How To Create a New World – Part 4: Emotions

            Let me tell you a story. Yes, there is a point to it. A guy. A total doofus, but convinced otherwise, a loser that thinks he’s got the world figured out and sees everything how he wants to. He knows he’s not perfect, but doesn’t sincerely see the reason to change. He’s convinced he’s got what it takes, but he’s weak. The weakest. He’s got a lot of friends. But like any good story, there is tension. One of his friends is a gorgeous pretender. She likes to show herself as an amazing person but is dark to the core. Life is easier when people like you. Another friend is intelligent but not smart. Information is easy to gather, people are hard to figure out. Another friend is quiet and loving. He’s a good man, but a huge coward. His last friend is probably the most mature of the bunch and it’s probably because she’s not in the drama. The silent observer, she is kind, loving, aware of problems, and has a heart as open as a book without a cover but if she’s hurt, then she’s like a closed book without pages.

            This is the story of the biggest fuck up ever. The guy says to his pretender friend that he is in love with her. He is. Or so he thinks he is. Being in love and being infatuated are two different things. His need for reciprocation drives him up the wall and he hurts her. Badly. Stunning upsets and major fights later, they do reconcile. But the venom is still there. She is in love with the quiet coward for reasons no one ever saw coming. She sees herself in him. They honestly couldn’t be more different. And no, opposites don’t attract. Complements do. In any case, the relationship was already under stress. It got worse. Paranoia settled in. The doofus felt like he was losing his friends. They were all taking the pretender’s side. All except the one that’s not in the group. She’s on his side. But he is so obsessed with getting what he wants, he doesn’t see her. His anger, jealously, and self-obsessed idiocy, plus his loneliness drives him crazy. He sees only that he will be alone soon, even though he actually won’t. So he lies. The worst lie. The most drastic, stupid, self-pitying, insensitive lie. The lie propagates so much that he even tells people not involved in the matter. Then the lie breaks. Holes, accusations, hell breaks loose. He realizes in the course of two hours what a massive mistake he has made. In two hours, almost all of his friends slap him across the face and leave him in a parking lot, broken and hopeless. Without support and without hope, he feels this is moment with no end. He sits there and plots. To end all. He can’t do this anymore. But it not self-pity. He hates himself, the person he has become. He wants that person to go away. He can’t even look at himself in the mirror. His family has no idea what happened. He doesn’t belong with such a loving family. He decides to clear his conscious and explain everything to one last person. His silent friend. He tells her, prepared for her anger and her slap across the face. He knew he’d lose her, but he wanted to come clean.

            But the slap didn’t come. She said that it was okay. She knew why he did it. This was a time to change. A metamorphosis. He had to look inside to be a better person. Surprised and completely taken aback at her behavior, having expected the worst, he took her advice as a blessing and changed himself. He became more optimistic. He took care of himself. He looked inside and purified himself through self-help and mind-building. And most of all, he calmed down. Became less angry. He focused on what he loved while taking care of what was important in his life, his passions, his work, his dreams. All because someone believed in him.

            Why am I telling this story? What inspired me to create such a tale? It’s because this story contained something important: emotion. It was about a guy who carried his emotion, his pitiful little self, on his sleeves. He reacted to it too much. But it the end, he changed. He followed a journey of metamorphosis.

            Emotion is your personal set of feelings, which are inspired by various stimuli, and lead through action and reaction down a spiral staircase of primary and secondary emotions. Happiness, fear, sadness are examples of primary emotion. Anger, guilt, and excitement are examples of secondary emotion and are often created as a result of primary emotions and even a mix of emotions.

            Emotions in stories make them more realistic and hold an audience. They are one half of what I like to call the page-turner value, the other half being story-delaying, which I will talk about another time. People feel, every day and all day. Even no reaction is technically a reaction if it is important to the central idea and defines a person (so there is technically no such thing as “no reaction”, just incredibly low-energy reaction, but that’s too long).

            Emotions are also a good way for people that feel “dead inside” to get a scope on emotions and learn to feel safely. It’s a sanctuary to feel through another and live their life. And the best thing about emotions is that they do so much, express joy, make you sing, let you rage, build up your fear into a response, and let you finally cry. And the most realistic way to get emotional reference is from all around you, unless you’re a hermit. People feel all around you. Ask them how they feel. I ask my little sister all the time to give me ideas on how a certain character of mine should behave and react in situations. You have the leg work! So do it! Start showing emotion! Write! Read! Draw! SING! Okay, don’t sing. Please don’t sing. But do the rest of that. Anyways, good-bye for now! The next post won’t take so long.

How To Create a New World – Part 3: The Hero’s Journey

            Welcome and salutations, good friends! I hope you came prepared to go on a journey. A very long journey. One filled with danger, suspense, thrills, chills, epic epicness of epic levels! It’s the Hero’s Journey! Noted and detailed by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, the Hero’s Journey, also known as the Monomyth (“borrowed” by Campbell from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake), the Hero’s Journey defines a structure that is often noted to resound through just about every story that exists. So basically, you’ve already been on this journey. You’ve been on it your whole life.

The journey comes in the three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Or as Joe Campbell calls them, the departure, initiation, and the return. Each part has its own parts which structure the story. The thing to remember about the Hero’s Journey is that your story doesn’t have to include all the parts and definitely not in the same order. Mix it up. Pull a Captain Barbossa and assume them guidelines, savvy?

THE DEPARTURE

            The depature. It’s not just a section of the airport. It’s a whole third of a story. It starts with The Call to Adventure, a clarion call. Or a letter. Or simply being in the right place at the right time. It is the exposition. It is where we get an idea of the hell about to ensue. Establish your main characters, major issues, and the overall theme of the story. The setting is explained in detail here as well as how fragile the setting and situation is (need an excellent reference? Attack on Titan).

Once you’ve got a good set-up can safely assume that people won’t hate it, screw it all over with the Refusal of the Call. When Odysseus was summoned to the battlefield by the king Menelaus, he went to extremes, feigning lunacy to avoid leaving home. Heroes often say no before someone shoves them into hell. It’s not fun anymore to have a gung-ho hero that always jumps in unless that hero is insanely and stupidly over-confident. But that’s my opinion.

After the deal is made and the consent is given to go on the journey, the hero receives their help. Supernatural Aid, a tool or person that saves asses and forwards plot repeatedly. It’s called that because of the obvious fantasy theme of the steps as defined by good ol’ Joey. The aid can even be a cell phone that is integral to the story. Or a best friend. This is when you lay out your mentors and sidekicks.

Next, the hero begins the Crossing of the Threshold. The threshold is a reason to say no. An obstacle in the initial step of the journey. A discouraging scenario. Either a mother incapable of separating from her child or another “hero” in the way of the underdog. Not too hard to get past. Just keep the hero trucking, Last in the departure is the Belly of the Whale. Appropriately named, it is the feelings in the tummy one gets as they leave the known and venture into the unknown. No turning back now! Let’s go!

THE INITIATION

            Face-first into the mud. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. And even the experienced adventurer screws up in the beginning. The Road of Trials, first step of the area known as the Initiation, marks the unknown. From here on out, it’s unpredictable. This is furthest the hero’s been from home (wink, wink, nudge, nudge to Lord of the Rings fans). The inevitable transformation that eventually takes place starts here. A figurative road of terrors, horrors, and all the creepy things that go bump in the night lies ahead and it’s all for our hero. Why did they ever say yes? Only God (in this case, the author) knows.

But it’s not all bad. Especially since they get to meet a goddess. The Meeting with the Goddess is a wonderful time of love. A possible love interest appears here. A motivation. An assistance. Often a love deep rooted in their expectations and impressions of the world. Their past experiences confirm this love. This is either a really beautiful and life-confirming moment or an epic mistake because sometimes this goddess is actually a temptress. Many stories, nay, many male-oriented stories portray the Woman as Temptress. Passion and desires as a front for raw lust and self-destruction, they seek to use and annihilate the hero. Of course the goddess/temptress can be men. Don’t let the names rule you. Its guidelines! Point is, if the Goddess and Temptress are different, they represent opposing sides in a conflict. The Goddess is all that is good and wonderful and the goal to be achieved often involves the Goddess. The Temptress is the easy route and ends badly. For example, the sorceress Circe in the Odyssey liked turning men into animals. Mostly pigs. If they are the same, the Goddess is totally fake and wants to raise hell for the hero as the Temptress, but has clear and exploitable insecurities. In any case, after leaving the Temptress, beaten and defeated, either with or without a Goddess on their arm, the hero has made self-realizations. They’ve grown. They know not to take the easy way out. But they are not done toiling.

The past catches up. The ultimate power in their life, the authority. This is called the Atonement with the Father. It doesn’t have to be the dad. It doesn’t have to be a dude (hardcore fanatic Christians say otherwise). This is also a good place for a confrontation with the villain. Confusing, I know, but I did say it’s the ultimate power and what in a story has more power than the villain? Also, it’s called atonement and that implies sin. The hero has more to grow out of. Bad habits, arrogance, insecurities, guilt, it’s all used against them here and despite all the help they may get, they die. Not literally at times, but yeah, they die. Inside and/or outside. If we’re talking Supernatural, they literally die repeatedly.

Shifting to the Apotheosis. The limbo. Dead character swirls around in the vast, empty space of their own broken ego. Or Hell. Let’s just say Hell. But yeah, it’s bad. It’s a depressing cesspool of negative emotion. It’s also called the Underworld. For obvious reasons. They realize their mistakes and reform, learning to be wiser and probably more badass. But to build resolve back up is another task. But they rise. Their friends help them up and out of the pit. They are back! Preferably, in black.

The Ultimate Boon is here! The epic climax! The finale! Everything the hero learned and gained is used here to fight and win! They get what they here for! They win! So much wraps up here. Three-quarters of your questions are answered here most of the time. Defeating the villain and obtaining the magic whatever is a difficult task and suspenseful. The best writers use story delaying, giving us the reasons why this is important and the possible end, but repeatedly using the whole of the Initiation as a story-delaying method to make sure we have to wait for it. And we will wait. It’s too damn well done. We want it too badly.

THE RETURN

            Now the ending can happen two ways. The hero can stay in the unknown as they have found love and joy and peace and adrenaline in the new world in the Refusal of the Return. Or they can return to a life of peace through an equally difficult process as getting there in the first place in The Magic Flight version. But we can edit out the second journey in post! Media people will get that.

In either case, they need help. In the Rescue from Without, they get help from their friends to establish peace and start a new life as victors of this awesome quest.

As they bring back the peace in either version of the ending, The Crossing of the Return Threshold requires them retaining their knowledge to not make the same mistakes as they live their new life.

Ultimately, with their new knowledge, they become Master of Two Worlds, a being that has learned and grown through strife as a new being. A diamond that now shines with the fire that made it.

And lastly, mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the Freedom to Live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past. And I think that’s a lesson we all need.

Thank you for reading all this and hopefully you enjoyed this journey. Remember to keep going on journeys. You may be Master of Two Worlds, but there is so much more!

How To Create a New World – Part 2: Characters

            Welcome back, everyone! This is now part 2 of God-knows-how-many of my blog! Last time, we got started with how to set up a story. The idea, the setting, the characters, and the conflict. Now let’s talk a bit deeper about the characters, because honestly, it’s sort of important. I mean, I’m sure there’s someone out there that will disagree with me but characters are kind of a necessity. If you don’t agree, just humor me.

            There are four kinds of characters, each with their own role and level of importance. The first one is often the character the whole shebang is based around, the protagonist. Now, the definition of a protagonist according to the highly reputed site, Dictionary.com, is “the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work” (Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/protagonist). Now, that opens up some implications. One, is the protagonist the hero or the villain? Generally the term, protagonist implies heroes but I’m sure we’ve seen enough media where the villain or at least an anti-hero has the leading role. Two, people also often think it relates to the person you sympathize with the most. Now that opens up more implications. For the sake of simplicity and to make sure I don’t cause you to have a breakdown while re-assessing everything you’ve ever seen or read, let’s just assume it means good guy since that is in fact the vast assumption.

            The antagonist is the character created to oppose the protagonist. Generally, it is the villain and they stand in the way of the character either through malevolent intent or simply by their ambitions and choices. The term, antagonist has just as many implications as protagonist. But the key thing to remember is that this is the character we have to make the audience hate to love, and love to hate. They are everything the hero doesn’t stand for, or at least doesn’t try to stand for (hypocrites are fun).

            Next is the deuteragonist, the person, or even people, that the second-most importance to the protagonist. Any characters that are sidekicks, motivations, damsels-in-distress (outdated but still at large), and generally always there for the protagonist. Common roles for the deuteragonist are comic-relief, the voice of the audience, and the aforementioned sidekick. The John Watson to your Sherlock. Never disvalue your deuteragonist. They can make or break your hero and by extension, your story. They are the character foils for many characters, which means they compensate for the protagonist’s weaknesses and bring light to their strengths. They are what carry your characters through their weak moments. A weak deuteragonist becomes stale and useless to the story very quickly and often your audience will demand their head on a pike by the end of the book.

            The last type of character is the supporting roles. Those extra characters that provide guidance, clues, humor, and realism to your story. J.K. Rowling, who in case you didn’t know, wrote the author of the immensely popular and back-breaking series, Harry Potter, creating intensive back stories for each of her characters, even ones that were in there for a chapter or two, even less, leading to very believable and exciting characters. I’m not saying you should have a biography planned for each character, but know where they come from and what their role is in your world. That way, their impact on the character, the story, and the audience, will be doubled.

            So now, you got your main characters, the villain, the sidekicks, and a plethora of lovable supporting characters. Next time, we do one of my favorite topics, the plot. Because who cares about the characters and sex appeal! Everyone watches and reads for the plot! See ya then!

How To Create a New World – Part 1: Intro

                Hello, friends, possibly family, and enemies alike. I have created this lovely blog in order to stimulate a flow of thoughts from me to you and back to me and so on and so forth. Let me tell you a little bit about me. I am a writer. I love to create stories. Little universes that allow us to be gods if only for a moment. I am also an artist who is attending the Art Institute of California –Sacramento as a Media Arts and Animation major. Most of what I am about to share with you is what I have learned over time as I have grown as a writer, and what I have learned from professional writers and artists in school. So now that you know me, let’s begin.

A story is a funny thing. Subjective tastes, discrepancies over certain elements, and controversial topics make writing difficult at times. We try to keep an audience in mind, but even within any targeted demographic, there is a wide range of tastes. So how do you write a good story? One that makes people think, laugh, love, cry, scream, and explode with emotion? First tip: stop trying so hard. Even if you’re the type of person that plans every damn detail out to the T, you are going to need to relax and let the words flow out instead of a forced-through, verbal pile of constipated crap that is sure to ensue if you don’t learn to turn off your left brain once in a while! Now I will take this first opportunity to get started with how a good story works. In later blogs, I will explore concepts in a deeper manner.

                So now that you’ve relaxed and possibly removed a long, thin, possible cylindrical object from your most posterior orifice, let’s start getting something flowing. You need a genre. Your story can be any genre you want. Just make sure you’ve researched this genre front and back and understood any and all implications of the genre throughout time. Take our two most famous genres for example. Comedy and tragedy. A comedy is a story that results in a happy ending. That’s it, really. The story doesn’t actually even have to be funny, despite the fact that comedies now are generally humorous, or attempt to be. Shakespearean comedies ended in a marriage, like his play, Much Ado about Nothing, which in fact ends in a double marriage. Oops. Spoiler alert. Tragedies are the opposite. Sad ending. Generally everyone of importance dies. For reference in terms of tragedies, try Greek plays or Shakespeare’s…almost everything. Picked a genre? Good, now let’s decide who we’re dealing with.

                You need an idea. What is your story about? The setting (location and time period), the conflict (why do we care about this story? Why does any of it matter? The struggle, the pain and gain, the humanity, even if your characters aren’t human), and the characters themselves, which will be explained with the conflict. The biggest way a setting can fail is lack of research. My teacher, Mark Yeager, repeatedly states that research is God. If you don’t understand a real-life application of what you are writing about, your story is fake no matter what and will fail. Any question you have about anything can be answered either on the internet or by a professional. Medical story? Talk to a doctor. War story? Pal around with veterans. Read other stories about this stuff. It’s okay to borrow facts and ideas as long as you thank the source and show where you got these ideas from. Research time periods. The television program, Downton Abbey, is an extremely well-researched period piece. Watch the behind-the-scenes of shows and movies. Research will happen automatically.

                Next issue is conflict, and the conflict with creating a conflict is how conflicted one can be in the process of it all. Wars happen, people fight, fire, lighting, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! Thanks to Ghostbusters for that one. You can create any type of conflict! Point is to make it believable and make people care. That’s why you make the audience understand why this is so important. Why should we care that Julia or Mike or John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt can’t get to their best friend’s wedding or pick an apple from a tree? You do that with the back stories. Maybe Julia needs to break up her lover’s wedding because they are “soul-mates” that have a long and extensive history. Or maybe Mike needs to get to the same wedding because he needs to stop Julia because she is batshit crazy. Maybe John (don’t make me say the rest of it) needs to get the apple because it is the last apple ever and he needs in to make the magic apple potion to save his dying father. I don’t know. Point is, make people care about this. Make it something that would make you antsy. Scare people with the possibility of failure. And in the process, establish yourself as a sadistic little genius. You emotional abuser, you!

                As I continue this topic in other posts, I will explore other facets of writing and show you how I do it and hopefully learn more about this wonderful thing that is writing. So please, I urge you to offer feedback and tell me how you write. Thank you.