Is this a good introduction for a character?
You write well. I like it!
Good Introduction for Horror Short Story?
So, for English I need to write a short story. It's supposed to be a "Gothic"style of story. So far I have the characters I want, the setting I want, and the plot. This story is going to be about a widowed mother who has two children (I'll list the characters below later) and meets a new guy whom she eventually marries. No one knows at first, but the man is planning to kill the mother, daughter, and son. Throughout the short story, the daughter finds out bit by bit that the man is sick in his mind and his planning to kill her and his mother and brother. When she finds out that the man is doing so, she tries to convince her mother he is a bad person, but her mom wont believe her. Then, one night (the night the man is planning to kill the three of them), the daughter takes her little brother and she tries to escape from the house... There are more details to the story, but I'm just trying to focus on the intro for now. Below is the setting and characters for the story. If you could please help me incorporate the characters and setting into an introduction that would be great! Could you guys give me some ideas? Thanks! :) Characters: Mother - Karen Rigsbee Deranged man (Step father) - Alex Rigsbee Daughter - Stephanie Ashby Son - Kenneth Ashby Setting: Alex's large mansion in the suburbs of a small town. (If you could also help me come up with a city or location that would be awesome too!) Thanks guys!
How can I write a good plot outline?
Well, I’m no expert. But I’m writer, and as a writer I can give you my take for outlining ideas (mostly for novels).First of all, have an idea in mind. Start with a basic conflict. (Example: you have Ben, who becomes somehow involved with murder.)Answer the Six W’s. Here you start to develop your conflict, and add up to it some more details.Who was involved? (Ben, his girlfriend Ann, and Old Danny - a cop)What happened? (Ben took Danny’s gun and shot him)Where did it take place? (In the streets of Manhattan)When did it take place? (Christmas eve, 2017)Why did that happen? (Ben feared that Danny would hurt Ann)How did that happen? (Danny was off duty. He was drunk and aggressive, and dropped his gun after aiming it at the two. Ben picked the gun and apparently used it)Expand those W’s, so you’ll have more information: (How old are the characters? What are they all doing there, in Christmas eve?)Know your characters better: Again - gather as much information as possible. Write little segments from their lives, connect with them until you no longer treat them as “strangers”.Write down at least ten different ideas for the opening scene: It’s impossible to pick one spot. You can start off in Danny’s house, as he was having a dinner with his wife. You can also start from the climax - the moment before Ben shoots him. The introduction to the characters and the entire story is crucial.Ask two more questions: How do the characters solve the conflict? How does the story end? (Ben and Ann hide the body in a dark alley, but after three tense days he decides to turn himself in)Finally, start filling out the missing pieces. Like a puzzle. And seek for advice from other people. Tell them your plot, tell them about what you struggle with and see if they propose good solutions. Include those in.Outlining can be really annoying, but it pays off after everything is in place.
Can anyone help me by giving some good plots for writing novels?
Creating a good plot for novels is not as easy as it sounds. Add a unique writing style to the mix. Have an organized idea and note down all of them. Always write down an attractive introduction which creates curiosity for a reader to read till the end. Recommend to keep an entertaining story line-up with ideal characters. Lastly, always summarize your plot with a precise gist.
When writing a short film, what are some techniques to introduce the plot without taking up too much time?
Sounds like you’re worried about taking too much time for the “exposition,” which Hitchcock defined as information the audience needs to know to understand the story. With any film - short or long - you want to keep exposition to a minimum, so as not to bore the audience. I liken it to feeding a pill to a dog. The pill may be what the dog needs, but you’re going to have to wrap it in cheese or bacon or peanut butter in order to get him to swallow it. Exposition has to wrapped in something entertaining - something funny if it’s a comedy, perhaps a foreshadowing of the awful things to come if it’s a horror film.Another concept that helps any dramatic story move forward quickly is Sad Field’s rule about getting into a scene as late possible and getting out of it as early as possibly. Cut everything that’s unnecessary to moving the story forward. Cut the “shoe leather” - people walking from place to place. Cut the chit-chat. Have you noticed that most film characters don’t say good-bye before hanging up the phone?The plot gets off the ground at the Inciting Incident - where the protagonist is introduced to the problem she will tackle in this story. In a short, the Inciting Incident and the Act I Climax, where the hero takes action to solve the problem are cheek-by-jowl. There is no time for the hero to go into denial, hoping the problem will go away, that someone else will solve it, or that there’s a simple fix. They have to immediately respond to the problem.If your short has a traditional plot and the story is told in a linear fashion, this means you want to get the character and his ordinary world introduced as quickly as possible and thrust him right into the special world of the film. Use the same rule-of-thumb as for any other length script. If the script is 10 pages long (which would translate to a 10 minute film), then you have 2 1/2 pages (25%) for the introduction of the character and her ordinary world and the inciting incident.In your first draft, Act I will likely be too long, but that’s okay because you’re getting to know your character and their world. Keep combining, condensing and whittling away as you rewrite, losing everything that’s not necessary to the telling your story until you’re showing us just the tip of the iceberg you’ve created.
What is the key to writing great plot exposition?
I searched for this question because I’ve been researching an answer myself. So far this is what I have learned; sugarcoat the pill.If exposition is a must, make it the background noise to a more exciting interpersonally relatable scene. If you have to explain something, have the explanation happen at the same time that something else is happening. Have that second thing be closer related to the relationship dynamics of the characters. Know what all of your characters ‘want’, and if two characters are having an expository conversation, have the conflict of what they want also play out at the same time.Reduce it. If your backstory was fun to make, it will also be fun for your reader to make as well. Keep the backstory to yourself, and give hints. This also readers to make their own backstory with the pieces you put together. They will by nature make up what entertains and engages them the most. They will inject real-life situations, stories, histories and parallels that will make the story more relatable. The most popular fiction in the world has sprawling fan-fic and thousands of fan theories. They gave readers a platform to create their own world.Your next great work. Your exposition may be a great story, but a horrible interjection into your current story. There’s nothing stopping you from creating another book or small pamphlet the goes into your exposition. One of the things I liked about playing Legend of Zelda as a kid was that it had an optional booklet that explained it sprawling world, weapons, magic, and concepts. This allowed the game to lightly touch on them without breaking the story down more than need be.You don’t need it. Honestly, consuming art is about consuming ambiguity. We don’t know what great painters were thinking when they made their paintings, or how great songs come to be because of the song. But we have fun in the mystery. It makes us comeback, think, explore and research. Exposition can kill inspiration.
How are plot and theme related in literature and writing?
A theme can be expressed concretely in a very general way -- a broad subject, such as courtship, love, and marriage in Jane Austen's works.When conceived of as simply a subject, it's easy to see how a work of literature could have more than one theme."Hamlet," for instance, deals with the themes of death, revenge, and action, to name a few. "King Lear's" themes shine a light on justice, reconciliation, madness, and betrayal. The theme can also be expressed in a more abstract way as an idea or moral -- the message of the story. For example, the theme of a parable or fable is the moral it teaches. For example:The theme, or moral, of Aesop's story "The Tortoise and the Hare" is "slow and steady wins the race" or "consistency and perseverance is of more value than flash and speed."George Orwell's anti-utopian novel "Animal Farm" has several themes, among them are "absolute power corrupts absolutely" and "knowledge is power." The themes of the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley are "It is wrong for human beings to attempt to usurp the powers that should be God's alone" or, more simply, "pride goes before a fall."While you might start with an issue or theme in mind, themes also develop, emerge or expand as you .It may not be until the editing stage that you even begin to recognize your themes. Once you see your theme, you can more easily decide what to cut from your story or novel and what to highlight.Here's a scenario: You are writing a story through which you hope to communicate themes of love and loss.Once you are comfortable with your theme and the way in which your fiction supports it; edit your work with the theme in mind. Are there sections of your work that seem to detract from the theme? Are there sections that should be strengthened to make the point more clear? Through this process, you might even discover secondary themes in your work.Visit Website