Lithuasil wrote...
Yell?! You havnt heard of a query, pitch ? The first paragraph is a brief capsule of purpose, motifs and drama...
Hawke has no desire other than to setup his family in the games
beginning. DA:O while generic sets up many events which cause
justification and inspiration for your characters actions.
Does that matter? Since you ask - everyone has a different opinion and in story there are no concrete rules- there are obvious items that connect an audience. I'll give you my ideals because I have something I can cut and paste easily-
1. A story has a purpose, a lesson that it wants to get an audience to believe. By making the audience experience the story (through words, film, or gaming), the author hopefully accomplishes this mission.
2. The purpose of a story will inspire its relevant motifs. In Star Wars, the Empire is inhuman and "faceless" . . . which is the aesthetic reason why Darth Vader and storm troopers wear masks. To make them seem more inhuman, their dress code is patterned after **** German uniforms.
In Alice in Wonderland, the purpose of the story is to discuss a girl's resistance
to the structures and rules of grown-up society. Therefore, she goes on a
journey to Wonderland, a world of pure nonsense, chaos, and unpredictability.
But she doesn't fare so well, and that world keeps turning against her more
logical expectations, so she finally returns to the surface where she
tentatively embraces the order of the real world. The motifs
of Wonderland are purposely annoying because they are designed to make the
reader, like Alice, realize the danger of pure daydreaming at the expense of
logic.
In Peter Pan, a similar purpose is at hand. Wendy and her brothers don't want
to grow up and adopt the rules of adult society. That is when the ultimate
"perpetual child", Peter Pan, who literally never grows up, takes
them on a journey to Neverland. But eventually the kids long for adult
supervision back home, and they return with the Lost Boys in-tow. Peter-Pan,
meanwhile, is torn because of his devotion to Wendy, but ultimately he refuses
to grow up and he stays in Neverland. Neverland is patterned after the motif of
a children's ultimate fantasy. It has pirates, indians, and fairies. But note
that all of these fantasies are portrayed as villains at one point or another
in the story!
The Matrix is about fighting for the magic potential beneath your humdrum
existence. The story declares that the limitations we place upon ourselves
(such as our chosen professions and identities) are a self-manufactured
illusion. The Matrix posits that truth is more desirable than illusion. Neo is
the ultimate truth-seeker, fighting the "agents against change" who
perpetuate lies about his true potential, and Neo becomes powerful because of
this resistance. That's why the agents are faceless "men in suits".
The motif supports the purpose of the story.
3. A story with a PURPOSE and MOTIFS is almost ready to
begin. Lastly it needs DRAMA. Drama is the tension and excitement that is
generated when the audience is invested in the story's outcome but is doubtful
about the likelihood of that outcome taking place. Will John Carter's prowess
and chivalry be enough to woo the Princess of Helium? Will Sarah Connor prove
that she is a survivor against the Terminator, and the apocalyptic future, that
chase after her?
A great yarn is one that maintains suspense, without lulls, for as long as
possible. And contrary to popular belief, the resulting level of suspense is
dependent on how invested the audience is in the story's outcome and NOT on
film tricks and gimmicks. If the audience doesn't care about the characters,
then suspense is dead. This is why most horror films, which use dozens of
"shock" effects, just don't work. Sure, a film editor can make me
jump out of my seat. But a jump scare is just that: only a jump scare. But if I
don't care about the teenagers who are being slaughtered one-by-one, then those
jump scares are going to get boooooring very quickly. The movie Jaws has just
ONE jump scare . . . yet it remains amongst the best horror films ever made.
Oh, yeah . . . and it's PG.
So anyway, those are the three key ingredients I observe in successful stories:
Purpose, apt Motifs, and Drama. Purpose is the point of
the whole thing. Motifs help the storyteller design the
characters, the world, and the plot of the story. Drama is the drug that hooks
audiences for the duration of the story . . . which should be just long enough
for the story to get its purpose across.
Mythic Structure is a helpful gauge against which the storyteller can test the
effectiveness of those three components. Mythic structure simply shows how
humans prefer to absorb narrative information. To ignore the monomyth is to
risk not connecting with an audience.
Modifié par Aloradus, 26 mars 2011 - 07:30 .
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