The Hero's Journey

It's been a while since I last wrote a writing tip.
I've noticed that these notes have started circulating over the internet (the images too although they are not that great hahaha).

Today I've decided to talk about one of the most solid structure you can apply to your story.
It does not matter whether it's long or short, epic or comical, it always works somehow.
It's called:

This theory, to be applied in scriptwriting, was developed by Christopher Vogler who analyzed a book by anthropologist Joseph Campbell called "The Hero with a thousand faces".

You'll find plenty of Vogler's graphs online but for my students and for myself I came up with a short silly comic of sorts. (Again the drawings are not that great).

So here's the Hero's Journey in 12 steps.

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1) The Ordinary World

Meet our hero, Pretty Boy, surrounded by his everyday life... in his natural environment.
Pretty boy likes mountains, read books about them, loves his goldfish Goldie, and hates dogs.
(star wars: Luke goes about his life with uncle and auntie)

2) Call to Adventure

All of a sudden, as he goes about his life, Pretty Boy receives a call to adventure... a mysterious one... sometimes a very hermetic/cryptic one.
(star wars: Luke finds Leia's message while cleaning the droids).

3) Refusal of the call

Pretty Boy is reluctant, like all heroes should be, it's not like you dive into adventure after they tell you "you are the chosen one" without thinking about the absurdity of the situation for a moment or without even asking "why me?".
(star wars: obi wan asks Luke to go with him and the boy initially refuses).

4) The Mentor

Pretty Boy is still a bit reluctant but the mentor is quite pushy at first and tries to convince him hard that with some training and hard work he can become the chosen one.
(star wars: Obi Wan says he will teach Luke the way of the force Luke still says no).

What needs to happen now is an insighting accident this is also considered to be our first plot point or Plot Point 1 (we have two p.p. in a story, so as I remind my students "in a story we pee pee twice, huh").

This accidents flips the ordinary world upside down somehow or makes the hero feel that things could never go back to normal now that this thing has happened.
(star wars: uncle and auntie are killed by the stormtroopers).

5) Crossing the Threshold

This accident reminds the hero about the call to adventure and the words of the mentor echo in his ears. That's when he decides to leave the ordinary world and enter the magic world (it's not necessarily magic, eh, it's called that way just because it's different from his every day life).
So the hero goes... with one extra motivation - the accident.

The adventure finally begins.
This represents the end of Act I of our story.

What follows is a huuuuge development, a series of "and then" (and then this happens, and then that happened, and then he went in, and then he fought, and then he met this guy)... and things gets progressively worse and worse and more complicated.
So what does Act II mainly contain?
Well first of all this:

6) Test - Enemies - Allies

Pretty Boy meets his enemy first, sometimes not in person, sometimes in person, sometimes through legends, hearsay, and other form of communication. The enemy at this point of the story is very scary and super strong and the hero does not stand a chance.
(star wars: Luke and Obi vs. the empire - the plan is to destroy the Death Star).

Pretty Boy needs allies at this point, somebody that will help him in his quest.
(star wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca)

Ehm... sometimes allies are not easily accepted, don't get along... or are not to be trusted. Or look very unlikely to be a hero or of any help at all!
(star wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca)

Then come the tests and they get harder and harder as we go along.

Some tests seem to be meant for our hero... to boost his confidence, to show off his skills (why tell us he likes mountains at the beginning of the story if he is not going to climb a mountain in the end?).
Climbing is piece of cake for our Pretty Boy!
(star wars: Luke's knowledge about mechanical stuff comes in handy at times, eh?).

Of course most of the times the tests are super scary and the hero almost cannot make it by himself (that's why he has allies to help him). In the end he manages to get away.
(star wars: Leia is rescued)

7) Approaching the Inmost cave

Don't complain, Pretty Boy, you are not Frodo!
There's usually a moment of quiet before the storm hits. This is the moment where the hero prepares himself because what he is about to confront could see him triumphant or leave him for dead.
He is about to confront his greatest fears too and his biggest enemy.
(star wars: the rebels prepare to attack).

And as he is about to approach this moment where he could win it or lose it all...  Instert your Plot Point II here (here's where we pee pee the second time) so we reach the Climax of our story which is also known to be the Hero's...

8) Supreme Ordeal

Now a bunch of things are supposed to happen in very little time here. In most movies, these days, this moment is reduced to an epic battle and a huge fight (it's a bit too linear, if you ask me, because we need to remember that a fight is not a conflict nor it constitutes enough material nor depth to be considered a conflict. A fight is just a fight!).

During the Climax the hero will be left for dead a couple of times, the audience will believe he's dead and I don't mean only physically I mean psychologically too.

Now star wars does not help us much in this case so I'll skip to the greatest Supreme Ordeal Luke has ever lived througout the trilogy: meeting Dart Vader in Empire Strikes back.

This is the moment where the character learns something about himself/herself. Not necessarily that their enemy is their father, no, but through their action they realize the stuff they're made of.
"Oh, my God, I am so weak, I am such a coward, I cannot do this!" and then stand up and fight, for example.
Luke's reaction was "that's not true, that's impossible!" - he failed his supreme ordeal and had to come back in a third movie as a Jedi - well he wasn't ready anyway, Yoda had said. - but he had taken a strong hold on which side of the force he would chose so he did win his own integrity.

But if the hero resists and even as he is left for dead find in himself a little bit of strenght to stand up and fight back...

...reaches the moment called:

By the way our act II transition into act III across this moment as the climax reaches its end.

9) Seizing the sword

Some people debate about this moment some call it death and rebirth or return with the elixir and stuff... I think in some movies the seizing the sword moment is particularly evident and clear as "the fight back" moment.
In Tim Burton's Alice in whateverland movie... Alice actually holds a sword and fights a dragon.

I prefer to work this way because seizing the sword still does not mean the hero will survive and I still think the hero has to be left for dead at some point.
But it's true that these particular elements could be put in any order as the end result would not change much.

In some cases Death and Rebirth happens now (I think that's too linear and is also too literal, in some stories the Hero actually dies and is resurrected by the end of the story and then fights back - at times it feels as if the whole thing was penned down by writing shortcut sentences next to the structure and then the whole thing got developed into paragraphs and dialogues).

10) The Road Back

I feel that the death and rebirth moment can happen during the road back (the physical one, of course), but the road back is the moment were the hero has finally won and has to decide to return to the ordinary world.
So Pretty Boy has won for Goldie and now can go back home.

So you see now Pretty Boy's attitude has changed. He's gone from black to white he's gone through an arc and as acquired new knowledge and understanding.

In a way the:

11) Death and Rebirth

could also happen like this. The old passive aggressive Pretty Boy has gone. He learned to appreciate his allies, since they helped him, he has gone to through so many tests and had to face his worst fears... so he has learned to conquer fear.
We welcome the new Pretty Boy.
(star wars: this is were Luke is celebrated as a hero)

At times the Return with elixir happens before but there are stories where... the moral of the story comes  last.

12) Return with the Elixir

So Pretty Boy will share what he has learned with others, he might give us the moral of the story or simply enjoy his new knowledge and maybe put it to use another time (in a sequel).
He is now a brave hero who has understood his own nature, has reached his goal, conquered his dream, confronted and overtook the nature of the conflict and overcome his fears.

p.s.

Overcoming fears does not mean they are gone. They are still there, under control, but still there.

All the character in The Pirate Balthasar go through a personal hero's journey. Can you recognize the different stages?

Writing tips index.

Chinatown - outdoor sketching

 I went to Chinatown today to sketch,
just for one hour... can I share with you?

Apparently today was also Buddha's Birthday, happy birthday Buddha *_* the temple was very beautiful today due to the celebrations.

But you cannot sketch inside so... here's a bit of the outside and a sneaked behind a monk too.

I could have sketched more but I had to leave by 3pm.

So out of desperation I snatched a seat on the train and drew for about 22 minutes (I think it's a 4 minutes commute between stops)... with this little girl clinging to my arm to better see what I was doing.

It was fun.

3 act structure

I was reading this very interesting book yesterday and I stumbled upon this list about the Characteristics of a good story:

·  A single theme, clearly defined

·  A well developed plot

·  Style: vivid word pictures, pleasing sounds and rhythm

·  Characterization

·  Faithful to source

·  Dramatic appeal

·  Appropriateness to listeners

Baker and Greene, Storytelling: Art and Technique, pp. 28

Interestingly enough this list refers to oral storytelling, the kind you do in book-stores to children, for example.
Seems like certain things are universals - I would say key - to a good storytelling, whether you do it in words, talking to people or using images.

My teacher used to say: it's not what you say, it's how you say it that makes a difference.

I honestly don't know if he was quoting somebody or not, but I always loved this sentence.

Now you've come up with a story, you've come up with a set of characters, you have theme, a thesis, a dream and a conflict and you have researched your topic through and through... what should you do next?


You have to put all you have on a structure.

Traditionally, Western storytelling, follows a 3 act structure. (the second act, at times, gets split in halves... but that's your personal choice).

In  Act I you establish a lot of things and create what's usually called Setup.
In Act II you develop things  and it's usually called Confrontation.
In Act III you resolve things and it's usually called Resolution.


Most people seem to underestimate the importance of act II. Actually some things can slow down for a little bit but then you have to pick up again and reach a certain climax.


Sir Thomas Beecham (google him) used to say:  "There are only two things requisite so far as the public is concerned for a good performance: that is for the orchestra to begin together and end together; in between it doesn't matter much".


Well in storytelling, actually, if you fail the stuff in the middle - the second act - it does not really matter how good the beginning and ending are.  People will leave!


The point is most stories do fail the second act because they don't realize is about character development.


Nowadays, though, most people seem to forget how messed up the second act is the moment some kind of twist in the ending makes the movie worth while.


We will talk in details about each individual act next time.


Index
1) Know your story
2) What if...?
3) Theme and thesis
4) The In and Out of storytelling (the dream)
5) Memorable and Meaningful
6) Target
7) A narrative tone
8) A storyteller
9) Why love your sketchbook
10) Call back and reincorporations
11) Dream vs. Conflict

Dream Vs. Conflict

Today we talk about Conflict and how it must relate to the character's dream/goal in order to make the dilemma more believable.

We already saw in a previous post called "The in and out of storytelling" (check the index at the bottom) that there can be many typologies of dreams but all can be summarized in two categories: the character looks inward or the character looks outward.

How many categories of conflict are there? Well, mainly two, internal and external, just like for the dreams... but the conflict can also be broken down a little more and go specific.

here they are:

- Man vs. Destiny: this type of conflict is one of the oldest ever invented.

Let's face it, original died with Homer and so it is obvious that he would use this conflict in the most archetypical story of all times: the Iliad. In form of gods, prophecy or legend Destiny had dominated stories whose protagonists are always Chosen Ones on a Quest (the quest applies to most stories, so does the Hero's Journey, but some stories are more literal than others and therefore deserve to be called epic).
Think about Oedipus and how he cannot escape his fate: to kill his father and wed his own mother.
Think about Neo, who is the chosen one, and how he was given a false prophecy to be forced to fulfill his destiny.
Think of the Skywalkers and how they were destined to stumble upon each other.
Or even, more recently, Scott Pilgrim who even has a book entitled: vs. Destiny.

Fate is something you cannot escape. He is your father. LOL.

- Man vs. Himself is also referred to as: internal conflict.

Some characters are a bit emoting or have problems and they have to resolve their own internal conflicts before they can take on the World.
If you think about American Beauty, even though Larry is vexed by his family, his internal conflict is what keeps him bound to his situation, lack of self esteem, his passive self. The moment he finds his dream, something to live for, he decides to take care of himself, this restores his self esteem and he manages to confront the rest of his problems with strength.
The inner conflict is also represented in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes back, in the scene where Luke enters the cave and Yoda tells him that he will find in there only what he brings with him.

 - Man vs. Man: this is the classic antagonist vs. antagonist.

Usually this is the case where the dream of our protagonist is directly clashing against the dream of the antagonist. Think about hero vs. super-villain kind of story: one wants to save the Earth the other one wants to conquer it. This is the kind of story where two characters compete for the same role/position/or girl. So they are against each other... as Pro- in protagonist stands for "in favor" and the Anti- in antagonist stands for "against".

In Man vs. Man I usually would put a smaller branch, although many may not agree with me: man vs. technology. I think one of the reason why I put it under man vs. man is that usually it's a one on one type of conflict. Man vs. machine (like in I-Robot) usually have a machine that has been built by a man whose dream was in conflict with the one of our hero -  ironically in conflict. In War Games, Josh had been built with the hope that he might learn from his mistakes, the hero of the story just wants to play a game instead and finds himself in a lot of trouble. So somehow I feel that behind the machine there is always a human mind/intention... even Hal from "2001: A Space Odyssey" was not supposed to do what he did and he did what he did because of the way he was programmed.

- Man vs. Nature: external conflict again.

This one is a very hard to overcome because we are part of Nature, you can think of them as survival stories. You cannot defeat nature completely but you can survive that stuff Nature throws at you. If you think about The perfect storm, it's quite evident who has the upper hand. Usually catastrophe movies go in this category but let's not forget Jaws (although, as far as Spielberg is concerned his experience was Man vs. technology since the mechanical shark kept sinking) or movies with giant creatures (alligators, anacondas, squid, octopuses, bears, etc.).

- Man vs. Society: this one is a tough one and usually has a revolutionary concept behind it. It's about human rights or legal rights and stuff like that. Think about Philadelphia a movie that makes a stand in favour of gay rights and brings the protagonist's case to court challenging the whole system to raise awareness on a difficult topic. But even if you look at small little stories like A Bug's Life... the society of ants really does not trust and think well of Flick at first and he has to make a way into the World to prove himself to the society that is supposed to accept changes but does not want to.

Once you determine the nature of the dream of your character it is important to choose a proper type of conflict to oppose it.


Clearly if you choose a sport theme you have to find an antagonist for your protagonist. Imagine how funny it would be to see Rocky Balboa struggle against a twister to be able to train! His goal in life is to become a boxing champion, you have to give him an Apollo Creed!

Conflict and goal balance off each other. Pick a main one first (you can add little subplots and subconflicts later too) and work around it.

The clash between these two will create the struggle, the situations and the stress that will help your character go from an assemblage of characterizations (his trait) to a true human being.

As Rob mcGee teaches us: True CHARACTER is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.

Index
1) Know your story
2) What if...?
3) Theme and thesis
4) The In and Out of storytelling (the dream)
5) Memorable and Meaningful
6) Target
7) A narrative tone
8) A storyteller
9) Why love your sketchbook
10) Call back and reincorporations

A narrative tone

A narrative tone is something that belongs uniquely to you.

Some people might take years to discover what their narrative tone is all about, others are just born with a natural talent of making things concise and funny or elaborate and scary.

A narrative tone can be achieved in many ways but it's one of the things that also help you define the genre of your story and the target.

Remember when I previously mention to keep an eye on your target?
Well you can not use complicated expressions or sophisticated lexicon if you are meaning to target children, children have a smaller vocabulary than adults.

Also you cannot make sexual innuendos or scary foreshadowing for them. You have to keep your narration preppy and most of all avoid a condescending tone: and do you know why he's going to die if he sets foot into the hall? Let me explain you, little children, since you are to young and stupid to figure it out by yourself!

No, no, please don't do that.

What kind of narrator are you? You'll have to figure out yourselves. My suggestion is, whatever you do, don't be the type that takes everything too seriously, including yourselves and your story.
I strongly believe that if you hold nothing sacred you lead a happier life and you can explore more things.

Now I don't mean to say you need to be offensive, there are certain topics I would never touch (like religion) because they tap into people's beliefs. So when I say not to keep anything sacred I mean particularly your own creations.

That's why, after I painted a pretty picture of Kes with her cute pregnant belly... the next thing that came to my mind was her true nature. That's what I called the drawing in this post on Deviant Art: "true nature".
We know what Kes looks like when she is in locust mode, right?

I once met Chuck Palahniuk during a writing workshop held in San Francisco. He often speaks about moment of humiliations for the characters. To make it simple without hopefully corrupting his concept too much he said on that occasion that a good way to show nice, rounded characters is to give them authority and take it away putting them through moments of humiliations. That's when their humanity shines through and you see what stuff they are made of.

He mentioned in that occasion this accident he witnessed while watching TV in his motel room. He said the anchor woman started weeping while reading the news. To him it was astounding how up until a few moments before she had such authority, after all she was reading the news, and then all of a sudden... bam.. she was crying, the authority fell, she went through a very humiliating moment and he thought that was amazing.

Probably this is the same reason why he always suggest to tell the story in first person. First person has more authority and autenticity - he says. He also suggests to hide the "I"(if shows up too often is irritating) with "me" and "mine".

So the type of narrator also helps you define a narrative tone.
1) first person 
2) first person omniscient (they say is a big no no... yet we have American Beauty...)
3) second person (very rare but Calvino used it)
3) third person, subjective or objective, omniscient or limited

A first person omniscient is kind of rare, it means the narrator tells his story after it happened and can try and give you more foreshadowing than desired or does it?

Think about Lester from American Beauty: "My name is Lester Burnham. This is my street. This is my neighborhood. This is my life. I am 42 years old. In less than a year, I will be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way, I'm dead already..."

The second person is also very rare and has something of prophetic tone to it: you didn't know you were going to die that day, when you left your house and breathed in the fresh morning air. No, you didn't.

So the most common ones would be a first person or the regular third person. Subjective and objective, omniscient or limited refers of how much this narrator already know of the character. How much in advance and how much he cares and feels for the person he/she is narrating about.

In Stranger than Fiction, the narrator voice over is a typical omniscient and objective narrator. She describes Harold's life in a detached way and throws in a "little did he know"... he was going to die: "This is a story about a man named Harold Crick and his wristwatch. Harold Crick was a man of infinite numbers, endless calculations, and remarkably few words. And his wristwatch said even less. Every weekday, for twelve years, Harold would brush each of his thirty-two teeth seventy-six times. Thirty-eight times back and forth, thirty-eight times up and down. Every weekday, for twelve years, Harold would tie his tie in a single Windsor knot instead of the double, thereby saving up to forty-three seconds. His wristwatch thought the single Windsor made his neck look fat, but said nothing."




Sometimes the third person can switch to first, like for Sunset Boulevard: "Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. It’s about five o’clock in the morning. That’s the Homicide Squad, complete with detectives and newspapermen. A murder has been reported from one of those great big houses in the ten thousand block. You’ll read about it in the late editions, I’m sure. You’ll get it over your radio and see it on television because an old-time star is involved; one of the biggest. But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe you’d like to hear the facts, the whole truth. If so, you’ve come to the right party. You see, the body of a young man was found floating in the pool of her mansion with two shots in his back and one in his stomach. Nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of ‘B’ pictures to his credit. The poor dope! He always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool," only the price turned out to be a little high." - as you see... the narrator, Joe Gillis, he is actually talking about himself.


This website here has a very good list of narrators or voice over that can help you figure out what kind of narrative tone you want for your story. He provides some good example... as you see... Charles Kaufman is in there too. He is only number 10 but you see Adaptation is one of those movie that proved how much you can actually stretch storytelling as long as you do it in an original way.

A storyteller vs. a person that tells a story

Today I was talking with my students and we were trying to figure out what should be the quality of a good storyteller.

We established that there is a big difference between a storyteller and a person that just randomly tells you story - and it's not in the structure or how the story unfolds.  After a long moment of reflection what came out was: a storyteller always has a good reason as to why he/she wants to tell you a story.


So yes, an opinion but also a belief and a moral.
So while anybody would tell you that they woke up and put a sock on and the sock had a hole in it and the big toe started sticking out.... a storyteller would tell you the same story from the point of view of the sock feeling abused and mistreated, he/she would make you feel for the poor little sock, attach emotions to it and, in the end, he/she would tell you that the reason why the sock had a hole in it was that it hadn't been washed properly and you should always cherish your clothing, mend them and value them.

So what are the qualities necessary if not indispensable to a storyteller to make him or her different from a random person who tells you a story?

Well, this is what we came up with. A Storyteller:

- must read a lot : all kinds of books, including essays (sociology, psychology, physics, etc.), newspaper articles, history books, catalogues, bills, comics, novels (very old old one, especially if this books is "the first one" to ever do something like... being in prose!), the ingredients on the packaging of the cookies they bought, everything. This is a good source of information.


- must gather and keep informations well: a sketchbook, a scrapbook, a box with cut outs from magazines, archives of photographs, pdf with interesting stuff taken from the internet (for we know that bookmarking is not enough, one day the website is there, the next it is gone), a notebook, a diary... any form of folder that helps keep stuff in order. Cataloging information by the possible use they may have. It is fundamental.


- must observe: and in this I'd like to add watching movies, tv shows, very old one particularly, the first movie with sound or color, the very important ones. The environment... awareness of own surrounding are a stepping stone to creating original worlds. Some things we take for granted but no one Country collects the garbage the same way the Country next door does (Singapore has garbage shoots, Japan does not even have garbage bins and the truck collecting the rubbish plays a little tune, like an ice cream truck, to call the people out so they know it's time to bring the black bag out), coffee is different everywhere you go (what in the U.s. is an espresso, in Italy it's just coffee; what in the U.s. it's coffee, in Italy is an americano), and many other things. Observe and compare. People: some of them are worth going into your stories... I want you to know that Callista does exist and so does Pea and they just happen to be my two best friends. Pifo is based off another friend of mine too. Father Guido, that we just saw in this week's update, was my University professor. A good storyteller is a very observant person.


- must be clear: clarity is fundamental, it never overestimate people's extraction, intelligence, patience and ability to focus. It never underestimates language barriers and cultural backgrounds and ethnocentrism in general. Clarity needs simplicity, as simple is best, and a down to Earth kind of language. If nobody can understand what you are talking about it does not matter how beautiful your story is it would not make sense to anybody else but you. So remember that nobody lives in your head and is able to tell past what you actually show them. The audience owes you nothing.

- must be compelling: being compelling is important, what happens in the story must be something people can relate to through empathy and sympathy. Emotions (love and fear) rule your characters and make them universally equal to the audience: same genetic stuff after all, carbon based whatchamacallit we are. This year I watched tons of movies and tv shows and had a very hard time going through them without falling asleep. Something dramatic happened... I could not care less. The most compelling movie I watched this year was "The muppets". It was the only one that made me laugh, cry and sing. Remember to touch your audience.


- must be engaging: stories can not stay flat nor on a frantic tone all the time... sometimes they have to slow down a bit  and make people breathe. Some people might not like that, because they are already spoiled by the hammering narrative styles of contemporary movies who constantly bang you on the head with super short sequences (2/3 seconds) after short sequences... never letting go, never breathing.  Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! There is a down side to keeping up a frantic rhythm... it desensitize the audience and they stop feeling for the story. This is deteriorating the quality of storytelling a bit in favor more visually stunning looking things. Eventually that won't be enough anymore (Green Lantern anyone? I rest my case!). It is good to slow down a bit and take your time but do it with grace, remember to crack a joke here and there. Entertain without being desperate to do so.

- must have ideals: well, this sounds kind of romantic but I think that basically what we were trying to say is that there must be a good reason behind the need of telling a story. So if anybody asked you: why are you telling me this? - the answer should make it sound very important: because I want to show that there are other ways to care for a sock! Because bleach is evil! So must be supported by a theme, a good thesis and an opinion.


- must be an explorer: “When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.” — Eric Hoffer .

This usually happens because people stop at their first idea without thinking about developing it or exploring further. What happens is that the idea was never theirs to begin with, it was subliminally implanted by something they just saw and extremely liked. There is nothing wrong with liking something and starting from somewhere, but common sense requires that you use a derivative mind more often if you want to grow as an artist, otherwise you will stay stuck as somebody else's echo instead of finding your own voice.
Derivative thinking is something we are born with and lose in school as we grow old, but it's the ability of asking the right questions to find more answers than needed.  So let's say we like something very much, the first things we should ask ourselves is: what did they do right and what did they do wrong? Also... can I make it better?
These questions must never be related to the lexicon of a story (existing character or plots), rather to its grammar (the naked structure). That's why instead of writing a fanfiction of an existing character/world, writing a character of your own that spawns from a similar trope would help you understand the structure of storytelling much better and faster. Going OOC with somebody else's character instead will only derange the understanding of proper storytelling. So Fanfiction, you must know how to do it  and it's quite fan (most TV shows are fanfictions as they have different writers writing different plots from the same foundation). Going Out Of Character implies wishful thinking instead, which usually wounds your writing instead of helping it.


- must have fun: for better or for worse a storyteller sees a potential story in everything. Painful experiences as well as good ones. It is good to use own experience to talk about something. Some people might be against "writing about what you know" it's a bit silly and preposterous to go against the Universe we all have inside (it's wider than what we see outside). But the fact is... if you know durians, you can write a story about an alien fruit found in space that smells awful but tastes divine, as simple as that. So  when it comes to experiences, no experience is bad for storytelling and the most painful moments in our lives can be stressful at the moment, but so freaking cool to talk about later.

For example: when my grandmother was ill I went to see her in the hospital before I left to fly back home. When I saw her I knew instantly that it was going to be the last time I would see her, and as much as I wanted for her to tell me something meaningful I knew, in my heart, that she wasn't lucid enough and in too much pain to even recognize me. So no matter what I told her she was not able to answer me. But I knew that one thing was still working: her memory. So before I left I sang to her the initial part of a Sicilian song and she turned to look at me and she finished the song with me. And she would have continued with a poetry and a story and rhyme if I did not stop her.
As I think about that moment I think that was the most meaningful message I could possibly receive from her. My entire life she had fed me food and stories together. When the story she was telling me was over so was the food in the plate and, let me tell you, I really did not like eating.

I have many more experiences where I got lost, stranded and it got scary.

All of these are good stories and I like talking about them.



If all these things come together the right way, Originality will find its way.

Target

Alright before you go ahead and tackle your conflict there is one more thing I need to mention. Silly me not to have mentioned it before, but see both the dream and the conflict rotate around one fundamental factor: who are you writing this story for?  What's your goal?

These two questions can be summarized in a simple word: target!


Let's analyzed them. If you are writing this story for yourself and yourself alone then you can ignore everything I am going to say next. If you are crafting this story around an audience the second question needs to tap in and affect the answer to your first one.

If you are making a story for others then ask yourself: who? and what for?

For money... you can skip what I will say next. All you have to do is make it completely wrong, dumb, ugly and post it on your blog with lots of advertisement. The internet has changed the World, turning people into trolls and lots of people like to feel good about themselves by bashing others. I thought I was the only one complaining about this phoenomenon until I read this article:If you want your piece to go viral, it's smarter to make a cringe-worthy video rather than an awesome one, because they know our asshole nature will get us passing it around. And they're right." - and then he says - it's a proven fact that we are horrible dickheads who love to just point and laugh at other people's failed attempts at creativity. We refuse to just let it slide when someone shows us something like Why Must I Cry opting instead to laugh them out of existence."

So I was reminded of how many of my friends spend their time talking about stuff they dislike and yet when I always the question: but if you hate it so much, why do you keep on reading it?
The answer is always: because it's so bad, I want to see if it gets worse.

So here's the solution to your money problem, make it super bad, send it viral, become Rebecca Black (you know, right, she was "built" to make money off of trolls!) and you are settled for life.

But now let's go back to serious creation, the one that will make you die happy but starving... but happy, but starving, but happy, but... I could go on for ever.

Choose your target audience and never forget who you are writing for. 
Some stories may start as kids stories and change along the way as the audience grows old and mature with the characters (long running series like One Piece, for example, do that).


You make sure that right from the start you hint at elements that even though, right now, are not there (like death), they might be there in the future and that is a warning, a warning that says: I am starting G, but I'll go T+.  If you don't do that then you are bound to stay in you G for ever and ever, it's a matter of honesty.

So... is your story a story for children or adults, is it for boys or girls?
Sometimes making these kinds of decisions not only will craft the narrative tone of your stories but even whether or not they are plot based or character based.

The younger the audience the more the plot will take over. Older audiences are into character development instead.

Children tend to like stories with more plot and a proactive protagonist who is also one of those OUT characters that will move mountains and stuff.

If the hero makes no effort to gain the happy ending they will blame you for telling a lame story.

Girls don't dislike slower pace and IN characters.

Older audience love slice of life, historical things, period dramas and such.

The choice of your target audience will also affect your color schemes and packaging. 
The younger the audience the more vibrant the colors will be.
You give a black and white comic to a five years old, he'll grab his crayons and color it for you (and that's what my nephew did to my comics, they look much prettier now).

Now let's say you are crafting your story around teenagers... good luck. The market is literally gone to crumbs and the invasion of the ultratrolls has lowered the quality of the language spoken by a lot. You will have to spoon feed a lot, while keeping a zillion subplots that, sometimes, are really not useful to the story at all. You will be a servant to the market and will be crafted by the market. You will be forced to obey the audience... if you want to survive. If you don't obey they leave you.

This is how the Japanese market was molded by his fandom and forced to create harem stories with particular stereotypes included: meganekko, antenna girl, chibi, lolicon, and so forth. One character for every slice of market.

You cannot afford a lot of nicely rounded characters and have to stay a bit flatter, making sure your hero is always politically correct. The moment they stop loving rainbows and unicorns or whatever thing is in fashion, the audience will accuse him of monstrosities and leave him. The moment his love is not devoted or is awesomeness is not bad-ass even when he does not win... he is done for.

Teenage market is very whimsical but if you go for it choose to write for girls as a female audience is more loyal than male readership.

All of this comes from many years of reports and numbers, coming from the marketing department, of a famous publisher I was working for. The Italian would say: carta canta e vilan dorme (paper signs and farmer sleeps). It's the paper talking here... the paper is valid even when the farmer forgets about it... unfortunately. I can only warn you and nothing more. The final choice is yours.

In the end whatever target you choose and however you decide to tell the story be also reminded of one thing: there are a lot of trolls out there that will throw piles of crap at you for the heck of it.
Trolls are easily recognizable: they don't know what they are talking about and their comments are clearly generic and showing that... they never did read your story to begin with, they are just there to bash you because their lives suck.

Two things you can do with those messages: you ignore them; or you read them, collect them and create a blog around them. People will flock to read your blog even if they  never read your comic... and that's because of the above mentioned article. LOL

M&M kinda like the candies.

I always like to give these little suggestions using acronyms and such. I think it's easier to remember them and never loose sight of where you start from, so you get to know where you are going.

So we started with a D+D+D and then I added In&Out.


Today, before we tackle the nature of the conflict, I wanted to talk about M&m's... yes kinda like the candies but not really.

Sometimes I forget about M&M's because I take them for granted.

Then today I saw this cheesy t-shirt, when I was riding the train and that's when I thought: oh, yeah, these are two of those things you can never leave out of your sight while you pick theme, thesis, dream and conflict.

What are the M&m's of storytelling? As simple as that: whatever you do make it meaningful, make it memorable.


As I previously stated don't just pick a theme without exploring a thesis: a story with no opinions is not worth reading. Things need to be meaningful, people must be able to related to them. Always start from meaningful... how to make it memorable will come with the crafting of your work.

Definitely find a way to set yourself apart from the crowd. Have your knowledge guide you, go where nobody has gone before... boldly go.

Even though these two words will become more fundamental when we'll talk about empathy, sympathy and appeal... and craft.... I want you to keep them in the back of your mind, like a dark shadow and plan things ahead with a goal in mind: make it meaningful and make it memorable.
So take them into consideration from the very start of your idea.

I know what you are thinking right now, this is a suggestion that is not a suggestion is a Captain Obvious... oh, yeah? Let me tell you one thing: this is a suggestion that is more of a reminder because sometimes people who think they are following M&m's get lazy before they even start and don't want to be bother about it - then their show gets cancelled!

The more obvious things are the ones we never look at.

The In and Out of storytelling.

When we think about a story we think that our plot will move our character forward and sometimes we get tricked into believing that, no matter what happens, the more things we add the better the story will get.

Truth be told, for storytelling, simple is best. Adding details must be done carefully. The details that don't help your story move forward will hold it back. If they don't support your character, they'll make him/her trip and fall.

If details kill your stories you must kill the details. So it is very important for details to be useful, it is very important to use them to help propel the story forward instead of dragging it down.

That's why it is very important to remember that a story is all about: a dude with a dilemma and how he deals with it. 

But is your dude going to have a dilemma if he is statically accepting what is around him? The dilemma should always arise because the dream and the conflict are clashing.

That's why our D+D+D formula needs an extra smaller D in it: D+d+D+D.
The smaller "d" is the dream and, if you think about it, it is not so small after all. You have to provide your characters with needs and want. Particularly one need and want that will be in contrast with what they have. That dream and want will be the fuel to the engine called: achieving a goal.


If we stop for a second to analyze the stuff dreams are made of we realize that there are basically two types of dreams and wants. I usually play a little game with my students and tell them: Disney movies use a smart move, they don't have enough time to show you the DREAM so their characters will sing it to you. Let's make a list of what disney characters say in songs.
1) Oh, I just can't wait to be king;
2) Just around the river bend;
3) I want adventures in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell;
4) If only they'd look closer, would they see a poor boy, no sire, they'd find out there's so much more to me;
5) A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view;
6) I can go the distance;
7) When will my reflection show who I am inside;
8) Out of the sea, wish I could be, part of that World;

Oh, I could go on for ever. I was trained in those standards, I know them by heart.

But let's color code and separate them for a second. When you go and look at them closely you'll see that mainly there are some 3 common themes: I want to be someone else, I want to be somewhere else, I want to be me.


The first two look outside and the third one looks inside the character. 

So when creating a type of dream for your character you need to figure out what kind of person he/she is: is he/she an IN kind of guy/gal or an OUT kind of guy/gal?

Is he/she looking at escapism or is he/she looking for acceptance and understanding?

It is very important to establish this because it will help you establish the nature of the conflict as well.

Out kinds of characters will start a journey of discovery that might lead them to realize two things: they can achieve their goal because of who/what they are (the chose ones) OR they come to realize that what they thought they wanted is not how they thought it would be, they might realize that what they had was not so bad after all. So it's either make it or break it.
In kinds of character will start a journey of discovery that might lead others to realize two things: they had misjudged the hero and his/her abilities OR they always believed in the hero but the hero did not believe in himself/herself. Usually is a make it or make it kind of story.

In any case you can have a proactive or a reluctant hero. The Proactive OUT hero dives into adventure to prove something to himself, the Proactive IN hero dive into adventure to prove something to others.
The reluctant hero does not want to go into adventure, whether he is IN or OUT, he believes he has nothing to prove and others are right about him even when they are wrong. Usually this is a hero who has nothing to prove but learns the most.

 In the next post we'll see the nature of the conflict and how it reacts to the dream.

What if...?

Stories usually come from simple ideas, from a simple question that goes like this: "What if....?"

- What if everybody in the World decides to stomp the foot on the ground at the same time?

- What if sharks learned how to fly and started flying around cities?

- What if zombies decided to turn a leaf, became vegetarians and that improved their intelligence to the point they became politicians and stuff?


So before you even think of a character and a story there are a few things you want to think about: thesis, theme and what ifs.

Let's talk about What ifs now.

Storytelling starts from observation and understanding. Life is a story in itself and it is very very interesting, you just have to stop and listen to it.
You have to be: aware of your surroundings, curious and you have to question stuff all the time. Be observant and detached.

A lot of people will tell you that injecting yourselves and your personal experience in your story is wrong, that you shouldn't do that. That depends on how you do it. 
This is something I've heard only in recent times because back in the days, if you were to take a creative writing class, the first thing they taught you was: write about the things you know.


So I have a feeling that these DONTS are just noobs' trend that sprouted around the internet, more of an opinion rather than a fact. I often read and giggle about sentences like: this is good idea and this is a bad idea... coming from people with no authority in the fields. So be careful who you ask your opinion to.

There are no such things as good or bad ideas. Ideas are ideas. It's how you develop them that makes them good or bad.


You cannot talk about yourselves turning your character into a "heroic you without defects" and letting him win all the time... that is wishful thinking. If you think that in that situation you would kick ass, you are not being honest about it and clearly you have never been in that situation.


I remember Osamu Tezuka talking about this point in one of the chapter of Boku no Songoku. He was making fan of his character, Sanzou, for always acting like a coward saying: what a whiner. Then the character turned against him, drop him in the comic, forced him to take his place and, as it turned out, Osamu Tezuka was even more of a coward than Sanzou and ended up apologizing to him.

You have to know yourselves and be honest about it, your faults are far more interesting than your talents. Maybe those are the things you want to inject in your stories.

Quite frankly I think that people always have interesting things to say, and so even when they talk about themselves, their ordinary, everyday, normal little selves... masterpieces are born: Blankets, Portugal, Mom's Cancer, Mauss... LMDV. I could go on for ever. They are gorgeous!

Your what ifs are always born from the things you observe and how your curiosity reacts to them. If you are standing in a white room and you think it's a boring room a what if about color might kick in: what if walls that change colors according to people's mood were invented? What kind of complications might that arise?

They also sprout from your fears. The flying shark idea... that's where it comes from: I am might afraid of sharks. If they were to fly... leaving the house would become quite troublesome... or funny.

So go in the World, observe, ask yourselves question and put down a list of what ifs... you can use more than one in your story. You can use one per character and you can even solve a what if and move onto a second one (that works if you have a serialization going).

But do start from simple questions and write them all down. Ideas are ideas, cannot be copyrighted and a lot of people think about the same ideas simply because we are groomed and molded in the same society.

It's how you develop your ideas that will make you different from others. This is when theme and thesis kick in. I'll talk about them in the next posts.

Know your story.

What's a story?

A Story is something with a Beginning, a Middle and an End. As simple as that.

Your story has to start, go somewhere and then find its way towards the ending. It might seem logic but try and ask this very same question to anybody you know and almost nobody will come up with this answer.

Because it's simple, it's straightforward and it's a bit obvious.

But clearly that is also what a story need: it needs to be simple, linear and obvious.... but don't take this words literally.

Simple is best, linear means you need structure and obvious simply means that everything must be clear enough for everybody to understand, without a reasonable doubt, without interpretations of sort, without way outs.

What are the main elements you need in a story?

You need a character, his environment, you need his dream, a conflict and rising action and then a resolution and then...

No, let me summarize this better. A story needs these elements: D + D + D.

Or to say it better: a Dude with a Dilemma and how he Deals with it.

A Dude is a Character.

The Dilemma is a Conflict.

And how he Deals with it is all the series of Rising Complications that would lead him to the Final Resolution.

A story can be moved by two things: plot and character.

Plot drive stories can be quite tricky and may lead inexperienced writers to character betrayal.

Character driven stories, if not dealt with properly, can lie flat and never go anywhere.

Plot is the series of events that move the story forwards, carrying the character along for a crazy ride.

It needs a good amount of cause and effects.

There can be stories with very little plot but there can never be a story without characters. 

It is one of the reason why a character driven story is to be preferred to the plot driven one. You can have a cool plot and mess up the character, then nobody will believe you... but you can have a cool character keeping together chaotic elements and people will follow you in the ride (let's not forget that most movies have very simple, linear plots and are held together by the charisma of the protagonist).

If you really want to know your story you have to know your character.

Know your character and he/she will move the story forward for you.

Know your character and you shall also know your story. 

Index