Episode 1: Brainstorming
- Gather ideas until they start combining and coming together
- Write down ideas immediately, carry a notebook with you.
- Get to a point where your brain is alert, but not too active. Like during various menial tasks.
- Organize your ideas in outlines once they start connecting.
- Watch out for world builder's disease, continuing to build more and more and more even beyond the point that you need to go, just because world building is cool and fun.
- Book Guide: (Subheadings: Characters, Settings, Plot)
- Check out the Microsoft Word Outlining Tool and/or WikiDPad
Episode 2: Blending the Familiar and the Original
- Put together an ordinary idea and an extraordinary idea
- Ordinary ideas just have to be familiar, not boring or mundane
- Consider the "Strange Attractor" concept. Take a familiar idea and do something strange TO or WITH it
- Make sure your "original" idea really is original
Episode 3: Killing Your Darlings
- Be willing to axe things
- Don't use that idea you've been "working on for years". You're mostly too close to it to cut what is necessary to make it work, IF it can work at all
- Get outside opinions and LISTEN to them
- Practice cutting things to make yourself better at it
- You'll probably cut your entire first novel, this is okay
- If you are really attached to something, try writing both with and without it; maybe the comparison will help put things in perspective
- Keep a folder or file full of your axed stuff, and at least tell yourself you'll come back to it later. It'll make it easier to cut it if its saved somewhere
Episode 4: Beginnings
- Hooks!! Use them! But don't get caught up on them
- Don't sell something with your opening that your book won't deliver, don't be all funny if you're not writing a comedy for example
- Don't worry about writing in order. The beginning can just as easily be the last thing you write as the first, if thats how it works out then thats how it works out
- Remember the screenwriter's adage "In late, out early". This means bracket the action as closely as possible; don't have too much build up or wind down on either side of it. Get in and get out
- Use character, dialog, and/or action in your opening, not wordy world building stuff or overly detailed establishing
- Be ready to heavily edit or even just drop your first chapter, you'll probably find the actual starting place after you've been writing for a while
Episode 5: Heroes and Protagonists
- A hero is one who drives the story and is probably heroic in nature
- A protagonist is one who has a character arc. He goes on a journey and changes
- A main character is one through whom we see the story, the point-of-view character
- All three of these can be the same person or three completely different people
- Everyday heroes saving the day can be much more interesting than a superman type character saving the day
- Seeing heroes overcome flaws makes them seem more heroic
- Give everyday heroes an everyday background, and then make that background help them drive the story and overcome the conflicts Ex. The main character in "Hotel Rwanda"
- Samwise Gamgee is a great example of an everyday hero. His power is no more impressive than just being a great friend
- Make your hero competent at something, but not competent at the thing they need to be competent at in order to solve the problems, win the conflicts. But then make a way for them to still make it work
- Give your hero flaws
- Don't make things easy for your hero
- Make them competent AND flawed
Episode 6: Flaws vs. Handicaps
- Flaws are internal, handicaps are external
- A flaw is the hero's fault, a handicap is not
- Flaws are something you overcome, handicaps are things you don't necessarily have to
- Flaws lead to character arcs, handicaps lead to conflicts
- Flaws make heroes more interesting and identifiable
- Flaws allow growth
- If you overcome a flaw and grow, carefully consider how long you keep adding new flaws
- Don't undo growth
- How do you match flaws with characters?
- Look at the conflicts you want your hero to deal with
- Find a point of conflict and then justify a character's reaction to it with a flaw
- Flaws should work into the story, be part of the conflict
- How do you give someone a flaw but still make them likable?
- By virtue of making them the main character
- By finding elements people CAN respond to
- By making the character competent
That is all the episodes I've written down notes on so far. Going to go watch Predators. Will write down some more later and hopefully get to the writing prompt soon.
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