Did Not Finish: Personal Stakes
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- #writer #writing #writingcommunity #writingadvice
A story is nothing without personal stakes. No matter how villainous the villain, or how lofty the goal, it doesn't matter to the reader unless it matters personally to the characters.
In this video I pick on a particular example of a book I did not finish because the life-and-death stakes didn't matter to the protagonist. I also give advice on how to convey meaningful stakes as a writer.
Ship of Fuls by James Krake is available here: www.amazon.com...
The Altered Carbon fan video I took a clip from is this: • takeshi kovacs | basic...
www.hastewritin...
I'm one of those legions working on their own book, so I'm always clicking on these types of videos to see what they've got to say. Nice analysis, good stuff to keep in mind. Happy to sub
Thank you so much! I watch the same sorts of videos. I've found this guy to be one of the best: ruclips.net/video/6_3aB8tUCgg/видео.html
@@HasteWriting I'd say it's very generous of you to direct me to another content creator - by chance, I'm already subbed to this guy! But I promise it was a recent find on my part
@@caedrewan Opportunity not scarcity mindset, my dude. We promote each other when it benefits all, I hope.
@@HasteWriting well, I hope so too
Another great review Neal. I find few things more annoying as a reader than the adventures of Captain Feh, an angry, unmotivated butthead who wanders around expecting the plot to fall on his head and make him do stuff. Your commentary reminds me of when I ran dice and paper RPGs back in the 80s (no, not D&D, but sort of similar). I had an established long term plot and world established, with lots of flexibility for new characters. But they had to conform to a few basic rules:
1. What is the “hook” that will make your character a part of the bigger story? What about their background, personality, powers, etc., will tie them into what’s going on?
2. This game involves a group struggling to solve various problems. Will your character insist on being a crazed loner and never interact with anyone else?
3. When they are first introduced, will the get involved or just ignore everything?
A surprising number of players got bent out of shape about these rules. They thought they could just invent anything they wanted and I’d bend the whole plot around to fit them in. I see the same thing happening in fiction like this.
I've never run a DnD campaign, but I would think number 1 among your rules would be essential and numbers 2 and 3 would be desirable by all players. And yes, very few if any books can do without some hook that keeps dragging them back into trouble. I think The Starless Sea suffers because of its weak hook in an otherwise gorgeous novel.
@@HasteWriting in my case the game was called Champions, which is a generic system that can run pretty much any kind of campaign. It was set in modern day with paranormals. But the rules would be the same no matter what genre you are writing or playing in.