darn, character motivation is one difficult plot point to figure out
could someone please tell me how Iāve been on the boards roughly four and a half years and Iāve never seen this topic at all
how did I live
was I really alive at all
Unless this is a spoiler for that rp youāre running, would you mind sharing the general info? Character motivation depends entirely on the character.
4 Likes
well that too (and I already have a basic premise but now I just need to work on making it more pertinent for the individual characters) but also the good old D&D campaign
Basically the only motivation the characters currently have is greed, and to most of them that isnāt a super familiar concept, either to the players or most of the characters.
I mean the next adventure is sparked by something related to one charactersā family, and I already have a way to tie in another oneās, but the other two are a bit of a struggle.
One is kind of a happy-go-lucky doesnāt-really-care-about-much type, and the other has almost no backstory.
Honestly I already know my solution is a plot device, but first I need to flesh out the plot.
1 Like
Wow.
This is the least useful info I could have imagined.
A large source of inspiration for storytelling - for me, anyway - is the occasional webcomic. Usually the stories arenāt that good, the worldbuilding is shallow and undeveloped, but having someone elseās ideas projected into a visible space often helps me visualize the stories I have and how to better flesh out characters. Maybe thatās just a side effect of me getting randomly addicted to a webcomic only to find out it abruptly stopped development three years ago or something.
Anyway, I might have some suggestions of (hopefully ongoing) ones that would be worth a read which relate to the issues youāve raised, but be warned - not all of them on the list contain appropriate language, although the content is entirely boards-friendly.
Bybloemen is a webcomic about two rotten demon-esqe fellows resembling Pan under the guise of foreign merchants entering the 17th century with the sole objective of leading whoever they can snare down a path of wickedness in order to leverage them to gamble their hopes away. Theyāre the literal incarnation of the devilās advocate.
Light-hearted storytelling with black-on-white inking and no gradients or shading on anything other than some illustrative panels (unless Iām misremembering and thereās none at all). So far the story has been an excellent example of how to corrupt morally good and pure characters and also how to let a chicken ride on your head.
This one is currently ongoing.
Anacrine Complex revolves around illegal drugs giving people completely uncontrollable superpowers in an attempt to cure a mysterious disease. Enter the Locksmith, your average car mechanic who accidentally involves your stereotypical late teen of video gaming mastery in a complicated plot to get not-revenge on the man responsible for it all.
The draw with this webcomic - at least for me, anyway - is the exploration of the projected mindscape of an individual (thatās the superpower of one of the main characters) and all the freedom to work with that concept that the setting provides. The artstyle in this one starts off really weak, but quickly advances to being quite enjoyable.
2 Likes
To be fair I did type it with one hand.
Thanks for the advice. Iāll look into those.
now to heccing overprepare by reading nonstop for the next 24 hours
2 Likes
Any good advice on actually starting writing? I want to try but I have no clue on a start or a finish and only vague characters or whatever. Iām thinking fantasy military / government related plot where future humans have discovered powers and other beings but I donāt even have a vague idea on anything else.
Eh, i wouldnāt follow the advice of someone who never finished writing a story they started but here we go.
I usually start by finding something cool to inspire me, maybe a novel, maybe a movie. Since I am more of an artist than a writer I sometimes draw a couple things just to visualize them better, especially characters and location, then i just write something related to the universe the story is set in, just to get the ball rolling. Then I start writing the actual story or, if the random stuff I just wrote works Iāll use it and go from there.
This was āunprofessional advice by an unqualified idiotā see you in the next episode
1 Like
Yeah maybe 8 years ago in high school me and a friend wrote a book; just chapter 1 was Spider-Man 3 bad that I could barely follow my own story. I intended to remake it but that requires actually reading it. I still have a physical copy but letās just say I can understand the reason George Lucas refused to acknowledge the Star Wars holiday special.
A friend of mine in an entirely different community says that writing is like ice skating with words, in response to someone saying that the only thing she was good at was ice skating.
Food for thought.
How to Write a Good First Line - YouTube
It varies Iām sure, but the video above isnāt too far off from how Iāll start tales. Not sure if itās just my nature or wish to appear mysterious, but Iāve been known to write cryptically, I build intrigue. Intrigue that entices myself as much as (in theory) my audience, and I try to work out the answers from there. I treat and envision most prologues as if I was making movie trailers.
And for me, thatās key. I donāt start with the first chapter, I start with the prologue to test and see if that is a story I want to tell. If so, with an initial attempt at starting it out of the way, I can start writing the real opening. No longer the trailer, the movie has started. If still not sure where to go for the real start, thereās always a second trailer.
Yeah I wanted to slowly build and tease stuff to explain later as said novel was a government mystery type thing that I was thinking of tying stuff in later to go past just human stuff similar to the mcu with all the otherworldly stuff coming in later.
Though Iād argue the entire first chapter / few pages / general info are important because one of the reasons I could barely read my own story was that it was straight into a large scale battle with stakes, death, and way too many named characters I think I remember were going to be important for the thankfully nonexistent series.