THE BASICS OF STORY PLANNING - Introduction

THE BASICS OF STORY PLANNING - introduction

"THE BASICS OF STORY PLANNING" is based in a screenwriting seminar by Dany Campo, A writer of cinema and advertising, analyst of scripts for movie producers and also independent producers and finally a scriptwriting teacher in various colleges and on his Youtube channel, and also by a seminar I gave in the writing Discord server “Whisper Of Words”.

This seminar will focus on the basics of story planning and the elements that conforms it.

Now, how can this help you improve your writing? Aren't these too obvious? Well, it's no secret that these things are known to most but not for everyone, and it's so easy to make a mistake in one of the essential elements that can it make your work hard to understand or less attractive to spectators in search of a juicy story. Which is why I believe it's important to master the basic knowledge to understand your work, since these elements are what your story is truly about

Two thousand years ago, there was a man called Aristotle, whom you've probably already heard of, who asked himself some the questions we are making ourselves today: Why are there stories that endure time and others that are forgotten? Why are people attracted to these that are still remembered today?

To find the answers to these questions, he did a field research, studying the stories that had endured time until then, two thousand years ago. THE POETICS was product of this investigation, one of the first essays about narrative.  He discovered that many of these stories had a series of  common elements that can be resumed in the following.

There was a character, whom he called hero, with a goal and a dream.

The hero  does things to reach his dream.

And on the way to achieve his goal, difficulties, obstacles appear which then created a conflict for the hero and the spectator. This conflict was what defined the center of the story.

To briefly explain this theory, the first act serves to understand the protagonist and the goals he wanted to accomplish, the second act has to do with what they do to face the obstacles that's on their way and finally, the third act in which they overcomes the obstacles, the protagonist goes towards the culmination of his journey and the "achievement" of their goal.

A clear division of the story. The approach/statement, the development and the outcome.  A clue to this theory in proportion is that the second act is the double of the first and the last. It means that while the 1st and 3rd act could be 25%, the middle act will be 50%. It is important to note that these measurements will not be always exact as they just are a reference.

Now, other forms to tell a story have appeared throughout history such as the Dramatica Act Structure, Michael Hauge's "Six Stage Plot Structure", John Truby's "Twenty-two Building Blocks" and Freytag's Pyramid "Five-Act Structure"; but so far, this has been the most rentable and effective way to tell a story as it has been demonstrated for thousands of years and is still being used today. But of course, it also depends on the writer rather than just the theory alone.

The three-act theory was constantly reformulated as the time went on, especially when the industry of cinema came to be, and it ended in a quote which will help us to build everything and the most important of this seminar.

Do not forget it.

Someone wants something with intensity and finds obstacles to get it.

This quote alone resumes the core of a story and its respective elements that facilitates story planning for both plotters and pantsers. To have a better understanding of the key sentence of this seminar, it could be explained like the following:

A protagonist is someone who does things to achieve his goal for a reason; the conflict is when we face two options: a bad one and a worst one. And finally, once the conflict is overcomed and a solution is found, it must be put on practice and achieve the goal, leading to the conclusion of the story.

As I established previously, there are other methods to plan a story but this is one of the most basic and known ways to do so, and thus, you are not obliged to strictly follow a certain method.

"It depends on the storyteller who needs to know how to apply the knowledge they have acquired rather than just the theory itself."

The upcoming posts will explain in detail all the elements contained in the quote: the protagonist, the goal, the motivation, the conflict and the ending; the 5 basic elements in story planning.

Trying to write characters who speak another is really challenging-- especially when you, as the writer, do not know this language. 

However, I’d like to give some tips to those who are trying to do this!

If the character you’re writing do not understands the language other character is talking, it’s important to state it! How can you do it? Here is an example:

“And you know something? I wish I could--” but before María could finish her sentence, she had ran into a lamppost and hit herself with it. She let out a loud scream and yelled something in spanish that Jane Doe didn’t understand, but was completely sure she was cursing God or the poor lamppost.  

María rambled strange words and scowled. “Well, shit.”

EDUCATE YOURSELF ON THE LANGUAGE. Other than just basic words, it’s important to see where they are from! Just as there’s a lot of English Lingo, there are spanish, french and such. Slang  and accents can vary according to the region they are from. For example:

Venezuela has different slangs/idioms to Mexico.

Venezuelan slang: ¡Coño ‘e la madre!, ¡Mar’dito!, Marico, pana, etc.

Mexican slang: ¡Chinga su madre!, Wey, etc.

Youtube is a great tool to know things like accent, some culture and more. There are channels dedicated to this kind of content and this are a great resource, especially when it comes to listen how they talk a certain language.

For example, there’s this video in Youtube that’s about a conversation between two Norwegian women talking in Norwegian. 

This video has English subtitles and in the description you can find the whole conversation in English and Norwegian. 

It’s rather simple, but it can help you to understand the dynamic of this language and other videos like this one can be found on the Internet.

Video mentioned. 

RESEARCH IS KEY. If you only use Google Translate to say things in another language, dear, you still have so much to learn! Not that using google translate it’s wrong, but there are other better resources since this one is just for quick, and sometimes, literal translations.

im going to have a stroke

As a reader, I am sincerely so grateful for fanfiction. There are so many fantastic and talented writers out there, pouring their hearts and souls into their work, giving fans the content they crave, sharing their love of these worlds and characters. But let’s be honest, the pressure to create is hard enough without a pandemic weighing on you. So it doesn’t matter if you are creating right now or not - you are amazing. Every single one you!

As an author, I can’t tell you how much it means, how it fills my heart, to have people thank me for my writing, and tell me that it has brought them joy in these troubling times. You both motivate and sustain me. Every last kudos and comment has brought me more happiness than I can express. 

So whether you are a content creator, author, a fan, blogger, or reader…

Thank you all. 

You are valid, and you are appreciated.

Brandon Sanderson on Writing

Questioner: You are very famous for being a fast writer.

We talked about that in the other conversation, and I'm not going to ask you the secret of your superpower, if you got bit by a spider or something, but I don't want to ask about the discipline of sitting and writing [for x hours] straight, or the deadlines of the publishers, because if there's something that is strange about writing, it's that, in your worst moments, when you [are under] pressure, [you deal with] family conflict, you write better, you are more capable of understanding how others feel, how is the world that's around you.

And when you're happy, when everything is okay, you have time to find inspiration or the strength to write, because, "The world is amazing, I have these great friends, this great girlfriend, this amazing family to be with. Why do I have to stay five hours closed in my room thinking about people having terrible problems to be happy?"

So, how do you make this to keep writing, and having what a fantastic life, with fantastic friends and fantastic fans?

Brandon Sanderson: What a fascinating question! I've never been asked that before!

I've been asked thousands, of questions, so that is very interesting.

I would say, I am not a writer who writes from a place of pain. Every writer is different, and they find different inspiration. I am best at writing when I am in a place of comfort. And so, I think that most writers are very observant, and this is how we express things in fiction.

We pay attention. We listen. For instance, I don't have depression, but Kaladin does. If I waited until I had depression to write Kaladin that would probably be bad, because people with depression, number one, don't want to do anything, and number two, it's just not going to work, right? You just can't sit around and wait to experience everything you want to write.

So, for me, it's about research, and listening, and paying attention. I happen to have several people I love dearly who do have depression, and so I talk to them. I take notes. I listen to the things they have to say, and that becomes the foundation for a piece of a character's personality.

I don't know, though, maybe I'm just a sadist, and I like to do evil things.

🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮

Creative Writing

Creative Writing. Creating worlds with our fingers and bringing characters to life with just our imagination.

However, creative writing it’s not a term everyone is familiarized with—so let’s see what this is about. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of Creative Writing is:

“The activity of writing stories, poetry, etc., or the stories, poems, etc. that are written.”

Now, how does creative writing differ from other types of writing?

The most remarkable difference lies in the content.

Creative writing could also be broadly defined as the pursuit of artistic ends through the written word—like fiction, non-fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, prose poem and memoir. However, it does not include any writing that goes inside the bounds of a normal professional writing like academic, journalistic or technical forms of literature.

In other words, this is the kind of writing that explores the imagination and creativity of a writer. But creative writing is so much more than we may actually think.

The possibilities for the form that a writing and its message may take are infinite. And so can be your writing. As a creative writer, it’s important to develop your own toolbox of strategies, skills and styles that are going to define your writing and make it stand out.

However, learning to write is not formulaic, like Larry Brooks establishes in the first pages of his book Story Engineering, and so is the process of writing in general. It’s not like learning how to build a machine or how to use a specific tool like a screwdriver. There are many books that explain and help you to write a book, for example, Stephen King’s On Writing or Lisa Cron’s Story Genius, but this is a process that’s learnt through practice, success and failure.

An analogy for this process can be learning how to cook. When you learn for the first time how to cook, it could have been through three possible ways: you were taught by someone else, learnt it from a book recipe or just mixed the ingredients together in an attempt to make something from memory. Your first tries aren’t going to be the best ones (unless you’re really lucky or meticulous) and that’s something to be expected, but with practice you can make it taste fine! But then, there’s a phase when you try to make it taste different, you experiment with other ingredients and have your own homemade recipe.

Creative writing is to show emotions, to show emotions or to tell a story. Citing again the Cambridge Dictionary, a story is defined as: “a description, either true or imagined, of a connected series of events.”

But there are vast ways to define what is a story.

“Story is character. Story is conflict.Story is narrative tension. Story is thematic resonance. Story is plot.” (Larry Books, Story Engineering)

“A story is first of all a chain of events that begins at one place and ends at another “without any essential interruption.” (Randall Jarrell)

Writing is not an easy task that’s done in a day or in a few weeks. It takes dedication and effort. But it’s something everyone can do if they propose it to themselves. The reasons to write are so diverse; they go from simple enjoyment to do it for money! But it’s important to know what you are doing.

The most important things you could take into account if you are going to start creative writing are:

Motivation (or why)

Why do you want to write? For fun? To put into words the dream you had last night? Or do you want to make money with your creativity?

Of course there can be so much into motivation, but the thing lies in knowing the reason why you want to do it. Writing is a way to convey or feelings and dreams, it’s a place where we have total control on, but think it thoroughly. 

Literary Genre(s) (or what)

Do you want to write a novel, a poem, or a memoir? Romance, drama or historical fiction? 

There are so many things you could write about. This point is closely related to the previous one, and it’s important to have it clear as day, because both will motivate you to write!

Visualize yourself (imagine)

Do you see yourself writing? Sitting in front of a desk or laying in your bed with the computer? Visualizing yourself it’s part of the process; imagining yourself doing it before actually doing it. 

It’s never too early nor too late to start learning and writing! Its always up to you when or how to begin.

A/N: I hope this post helped you! Please, reblog, kudo or comment if you can! It motivates me to keep writing articles. Thank you! (❁´◡`❁)