Sunday, August 15, 2010

RPG - ing your story, part 2

I actually get less time to think when I'm on vacation like right now... sorry if this is poorly written...

I am a Zelda fanatic, I've been constantly playing their games since I knew about them... Majoras MAsk is my biggest influence for Green Success....

Anyway, I want to talk about a common problem that many writers make, I've been able to observe these problems since I recently joined Wattpad...

The problem? Random Major Events....

Although it sounds silly, this is a big problem that affects the interest level of the book and the direction the reader will be thinking about as they explore the world you have created/written for them...

Usually the first time you write a story, you just write the first thing that comes to mind, which is good, it allows creativity to be at it's peak... but i wouldn't recoment keeping it that way...

Part of enjoying a story is trying to figure out what's going to happen next, often during brain boggling movies and anime, you spend most of your time comprehending and predicting things, subconsciously or consciously... even when playing RPG's like Zelda it's always fun to guess what the boss will be, and usually in most Zelda games the final boss is a bigger version of any minor enemies you meet in the cave...

In Ocorina of Time, the first boss is a giant spider, and throughout the cave you see many massive spider webs... your first thought might not be "The final boss is a giant spider" but it will at least peak the players interest, and in story telling INTEREST is the most important factor... even if you have the greatest ending in the world, if the reader isn't interested they may never get to the end...

Although Random Major events may be interesting sometimes it's usually not good all the time...

HINTING AT EVENTS

RPG: In Zelda games usually you will come across a door with a silver lock on it, instantly you know you need a Small Key... I will call this Specific Hinting... Because the player knows exactly what they need to do/obtain...

In story telling you can specifically hint, even by using the same example, the character is stuck at a locked door, you are hinting he either needs a key or something to break down the door...

If you want a character to die, better to hint towards his death than to have it pop up randomly... In Death Note we know Light Yagami's Father's Death was suprising but when you observe the stpry closely, you realize it was being hinted at... The biggest hint being how Light Yagami's dad halves his life span even though he's already old... And how he hesitates to write Mello's name down and how both the viewer and the characters see the bomb switch in Mello's hand... It was hinted at, it builds drama, and best of all it doesn't seem like the writer pulled Yagami's Death out of the blue...

NON-Specific Hinting... While seeing a high wall in Zelda, I though I was going to get some sort of flying item... that high wall was always there, it's not like I am just exposed to that wall right before I get the item, but I saw it as I went along, which built my interest... Eventually all I needed was my horse to jump over the wall, I was wrong, but I was interested... It wasn't specifically hinted but it was still INTERESTING!

In my story Green Success, the first thing you read is Long having a Day Dream... it has nothing to do with the rest of the chapter, but it is hinting at something, it will be significant later in the story...

In Chapter 3 when Long says "Another Child must Suffer for the Mistake of a Parent" ... it has a significance in the conversation, but his statement isn't explained right there... It will eventually be explained, but along the way I will keep hinting at Long and his Parents until I finally reveal the event... the Even will seem much more dramatic and significant if it is being hinted at...

Hinting is part of twining the parts of the story together, and it will make the story much more thought out and intricate... A true Masterpiece.... Hint, hint, hint... and the next time you watch an anime, watch out for the hints, because there will be a lot!

CLANNAD: in Clannad, the final scene where Nagisa almost gives up on stage, it is hinted at, since we know she is very shy... She gives up because she feels she is a burden on her parents... the story of her burden was mentioned several times before the characters actually go to the flash back of the story... The Drama club had been in CLANNAD since the first episode, so one thinking hard enough could conclude that the Drama club has some importance in the story... In the end we know for sure, the ending was hinted at so many times, yet it still seemed surprising, and those Tear Jerking moments are made more sad since they were being hinted at...

Remember hinting is not the same as revealing... and if you don't hint to the interesting parts of your story, your story will not be interesting at all... a hint can be as simple as a name mentioned...

In Chapter 4 of Green Success, Long and Andrew's past are hinted at many times, and the goal is not to spoil their past, but to prepare the reader and interest the reader for when I do reveal their past... Throughout Green Success I hint at Mark's past with gang members, but I have not revealed anything major yet... Yet...

But I'm sure I didn't do a good job making this Blog very interesting!

12 comments:

  1. I watched Clannad through Netflix recently. I liked how you used it and Death Note as examples. It sounds like Chapter 4 will be pretty good. As for my writing I'm not sure if I fall into that common problem, but I won't be surprised.

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  2. I catch my self falling in that problem a lot too... the problem is that sometimes, in order to fix it I have to re-write entire sections... it's a pain... but sometimes hinting can be very brief... like in Death Note when Near uses all the money to get the angry mod to cause a distraction... he was talking about how greedy and stupid the people were... he was hinting towards using L's Legacy, but it was very brief and right before the actual event... I hope you enjoyed Clannad, I loved it!

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  3. Yes, I enjoyed Clannad enough that I'd watch again or maybe get in on DVD, if FMA Brotherhood's second DVD release were not so close. My only big problem is I either don't explain things well enough or not at all. For example, my proofreader questioned me on how an invisible door could look strong in Divinity's End.

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  4. hmmm, yes the FMA dvd set is right around the corner... I usually don't but anime DVD sets, bad YouTube quality is a small price to pay to watch for free... but then I guess I"m not supporting the creators then am I? Well Funimations YouTube account posted all the FMA episodes, so I guess it's okay!

    ... I see, over explaining and under explaining is an equal problem... I always ask my 8 year old cousin to read my writings, if it makes sense to him then it'll make sense to an average teenager! :P

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  5. I watched FMA Brotherhood on Funimation's official video portal, not their YouTube channel, so I got to see them in the week they were released and in good quality for standard def, but I prefer FMA dubbed, and as Adult Swim has butchered openings and endings, I just get the DVDs. I see. That is a good thing to do, but keep in mind what I went over on Wattpad, different spellings of a word can cause some confusion. Also, I just watched Air the television series this week.

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  6. mmm, yess, Adult swim dous butcher the OP's and ED's but usually after I've seen them so many times they get a little annoying.. especially when I watch episodes in a row and they leave off a huge cliff hanger... Air is one of my favorite anime, though very short, it was an enjoyable ride!

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  7. I enjoyed Air. I've never really gotten tired of the FMAB openings, especially Again by YUI and Period by Chemistry. The only opening I was not really satisfied with was the fifth opening of FMAB. I did not care much about the fifth ending either, but there are definitely good scenes where it did fit well, such as Alphonse's resolve to use the stone that was given to him, in order to evade pride and Kimblee.

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  8. lol I haven't even gotten to the fifth season yet... Adult swim only shows one episode a week! ..so that sucks... but somewhere deep down in my heart, whenever I watch an anime, sometimes I just don't want it to end... it was just too good, and I wouldn't know what to do once it's over... Especially now, since I've seen all the best of the best... It saddens me...

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  9. I thought you watched in on FUNimation's YouTube channel? All 64 episodes should be there.

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  10. I only watch the episode I missed on Funimation's Channel... like right now I'm on vacation, I already missed 2 episodes, so I use YouTube to catch up... but I prefer watching it on the big screen than on my computer... And with epic anime like FMA, I would like to take it slow, watch one episode a week so I could absorb everything nice and slowly...

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  11. Maybe, you can get the necessary equipment to hook your computer to the television and stream it. That's how I watched Clannad and Air. If you have a laptop, that would be really useful, but it would be a major pain if it were a desktop. I watched as many episodes as I could and when there weren't anymore, I just waited for the next episode to become available for streaming, which was weekly.

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  12. just like eating a cookie, I'd like to preserve the taste of my anime...

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