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How Not to Tell a Story
Published: 2013-03-06 04:31:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 124359; Favourites: 952; Downloads: 69
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After being on DeviantArt for a few years now, I've noticed patterns in people's stories. Patterns, that I can't say I've ever seen until I started using the internet. I believe that's because these kind of patterns are thoroughly unprofessional. The pattern in short is this:Character = victim
Plot = bad things happening to said victim
Maybe this sounds harsh. It's not if you understand that is ALL there is to these stories. They take any character, hurl them into a tragedy and that's it.
Let's get this straight: We do not know your character well enough to care about them yet. No matter how bloody and gutty their injuries are, no matter how many of their family members are deceased, no matter what their boyfriend did to them, no matter what kind of disease they have, WE. DO. NOT. CARE!!!!!
These kind of things are sad in themselves, but WHO is this person we're supposed to feel so horrible for? Establish THAT. It should be your absolute FIRST priority: no exceptions.
No more pasting faces onto the same cardboard-cut-out sob story protagonist.
If you want readers to care, you must FIRST GIVE THEM A HUMAN BEING TO CARE FOR.
If you don't, yes of course you are still going to get comments from emotional people who find your story intriguing. That is not the point.
The absolute WORST thing you can do is (I hate saying this), taking comments from people on the internet seriously (about your writing, that is).
People who have no CLUE about literature will post comments on the most unprofessional writings and say things like, "This made me cry. You are like the next J.K Rowling."
DO NOT LISTEN TO THESE PEOPLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE THINGS LIKE TWILIGHT AND 50 SHADES OF GREY POSSIBLE.
All I'm saying is that if you think things like Twilight are insults to literature, I beg you to take the advice given above. If not, what can I say but: carry on. Let the age of Mary Sue begin.
We need to remember: a rich story is made up of so much more than only one element; it can't rely only on being "dark," or "tragic" or "romantic." These things are for bringing out emotion. It's ESSENTIAL that there is something worth being emotional ABOUT.
That is how you tell a beautiful story.
And even then, if you give us something we truly care about, you'll realize "I can make something even less tragic happen and it will have a much greater effect now."
Sometimes you'll even realize that being subtle is even more disturbing and "dark" than going all out.
I said it before, I'll say it again: drama is the anti-suspense. Drama needs something to feed on or else it is dead.
It's up to you to make casual, every-day scenes interesting too.
Humor is a particularly wonderful tool for making characters appealing. The more appealing the character, the more the audience will care when they suffer.
Think of your favorite cartoon character. Now imagine if they died. Not a funny, cartoon-ish death where we know that they'll be all right again in three seconds.
Pretend they came to a permanent end that was actually portrayed very tragically and non-sarcastically.
Kind of leaves you with a disturbed feeling, doesn't it? If this is the way you want your audience to feel about your characters, then follow this example. It doesn't mean your character has to be as silly as a cartoon character, it just means we should feel like we know them in such a way that we can feel their pain.
In short: don't give us another card-board soap opera. Give us something to love.
No more "I'm going to drench this character in blood and my story will automatically be deep!" If that's as deep as you can get, you must be very shallow indeed.
EDIT: CLARIFICATION
I'm saying that introducing the character should be first *priority,* not necessarily the first thing in the story. The point being, don't write a story that you worry about the character second to the soap opera.
Of course many stories (Harry Potter included) start off with bad things happening. This is because they're crucial to setting up the entire story. The point is not to expect your audience to be scandalized yet.
Also, when you read this guide, assume I'm talking about writing seriously. I'm not picking on those of you writing for practice/fun/etc.
This is a concern because things like this are being published these days. If this isn't your goal, carry on by all means.
I posted this because it's getting to the point where there is no unique style. This is the style that most beginners (and therefore most people) tend to use. I'm not picking on beginners, just pointing out not to settle with the first, most obvious style of writing that no one encourages them to grow beyond.
Are there people who enjoy this kind of writing? Of course. But why is it all we should be content with?
The attitude should be something like this: make the character deep enough for whatever you're writing.
If it's a short deviation, naturally less so than in a novel.
Same if it's not the point of the thing you're writing (say you're just trying to bring out a moral or something).
However, if you expect to write a sob story this is highly important.
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Comments: 424
Thank you for pointing this out. It has been bothering me for awhile now
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I definitely agree. I think it's important to note though that beginners are still going to make beginner mistakes! It's a part of learning.
Amen, still.
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I really appreciate people who both understand this, and are willing to speak openly about it as a problem. Thanks!
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They're not the next jk rowling, they're the next stephanie meyers.
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"...no matter what kind of disease they have, WE. DO. NOT. CARE!!!!!"
Yes, I often find myself wanting to type that comment in all capitals when I read some stories. Quite frustrating.
Every writer should read this.
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Quite right. I've caught myself doing that a few times as well, without some sort of threat or challenge, there's no plot, just a bunch of people doing stuff, you need the readers to stay interested long enough to care about your character and that's the tricky part on the Internet...
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Great words. I'll remember that when I'm writing my chapters.
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Well said. Unfortunately, your characterization was off, so I didn't care...
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I fully agree on the subject of lazy plotting and character writing. It's crucial to make the reader identify with and connect to the characters for the gravity of what they're going through to mean anything. It's the most basic form of character study, and yet so many writers neglect such a simple step.
As for feedback on stories, I tend not to shun commenters who like or even dislike the things I post. Instead I ask, "Why do you like it? What about it stuck out to you? Were there things you thought didn't work? If so, where and why did they not work for you?" Feedback is one thing; good feedback is something else entirely, and it's what I hope for when people comment on my work.
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I love this- you have no idea.
When I write, whether it be just for fun, for school, for ideas, or even for RPs, my characters and plot have to be as original and unique as I can make them. It saddens me to read, hear, watch, etc. of all these big titles, whether it be for a movie or book or game, or anything, that they all have cliches, Mary/Gary Sue/Stues, and perfect everything. And by perfect (sometimes), I mean huge, melodramatic sob stories. I despise characters that have just had tradedy after tragedy after tragedy thrown at them, for the sole purpose of being 'that badass character', or for sympathy.
Twilight is one of the biggest literature blunders, in my perspective. You can't just throw vampires and tragedy and war, and forbidden romance around just for the sake of it. The has to be more in it to actually captivate and meet the expectations it has set for itself. I will give it some props for a few big twists, at least that added to the plot, but other than that it ws terribly disappointing.
Things I strive to put in my writing, and I love to see in other writing (or movies), is something you don't see. A whole different perspective, a different way of writing/telling the story (as demonstrated in Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close. The book was brilliant, although I never saw the movie), or something new and fresh. One thing I like to do is have a seemingly regular person- not someone choosing by any prophecy, not someone hand picked by another being- supernatural or not- but someone who doesn't need a sob story, doesn't need a life crisis, doesn't need any already-decided fate or destiny to make them a hero or whatever. I think it should be the person they are themselves that makes them extraordinary. Of course, family, backstory, other beings, etc. will always be factors in shaping them, but I believe it should be any ordinary person's extra strength, determination, and personality to make any story just a little bit better.
Keep writing<3
-Nine
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Although this is an old comment, and I really have no right to reply here, I still can't help myself, because TWI-RAGE. I'd like to add the fact that I couldn't wrestle myself through fifty pages because Bella was simply the most dislikable character I've ever read. And, you see, that in itself can be very intriguing: take, for example, Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom', where one of the main characters is someone I would gladly punch in the face if I ever met them in real life. Even so, I couldn't put away the damn book, because the plot was some marvelous that I couldn't stop reading even when the character in question was making me almost physically sick. With twilight, it went more along the lines of "well, f*** that." and I returned the book to my friend.
Hope you don't feel bothered, and I really felt from your comment that you would be a pretty active writer, but I was saddened to see you have nothing uploaded! 
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Oh no problem, haha, I don't get on dA too much anymore anyways, but I always love to see comments in my feedback messages! :>
Well, I honestly can't say or judge too much on the Twilight series, books or movies, because I never could bring myself to read or watch a whole book or movie. e.e I've read some passages, and of course seen some clips of the movie, but to me it still seems like a very poor story and I don't have any interest in reading/watching it. That being said, I image that Bella is a rather horrible character that really doesn't seem to have much depth or dimension to. And she's even the main character, so that makes the story slow on her part, and has to be moved along by the other characters. But again, I'm not very familiar with the actual book or movie.
Oi, goodness, you checked out my page/profile/gallery? I have nothing to show (and nothing very good)! D| I've hardly uploaded anything to dA, either because I simply don't have the time or interest anymore. I would have posted some literature of my own, but I don't know how to do that to make it literature deviation, and I heard it was complicated so I just never did. Although I am flattered you would be interested, hehe! I mostly only upload something I wanted my friends to see, really.
I do write a few things of my own, a scattered and sporadic collection of poetry, thoughts, short stories, or story outlines, etc. Lots of doodles and art things as well, but they mostly stay strewn across my bedroom floor, tucked in a lost folder, or cowering away in some drawer. xD I haven't really published anything except a single poem to a Who's Who in Poetry hardback book that was really more of a scam to get young, foolish, and eager writers to get their work out (and pay a hefty price for the hardback, a 'certified award', or a lot of other 'I was in Who's Who's of Poetry!' merchandise). The book even had a terrible binding and fell apart a few days after, but oh well, what do you expect from an unknown sender in your inbox? xD
I've been considering writing a short story, maybe a fanfiction or a simple passage that's really more about quality than quantity, and leaves you with a curious afterthought in the end, but never really thought much about it and sat down to write it. I know that's what you have to do if you want to seriously write, but I've just mostly been busy or running head-on into a large wall labeled 'artist and writer's block,' haha.Ā
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The entire depth of Bella's character is pretty much "ZOMG I love you Edward!". Well, you know where that's going 
I've found that making literature deviations is actually pretty easy: When submitting a deviation, simply look for the 'enter text' button/link-thingy directly under the 'choose a file to upload'. When you click that, it gives you a screen where you can simply copy-paste your text into
In the end, I decided to give a watch, because now you've made me curious for anything you might post either way xD And writer's/artist's block is major sucks, know that feel 
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Yep. That series is just... ugh. ._. I don't even think it could be salvaged if someone tried.
Oh, that should be useful! Thank you for the mini-tutorial, haha, I'll have to use that feature sometime. It probably was rather easy, I just never really bothered to actually look into it, especially after I was told it was somewhat complicated. v.v But! Now that I know how to do it (and that it's not hard at all), I shall try to use it in the future.~
Oh, dear Lord, why would you watch me? ;u; I mean- thank you, thank you, I'm flattered you would do so, and I shall return the favor, but I honestly don't have anything worth presenting, and nor do I think I will have much to show either. ;_; At least, in the near future. I do seriously need to get back into the swing of things, but even if I do start up writing or drawing seriously again, alas, I probably won't upload it to dA... Why? Because I really only come on dA to chat with friends, and- for a lack of a better word- derp around. xD Things that I upload basically consist of random crap, or little scribbles for my dA friends. Although I am honored to at least seem to have the potential to post something at least slightly worthy. cxĀ
And, yes! Man, is that good advice that you have. I know a few authors who've suggested that as well, and I have attempted multiple times to keep up a daily journal, or even just write something (leisurely) every day. It's like a cycle, for me: have a dry spell of creativity, and then get some spark of inspiration and write/draw something; work on it thoroughly for a day or two, and then loose interest; feel guilty and start up a schedule of writing/drawing once everyday (usually night for me); go through about two-five days of doing well, and then have a terrible day/tiring night/no inspiration/no time for a nightly drawing or writing, and then fall asleep; next night comes and I just abandon the schedule.Ā
v_v
So, as you can imagine, I have a terrible issue with keeping to a schedule, being committed, and just the general lack of trying to do anything serious for a good amount of time. But, I've come to admit defeat and have moved on from the depressed/stuck sort of mind-set that comes along with it, and set those things aside for now. For now. Being a the fighter that I am- or just being the obstinate person that I am xD- I refuse to let that whole cycle and it's grinding sense of low self-esteem trap me and my mind forever, so I know that at some point I will decide to get things back on track and get my head back into the game. At the moment, I've got the beginning of an intense school year, soccer, responsibilities, friendships, and an up-coming art program that really needs my immediate attention, and so unfortunately the leisurely writing and drawing will have to be put on a hiatus.Ā
For now.~
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As for more twilight bagging, I think you may enjoy reading this: horrorfan6.deviantart.com/art/ā¦ . I did, at the very least
Ha, no more excuses not to upload any literature no more! 
And I shall give watches to those who I deem interestingly enough to watch c: Seems you've met those criteria, so rejoice, huzzah! As above, I think that the way you write on a daily basis would make for potentially really enjoyable prose and/or poetry, and as such, I couldn't resist temptation. Also, don't talk to me about schedules, I once more realized that with my one-too-many hobbies, plus girlfriend, plus friendships that need maintaining plus uni /plus/ the overdose of distraction that is the internet, I'm just really poor at keeping up with them xD In all honesty, I convinced myself to start keeping a diary-type thing starting yesterday... and failed. On day one
And hey, I've found that being obstinate/a fighter is actually a really, /really/ usefull characteristic to have as an aspiring writer, so keep your head up 
And hey, to get back to the actual replying part 
/rant
PS. was there even a point to all of that final paragraph? I have no clue >_> Sorry if there wasn't!
PPS. What kind of art program are you going to be doing?
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Holy wall of text, batman! Just kidding, just kidding. xD I'll probably end up writing a lot as well, haha.
I'm really thinking about finally starting some story, now. I've no idea what story. I've got like, thousands of ideas and even outlines scrawled on paper somewhere, but my room is currently the disaster zone of an indoor tornado (being figurative here, just to clear that up. xD), so any old ideas will have to come slowly and in pieces from the back of my already overcrowded mind. But! I am now sort of clawing out of artists/writers block. I think. We shall see, lol.Ā
And yes, I am a very obstinate person. When it comes to anything. But usually 'anything' qualifies as something really little and stupid and totally unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, and more so along the lines of 'Oh yeah? Just WATCH me do this-!"Ā
Haha, but I find it very admirable that you've found a way to keep up with writing- even in an arcade or when inspiration was really being a bitch that day. ^-^ Even though some of it might have been crap (which may or not have been the case, Mr. Modest, hehe). xD And man, that takes dedication for your former instructor to write that much. I can hardly motivate myself to get out of bed half an hour before school starts! xDĀ
But, hearing that it is alright to just not right sometimes- that is a huge relief. Because, to be honest, sometimes I pressure myself or beat myself up mentally just because I've failed so many times to stay committed to my work. And it's very... liberating to realize that hey, you don't have to be writing (or drawing or whatever) 24/7 because that's what you want to do as a career, or for plans later on in life. Especially making good work. It really takes a toll on a person sometimes, so along with hearing that from someone else, and believing that myself, I can rest assured. ^.^Ā
P.S. Don't worry about saying things that don't really have that much of a point. I do it all the time.
PPS. I will be trying to get into a Ryman Arts program at Los Angeles, California (USA) which is open to high school students looking for a serious, additional, and education workshop/course to help them a head start in an artistic career. It's sort of like a college class, but for high school students. Who are already in a high school. And it's not for an actual career, but to help prepare for a career. If that makes ANY sense whatsoever. xD The spring semester starts around February, if I am not mistaken, and requires a well-made and developed portfolio; which is not something I have yet completed yet. ;_; I have maybe, two or three actually somewhat valuable pieces of art to my name. That's about it. Oi, I need to get over my art block soon. xD
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I agree completely! I am no writer whatsoever, but if I have to read another melodramatic sob story about someone I know nothing about, trying to survive another day in a post apocalyptic highschool... I might just quite on humanity altogether!
It is such a dissapointment.
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thank you for this i know i'm going to write a few stories and i'm not a peticulally good writer so this should help.
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As one of may aspiring writers I dream of one day my stories becoming famous and my name known throughout the world as a highly original, high quality writer. Yes this is probably too ambitious, but who doesn't dream big?
What I aim to do in all my stories, whether they are for school or my own personal pleasure, is to create characters and story lines that are completely original and un cliched. For example I am planning a climatic battle scene in one where victory is of absolute importance for the 'good guys'. However the 'bad guys' will shockingly win the battle. Another is where the supposed antagonist saves more people than the protagonist in a scenario because he think's more deeply than just 'get them out of there'.
Now I know I've just done what you stress what shouldn't be done, and that is introduce a dilemma without properly introducing characters, but I'm not telling a story here.
Off course there are no bad guys and good guys for me, everyone has his and her own motivations for the things they do. Therefore what the reader would think of the good guys are the ones I focus their point of view on.
So thankyou for writing this. I know it will help me in my future writing to create better original characters that have original, interesting storylines that my readers can like.
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your idears sound great i'd love to read them it's the kind of thing i'd do XD
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Thank you very much. Here, have a pizza
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You deserve a medal for putting into words what tons of serious writers have been thinking about but too afraid/lazy(me) to say. Cheers!
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Would it be weird if I said I think I love you? Lol :-p
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THANK YOU. Finally, someone who agrees with me. Yes. I do agree that a character needs a personality, a life and background, everything a person would have. Most people would just mold their characters into a "human" blob, which is usually a boring person who's pretty much perfect. Whenever I try making OCs or characters for stories, I try to write out their life, personality, looks, hatred to others. etc. to make them seem more realistic. As you might imagine, this can take a while. For example, in class we had to write a utopia-dystopia story. Everyone else did something similar to the example you set above. Give a personality-less Mary-Sue (some of my classmates just had their characters be boring everyday people without any particular quirks and stuff) a problem, they solve it, the end. I had characters based off Hetalia characters (Somehow... I kind of turned my assignment into a Hetalia gathering... Oh well.) and gave them similar personalities, flaws, enemies and point of view on humanity. That got me the highest grade in class while everyone just got an okay grade... I salute you.
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Ah yes, totally agree!!! Definitely with you on Twilight and Shades of Grey. Gosh, Twilight was so badly written I couldn't get past the first paragraph. Of course it got me thinking about my stuff... I put my heroes through hell ...yet there is a purpose for it, not just brutality. Okay. Phew. Hope I'm good.
Thanks for writing this! Congrats on making Daily Deviaton
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In my opinion, tragic scenes compliment happy ones. They play off each other and the roller coaster of emotion can be very effective if you build it properly. There's not much like the character falling off the proverbial cliff right when they're at their peak, or finding that tiny glimmer of hope in the darkest hour.
However, my favorite narrative element is "realistic" emotion. These are the everyday hurts and triumphs that make people who they are: dealing with personal flaws, helping others in simple non-super-powered ways, and overall just getting through life in one piece. And I'm not talking about soap opera stuff here. I mean honest people making realistic everyday choices (good or bad) and dealing with the consequences.
In other words, make your characters relate-able. Make the reader identify with them, agree with them, or at least help the reader admit there's some logic to what the character does. If you have that core, you can build the bigger events around it and everything will be that much more effective.
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I wonder, I have a character that is an orphan. While this is unknown to the readers for a large part and only referred to indirectly (speaking of guardians and foster family and such), this character is basically very young and doesn't mind not having parents. Does this account for the crime stated above?
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Nah. Because the crime above is "oh no you should feel horrible for my character because they've had such a horrible life even though you don't know and don't care about them!"
If you're not invoking sympathy with it, whatevs.
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Yeah. You do kind of have to reference with a character's backstory in order to invoke more emotions and feels and stuff.
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You hit the nail on the head. As on deviant said, "People will be amazed you managed to put words in a box." Sometimes, I think the internet is a slight to all human intelligence. But other times, I manage to find a writer that develops a perfect plot, complete with well-rounded cast. It brings out the best and the worst in all of us, I suppose.
(I totally agree with "the Age of the Mary Sue". It appears that literature is hurtling in that direction with startling speed.)
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Agreed on all accounts.
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The world is a bag of contradictions, isn't it? *sigh*
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I entirely agree with you! I also read your other two articles and I must say: THANK YOU!!!! I have recently started writing a story and was kind of worried about that. My story sort of starts out with a bang, and I was reconsidering whether or not to keep the intro. The scene is necessary to character development, but I wasn't sure if I should start some other way. I have seen stories that start out quickly before, so I was trying to follow that idea, because I liked getting the action started right away. And it's not exactly sad, it's more of... frustration? anger? defiance? I'm not sure what to call it. Anyways, would you be willing to read the first couple of chapters and give me your opinion? You seem like a pretty knowledgeable writer, and I would value any feedback you could give me.
Sorry for the long post
Again, I really appreciated your article.
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Well at first I faved this, because there are some points in which I agree, but upon closer analysis I must say I don't think I completely agree.
As a fellow writer I too have many opinions on the quality of a good story, and since taking both College Literature and Creative Writing in this past year I have learned much about the art of story telling.
From the basis of your argument you only seem to be focusing in on characterization alone, and while I do agree characterization is important, it is not always the entire backbone of a story.
In my opinion the purpose of any story or tale is to convey a message, and often though we may not always like the characters or find them relatable the thing we really cling onto is the story. Now you are write when you mention that it's important to have dynamic characters, but I don't think all characters should be dynamic. In most stories the focus is around 1 or 2 important characters whom we follow as they guide us on our journey, and they are the ones who should be most dynamic. Then there are secondary characters who help our protagonist/s on their quest who are somewhat dynamic, but not as much as the main character. Then there are usually even smaller tertiary characters, and eventually background characters which contribute nothing other than another face.
If all characters are special then no characters are special.
But, a dynamic character can only lead you so far in a great story. I could create a man who has the powers of a god, but if in my story all he chooses to do is destroy the universe than the story becomes to simplistic and doesn't have a very good ending. The thing is people don't really care who does what, I mean yea you can make characters more or less important, but it's not who they are it's what they will do, and how they will do it.
Take for example, if I made a character who could fly and had superpowers, and then in a story I had them pour cereal into a bowl and eat it, and then say the end. Even though the character may be unusual and somewhat dynamic, because what he did was so boring and regular it wouldn't matter how special he was.
But say while eating his cereal out hero gets a phone call from a mysterious villain who has kidnapped his wife, then the reader gets interested, because then we want to know what will happen next. Will the hero save his wife, and how will he do it. Story is more than just character it's Plot, Conflict, Setting, etc...
and the other thing I disagree with is when you say:
"Character = victim
Plot = bad things happening to said victim"
Because most characters are victims, and in most cases they do suffer in stories, because it takes pain to make them stronger. I mean good can change too, but I don't think it's as powerful as when one goes from bad to good, because it takes so much more effort to be able to accept that you are wrong and learn to do what is right. So what if the protagonist is a victim, the only time I ever see that being an issue is if the character never changes. If the character starts out weak and stays weak, then they will always be a weak character. But if the character starts out as the victim, suffers, but then becomes stronger, he/she will be so much more dynamic than someone who starts good and just keeps getting better.
In my experience, as a reader, I find myself much more attracted to darker characters especially, not because I am an evil person, but because I find them so much more interesting. It's easy to decipher one who is good, but so much harder to define what is evil. So if a character is a victim, and falls prey to deception, betrayal, glutton, or is just plan bad they will probably always suffer. Their suffering though it usually what leads them to change, and I know not all characters will become good, but we need those moments of pain and loss to characterize and to show emotion. I don't think it matters which character it is, we will always feel sort of empathetic when they are down, and though they may be varying degrees of empathy, because like you have said a more dynamic character will get more emotion, I don't think anyone would look the other way when someone is dying or being murdered.
To me, your entry sounds more like an angry rant, but hey maybe it's just me. Happy writing!
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"The thing is people don't really care who does what, I mean yea you can make characters more or less important, but it's not who they are it's what they will do, and how they will do it."
I would say it's more about why the character does what they do. Even the superhero eating cereal could be extremely interesting if there's a compelling why behind it. Perhaps they've given up being a superhero. Perhaps it's a scene to demonstrate their humanity. Perhaps this is the 100th box of this particular cereal they've bought looking for a specific toy, and they don't get it yet again, which drives them over the edge and they go blow up the cereal factory.
Stories are all about why. What is important, how is more important, but why is king.
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Thank you so much for writing this! I'm an aspiring writer myself and try very hard to develop my characters and not write just another 'Twilight' type thing. I'm also the kind of person who enjoys reading things like 'Twilight' and cardboard cut out sob stories, but can never take them seriously. This really explains everything that I've been trying to accomplish in my own writing and how I feel about this kind of story. Although I know you probably won't take this seriously, because, well... I am on the internet
Congrats on the Daily Deviation!
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You ma'am/sir, have my respects. Thank you for doing this.
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Congratulations on your well-deserved DD!!!
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I had a creative writing class where we were told to bring characters through hell, and I feel like some people take this concept as the ONLY thing a story can be about, like you said.
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Very true. I love stories where the characters get dragged through a million tragedies, but the real reason I love reading them is for what it does to the characters, how the characters react.
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There, now that I've gotten my gut-level reaction out of the way, I can actually DISCUSS the act / art of writing and story-telling.
Since I primarily post fanfics here, my perspective is slightly different, but only slightly. Since I'm playing with somebody else's characters, there's the possibility that new readers are at least vaguely familiar with the back-story, previous development, etc. However, I have gotten to the point where I don't assume that, at least not in my opening chapter(s). If somebody jumps into a later chapter and doesn't know what's going on / why they should care, when there's a chapter number in the title, and links to the rest of the story, that's on them.
But I digress.
I have learned and still am learning that even when / especially when I'm using the creations of others, it is essential that I set up those characters and settings well. Have I remained true to the known characters? Are they in settings and situations and plots that make sense, or that will make sense as the story progresses? Can I, using the settings, etc, tell a new story or retell my own version of their existing story (or someone else's existing story) in a way that makes sense IN CONTEXT of what I've established in-story coupled with what is accepted as canon for those characters?
It's a different flavor of the set of challenges present in original fiction. For original fiction, an author has to begin with the assumption that NONE of the readers are going to know the characters, back-stories, situations, etc, and so those have to be explained or demonstrated (as appropriate to the story) as the tale unfolds. Keeping an original character in-character while I'm still figuring him/her/it out, and trying to progress the plot is an on-going... hmm... I'll say "challenge".
I definitely agree with you that, as a reader, why should I care about -insert tragic thing- happening to -insert character that I don't know- unless the author pulls me into the story? Yeah, okay, part of my personality and outlook on the world is to feel some concern, but if I have to generate it all on my own, I lose interest in the story, and stop reading.
Again, bravo for your wonderful expression of some of the necessary ingredients of story-telling!!
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I think that even in a fanfiction, even if people already know the characters, you still need to make sure that they keep on caring. I think that mostly takes the form of making sure that your writing keeps them in-character. Basically, instead of creating a character to care for, you are continuing a character to care for.
... Does that make sense? I thought it did until I typed it out.
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