Jul 22 2006
Story Structure
In the opening…
Generally, it’s a good idea to show or at least foreshadow the main characters.
Most writing guides emphasize an audience’s emotional investment in the characters. That’s certainly important, but I think it’s also important for fiction writers to get readers to emotionally invest in the world. Both of these investments tie in to what’s at stake. Why should the audience care
The opening should also establish the tone and mood of the piece. People that buy/read your novel will probably do so on the basis of the first few chapters (maybe just the first few pages). It’s important not to jilt your readers– if it starts out tragically, it shouldn’t be a light-hearted comedy.
In the body of the story…
If your story is your gun, scenes are your bullets. Scenes, rather than blocks of exposition that occur in a vacuum, show the characters. A character in a well-constructed scene will feel a lot more alive to your audience than, say, a character who is described like “Courtney was a middle-aged man that was kind of both proud and insecure.”
Show all the elements the conclusion needs. For example, if the climax hinges on whether the hero can save the girl, we should see the girl, the hero, and the villain long before the final fight.
I really like plotting by problems. Your characters have overarching goals and their attempts to reach their goals should create more problems and obstacles. These problems should be varied, but it will probably be easier to read if the problems get progressively worse. Save the perfect solutions for the “Happily Ever After.”
In the conclusion…
By the end, your characters should have made some hard-earned gains and your audience should care about whether your hero succeeds. In the conclusion, show us that everything hinges on success now.
The conclusion, more so than the other parts, depends on how much your villain resonates with the readers. If the villain seems competent or devious or otherwise impressive, your hero will seem much more heroic as he vanquishes him.
Additionally, the villain should only be vanquished by the hero’s actions. For example, this plot would be utterly dissatisfying: the protagonist is held hostage in her home and is finally saved when the cops burst through the door. She isn’t really the hero here because she didn’t actually stop the villain. On the other hand, if she spent the better part of the book trying to carry out a plan to secretly call 911, then she has taken on an instrumental and dramatic role.
Children’s novels are especially vulnerable to the problem that the “protagonist” doesn’t really save the day. Many authors allow an adult step in and solve the problems. This deus ex parentis is a let-down, especially because the readers are kids to begin with.
Throughout the story…
Avoid randomness. One area of particular randomness is naming characters. For example, one of my professors described a novel where the first character were Alex, Betty, Carl and Donna. Hopefully, you have a stronger reason for naming your characters than that the first letters of their names come in alphabetical order.
The strongest reason to pick a name is that it suggests something about the character. At its most basic, you’d screw weaker characters with sissy names like “Percy” and “Neville Longbottom” and give stronger characters hard-sounding names like “Jack Ryan.” For a more advanced look at the use of sounds in character names, please see this article.
Another area that trips up authors is tense changes. It’s very easy to slip into a different tense, but your readers will probably notice that. I recommend slowly reading through each page immediately after you finish writing it. This is more effective than finishing the piece and then looking for tense mistakes because your eyes will glaze over after a few pages. One of my chapters had a lot of tense problems right at the very beginning, mostly because I didn’t really know when the events I described at the beginning occurred compared to the time the story itself was taking place. I’m pretty sure my latest version has fixed these problems.
Another problem is maintaining a constant narration. For example, in “Only Human,” the narrator focuses mostly on what Jacob Mallow sees. But about halfway through, the narrator describes what’s happening across the city even though Jacob Mallow has no idea anything is wrong. Another awkward narration shift in Only Human is towards the end, when Jacob leaves the greenhouse. The perspective stays in the greenhouse with Agent Orange. I knew that was really awkward at the time I was writing it, but I kind of had to show what Agent Orange was doing with his blood.
Sorry but I hope you don’t mind a little constructive feedback. This refers to the posting under “story structure” on 7/22/06 by bmaccomic. My idea: That the character names “gangrene” and “Agent Orange” could be strengthened by having them refer more specifically to YOUR story, “Only Human.” For example, Agent Orange is a generic term for a defoliant noted for its use in Viet Nam. It makes me think of Viet Nam, not your story. Gangrene is the same way.. it’s a generic medical term that doesn’t make me think of a character releasing a chemical.
Let me give you an example. I am currently writing a spy story/comedy. The name of my strategic planner is Madame Blueskaya. Why? Strategic planners “blue sky” different ideas and the suffix “skaya” is a common suffix in Russian names and words. Maybe not so funny or obvious if you don’t know these facts but the point is that she’s MY character and conjures up thoughts of my story, not something else.
Anyway, I enjoyed the website. The title “The Empire State Strikes Back” really cracks me up (I grew up in upstate NY).
Martin J. Monroe
Thanks for your feedback!
I was definitely concerned that “Agent Orange” was too campy. But I think that we’ve the pun to help suggest that he’s a wacky and violent government agent, a useful contrast to the more straight-laced Agent Black. You can see how we use Agent Orange’s name for comedic effect in the first issue of our webcomic here.
Is there an alternative you would suggest?
This is irrevelant to my story and I don’t plan on doing one, but I used to be interested in doing this. How much do you guys know about writing plays?
Absolutely nothing, sorry.
Aww, Booooo
This site looks pretty OK for playwriting advice. You can also check out your library. My library has a few books on playwriting, but none on superhero writing. (Hence this site!)
I wasn’t sure where to post this so I’m putting it here.
I had an idea for Adrian and a “love” interest. Adrian isn’t really in love with the girl (he doesn’t really like her either) despite the fact that she is hot. Her relationship with him would be very Batman to Catwoman, she likes him but he just tries to keep things professional. At on point their forced to work together because the alien she is infused with is one with biological manipulation as its main ability.
She kisses Adrian being the most effective form of biological interaction, next to sex (no sex for Adrian, yet). In doing so she purposely ties a biological link between her body and his, that way if she gets hurt, he gets hurt, and she can sort of kill him at will. Something happens and the two have to work together and avoid getting hurt or killed. In the end she would kiss him again untieing the link.
After the event, I wanted her to be a recurring character, but a nuetral one. The Elektra to Daredevil, Shadowcat to Spidey, Catwoman to Batman, etc. She works in her own best interests.
Personality-wise, she’s a very adamant flirt, she doesn’t take alot of things seriously, and is very-self centered. She is older than Adrian, and looks it too. I don’t want her to come off as a pedophile, I was thinking 18. She is one of the few people to learn Adrian’s true identity, through the kiss.
What do you think of this character and her relaionship with Adrian? She’s still in development, so I’ll update you on her A.S.A.P.
I don’t know. It doesn’t seem that there’s a lot to her beyond her sex appeal. (She’s hot, she’s flirty, she’s able to seduce him with a kiss [kind of], etc.) I’d recommend building on her other traits, like the lack of seriousness and maybe the self-centeredness. (Self-centeredness may be a bit too obvious for this character, but OK).
Were you planning on doing anything with the girl who lives near his high school but doesn’t go there?
Well, regarding the seducer, she’s still in development, I don’t even have a name for her yet, so I’ll be sure to add traits of interest to her. I’ll try to put a fresh spin on the character so she feels new. Maybe I’ll make her philosophical (llike she’s always reading) or something.
I may consider using Loretta, but that will probably come after I develop the alien races.
Rather than making her the seducer, you could maybe make her more of . . . well, of a potential love interest. I don’t think many readers will feel anything if Adrian decides not to get together with this semi-temptress. However, if it’s a friendly person who truly cares for him, then that could be dramatic. Readers would care about this other character (especially if Adrian still likes her – just not in a romantic way) and that’s the perfect excuse for her to show up again: she’s his friend, so when he needs help he has only to ask.
You’d have to be careful to make Adrian not seem like a jerk for turning her away (or an idiot), but I think you’re perfectly capable of that. So long as he doesn’t start leading her along – that’s instant jerk territory.
Personally, I don’t like the name Loretta. It sounds like the name of a Bond girl. I’d recommend something a little more ordinary: Vicky, Yasmin, Laura, Rebecca, etc.
I don’t want Adrian to actually fall in love with her, but he can generally like her.
I think Loretta is a nice name for a girl who lives in the hood, it certainly less ghetto than Qwaneisha or Claresha.
Names like Laura and Rebecca sound distinctly white, in my opinion. How many girls from the hood do you know named Laura?
Yasmin would work, but I think I’ll stick with Loretta.
Problem: Is there a minimum to how many characters I need to develop in my first issue? I have Adrian and some of Jimelly and that’s about it. Of course there will be more characters, mainly those in Jimelly’s troupe and some outside. But, as for the first issue should my focus just be on Adrian?
Yeah, I think focusing on Adrian (with a bit of Jimelly) makes sense. Maybe we’ll see a bit of another alien in the opening shots, and we might see a recurring side-character at Adrian’s school (Eric, or one of Adrian’s friends, etc).
Flareblade has a long post he wants me to do for him. I have to revise some things for him but his plot is okay. I’ll post it in a few.
[...] advice on making comics strips is the structure of the comic. This link over here, might help on structuring your comic strip. Over all i hope this blog entry has been useful for researching or leaning about comic strips (or [...]
I need help with pacing and I guess overall structure. Basically, each chapter in “Project Hero” will one or two missions the characters are involved in. But I’m not sure how to end them. I’ve tried dialogue, but I don’t want it to seem cliche. I’ve also thought about having someone think or a twist revealed, but I think that it’ll get redundant. What should I do?
The other issue is the structure. I have all the characters and events outlined, but I need advice on how to make them all not look cohesive. The whole story is supposed to take place over a few days, maybe a little over a week. I don’t want all chapters to start with “the next day”. Tips would be nice.
“I’ve also thought about having someone think or a twist revealed, but I think that it’ll get redundant…” Well, it doesn’t have to be a twist. (If you tried twisting us every chapter, it would probably be very confusing).
But I would recommend ending each chapter by having the characters do something interesting or at least make it clear they’re about to do something interesting. For example, maybe they learn a key bit of information at the end of a chapter and readers will want to keep learning to find out how the characters react. Maybe the detective finds a key clue that completely rules out his main suspect. Or maybe a character is in danger and the readers want to find out whether/how he escapes. Or maybe a character has just made a terrible mistake and readers will want to know what comes of that. Anything that keeps the readers turning pages. Maybe there’s been a sudden surprise of another sort. Maybe a character makes a major decision. Preferably one that creates an obstacle for the hero (“It’s not you, it’s me…”).
Um, hi… (waves shyly)
B.Mac, (or anyone who has an idea on this really) what do you think of flashbacks in a story? I’m considering having my story begin in 1875, with one main character, then cutting forward thirteen years to the other main character, and then briefly cutting back to 1875 before then returning to the story thirteen years later with the two characters meeting. (My apologies if that’s not very clear.) My questions are: would this be confusing for the reader, and if so, how could it be made clearer?
Hello.
So, let me get this straight. Your book starts in 1875 with character A and then cuts to 1888 with character B. Then it returns to 1875 with A and then returns to 1888, where A and B meet.
I think the main problem here is cohesion. Particularly when you switch to character B in 1888 for the first time, I think that readers will be disoriented because they’ve grown attached to character A and suddenly character A disappears.
One way you could reduce the disorientation problem would be to keep character A sort-of-present even though character B is the new point-of-view character and even though B doesn’t meet A for some time. Maybe character B hears a lot of second-hand talk about character A and perhaps A has even become something of a celebrity. Maybe character B has come across some writings from character A, like a diary or a journal or something he wrote for public consumption. That will help us keep him/her in mind even though (s)he is not physically present.
For example, in Superhero Nation, the story cuts 10 years between the villain as a disturbed high schooler and as a wildly successful cosmetics designer and chemical engineer. So the papers announce that he has a big new cosmetics breakthrough almost ready and the audience knows that he’s not REALLY working on cosmetics. The question is whether the heroes can figure out what’s going on and stop him in time.
Also, if possible, it may help to introduce character B in 1875.
Finally, I’d recommend being clear about which time-era we’re in at all times. If the chapter switches years, I would recommend putting the year right after the title. So, for example…
[Chapter Title] GROVER CLEVELAND IS A FOOL AND A CHARLATAN or CHAPTER TWELVE or whatever you prefer
[Year] 1888
[Begin chapter]
Thanks for the help! ^_^
It wouldn’t really be possible for character B (I’ll just use names for the sake of clarity, so character A = Isabel, character B = Tom.) to hear a lot about Isabel- she’s been imprisoned for the past thirteen years. I could perhaps find a way to work the diary in, as Isabel is known for keeping one.
Seeing as the second scene in 1875 takes place briefly after the first, do you think it would just be simpler to have it in chronological order? I was planning on switching so it would be possible to introduce both main characters quickly.
I do think it’s a good idea to put down the year underneath the chapter- I was planning to do so, possibly with the location as well.