marycatelli (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marycatelli) wrote2022-06-01 11:56 pm
marycatelli) wrote2022-06-01 11:56 pm
Entry tags:
weaving a story
When first getting an idea, it might be a character. Or a plot (or plot twist). Or a setting.
But in any kind of development that will actually issue in a story, they need to intertwine, and rather quickly. If I poke at an idea of a world where super-powers mean you have to fight and can't have a non-fighting job. . . .
Well, some setting elements are dragged in. The characters need powers that will let them fight. But since most of those are powers that are more or less useful in non-fighting jobs, the setting or characters need to be constrained. Let me see. If I don't like "powers go only to fighting souls," I would have constrain those who don't want to. Perhaps an origin -- secret societies/evil corporations/government programs make them to exploit them, and freedom must be won.
Then there is the question of how they were chosen for their places. Some volunteers perhaps, who believed in the cause, and those are mostly the villains who round up the escapees, or try to, which is why the fighting. If they are kidnapped as babies, or abducted off the streets, or sentenced from crimes, that would produce a different effect, particularly if there are variations in origins. And what their characters are, and how they regard fighting. This will help determine what they do to fight, and whether they try to avoid it, and how. Getting the villains to try to get them out of a fortress would appeal to many character types. Which would dictate the fights and so the plot.
But in any kind of development that will actually issue in a story, they need to intertwine, and rather quickly. If I poke at an idea of a world where super-powers mean you have to fight and can't have a non-fighting job. . . .
Well, some setting elements are dragged in. The characters need powers that will let them fight. But since most of those are powers that are more or less useful in non-fighting jobs, the setting or characters need to be constrained. Let me see. If I don't like "powers go only to fighting souls," I would have constrain those who don't want to. Perhaps an origin -- secret societies/evil corporations/government programs make them to exploit them, and freedom must be won.
Then there is the question of how they were chosen for their places. Some volunteers perhaps, who believed in the cause, and those are mostly the villains who round up the escapees, or try to, which is why the fighting. If they are kidnapped as babies, or abducted off the streets, or sentenced from crimes, that would produce a different effect, particularly if there are variations in origins. And what their characters are, and how they regard fighting. This will help determine what they do to fight, and whether they try to avoid it, and how. Getting the villains to try to get them out of a fortress would appeal to many character types. Which would dictate the fights and so the plot.