On Storytelling

Category

Batman does not kill. Superman does not kill.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a joyless, grimdark spectacle in the worst sense. There’s the nugget of a good idea (the god/mortal/devil theme, as embodied by Superman, Batman, and Doomsday) being suffocated by CGI explosions, overdone fight scenes, and rubble piled on blood smothered in gray. It tries to combine the creation of the Justice League with the Death of Superman and Dark Knight Returns, all without earning the team-up since there has only been one movie in this thematic universe, and Man of Steel...

Inside Out: What Emotion Drives You?

Continuing my tradition of being way behind on popular culture, I only recently saw Inside Out. I finally watched it because one of my friends, who has good taste, kept berating me until I did. I should probably listen to his advice more often, ’cause this movie was amazing. I can hear him clambering with more suggestions. Down boy, down! Stephen has to write sometime. I want to talk about two of the way emotions were treated in Inside Out changed my perception...

Superhot: Storytelling through gameplay

I’m interested in storytelling. Not just in narrative fiction (books, movies), but in business, politics, history, dating, and yes, videogames. It might not always be applicable to my fiction, but I think it’s fun to tease apart how stories function in different realms. The lessons often end up being useful anyway. I’ve been particularly interested in videogame storytelling as of late, ever since I discovered Extra Credits. (If you’d like to see just about the scariest damn videogame-related video essay ever, check out this one on propaganda games....

Deadpool: Tonal Balance Through Non-Linear Storytelling

After referring to the Deadpool movie in two of my last three posts, and after a request from a reader at RandomC, I thought I’d rattle off a few thoughts on it. But instead of doing a full-blown review, I’m going to focus on the one element that I found most interesting. Actually, I’ll do the whole review thing real quick: It’s a funny movie, y’all. I was worried the Deadpool character would wear thin, and fast, but I had forgotten just how good of a comedic actor Ryan...

Through their own flaws

Hardship is the father of tension, the mother of drama, and the handmaiden of despair, or something like that. So how does an author go about making a situation more difficult for their characters? One way is to arbitrarily throw challenges at them. At the start of a story, this is fine—shit’s gotta start somewhere, and it’s fine to start when said shit has already hit one or more fans. But later on, the author can just make things happen. They don’t even need to be foreshadowed, because sometimes in life things really do...

Look to the one before

Returning to what I said in my Star Wars: The Force Awakens posts, you may have a question: How do I square my analysis with the nearly universal acclaim the movie is receiving from professional critics? I’m glad you asked, hypothetical question-asker. The answer is simple: Our reaction to a piece of art has less to do with its absolute quality than we like to admit. It has far more to do with our expectations going in. I realized this while working on the year-end Best of posts...

The problem with character development episodes

“All right,” says the writer. “It’s time to give this character some development. Now, what should I have happen…?” No. Stop. You’re doing it all wrong, imaginary writer. I’m going to be speaking in the terminology of TV episodes, but this all holds true for any fiction. As much as I appreciate writers trying to develop their characters instead of leaving them static, character development episodes are the wrong way to go about it. If you’ve watched a fair amount of TV,...

$%&@* cuss words

This article was originally sent as a private email to my subscribers. If you would like to receive content like this every two weeks instead of whenever I decide to release one publicly, sign up here. The original email has been edited, because why the $%@# not. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from readers on Wage Slave Rebellion. While feedback comes in many stripes, I’ve found that most criticism falls into two categories, based on my reaction: There’s the thoughtful criticism that makes me go, “Hmm. I’m...

True Ends

For anime fans among my readers, in case you haven’t heard: There’s a Fate/stay night OVA coming out next month, which is supposed to depict the Good End of the Unlimited Blade Works arc. For the non-anime fans, let me give you some background that’ll lead up to my point. Fate/stay night is a visual novel—think a choose-your-own-adventure book, but on the computer. Depending on the choices you make during the game, you’ll get different endings. Some of them are good, and some of them...

Rejection, the secret place, & fundamentals

From writer, producer, & director Brian Koppelman, on rejection (emphasis mine): You must do a dispassionate evaluation. The step you try to take is, “Okay, that’s a body blow. My emotional reaction is anger and hurt. Now let me step back and dispassionately, to the best of my ability, evaluate the rejection. Is there something in that rejection that hits home in the secret place, where I know the thing is flawed? If it does, is that addressable? If it doesn’t,...