physics?
There’s a real lack of sense in many comics today when it comes to action. And just because some of these bad comics sell is no excuse to imitate them. They aren’t selling like they used to and they never sold because they were good stories. They sold because they appealed to a certain market of people who were more interested in making a quick buck than reading them. Or they sold to people who loved the art.
Good comics require some thought. Action scenes, in order to be effective, need to have an emotional impact as well as a physical one. There must be some kind of repercussions, There must be stakes for the hero and the villain. When you create an action scene, think through all the possible combinations of outcomes. Write them down. Then pick the ideas that are the most original and surprising. We need to move beyond the same old Biff! Pow! Bam!
Also remember that action needs to define the characters, because the choices they make in these actions scenes illustrate the way their mind works under pressure.
Medias Res
This means “In the Middle of things”. It’s a term used mainly for a technique of starting a story in the middle the action. A lot of super-hero comics like to begin media res. It allows the creators to show the different characters in action, so we can see what their powers and abilities are. The secret to making such scenes work is to define who the protagonists are right away. You need to establish this by having them demonstrate their alignment.
It’s far too common these days to read stories where 50 characters are all in a big battle, shouting each others names out loud so we know who is who. But never are we given any insight into the characters themselves. The most we get to know is their powers and goofy costumes. Even little kids want more than that. Audiences need characters they can root for.
Since action in comics is basically a series of still shots of things happening, you need to make it really clear what is happening in each panel and you have to keep it simple. The more detail, the more the reader will be distracted. The more distracted, the longer it takes for them to read the panel. The more time it takes, the slower the scene feels.
Action scenes need to be exciting. So they must have a high emotional charge and they must play fast and loose. Too much dialog and we start to lose steam. The goal should be to build steam. Because the action scene should work toward it’s own climax.
So, when jumping into a scene, Medias Res, remember that you start with momentum, and you need to build toward a pay off. That pay off is the climax of the scene. And the pay off will work a lot better if we get some set up first. We need to know who is who, what is what and why the hell is all this going on.
There will be some instances where you want mystery in the scene, but we still need to know who to root for, even if it turns out to be the wrong person later. If we’re given no reasons to care, we won’t. And you don’t want the Audience to start off the story feeling indifferent.
REMEMBER: Action needs meaning. Conflict is the meaning behind all action
Monday, February 05, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Contrast
This technique is used to highlight the differences between characters, thus defining them in sharp, easy to understand ways. It can also be used to highlight your main character so he stands out from the pack.
In film, the use of color is often used for contrast. The background and costume colors are chosen very carefully. Study films and you’ll see one color schemes used in the entire film. In comics, you may have no control over the coloring, so it’s best to deal with contrast through writing.
As we discussed before there are recognizable personality archetypes. And in addition to that certain people bring out certain qualities in our personalities. When you create a scene, it’s a good idea to use characters that do not blend with each other. You want the characters to seem different. Visuals aren’t enough.
In life, we’re pressured by society and others to conform. Many of us resist it, but we still try to conform in some ways. It’s human nature to try to be part of the herd. If you don’t conform to some model of normalcy, you won’t get laid. And that’s a major motivation right there. But conformity is unacceptable in fiction. Characters need to contrast with one another so we can see why they’re so different and unique from each other. If you don’t do that you create what people call “cookie cutter characters.” Characters that seem to all be from the same mold and that is really boring.
Some writers, when given a job they aren’t enthused about, or if they’re in a hurry to meet a deadline, often write characters with the same voice, have them act in a predictable fashion, and even though these characters are normally unique, they become generic as if they were cookie cutter characters.
I’ve read many a super-hero team comic where the characters were all a bunch of grimacing louts, men and women alike. No sense of humor spread between all of their pea brains. Unless you count the ability to insult people with the wit of a bad sit-com character.
This is something to be extremely aware of and to avoid at all costs. You want characters to bounce off each other. You want them to annoy and amused and cajole and connive each other. You need to get into the heads of each character and see through their eyes. The last thing you want is for everyone to get along too well. That’s boring.
Sure, in some old TV sit-coms like Leave it to Beaver, everyone got along more or less in the family. But each character was distinct and different from each other. They had attributes that made them special. Even in the Brady Bunch.
SO discover what it is that makes a character special and play it off the other characters. It’s its liable to rub one character the wrong way, all the better. In Star Trek, Spock always pissed off McCoy because McCoy was a man of feeling and Spock was a man of intellect. Their archetypes were the Professor and Mr. Sensitive. Spock was a scientist, so he was mainly an intellectual person. McCoy was a doctor, so he was a man with empathy for others. He hated to see someone look at everything from an aloof perspective (Spock also had a bit of the Lord archetype in him). If you threw in Kirk who was a cross between the Hero and the Harlot, you had a potent mix.
Character dynamics are really important to understand because they can inspire you to create great conversations. When you’re writing a scene between two characters with completely different world views, they almost write themselves. Those traits within yourself start to speak you start writing like a demon. It’s a very satisfying feeling when this happens because you know you’re on to something. You’re writing from the heart.
There are three types of contrast characters worth knowing. These three characters are often used in fiction to great effect.
The Straight Man
If you’re familiar with comedy teams, you’re familiar with the straightman. The straightman is the “normal one” who ends up taking the brunt of the humor from the comical character he’s paired with. Abbott and Costello, Lewis and Martin, Laurel and Hardy, even the comedy teams like the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers used straightmen. They would either find an external straight man or one of the team members would play the role.
If you’ve seen Bugs Bunny cartoons, you know that Elmer Fudd is the straight man. Sometimes Daffy Duck, who in solo stories plays the Comic, ends up the straightman when paired in stories with Bugs. For comedy to work you need someone who gets mad, who’s straight, to play the comedy off of.
But you don’t need to do comedy to use a straightman. Straightmen are symbol of normalcy, some element of society or the status quo. We all get mad at the system. We all get sick of normalcy. Straightmen are the punching bags for writers to work their angst on. But they need to be characters we can relate to on some level. They have to be recognizable types of people.
The Gadfly
This character serves as the thorn in the side. The itch you can’t scratch. The trouble-maker you’d like to see go away, but who won’t. This are great characters to have in stories because they are the source of conflict. They keep things going. You just have to make sure you don’t over do it with these guys.
Gadflies can be likable characters, but they rub certain people the wrong way and they cause problems for others either by being irresponsible, clumsy, impulsive, anything that can lead to trouble.
Dr. Smith in Lost in Space was a gadfly character. The only problem was, they ended up making him a straightman after awhile because they over used him. Gadflies need to be used in the right circumstances and never over exposed. You can dilute their effectiveness that way.
There’s also this annoying tendency writers have lately, of trying to “improve” gadflies. They try to take away all the qualities that make them what they are. This robs them of their usefulness in a story. The idea is to make them a better person.
Newsflash: We don’t want to read about better people. We want to read about jerks.
Wolverine was a gadfly in the X-Men. He didn’t fit in. He was a loner. He was a trouble-maker. He would fight with the other members all the time. And then the writers decided, hey…let’s make him more lovable. He shouldn’t be so angry and violent.
That’s when I stopped reading stories about him.
The world isn’t composed of entirely of nice, well adjusted people. The world is composed of all kinds of people, many of whom are a serious pain in the ass. Even the nice people you want to strangle sometimes.
And in fiction, the point is to create conflict. One way you do that is to throw in characters that stir things up. That make people angry. That people get upset with. Those characters may be hated by the audience, but they will do wonders for your story. Because if the audience ends up hating people they’re supposed to dislike, you’re half way home.
The Mentor
When you have a hero who is basically an uneducated fool, or who is young and reckless, the mentor is a good way to educate him. The mentor is the teacher, the role model, the parent figure who helps your character through his arc. The mentor doesn’t always have to be obviously a mentor. They can play the role subtlety. And they don’t have to be likable or smooth even. Stick, Daredevil’s mentor in the Frank Miller stories was a grouchy old man who used to hit Matt Murdock on the head.
Just make sure the mentor is believable and has something worthwhile to say. But they should never be perfect. People don’t buy that. And they are generally wary of parent figures in stories.
REMEMBER: Contrast highlights character differences and makes for sharper writing.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Reversals
When we try to perform a task, things don’t always happen the way we expect them to. In many cases, the opposite result occurs. It’s called a reversal. You go to do something and you’re prevented from doing it because of something else.
In your story, the hero will try to take the path or least resistance. You can’t allow him to get away with that. If everything he tries works the way he wants it to, the story will be uneventful and dull. On the other hand, you need to make the reversals believable. If you have a hero jump in his car to chase the Villain and it doesn’t start, you need to set up car problems first. If the car looks like a junker, that’s all the set up you need. But a new car should start. People expect a certain amount of realism.
Reversals work best when they are part of an elaborate set up. you build immense anticipation in the audience as the hero goes to perform a task. And when he tries it seems to work for a second, but then—POW! Major complications result.
The opening sequence of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is a good example of this. Indiana Jones has to deal with all sorts of problems and death traps to get into an ancient temple so he can take a golden idol that’s hidden deep within. He fills a bag with sand to try to approximate the weight of the idol. He switches the bag with the idol and everything seems to be cool. No problems. He turns to leave and that’s when it becomes apparent he screwed up. Now he’s under real pressure to save himself. Before he could take his time evading the death traps. Now he has to run for it and hope he doesn’t get killed.
Reversals should only be the beginning of a set of repercussions and further reversals. You’re trying to apply Murphy’s Law (“If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.”) to your story, but you need to do it in a way the audience can believe.
In bad fiction we’ve seen reversals that seem to be arbitrary plot devices. They aren’t Murphy’s Law in action. They feel more like Sturgeon’s Law (“95% of everything is crap!”). If a complicated reversal occurs, we need the set up. It can be subtle, but we must be clued in as to why the reversal may have happened.
Another form of reversal is the telegraphed reversal. In this one, the audience knows the hero is going to fail when he throws that switch or opens that door. But the hero doesn’t. The story first sets up the hero’s plans, then shows in a sub-plot that the villain or an antagonist already anticipated this move and has countered it. So when the hero tries to do something he thinks will work, it blows up in his face. Because the audience was told to expect this, they are filled with dread before the hero makes his move. They might even scream at the page “Don’t do it!” This technique is very useful in suspense stories.
REMEMBER: Reversals create a feeling of realism, but only if they’re believable.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Sub Plots
Sub-plots are miniature stories within the main body of your story. They exist to develop events and characters that are taking place outside the experience of the Hero. Sub plots are especially helpful in keeping the middle part of the story interesting.
It’s wise to treat sub-plots like one or two act stories. But we usually don’t get to see the whole act at once. Often a sub-plot begins with a trigger event and develops to a crisis, but we don’t see the climax until later in the story where it affects the main plot.
Sub-plots can be broken up in three or four places. We can cut back to them where they left off as needed. But each scene or sequence involving a sub plot should work smoothly with the main body of the story.
There are two kinds of sub-plots. The set up sub-plot serves to set up the Trigger Event for the main story. The complication sub-plot exists to develop the story in the second act by throwing on another progressive complication.
Complication sub-plots are extremely important. They can not only add dimension to your story, they can also be used to contradict the premise and create irony. They can be used to develop supporting characters. They show us events going on outside the main body of the story which are related.
They allow you to play variations on a theme. You can use them to make your story resonate. Even though they are part of your main story, you can use them as counter stories, telling variations of the main tale in order to show the diversity of life.
Sub-plots can give you a lot of possibilities, but you need to make sure they flow seamlessly within the main work. You don’t want discordant melodies running amok.
REMEMBER: Sub-plots help add dimension and resonance.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Point of View
There are times in a story you may want to show what the character sees through their own eyes. this is known as a POV or Point of View. This technique serves two purposes. It puts us in the head of the character so we can experience life the way they are at that given moment in time. It also shows us a different perspective on the story than we may have been experiencing.
POVs can be used in one panel, or in an entire scene, or for an entire story. William Messner Loebs wrote a Johnny Quest comic that was seen entirely through a computer screen’s POV. The POV doesn’t have to be from a human’s perspective. It can be from anywhere. But the most common use is through the eyes of the Hero or a main character.
POVs are not limited to visual points of reference. We can do an external POV. This is done by having the character narrate the story and what we are shown is how the character interprets the action. The character also narrates the story from their personal perspective and world view.
Neil Gaiman used this approach effectively in his MIRACLEMAN “The Golden Age” stories. Non superhuman people were observing the affects superhumans had on their lives. This technique was later used in MARVELS, by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross to much acclaim.
The secret of POVs is remembering that it’s not your view as the writer, but the character’s personal view based on their limitations, opinions, attitudes, and perspective. It can be used as a characterization device, or it can be used as a means to show the horrible situation a character is in. It can be used to show how appalling the character’s mind set is. Or how good it is.
When you write from a character’s POV, you must understand the character as if they were you. You must believe what they believe as you write them. You must become that character for a time, even if that character is a complete anathema to you. If you’re a black writer doing a story from the POV of a Klansman, you need to understand the Klansman’s views as if they were your own. You actually have to allow yourself to believe it as you write so that the character comes across as real. If you’re a white writer doing a story from the POV of a Native American during the Indian Wars, you need to understand the perspective of the red man and their culture and why they feel that way. You have to avoid all the stereotypes you’ve seen in movies and go for the truth.
Even if you agree with the character you are writing from POV, you need to make sure they come off as human with flaws. Otherwise, you’re being nothing more than a tour guide pointing out sights along the way. We need insight during a POV. We need to understand what makes the character tick. We don’t need the same old same old.
POV should never be wasted on generic views or scenes, because it’s a very personal technique. It puts the Audience into the mind of the character. If you establish the experience as straightforward and uneventful, the audience will quickly become bored because they are seeing nothing to make the experience worthwhile.
REMEMBER: POV is not your view, it’s the character’s.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Defining Moments
These are scenes that tell us, in a demonstrative way, what kind of person a character is. Some writers can pull this off in one panel of a comic. In film, they are often done in a defining scene. Often, this is done in their introduction scene. It makes a strong and lasting impression to set up the scenes that follow. But often, you need a scene to set up the defining moment.
It’s critical to establishing the character firmly in our minds. They need to happen at least twice for the Hero and once for every major character.
Early in the story we need one to tell us where the hero is at the beginning of his arc. By the end of the story we need another to show where he is at the end of the arc. For the hero, that final defining moment should be during the climax.
The contrast of how the character is at the beginning and end can give us a strong sense of how far he has come on his journey.
For Villains, the defining moment is based on what the Audience perception of the Villain is supposed to be in the story. If the Villain is a false protagonist throughout most of the story, you need to define him as such until you reach the point where you are going to pull off their mask. Then, you hit the audience with a defining moment that shows us what the Villain’s true feelings are.
An excellent example of this can be seen in the Alfred Hitchcock film SHADOW OF A DOUBT. In this film Joseph Cotten plays a character named “Uncle Charley” who everyone loves, including the heroine of the story, his niece. But throughout the course of the story, the niece begins to realize something isn’t right with her uncle. She begins to suspect him of being a serial killer. There’s a dinner scene where Uncle Charley starts talking about widows and what he thinks of them. This scene is a perfect example of a defining moment.
Another excellent example can be found in the graphic novel WATCHMEN by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. In the first issue, Rorschach, the false hero of the story, enters a seedy bar to get information. When he enters the bar the bartender first nervously welcomes Rorschach and then…almost in the same breath, says: “Please don’t hurt anyone!”
This scene shows us how Rorschach is perceived by the public at large. It’s a defining moment using other characters to define the central character. This is an alternate technique to reach the same goal.
Defining moments make the story more exciting. They add to the power of a story by delivering a gut punch at just the right time. These are the moments you really want to learn how to pull off well. They will help make your story all the more enjoyable.
REMEMBER: Defining moments help make your characters come alive.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Story Values
If there is anything in this book stands out as the most useful bit of technique you can learn, this is it. Story Values.
Everything else in this book is important or useful. But this is a concept that truly revolutionizes your work and sets it above the pack. Story values are how you demonstrate character arcs. It’s how you demonstrate change. It’s how you make a story seem like it squeezed the last drop of passion out of the conflict.
Story values are the levels a conflict can pass through. They are the limits of human experience. You need to take the Hero through all the levels of human experience to craft a completely satisfying tale. Once you understand these levels, you can then set the goals you need to meet by the story’s end.
Values are the points on a curve any given status or emotional state of being can take. There are four levels of story values: Positive, Compromised, Negative, Detrimental. Let’s examine what these are. When I list the examples below, they will be in six categories. The next set of examples show you their alternates on the curve.
Positive: This is the value we all want our life to be experiencing. It’s when things are great. Everything is coming up roses. You’re at the top of the heap. Examples of positive values are: Love, Wealthy, Justice, Truth, Healthy, Free.
Compromised: When you enter this plane of values, things are on the skids. You’re on a downward spiral but haven’t hit bottom yet. Things could also get better. Examples: Indifference, Broke, Unfairness, White Lies, Sick, Constrained.
Negative: When you hit bottom, this is where you enter the territory of the Negative values. It’s the skids, the pits, etc. This is a destructive value, but not the most destructive. Things could still get worse. But worse is something you don’t even want to think about. Examples: Hate, Bankrupt, Injustice, Lies, Dead, Imprisoned.
Detrimental: If Negative is when you hit bottom, Detrimental is when the bottom falls out from under you. Once you’ve hit the realm of detrimental, you can only lose or win. There’s no other way to go. You’ve reached the end of the line. Examples: Hate masquerading as love, In debt to a murderous loanshark, Tyranny, Self Deception, Undead, In a Concentration camp.
Exploring the Values
Let’s see how they work in terms of a story. The hero is our milk loving friend Kyle. The villain is a loan shark named Rafe.
WEALTHY: Kyle starts off a wealthy man. But due to something that happens during the Trigger Event he becomes flat broke during the first Turning point. He spends the second act trying to get himself back on top, so he takes out loans to gamble in Vegas, hoping to win the money he needs to end up where he was before. That’s his goal in the story. But Kyle keeps losing during the progressive complication stage and his credit is cut off. He’s run out of money. He’s bankrupt. No one will lend to him. No one but Rafe, a loan shark. Kyle takes the loan from Rafe. But he loses the money and can’t pay Rafe back. Now Rafe is actively looking for Kyle. He plans to either break his legs or kill him as an example. Kyle only has one quarter to his name. He gambled his last few bucks on the slots. As he turns to leave the Casino Kyle sees Rafe across the room, looking at him. Rafe’s men are with him and they move to block all the exits. Rafe approaches Kyle with deadly intent. Kyle has nowhere to run. We’ve now reached the climax.
The story began with Kyle being wealthy, the positive extreme. We took the values down to an extreme low of being in debt to a psycho. Imagine how effective this would play, fleshed out with characterization and plot twists.
Now we can choose between three possible endings. Up, Down, or Ironic. These will determine which path Kyle’s life will end up on.
UP: Kyle puts his last quarter in a slot machine as Rafe and his men walk toward him. Desperate, Kyle pulls the lever. He sees Rafe draw his gun. Suddenly, lights and alarms go off. Rafe stops in his tracks, surprised. Kyle turns to look at the slot machine. He’s just won the big pay off! Two million dollars! Kyle is rich again! Rafe puts away his gun and says: “Congratulations.”
DOWN: Kyle puts his last quarter in a slot machine as Rafe and his men walk toward him. Desperate, Kyle pulls the lever. He sees Rafe draw his gun. Rafe’s expression turns from bad to worse as he draws close and jabs the gun against Kyle’s back. Kyle turns to look at the slot. He lost. RAFE: “You had your chance, Kyle. Now you’re going for a ride!” Rafe’s men grab Kyle’s arms and he’s dragged off into the night.
IRONIC: Kyle puts his last quarter in a slot machine as Rafe and his men walk toward him. Desperate, Kyle pulls the lever. He sees Rafe draw his gun. Suddenly, lights and alarms go off. Rafe stops in his tracks, surprised. Kyle turns to look at the slot. He’s just won the big pay off. $100,000. Exactly the amount of money he owes Rafe. Rafe puts his gun away and almost smiles. Kyle wipes the sweat from his brow. He’s still broke, and in debt to other people, but at least he doesn’t owe Rafe anymore. Just then, three security guards show up with a man in a cheap suit. The man says: “I’m Mr. Finster from the I.R.S. You’ll have to pay the income tax on that money.” Rafe can’t make a move with the guards there, so he leaves. Kyle knows he’s been given some extra time. Will it be enough?
TRUTH: We can add on more values to the same story by choosing those which are complimentary to the plot. Same exact story, but here’s how more values adds to the plot. Kyle’s a successful man with his own business. He’s level headed. He’s honest and fair. But he needs a big deal to make his business more successful and he tells a white lie to a potential client. This is the Trigger event. The white lie not only costs Kyle the deal, but he’s also sued by the client. He loses the law suit during the Turning Point of act one and becomes broke. During the second act he borrows money, using false information (lies) to get the loans. When this is discovered his credit is cut off, so he starts gambling. As he loses, he goes into denial, telling himself he is going to win it all back. And he lies to himself right up until the end, wanting to believe that success is just around the corner.
As you see, the values serve several roles. They establish the levels of conflict. They are the basis of motivation and causation. They raise the stakes in the story.
When you use values to go from one extreme to the other, you build a powerful charge. And when the climax occurs you have things at such an extreme point, that reversing everything in one final act, righting all the wrongs, setting things back to where the hero wants them to be, creates a feeling of great exhilaration for the Audience. Or it makes the Ironic ending funny. Or it makes the negative ending devastating.
Notice how the values are married to the causal effect. The Audience needs to see that actions have consequences. They expect the Newtonian rules of physics to apply to a story. When you do one thing, it causes another thing to occur. This principle creates a feeling of realism.
So we use values to add more and more power to the conflict(s) of the story. We can tie together three or four sets of values easily. Even more if we have to. And by doing so we create a feeling of believability and complexity in the work. We also make the story meaningful.
When a character goes through the limits of human experience, they really discover the meaning of the word “adventure.”
REMEMBER: Take us through the values and we’ll feel the full range of human experience.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Character Arc
This is a often misunderstood concept that’s very important to the success of your story.
Many books on screen-writing hold this to be an essential component of story telling. Unfortunately, they fall into the trap of seeing this concept in a simplistic, dogmatic way.
Character Arc refers to the Hero’s learning curve in a story. A Hero starts off with certain attitudes and beliefs and by the end of the story they come away with new insights and direction in life. The Hero may also grow and mature through the course of their adventure, becoming a better or worse person than when they started. They can become more wise, more knowledgeable.
Some people have theorized that the secret to characterization is to first figure out what you want your character to learn, then start them off at the exact opposite of that conclusion. This isn’t a bad theory since it also plays hand in hand with the premise concept. But we all know there is more to characterization than that.
It’s far too simple to have a character go from bad to good in a story. We all know that people fall back on old habits easily. Someone may clean up their act today, but come Sunday they’re back to drinking sterno. Your story has to convince us that the character has truly seen the light, if that’s what your goal is.
Unfortunately, it’s extremely trite to take a character who has views in direct opposition to your own and make them take your side by the end. People don’t like having morality or political opinions shoved down their throats. Especially if they disagree with them. And Audience’s can tell when the writer is setting up a character to make some moral point that match’s the writer’s views.
You can pull this off if you make the counter premise extremely compelling. To do this you need to understand the other side of the argument well and realize all the good points the other side makes. By working through all the arguments of the counter premise in your story, you can then establish in a sound, reasonable way, the foundation for your version of the truth.
But character arc isn’t limited to political or social issues. A character can learn to be sober. They can learn to be better fishermen. Better mathematicians. You can make the goal of the character arc anything you want. In the film ROCKY, the character had to go from insecure and unfocused to determined and confident. That was his arc. The arc relates to the various levels of conflict you’re dealing with. You take the character from one value to another.
One of the worse mistakes writers make when dealing with character arc is having the character explain at the end what they’ve learned. This should be self evident. It should be demonstrated. Having a character mouth platitudes is not only preachy, it’s insincere.
As we discussed earlier, anyone can say they’ve learned something. It’s like saying “I’m sorry”. It’s just words. It doesn’t mean there is any truth in it. We need to see the arc demonstrated clearly and the Audience should know, for certain, that this character has learned what they had to learn, without being told.
Truth is something we need to see in practice. It’s the old Missouri principle. Seeing is believing. Demonstrate in a clear and powerful way that your character is seeing and acting differently, and that they are doing so because they learned to do so.
Whatever you do, don’t just have them say it. No one will believe them. Too many of us know the meaning of codependent from experience. We know how hard it is for people to change.
Villains can arc, but don’t always need to. If you do a story where the Villain starts off good, but becomes evil by the end of the story, that’s his arc. But you need to establish strong reasons for this arc to make his journey believable. This can be done using story values, which is a subject we’ll discuss next.
Major supporting characters should arc in relation to the hero. This gives the story dimension. But the supporting characters arcs don’t need to be as grand as the heroes. And their arcs should have something to do with the events in the story.
The focus of the character arc is always going to be the Hero. His arc is the main point of the story, in most cases. Stories are about change. The hero needs to change in some way. Obviously, in a monthly comic book, you can’t affect an arc every storyline. So you should consider making the main character secondary and arcing someone else. Or you should create stakes that imply a change for the Hero’s life that implies an arc of some kind, even if he doesn’t change.
Whatever you do, don’t arc a Hero away from the things that make him work as a hero. You don’t want Batman to become a happy, well adjusted person. You don’t want Superman to become a vengeful maniac. Character’s should remain true to themselves. You just want to arc them in a way that validates the premise, but doesn’t invalidate them as a workable hero.
REMEMBER: Show, don’t Tell. The character arc must be demonstrated clearly.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Revelations
Have you ever ready a story where you were fed tiny little clues that made no sense on their own, then suddenly one scene comes along that makes everything clear at once? Did you get rush of insight and a slight buzz?
That’s called an epiphany. A moment of intense realization. If you manage your set ups properly, you can create them for the Audience. You do this by layering set ups into the story and back story. Set ups that on their own don’t seem to have a connection to anything in particular. They seem like trivia more than anything else.
Then…when the Audience is caught off guard…you hit them with a pay off that links all these set ups together in one simple fashion. The trick is to make it simple. Don’t get too complex. Otherwise you’ll create confusion instead of amazement.
The Audience can absorb a lot of information if it’s given to them visually. This is why visual set ups and pay offs always work better than verbal ones. People have a tendency to rewrite conversations in their head. Words are also easily forgotten. But strong visuals stick.
So you hit them with images now and then that don’t quite fit into the over all picture. Our attention is either drawn to these images for no apparent reason, or they stick out like a sore thumb in the midst of their scene. These cues are like road signs to the subconscious. They tell us “watch for falling rocks.”
Then, in your key scene, you create the linkage. The Audience’s mind will rush back through the story they have just experienced and all the pieces will fall together in a landslide. A rush of insight.
Pull off a trick like that and everyone will think you’re a genius. But it’s all the application of technique.
Setting up characters
This works in a similar way to the standard set up, but there are differences. Characters who play an important role later in the story need to be set up early on. But they also need to have a logical place in the relation of things.
In some stories a seemingly harmless character will turn out to be the true Villain, while earlier the Audience was tricked into thinking it was the guy with the electric hand. This is character set up through misdirection. The Audience doesn’t mind that, and kind of expects it in some genres. The trick is never to make the true Villain too innocent and never make the false Villain too obvious. People will read a false Villain right away if he’s too obvious. And a hidden Villain will stand out if he is too innocuous. It’s better to give them faults, but a solid alibi so no one thinks it’s them.
False Heroes are also useful set ups, as we saw in SOUTH PACIFIC. These characters are introduced in a way that makes them look like the strongest contender for the hero spot. They have a strong goal, they look and act right, everyone sees them as a leader in the story. But this is done to hide the real hero, who needs to emerge by the middle of the second act as a major player and a pivotal character. Usually false heroes are set up to be killed later so the real Hero is forced to make a crisis decision. In the GODFATHER, Michael Corleone had no intention of getting involved in the “family business.” But when both his father and his brother are shot, no one else was qualified to take the reigns. He had to step in and become The Godfather.
Supporting characters need to be set up based on their eventual role in the story. An expert who helps the hero later in the story should be set up first. When heroes can pull experts out of the air it makes the story look bad.
It also looks bad when a character is set up that’s an obvious device to help out the Hero. Like a explosive’s expert and lives and breathes his work and right away asks the hero when they can blow something up. You need to make sure these characters come across like real people and their talents are incidental. They can still be experts, though the term “the best in their field” is a cliché.
It’s better to demonstrate how good someone is rather than tell it. If I told you I was the greatest writer who ever lived, you’d think I was a jerk or an ego maniac. It’s highly unlikely you’d agree with me. People have to prove how good they. They can’t just make boasts. And even their friend’s boasting isn’t enough on its own.
The same rule applies to characters. Saying someone is “the best” at what they do is not only an over used cliché, it’s a put off. It’s better to show how talented someone is, rather than tell.
Also, making someone “the best” at what they do weakens the conflict unless they’re on the side of the Villain. The hero shouldn’t have the deck stacked in his favor. The Hero should have a hard time meeting his goals. Giving him too much ammunition is boring.
There is are exceptions to the set up principle, however. If something is set up or implied in the backstory or a character’s backstory, it can be shown later, even if it’s never been shown before. In THE GODFATHER II, a character is introduced during the senate hearings against Michael Corleone. This character was never mentioned or shown before, but he gets Michael off the hook by just sitting in the background of the hearing and not saying a word. In fact, this character has no dialog in the film. But he works because he is implied in the backstory. The character is the brother of the man testifying against Michael Corleone. When the federal witness sees his brother in court, he recants his story against Corleone. Because one of the themes in the Godfather films is the importance of family, this character was set up by the theme. By implication rather than direct action.
This sort of pay off is acceptable and can lead to major surprises and plot twists. But it must be done carefully if you want it to work.
REMEMBER: Set up discreetly and pay off grandly.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Secrets of Writing: Technique
“There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.”
H.L. Mencken
We’ve just learned all the basics of writing, from the definitions of story and plot to the basics of story structure. Now we’re going to delve into the more advanced area of technique. These are the tools you’ll use to make your story stronger. Knowing how to structure a story is only the beginning. Once you lay down the structure, you then have to fine tune it.
Technique should never be obvious. It should be invisible. The Audience should not be aware that it’s there. The mark of a good writer is their ability to make the technique in their story disappear. They make the story look “easy”. It seems compelling and real. Self aware writing that spends part of its time showing you how clever the writer is by beating you over the head with technique is bad writing. No matter how slick and intelligent such writing may seem, it’s not good if it’s beating you up with technique. Stories are meant to be enjoyed for what they are, not for how they are made.
There is an exception to this principle. Comedy or surrealistic structure allows you to break down the fourth wall and expose the writer’s hand. But in stories that are meant to be taken seriously, the writer’s hand should never be obvious. Distractions are a sin in fiction. You don’t want the Audience to stop reading all of a sudden to notice some trick you are pulling. You don’t want them to fall out of the trance a good story puts you in.
Your job is to seduce them, not to jump up and down and brag about yourself. You want them to get into the mood and into your bed. Self aware writing tends to spoil the mood. So it’s not a good idea.
I’ve tried to remember all the technique ideas I know and put them in here. I learn new ones all the time, so by the time you read this, I will probably know more. The following list of techniques is pretty useful however. More than enough to help you do your job.
They’re listed in an order I think is logical, based on their priorities and their place in the writing process. You will need to use the first ones before you use some of the later ones.
SET-UPS AND PAY OFFS
“If a shotgun hangs on the wall in the first act, it must be used by the climax.” Thus spake the great playwright Anton Chekov, who brought us “The Seagull”. Chekov was right, even though he often broke his own rule.
Any item or skill that is critical to the story in some manner, must be set up in the story before you use it. When you use the item that is known as the “pay off”. But it doesn’t stop with items and talents. Lots of things need setting up before being used.
First let’s understand the set up. It exists to tell the Audience that this item, talent, power, whatever, exists in the Milieu. This way, when it’s used later in the story it doesn’t seem random. We know that it can happen.
If a character ends up performing brain surgery later in the story and we were never told he was a doctor, the Audience loses their suspension of disbelief, and we know what that means. They’re gone.
People don’t like being lied to. They don’t like being made to look like fools. If you surprise them in a nice way, they like it. But if you expect them to swallow an absurdity that’s meant to be taken seriously, they’ll become disgusted with you.
So first you have to let them know that something is coming. But you have to do it in a way that isn’t spoiling the surprise your planning. A bad set up makes for a weak pay off.
Set ups are best done visually. When you set something up with dialog, it doesn’t stick in the mind as well as when people see it. Expositional dialog is also a pain to write naturally. So why make it difficult for yourself? If your character needs to perform a medical operation later in the story, all you need to do is show a Doctor’s Degree on their wall early in the story. Or show a business card that says he’s a doctor.
The same rule applies to super powers, martial arts skills, the ability to solve puzzles quickly, weapons that are used later, you name it. Anything that is crucial to the story must be set up before hand. And the sooner the better.
Since nothing in a story should go to waste, you shouldn’t set up anything you don’t plan to use. Unless you’re trying to trick the audience into thinking the story is going in a different direction than it actually is. You may want to set up some weapon, for example, but when the character goes to use it later, he find out it doesn’t work. This creates a powerful reversal which forces the hero to find another means to win the day.
When you don’t want the audience to see something coming, you should get your set up in early. That way, they may forget about it until later when you finally do the pay off. The object of a set up is to tell the audience that these things are in the world of the story, so they don’t just get pulled out of a hat later. People feel a story is bad when that happens. They may not understand why, but they instinctively feel the writer is bad. So make sure you set things up.
Pay offs are, in essence, the punch lines to the set up. A set up tells you a piece of information. But it’s an incomplete piece. It’s only the first half, like the first part of a joke. You don’t get it until the punchline is thrown at you.
A pay off can be a tremendous boost if it turns out to be extremely important to the story and you set it up cleverly. Alfred Hitchcock movies are worth studying for his use of set ups and pay offs. In VERTIGO, Jimmy Stewart’s character has a fear of heights. During the Turning Point, this fear pays off because it prevents him from seeing a murder. His need to overcome this fear is what allows him to solve the riddle of the crime at the end. So the set up doubles as a bit of characterization which leads to the character’s development. In SABOTEUR the Hero accidentally bumps into a man who later turns out to be a villain. The man drops some letters. When the Hero picks them up he sees an address on them and the name of the sender. This information becomes vital to him later because he gets accused of being a saboteur. The set up was his link to find the Villain. Unfortunately, the information was misleading. So the pay off is also a reversal.
It’s good to make each pay off count in more ways than one. If you can make them not only relevant to the story as information, but also a means of advancing the character or the conflict, you will get a much cooler scene for your effort. But more importantly, it helps create epiphanies for the audience.
Copyright © 2008 James D. Hudnall. All Rights Reserved
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