What is the premise?
C ONNECTING THE WORLD TO THE HERO'S OVERALL DEVELOPMENT
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| C ONNECTING THE WORLD TO THE HERO'S OVERALL DEVELOPMENT The first step to building your story world is identifying the key visual oppositions based on characters and values. The second step is looking at the endpoints of your hero's development. This is similar to the process we used when creating characters. There we began by sketching out the character web, since each character, through contrast and similarity, helps define the others. Then, focusing on the hero, we looked first at his overall range of change, starting at the endpoint (self-revelation), going back to the beginning (weakness and need, desire, and then creating the structure steps in between. We did that because every story is a journey of learning that the hero goes through, and as writers, we have to know the end of that journey before we can take any steps. You need to match that process exactly when detailing the story world. We've already examined some of the major visual oppositions in the world by looking 12 at the character web. Now we have to focus on the hero's overall change to see what the world will be like at the beginning and end of the story. In the vast majority of stories, the hero's overall change moves from slavery to freedom. If that's true in your story, the visual world will probably move from slavery to freedom as well. Here's how the overall movement of character and world match up. A character is enslaved primarily because of his psychological and moral weaknesses. A world is enslaving (or freeing) based on the relationship of the three major elements—land (natural settings, people (man-made spaces, and technology (tools)—and how they affect your hero. The unique way you combine these elements defines the nature of the story world. * Beginning (slavery If the land, people, and technology are out of balance, everyone is out for himself, each is reduced to an animal clawing for scarce resources or a cog working for the greater good of a machine. This is a world of slavery and, taken to its extreme, a dystopia, or hell on earth. * Endpoint (freedom If the land, people, and technology are in balance (as you define it, you have a community, where individuals can grow in their own way, supported by others. This is a world of freedom and, taken to the extreme, a Utopia, or heaven on earth. Besides slavery and dystopia, freedom and Utopia, there is one other kind of world you can create for the beginning or end of your story the apparent Utopia. This world appears to be perfect, but the perfection is only skin deep. Below the surface, the world is actually corrupt, rotten, and enslaving. Everyone is desperate to put on a good face to hide a psychological or moral disaster. This technique is used in the opening of LA. Confidential and Blue Velvet. The point of creating these different kinds of worlds is to connect them to your hero. In the vast majority of stories, there is a one-to-one connection between hero and world. For example, an enslaved hero lives in a world of slavery A free hero lives in and, in getting free, often creates a free world. KEY POINT Inmost stories you write, the world is a physical expression of who your hero is and how he develops. In this technique, the world helps define your main character through the structure of the story. It shows his needs, his values, his desires (both good and bad, and the obstacles be faces. And since in the vast majority of stories your hero begins the story enslaved in someway, you must focus on slavery. KEY POINT Always ask yourself, how is the world of slavery an expression of my hero's great weakness The world should embody, highlight, or accentuate your hero's weakness or draw it out in its worst form. 13 For example, detective stories, crime stories, and thrillers often setup a close connection between the hero's weakness—when it exists—and the "mean streets" or world of slavery in which the hero operates. Download 0.98 Mb. Share with your friends:
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