Heya, all!
I get excited about things getting easier. So, here's the new formula I've been using for developing stories and character introductions lately.
I love the simplicity of just doing this...!
FIRST
I get a "flash" of the "heart" of my story [based on the premise that my entire focus for any story is the midpoint (change), that is 🥁 🎭 it's really about an ongoing conversation between the MC and (a situation or) a character who changes their life completely.
[Finished Example: Otherborn: The Crevasse (which we're nearly 1/2 way through posting to rotate weekly around the current main story thread, Otherborn: In the Wastelands Alone (and not plotted this way). To continue...]
THEN
I capture the following quick parameters and motivations from the MC's POV (and everyone else's if I wish!) and I mean quick.
Like this, fill in the blanks...
MOTIVATIONS (triggers) for stories or characters goals intros.
Goal:
Story is about a blank, who gets blank, where, and is blanked by a blank:
Stakes and global background:
Quest:
Reversal:
New goal:
(self-congrats):
Readers horror - antagonist knows!
Allies destroyed – External fail:
Decisive path:
Internal fail:
Philosophical fail:
Final decisive / or defining act:
Presents solution /opportunity:
Resolves, all three how's (Ext, Int & Phil arcs):
Resulting equilibrium:
Future plans hint:
🎬 And that... should give me the key pieces of information I would need from which I can easily choose to go straight to work, almost pantzing, or develop things further by adding other "motivational" details between, do further world building, or make up some problem-solving steps for the few sections where I felt they would make a better story... Or just add in or add-lib some cause and effect triggers / beats on what happens!
I doubt it took me more than 10 minutes in Kai's different example below with the motivations listed, above that I used.
To provide an example of how easy this was, here are a few words from the start of my process in the newest character introduction for Kai I am just beginning today for @knightsofdystopia, behind the scenes....
KAI'S MOTIVATIONS (triggers) for his character intro. (Mystery / Adventure)
Goal: (speaking as Kai) my goal in the story is to get to work in my father's store, so I can eventually earn enough money to buy my way into college to study archaeology, particularly that of our people!
Story is about a blank, who gets blank, where, and is blanked by a blank:
Nine year old Kai gets in WAY over his head, playing at being an archeologist one day, when he finds an extremely unusual skeleton out in the desert. He is taken under the wing of a tribal elder, who has mysterious origins in his family line.
Stakes and global background:
Kai's extended family live a dual life: a free nomadic existence hidden in the hills, caves and desert canyons of seemingly much barren, uninhabited expanses and a more modern blending in with all the fringe desert towns on the outskirts of their territory.
Quest: To learn what this elder will share; and take careful heed of the dangers about him and the various forces who are best kept in the dark about his 'find' and his people.
ETC. ...
Reversal:
New goal:
(self-congrats):
Readers horror - antag knows!
Allies destroyed – Ext fail:
Decisive path:
AND SO ON... continues as above...
SO that's it...
[You can find The Crevasse in my Wezley's Co-written Books Reading List and on the @ Knights Of Dystopia profile, if you want to see my first 15k beats illustration.)
And lastly, during my previous year's hiatus, I wrote lots; and I'm finally moving ahead a little bit.
After spending the year trying to catch up from the Xmas techno melting of my phone back then, leading to every other device I own having trouble as a result... You're likely familiar... 🤯🤬
I will be reading again very soon...
Cheers, my dear friends!
Here's to straight paths and forging ahead...
🥂✨🍂🌾🕊️ ~ Wez