-- Some Learned Skills --

I've consciously read and researched a few of other people's in the past few weeks, and here are a few tips that have been summarized.

1. Based on people and the world, not events.

The characters, the relationships between the characters, the demands of the characters and the specific power setting are the root of the contradictions. In a hypothetical situation, the intuitive appearance of the character's psychology is the source of drama.

The shaping of characters is not only shaping, but more importantly, it has an organic linkage with the plot.

The characters have their own goals and demands, and the story happens when they collide with each other (not necessarily in direct conflict).

2. Pay attention to malleability.

The appearance of any character, a turning point in the story, and the appearance of a setting can have a follow-up development, so that the story can develop organically.

This article has been interrupted until the end of the update.,It's a pity that the line of the wandering mall hasn't been expanded.。 Now that I think about it, I can completely cut off part of the scenes of the three brothers of the Black Crow Raider Army and transfer it to the wandering mall. Try to have multiple parties interact.

Ideally, the characters/forces/contradictions/explosions to be contacted in the future are designed in advance, and then extended to the previous plot. For example, it is important to predetermine a certain force in the future, and the characters who appeared before may come from this force; An important mystery is predetermined to be solved, and the villains who appeared before know part of the mystery. Extrapolate backwards from the results and "throw the thread" forward.

3. The importance of suspense

I used to think that only suspense and puzzle stories needed to focus on suspense, which was a mistake to take for granted.

Suspense is important in all stories. Even if the reader knows the ending of a story from the beginning, such as the protagonist can survive in the face of a crisis, the protagonist's "how to survive" can still generate suspense.

(1) Diverse character goals -

In addition to the simple and partial success of "winning the enemy", the "conditions for winning the level" (the objectives that the character needs to achieve) can also be diverse, and the character may need to achieve multiple objectives at the same time, the more the better. Typical objectives are as follows-

- Obtain a secret from an enemy.

Solve a specific mystery. Find the murderer/mastermind

Solve a big crisis. (This may include multiple steps such as discovering the source of the crisis, finding a solution, and implementing it)

- Obtain a key item.

- Gain someone's approval and favor/Mobilize allies that you can earn.

Respond to the provocation of the opponent without exacerbating the conflict.

Escape from a location.

(2) The external environment, resources, and obstacles that can affect the achievement of the character's goals.

Exterior environmental elements are not just physical scenes (terrain suitable for assassinations), but can also be more abstract resources and obstacles. For example, a piece of information (the leader goes to the suburbs at the beginning of each month), some restrictions that are highly tied to the worldview (doing things in the city will alarm the police), a specific social environment, and so on.

(3) Information asymmetry.

I have used a lot of asymmetry of information about the characters in the story (dramatic irony), so I won't go into details.

(4) Set different goals for different characters. (see below)

5. Add multiple characters instead of being limited to binary confrontations.

Half of the plot of "Lords" is only a binary confrontation between the protagonist and the enemy. There is nothing wrong with the first occurrence of a similar plot, but as the length of the plot grows, the similarity and uninterest will manifest.

Introducing characters outside of the opposing sides in the story can add to the fun of the story. Here are some typical non-binary roles:

Neutral characters who can fight for allies, people who need to be rescued and helped by the protagonist group, traders, another villain, their own people in the enemy, mentors who answer questions, and strong back-ups who only occasionally provide limited help.

For example, in "Breaking the Sky", the protagonist goes deep into the desert snake tribe to seize the hundreds of thousands of words of Qinglian Earth's core fire, and the forces involved include:

- Medusa Fang (Owner of Alien Fire)

Protagonist and Yakuro (The goal is to get a different fire)

Furukawa Fang (The goal is to get a different fire, give priority to negotiating a deal, and if it doesn't work, grab it)

- Yunyun in Furukawa's group (is an ally of Furukawa, but is also friends with the protagonist)

The relationship between the characters is not complicated. The dramatic tension is mainly reflected in two places -

One is the suspense brought about by the triangular relationship. The development of the relationship between the characters between Medusa and Furukawa is directly related to whether the protagonist's goal can be achieved. If the two parties succeed in reaching a deal, then the protagonist is bound to fail, and if the negotiations between the two parties break down, the protagonist has another chance to fish in the water.

The second is that Yunyun belongs to Furukawa and his party, and there is a conflict of interest with the protagonist in his position. But in private, he and the protagonist are friends.,I won't kill the protagonist.。 This kind of conflict between the identity on the surface of the character and the inner essence of himself is a commonly used element in the characters. The bandits are the county magistrates in "Let the Bullets Fly", and the angels are undercover in "The Lord is Undercover", all of which are the same.

6. Discovery.

Discovery refers to the transition from ignorance to knowledge, the new discovery of a character's own identity or relationship with other characters, etc., which means the revelation of new information.

Throwing out new information regularly and consistently is an important source of storytelling.

In "The Lord is an Undercover Agent", Sifer knows that the information that "Blue Star will be destroyed in three years" is too light, and it is too easy to determine this. This also makes the subsequent plot a little less attractive.

A better plot arrangement may be that after seeing the picture of the Celestial Fire of the World, Sifer was not completely sure what it meant, and as the subsequent plot developed, he gradually determined what it represented. Then immediately followed by the puzzle of "who destroyed the blue star", the process of solving the puzzle of new information was seamless.

7. Breaking point

The explosion is an unexpected and reasonable plot. Usually the appearance of an important person, the unfolding of a story that will have a profound impact on the follow-up, or the revelation of a great mystery.

It's the most shocking part of the story.

All the breaking points are rooted in the foreshadowing of the past plot, and if the importance of a certain character is not rendered in advance, the character will not give people a sense of shock when they appear; If a character is not created in advance, the death of this person's character will be uneventful; If there is no worldview that can make an initial impression, the emergence of the emperor and the world's number one master will lack impact.

Frequent explosions for the sake of explosion will only fall into meaningless reversal, and only by basing on the worldview and characters can you create a breaking point when needed. The worldview here is not necessarily a complete world, but it can also be the internal structure of a small organization, the sum of the relationships between the characters of a school, and so on.

Burst point splitting.

In the case of limited characters and foreshadowing, the explosion point that a story can produce is also limited, and a big explosion point is reasonably split and given regularly and gradually, which can not only make the story continue to have a breaking point, but also make the emotional transition more natural.

For example, in "One Piece", the breaking point of "Sabo, the second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army, made a big incident in the Holy Land", was actually split into several parts by Oda. In order, they are-

Saab's friends cried when they saw the news report of Saab in the Holy Land. "Sabo, how could he ······"

The news report "Sabo killed King Kobra (a good king)" and Sabo's friends do not believe that he did it.

Sabo calls his own people, saying that he has seen the secrets of the Holy Land and discovered that there is actually someone on the vacant throne at the top of the world. As soon as Saab wanted to say something, his country was leveled.

Saab survived the nuclear bomb and described his experience in detail.

8. Multi-line parallelism.

The story advances multiple lines at the same time, pausing when a clear obstacle is encountered on one line. (Jammed)

After that, advance another line. Clues/resources obtained in the other line may be returned to the previous line.

Multiple lines have common characters/places that serve as interweaving points for multiple lines.

(ENDS)

(End of chapter)