May 15th 1-2-3: The Early ‘Decisions’
1: The Early ‘Decisions’ ( 4 minute read )
As I once mentioned in my entry about my ‘Transplant Method’ to character writing, and world building, I had mentioned that a lot of what goes through my mind is based off of some decisions that are made early into my writing process.
These decisions can vary, and range from little character quirks to a character's entire purpose within the larger tapestry of the story I’m telling. From general rules a world will follow, to the final moments of the story that will mar or otherwise change this world forever.
I enjoy having these decisions for me to build everything off of because I find that they ultimately become my north star during the writing process.
They become spotlight markers for me to always go towards, and build towards.
They become disciplines for the characters, story, and world.
Now let’s go back to the conception moments in my process for a quick moment.
Let’s start from the top!
Usually I’m listening to some music that begins to evoke motion, and emotion within me. It begins to paint an image in my mind with a setting, characters, and purpose. Usually the first moments that come to me are the impactful parts of the story.
And, STOP!
This little spark of a moment is all I need to begin making these early decisions. Deconstruct the moment, and reconstruct it.
Now I question what needs to be, for this moment to feel exactly like how it did when I first felt it.
I’ll use a point from one of my own stories for an example.
What came to me:
Two figures stand miles apart from each other in the dead and deserted lands that surround a metropolis.
One is seeking vengeance, and judging by his stature, the catalyst for his rage is deeply personal. He stands alone, and dressed in rags.
The other figure stands pleading to the rage fueled man “We don’t have to do this... You and I both know what this’ll cost”. He stands in front of the metropolis his family built, dressed in a black cloak with accents of olive green, and gold.
“Enough talk,.. we’ve had plenty of time for talk. All I want now is your lifeless corpse”
As they both pull off their cloaks, and begin to move it becomes evident that these men are no normal men. They have an unreasonable amount of speed and strength.
Each fist they hurl at each cracks the barrier of sound, and each foot they thrust into each other's ribs makes the earth shake.
As their anger fuels more powerful strikes, they begin wreaking havoc closer and closer to the city.
The fight continues for hours, the city gets destroyed in the process, mountains are reduced to rubble, oceans are almost completely displaced.
All throughout the fight, the man in rags was completely focused on his opponent, with a complete disregard for any onlookers who got killed from being too close to this fight.
The man dressed in black, green, and gold tried to always redirect the fight from these poor souls to no avail.
Curiously though, the people praised the man in rags as they gave their last moments to watch this fight tear through their city, and their lives.
Decisions I make off of this moment:
Now from this moment, I begin to ask a hand full of questions to myself. Most basic questions that I believe anyone would ask.
Things like who are these two men? Who’s the good guy and bad guy in this situation? Why are they in these moral positions? Why are these people praising a man who has such disregard for their lives and safety? Why is the man dressed in black, green, and gold attempting to save them while they seemingly want him to lose this fight?
Now come up with overall answers for some of these questions. I suppose you could answer all of them, but personally I believe that might make your early decisions/disciplines a bit too rigid for the story to not be too predictable.
You could say maybe the man in rags is a bad guy who manipulated the masses to praise him in this fight. You could say the man in black, green, and gold is a ‘misunderstood hero’. You could say that maybe this world is just praising the strong, and thus they view the man in rags as a stronger candidate to lead the planet.
Now you could take the approach of thinking of what other stories these moments remind you of that both had some concepts you really dug, as well as didn’t meet your expectations with their execution. Then apply what you like to moments like these, and build out the story by basically ‘fixing’ the problems you had with another work that you’re pulling from.
Always think in terms of juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is an incredibly powerful tool in your story telling toolbelt. Contrast is striking, and re-contextualizing moments to have more contrast than they seemed on first read is part of what adds depth to a story.
These are just a few ideas to get you going, but overall the takeaway is that having early on decisions that you use and disciplines for your story are part of what give you context to the story your telling.
Because it’s not about what happens in your story that makes moments pop, It’s about how you reveal these moments, and how you reveal these moments is going to be built off of the disciplines/decisions you make for your story early on.
Now go write, and make something uniquely YOU!
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. For any small moment you have in your repertoire, write down a list of questions you could ask based off of what you have currently.
II. Begin answering those questions, and begin thinking about which ones you want to be the ‘early decisions/disciplines’ for your story.
3: Inspirational Quotes From Hideo Kojima
I. “Good stories are about real people with real flaws in unreal situations.”
-Dan Harmon, American Television Writer and Film Producer
II. “A small, simple decision at the beginning becomes the compass that guides every choice.”
-David Lynch, American Filmmaker
III. “You don’t have to know the whole picture from the start. You just need a strong enough piece to begin.”
-Neil Gaiman, English Writer
Thank you so much for reading!