Post History
I'm not giving you examples because you cannot ask "what to write" here. So these are guidelines on writing, given a character. I usually begin with a character. For me, a good character needs to ...
Answer
#5: Post edited
by
Amadeus
·
2020-01-22T17:15:20Z (almost 5 years ago)
I'm not giving you examples because you cannot ask "what to write" here. So these are guidelines on writing, given a character.I usually begin with a character. For me, a good character needs to be very good at something, and rather poor at something else. Think on that. Does he call himself Nathaniel, or Nate? What do his friends and associates call him?The reason for the disparity (both a skill and a deficit) is to create character growth; the character's "normal world", which you should begin with, is most likely to involve the skill at which he excels. He will be a "champion" in this regard, not necessarily the best in the _world_, but very good and valued for his skill.The problem you introduce for Nathaniel, however, will not have much to do with his skill, instead, it will demand of him getting better at his weakness: Overcoming the deficit that until now, did not matter much in his life.This is how you come to a plot, you need a problem that throws Nathaniel under the bus, a problem he HAS to solve, and doesn't really have the competence to solve. His journey in gaining that competence, and/or figuring out how to use his skill in a new way, is what your story is "about". And the reader is hopefully rooting for Nathaniel, because he is the underdog in this story no matter how great his skill, since it has been disabled by the incident you devised.Think about his strength, AND his weakness. Try to make those plausible. Then think about how to attack him and throw him for a loop in a way that makes it seem his strength doesn't matter, and his weakness is probably going to make him fail.Then figure out what he has to sacrifice in order to prevail, how he tries to avoid that and gets into hotter water, then boiling water, and finally makes his sacrifice in order to prevail. That's the story.
- I'm not giving you examples because you cannot ask "what to write" here. So these are guidelines on writing, given a character.
- I usually begin with a character. For me, a good character needs to be very good at something, and rather poor at something else. Think on that. Does he call himself Nathaniel, or Nate? What do his friends and associates call him?
- The reason for the disparity (both a skill and a deficit) is to create character growth; the character's "normal world", which you should begin with, is most likely to involve the skill at which he excels. He will be a "champion" in this regard, not necessarily the best in the _world_, but very good and valued for his skill.
- The problem you introduce for Nathaniel, however, will not have much to do with his skill, instead, it will demand of him getting better at his weakness: Overcoming the deficit that until now, did not matter much in his life.
- This is how you come to a plot, you need a problem that throws Nathaniel under the bus, a problem he HAS to solve, and doesn't really have the competence to solve. His journey in gaining that competence, and/or figuring out how to use his skill in a new way, is what your story is "about". And the reader is hopefully rooting for Nathaniel, because he is the underdog in this story no matter how great his skill, since it has been disabled by the incident you devised.
- Think about his strength, AND his weakness. Try to make those plausible. Then think about how to attack him and throw him for a loop in a way that makes it seem his strength doesn't matter, and his weakness is probably going to make him fail.
- Then figure out what he has to sacrifice in order to prevail, how he tries to avoid that and gets into hotter water, then boiling water, and finally makes his sacrifice in order to prevail. That's the story.
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-19T22:13:56Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48561 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T13:09:05Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48561 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
I'm not giving you examples because you cannot ask "what to write" here. So these are guidelines on writing, given a character. I usually begin with a character. For me, a good character needs to be very good at something, and rather poor at something else. Think on that. Does he call himself Nathaniel, or Nate? What do his friends and associates call him? The reason for the disparity (both a skill and a deficit) is to create character growth; the character's "normal world", which you should begin with, is most likely to involve the skill at which he excels. He will be a "champion" in this regard, not necessarily the best in the _world_, but very good and valued for his skill. The problem you introduce for Nathaniel, however, will not have much to do with his skill, instead, it will demand of him getting better at his weakness: Overcoming the deficit that until now, did not matter much in his life. This is how you come to a plot, you need a problem that throws Nathaniel under the bus, a problem he HAS to solve, and doesn't really have the competence to solve. His journey in gaining that competence, and/or figuring out how to use his skill in a new way, is what your story is "about". And the reader is hopefully rooting for Nathaniel, because he is the underdog in this story no matter how great his skill, since it has been disabled by the incident you devised. Think about his strength, AND his weakness. Try to make those plausible. Then think about how to attack him and throw him for a loop in a way that makes it seem his strength doesn't matter, and his weakness is probably going to make him fail. Then figure out what he has to sacrifice in order to prevail, how he tries to avoid that and gets into hotter water, then boiling water, and finally makes his sacrifice in order to prevail. That's the story.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-10-15T14:43:51Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 1