  Horror/Scary
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To develop a good Horror/Scary story one needs to develop a good story.
Recapping the steps to developing a good story, we need to
1. Break down the basics of the story to a simple one or two word definition.
2, Decide which slant of the story, or genre, we want to use
3. Establish which elements (character, action, and/or setting) are necessary to convey the story basic.
4. Establish which characteristics and descriptions are necessary to support the element(s) above.
This issue we work on CHARACTER |
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To date we have worked on breaking down the basics of a story and the choice of genre. This issue we will look at establishing which elements (character, action, and/or setting) are necessary to convey the story basic.
As we discussed in the last issue, genre plays a big part in directing our choice of character, action, or setting to be the primary vehicle for propelling our story. To go into this concept further, we will begin with the element of Character and work with how this element is central to, supportive of, or not necessary at all to the story. We will go further to look at how the characters could be necessary, but not necessarily in the same form, to the story.
First, what is Character? Most people recognize Character as, well, people. While people usually are the representative Character in a story, there are other examples of what Character can be as well.
1. Animals. Animals as Character are most often found in cartoons, but they are also found in other forms of literature. ”Bambi” is a classic example. So is ”Call of the Wild”. “Gentle Ben” and ”The Jungle Book” rely heavily on animal Characters to support the main human Character.
2. Fantasy Creatures. In the Fantasy genre the creatures within the story are very often at least supporting Characters if not the central Character. ”The Little Mermaid” is an example of a central fantasy Character. There are so many characters in ”Lord of the Rings” that it is difficult to pick out a central character, but there certainly is a plethora of examples of fantasy beings as Characters throughout.
3. Settings. This is not a usual form of Character, but Setting can be a Character, even the central Character. This device is very effective in the Horror/Scary genre.
4. Objects. This example, too, is primarily found in cartoons. Like Settings, though, it is an excellent tool in the Horror/Scary genre.
Character as the central vehicle for propelling a story can be found in many, but not all, of the genre. In this same vein, there are genre that require Character to be the most important element of the story. Biography, Crime/Gangster, Death, Emotional, Erotica, Family, Friendship, Melodrama, Personal, Romance/Love, and Spiritual are the some of the genres that need some kind of Character as the central element to work.
What about the Horror/Scary genre, or the Men’s, Women’s, Teens, etc.? These are genre that usually have Character as a central vehicle but don’t necessarily have to use Character in that capacity. Horror/Scary, for instance, could easily have Action or Setting as the central vehicle. ”The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” is an example of the first. ”The Blair Witch Project” is an example of the second. Yes, there were characters involved and their reactions to the Setting were important, but it was the woods and what “it was doing” that was the center of the story.
Biography, in contrast, represents a genre that must have Character to propel the story. The life of someone is the seed of this genre, whatever the story. That being so, the Character is the central point.
”The Life of Mahatma Gandhi” for instance, gives us the seed. To build on this the Character of Mahatma Gandhi becomes the primary tool needed to develop that seed. In this, the Setting of the story is only important for the way Mahatma Gandhi reacts to it. The Action is only important for the way it develops the Character of Mahatma Gandhi.
We will get into the uses of Character as a supporting tool in the next issue. For now, this month’s exercise will be to read some stories in the various genre and pick out the ones with Character as the central vehicle. This should be relatively easy since this is the way most stories are put together.
Note: This article as well as others working with developing a good story will be archived in {bite:1091540}
BTW If you run into any particularly good examples of the above while doing the exercise, do drop me a line recommending them.
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Horror/Scary: July 26, 2006 Issue [#1162]
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