Writing Tip #1: Getting Started, Part One - The Three Pillars
Getting started with a writing project can be intimidating, especially when one is self-taught or has no formal writing training. Not to fear, I've created this writing tip series to help out! Without further ado... let's get started!
In this entry, I'm going to cover what I believe to be the absolute basics of tackling a story. These pillars are commonly accepted to be: character, plot, setting.
Characters are, simply, the "characters" of a story (like defining the word "the", there's no better way to put it other than that it's... "the"). Characters are any living or personified being that move the plot and inhabit the setting. In essence, a character can be anything. For examples of non-human characters leading narratives, see the Warrior Cats series or Watership Down. There are also examples of non-living beings like towns being characters in a story (the names of these stories escape me).
A protagonist of a story is the character that the story is about. Usually, the protagonist of the story will also double as the narrator or something adjacent to it, but there are exceptions to this. For example, in The Great Gatsby, Nick is the narrator but Gatsby is the protagonist. Although we follow Nick through the story as he recounts the events of the story, the events focus around Gatsby, his life, and his choices. As presented here, a narrator is a character of whom the reader sees the events of the story through. A story can have multiple narrators (called colloquially "multiple POVs") or none at all (within the Third Person Omniscient point of view, which will be discussed next issue).
An antagonist is a character that opposes the goals or views of the protagonist. Base level media criticism harps on this fact (because base level media critics know nothing else about writing), but hero is not synonymous with protagonist, and villain is not synonymous with antagonist. While this is often the case, it isn't always. If a villain were the main character of a story, then the villain would be the protagonist and the hero would be the antagonist. Deuteragonists are the characters who are the second most important, second to the protagonist. Secondary and tertiary characters are characters that play varying degrees of supporting roles other than that of protagonist or antagonist, which generally becomes semantic to dictate beyond the secondary zone.
A dynamic character describes a character who changes throughout the course of the story (usually as a result of a character arc, but not always) and a static character is a character that doesn't change throughout the course of the story. Just because a character is static does not make them worse, both characters have a place in their respective stories or single story. Static characters often perform a certain niche or invoke change in other characters in them or their environment. Dynamic characters make for interesting and engaging stories that make it easier for a reader to like them over watching them struggle over long periods of time (unlike static characters, who are sometimes likable right off the bat).
When getting started writing characters, especially with no idea in mind, I heavily suggest using character forms. Forms like these, while sometimes heavily specialized to certains genres or fandoms, help exercise both general and specific details of a character. When creating characters for a story, it is important to consider how certain character archetypes and individuals will play into the message or type of story you're aiming for. For example, a protagonist in their mid-20s may not be best for a story about the firsthand horrors of old age. On the flipside, an elderly character may not be best for a high stakes action adventure. These could both be subverted ideas, but in general, throughout these tips, I'm going to preach the concept of learning the rules before they are subverted.
For fleshing out characters, writing character exercises is a good way to get to know the character that you will--most likely--end up writing a lot for a full fledged story. Putting your character in different situations and writing how specifically those situations are handled can help a character be uniquely understood beyond the confines of a form.
Plot is the events of the story in the order they are laid out to the viewer. "Plot" and "story" are stressed differently here, as plot refers specifically to how the story is relayed to the audience. Where the story is the complete list of all relevant events, the plot is what we as the reader are shown (for example, bathroom breaks are part of the story, because we're aware that they happen, but they aren't actually verbalized to the reader, so they're not plot). Plot also dictates the order in which events appear. Some stories have events appear in non-chronological order. In this case, the story would be all of the events in their chronological order, and plot would be the order in which they appear to the reader.
The most important element of plot taught in elementary school classrooms is Freytag's pyramid, attached below.
Exposition is the introduction to the foreign world that the reader is being introduced to--in terms of this post, exposition is when the reader is introduced to the characters and the setting. The inciting incident is a single event in which something of this world is tipped askew, leading to the events and conflict of the rest of the story. In the rising action, we are building up and up in conflict until the climax, in which all of the built up tension is released. In a fantasy story, this will be your final battle. In a romance story, this will be your first kiss. In a thriller, your killer is finally revealed. The falling action deals with the fallout of the climax and settles the story for the resolution. In Freytag's pyramid, the rising and falling dictates the level of conflict or tension arising from a story. It is important to note that it is absolutely possible to throw Freytag's pyramid to the wind. In smaller examples, a series of stories may skip the resolution in the end of its first book and will skip the exposition of the following books, because the story is not yet resolved and later books need no introduction to a world we were just in (however, series sometimes go to the exposition phase just in case, whether we were just with them or not, like in event of a time jump). In larger examples, stories may end with the climax or hack off different parts of Freytag's pyramid freely. Your story is yours to amalgamate, but again, learn the rules before you break them.
For more in depth ways of starting a plot, the 27 chapter method is a bit of a more fleshed out Freytag's pyramid that's easier to follow. The 27 chapter method, however, is meant to be used more as a "general guide" rather than a gospel.
Lastly, and frankly, often toted as least, is setting. Setting is simply the time and place that a story is taking place in. For now, I'm going to store away the topics of actually building a world (ie, Worldbuilding) for another day, and focus here specifically on the active role the setting plays in a story.
A story can be set anywhere, but just like the conversation of what characters best fit a story, choosing a good setting could better enhance a story. Any story written anywhere other than a believable place that humans could be is often referred to as a fantasy book, as creating this in-depth world often means that the protagonists will be exploring it, hence, "fantasy"-- ie. not real. It is theoretically possible to create a story in a fantasy world that does not harp on its existence in a fantasy world at all, but this would be... questionable, and probably not a good use of setting. Fantasy stories taking place in fantasy worlds are often called high fantasy, whereas fantasy stories taking place in our modern world is called low fantasy. On the topic of time, stories set before the piece was written are called historical fiction.
Setting builds the characters in our story, as our characters are all defined by their relationship to their setting. If a character grew up in the setting created, the setting itself will have an impact on who they are. If your character is an outsider to this world, then a lot of this character's personal conflicts may deal with being at odds with the strange world they've been put into. The setting also informs not only the genre and characters, but the status quo. In exposition, we are often being introduced to the ins and outs of the way this world works, as it will either inform the plot and characters throughout the story, or will be broken by the end of the story.
When starting a story, setting is not often what authors start with. Instead of giving places to start, like with plot and characters, I will instead advise the author to start with their characters or plot and work backwards. Looking at this character I've created, what kind of world would they come from? Looking at this plot I've created, what world would it take place in? I'm going to go more into worldbuilding in another issue, but for now, I will leave it at that.
Thank you for reading this far! I really hope this was helpful and enjoyable. I don't consider myself an expert but I do really like writing, and I want to share that love with everyone here. I'm going to keep this section brief because I've been typing up a storm, but thank you for all of your support. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this up as a longer series.
