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Jan

15

Problem Solving is Asking the Right Questions

Posted by : E.v.R. | On : January 15, 2007

Category: Creative Process

In my last post I talked about problems coming up with ideas for complicating my plot.

One of the problems was a pet idea I had for a scene, an idea I loved. I wasn’t willing to murder that darling and so I waited, and thought, and waited some more. My pet scene takes place in a location far removed from every other scene in the story. I needed to come up with a reason why the hero would be in this far off location just for the pet scene. At the same time, I wanted to complicate my plot and make things much more tricky for the hero. Last week when these issues first troubled me, I saw them as unconnected elements. Two separate problems that had nothing to do with each other. I also wasn’t asking myself very many questions.

As the week went by, my failure to resolve these story problems began to nag at me more and more. When your story has problems, each day that passes without solving them feels like a waste of time. The clock is ticking. You want to finish this story someday, right? Of course. It was then I started interrogating myself:

“Is this pet scene involving the hero really necessary?” Yes.

“Does it have to take place in that far off location?” Yes.

“Okay then. What reasons would the hero have for going there in the first place? Something related to the main plot.”

Then I thought of my other problem — the one involving plot complications. “What part of my main plot would work as geography complication? Could I take something from my main plot, and create the need for the hero to solve something far away from where the other scenes take place?”

BINGO. It turned out there was something easy from my main plot that made perfect sense to place somewhere else, another city, forcing the hero to travel. Now I can have my pet scene take place without clashing with the main story. And forcing the hero to the remote location helps complicate the plot in several ways.

In order to solve your story problems, you need to ask the right questions.

Jan

11

Secondary Plot Points

Posted by : E.v.R. | On : January 11, 2007

Category: Creative Block, Creative Process

I’m having trouble with secondary plot points. I usually know what my highlights are. The big moments. The beginning, the high notes through the middle, and the big finale. My problem is with the things the character has to do in order to complete the journey, the build up to the final showdown.

My problem is I like to get to the point. I guess that’s better than the opposite problem of forever meandering. The point I’m at in my story, if I just go to the part I know next, the story will be over. I need to think of some built-up obstacles that the hero encounters before he can confront the villains. Right now I’m struggling with that.

It also seems that everyone handles this differently. I’ve been reading some Richard Stark and Mickey Spillane lately, and their solution seems to be a complication to the plot. For example, the hero finds out where the villain’s hotel is, and goes to stake out the hotel. The hero breaks into the villain’s room only to discover the villain has moved out.

I need to build my chops at these kinds of complications, because my gut instinct is that these are always shallow contrivances and I’d rather get on with the bits of real storytelling. But these contrived complications are often an integral part of building the plot, and sometimes critical.

Do you have troubles with secondary plot points? Any tricks or tips you use?

Jan

09

Tagged by the 5 Little Known Facts…

Posted by : E.v.R. | On : January 9, 2007

Category: Buddies, Miscellaneous

Kristin over at “Write now is good” tagged me with the “5 little known facts” meme. Normally I don’t get into these little blogosphere games, but for fear of being a scrooge and a little thing called my ego, I’ll give it a try!

  1. My last name is von Rothkirch, which is German. People assume I’m German. I’m 50% Swedish and 25% Norwegian. My grandfather made up my last name in the 1940s. I suppose if he’d stuck with his real last name, my last name would be Tkach. Don’t ask me to pronounce that! Some have told me that’s Czech. So I might be a fraction Czech, spiced with copious amounts of Viking blood.

  2. In the fourth grade I scored eighth grade reading level and second grade math. I always aced reading, and later foreign languages. Nobody seemed to care about this. I was always a bad kid for failing math. At least it means I won’t end up in a Special Education writing class… I hope.

  3. I play guitar. I was in a rock band as a teenager. No we weren’t famous, but we wanted to be. The band went through several incarnations. It started as a bad grunge metal band then evolved into new wave and electronica then into hardcore indie. Here is a song we played live around 1997 in the basement of Extreme Noise record shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You guess which phase we were in, and when you figure it out tell me because I have no clue.

  4. I went to an Audio Recording Specialist program at a technical college. I wanted to be a music producer, along with 20 other kids in the class. Butch Vig was my hero. I wonder how many ended up as famous music producers? I learned a lot about sound, the human ear, and recording. It pushed me towards sound design for games, so I guess I owe my current job to that.

  5. I started in the game industry as a level designer. Now I’m a sound designer. I tell people I enjoy writing. This confuses people. That’s okay, a lot of things about me confuse people — like why I enjoy doing so many varied things, none of which I excel at. Jack of all trades, master of none. I prefer Dirty Dilettante. It sounds more dashing. When your hobby becomes your job then it’s time for you to find a new hobby. Trust me on that.

Now you know more than you could ever possibly want to know about me. Thanks Kristin!