Hi, this is Professor Guilherme Orbe And let's go to our second class on how to create a story and write a book. In the last class we saw about the definition gender and the target audience. In this one we’ll talk about creating the story, about the theme, the point of view.
Very important points. In this lesson we will create the basis of the story, to then polish and leave the best as possible. So let's start: The first point I like to make in my stories, which is not mandatory at all, it is a lesson, a message.
I like to create a story based on what I want to tell you and I think it's more interesting, especially when this message is not it is so explicit. As I said last class, in this course I will create a story following the steps that I am showing to exemplify. So in the story I'm creating I defined that the genre is going to be romance and the audience target will be the children and youth.
And the message I want to send is the fight for dreams, and it’s going to be called the dreamers club, but I will explain more about it later. A story with a lesson it gains a greater depth and adds value to the project as a whole. Even if it's a simple lesson or message, I find it interesting to put, but as always I will say, it is not a rule, it is totally optional.
But it can help to make the project more tied, going in the same direction. So one thing you need to ask yourself when writing a story is about what do you want to talk? Is it about platonic love?
A dangerous technology? A fantastic world? What is your story about?
You don't need to know where you want to go yet, the important thing here is the starting point. Maybe you complain about not being creative, not sure how to create a story out of the blue. There are several ways you can create this first idea, one that I find most interesting is to ask and be?
What if an orphan boy who is mistreated by uncles found out that he is a very talented wizard? What if four brothers found out that a guard clothing capable of taking them to another world? And you can do this exercise on everyone the movies and books you've watched or read.
The question “what if? ” it's a story-making machine. You can create history from these what if: What if an evil dragon threatened to destroy a whole kingdom and a hero had the mission to defeat him?
And if a girl fell in love with the boy most popular school? Purposeful cliché examples, why not I want to influence your creation. Think of an interesting possibility and it can be anything, think of a point different view.
Let's use the cliché example of the hero who fight the dragon. Thinking from a different point of view can completely change a story, for example: if you can put the warrior or warrior as protagonist, the king or queen, who has already it would be a different story, a farmer, and what the farmer would do against a Drgon? Why would he go?
To save the daughter? The wife? Were you in the wrong place at the wrong time?
What if she was a mother willing to save her daughter? Notice that the story changes the tone. And in this example of the mother who will save her daughter of a dragon the message behind can be a mother's challenges, or unconditional love of a mother, even a more cliché story can become a metaphor for challenges current.
It may be a representation of a daughter or child who is getting lost in the world of drugs, which would be the representation of the dragon and so on. But it’s just an example that may seem absurd, but if worked well it can be interesting. But the most important thing is that you make a story that is interesting, primarily for you because if it is not interesting for the author will hardly be for anyone.
And if you want to go deeper about be interesting to each other i recommend the book: The secret of the best seller. It's very good, says a lot of data about what best-selling authors have in common, the book doesn't teach how to make a best seller, he says what bestsellers have that others don't has. And a point that is important to highlight from this book, is the fact that bestsellers create stories full of ups and downs, it starts well and then the situation gets complicated, then it improves, and goes like this with ups and downs of emotion, and this is important to think about creation of history.
But on this topic we’ll cover in more details later, when we get in the definition of dramatic arcs, that we're going to talk about presentation, development and conclusion, but that's a little bit more for front. But quickly returning to talk about creativity, understand that it is not a magical skill, it is repertoire. A graphic design when making art new he selects several art to be inspired, do not copy, and thus, mix and modify the elements that you find interesting and produce Something new.
And everyone will call him very creative. Nobody creates something out of nothing, we always create based on some reference, so how much more different references you have, the range of possibilities is increasing. So read more, watch good movies, absorb culture in general, everything can help you to create a better story and can turn subject in your plot.
Another tip for creating a story is observe what's going on around you, the real problems, the difficulties, it can give more realism and identification in your stories. And at that point you don't have to write exactly what you see, or what happened with you, you can take parts, mix with other situations. Or you can simply change the point of view.
Another important point in creating the story and where it takes place. If it is going to be in a fictional city, or that exists, whether it will be in Brazil or some other parents. In what state will it be?
Will it be on another planet? A fantastic world? And when does it happen?
It is in the future, past, present, or in a alternative reality? The possibilities are endless. But it is important that you know well where the story goes, especially if it is a place that exists.
Do a search if it's a place you don't know well. If you are going to do it in a fictional city, a little bit more free to create, keeping the consistency within the type of story that want to write. If it’s a fantastic world it’s necessary create the rules that define the world, is there magic?
How are the laws? How does the policy work? And so on.
The setting is an important point to be thought, even though it may not be as relevant in history. You can create elements that will not appear directly but that are in the background giving a life to the universe that happens to plot. The story I'm creating will take place in Itaboraí, is the city I live in, I know well and in a way it is a way to honor my city.
It is a country town and has a church historical. Certainly at some point, some scene important event will take place in Itaboraí Square, near the São João Batista Church. Because everyone you know will know exactly where it is, and for those who don't know it will make a lot of difference, but it's a detail the most, and details make a lot of difference in any kind of art, so use them wisely.
Using my new story as an example. The subject is about chasing dreams. I thought: what if a group of young people created a club to help each other win your dreams?
Thus was born the dreamers club, a club where everyone has a different dream. There are four friends who got together with this objective. Two of them are brothers.
The protagonist and his younger sister. And two more friends, a boy and a girl. The story will talk about family and difficulties in chasing dreams, in a way the reality.
Also the difficulties at school, the protagonist suffers a little bullying for stalking your dreams and in history, however discouraged, also makes you want to fight harder to achieve your goals. This also includes a family drama of a very tough father, and in a way it will be one of the antagonists of history. But this is a somewhat general view.
In the next class I will talk about creating of the protagonist, where I will go into more details about character creation, and in creating we give more life to the story, because it gains body. Understand that you don't have to create the story all at once. Gradually lapping it.
So let's organize the steps here: - definition of the genre of the story - Target Audience - Message (optional) - What is the story about (What if? ) - What is the central theme? - Where's the story going?
Answer these questions and write down where to prefer. It is important to write it down because it is very easy forget the details. Write down, even if you change the original direction of the story, if a point seems more interesting to you explore it further.
At this point it is normal for you to change some times the plot direction, is the starting point, define calmly. Then you write down your ideas about possible events in history, try to imagine yourself within the plot. In the next class we’ll talk about creating of the protagonist who is directly connected to the development of history.
So until the next class!
