Tag Archives: Fiction

Antagonist, Uncategorized

Test Time

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Plot is more than dramatic action. It involves having character emotional development, dramatic action and thematic significance. This is also known as how your protagonist acts or reacts. By doing these three things he or she is changed and something is learned. When stories get stuck it is likely that one of these three key elements has been ignored. One might concentrate on the action only, forgetting that character provides interest and is the primary reason people read books.

Organizing solely around the character can make one overlook the fact that dramatic action provides the thrill that each story needs. One might forget to develop the overall meaning of the story or the thematic significance. When the dramatic action changes the character at depth over time, the story becomes significant.

The Power of Character

In a story line, the characters grow and change in reaction to the dramatic action. This growth does not rely solely on a physical level. The challenges the characters face must create emotional effects, the deeper the better for reader. An effective way to do so is the use of a Scene Tracker. A scene tracker will ask you to fulfill seven essential elements in every single scene, with the biggest being focused on the character emotional development.

For example:

The Crisis: The crisis is an event in a scene that works like any crisis we may come across in our real life. Its job is to shake things up in such a way that the protagonist has to act. It takes on dramatic proportions when it is seen as the highest point in the dramatic action plot up to date in the story.

It has been fortunate for me so far that I have not gotten stuck yet. But knowing that there is a guideline of things that need to be included is a good thing to know. Plus it is a good tool to put my stories to the test and see if they have the three key elements that is needed. I can use it as a checklist of sorts to see if my works are well working. I need all the help I can get.

Anti-hero, Character Development, Villain, Writing class

The Villain- Part 1

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Villain

 

These are my notes from week 5 of my Character Development class. Again the notes ran long so this will be a two parter.

The villain can be a situation such as stress, sweat, nerves etc. You have to make it a problem for the hero else it will fall flat.

What would you consider the villain to be like is something you need to ask yourself when creating this character.

-The dark side can be the high light of the story

-What seeds did you plant to lay the brickwork that lead to your villain?

-Evil can be situational or can be a person

-When you start creating a villain it is best you don’t show them early in the storyline but instead plant

the seeds. Give the reader suspense.

-Villain vs hero should be written in the first few pages of your storyline. But for the villain make it an image.

 

Some classic ways to show this is

-the villain enjoys the hero being in pain or sorrow

-focus on the personality and qualities vs the dramatic function of the villain

-get to the root of the characters for both hero and villain

 

Villain- This character has a very specific function in the story. Make him/her part of the story and by doing so show the personality. Break this character down to the core like you would the hero.

There are 4 elements to a villain

-Antagonist- your anti-hero

-Influence Characters- how they influence the good guy

-Second Most Central Characters

-Bad guy- This you show by the qualities they have and how they are depicted in the story

 

 

Antagonist- The goal is to prevent the hero from achieving their goal

-One way is to beat the hero to the prize

-Just disagreeing with the hero can be one way.

 

People will see the guy who is right as the hero and the one who isn’t as the antagonist

Bad guy-Does not mean he wallows in trouble but ask why they did it. How did they feel about the

situation?

Sometimes the dark side come across as

-defeat

-gang related

-trickster

-temptation

-when bad things happen

This all shapes the villain. It does not have to be specific. They could be the star of the story line if you over shadow your hero. Or your characters could flip-flop from being hero at the beginning and then the villain at the end.

How you want your villain to be in the story has to match up through to the end, any questions you have out there needs to be answered.  In a nutshell, a villain is nailed by their personality type, to do that get to the root of their character. Where are they from, why are they the way they are.

 

Character Development, Class, Creative Writing, Plot, Setting, Theme

Characters Make The Plot- Part 2

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Part 2

1-Character vs Character- protagonist vs another character

2-Character vs Nature- A hiker vs the cold Yukon

3-Character vs Society- Jonas vs the norm of his community( popular in YA books)

4-Character vs Self-The character over our own fears, guilt, self-esteem etc.

5-Character vs Fate-Using the example of Stanley in the book “ Holes”. Stanley vs the family curse

One plot will take center stage and become the main plot.

Subplot- A secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance. Subplots often involve supporting characters, those besides the hero and villain.

Situation irony- This is where the ending is the opposite of what the reader thought it would be.

One needs plot, setting and characters all threaded together to give substance to one’s story.  Some authors use multiple themes. Themes add meaning and depth to a story in fiction

There are four elements to make one’s writings complete: setting, character, plot, theme.

Put equal attention to one’s antagonist for you may flip and he soon becomes the good guy or the one that readers attach to Try to give as many problems as possible to make one’s character more developed.

A plot needs to have three elements:

1-Character Emotions-These should be seen in the first five or six sentences of the story. This creates fascination.

2-Dramatic action-This is the action that happens in a novel, screenplay, memoir, short story, or any other kind of writing that causes a character to react and thus be affected by and changed at depth over the duration of the story. This provides excitement.

3-Thematic significance-This is the deliberate step-by-step development of the underlying meaning of the overall project. This portrays the overall story meaning. When the dramatic action changes the character at depth over time, the story becomes thematically significance.

If a writer does not have all three you will lose your audience. The story will falter or get stuck.

This class is moving along pretty well. We are halfway done