CHOICE, CONFLICT AND MARIO BROS.

Ran across another video in the "Extra Credit" section of The Escapist website. This one concerns choice and how that makes a story.

The first thing he makes clear choice is not a decision. You can decide to walk instead of drive, you can decide to wear blue instead of red. That is not true choice. At least not story wise.

Choice is overcoming internal conflict. One such conflict is your long term goal coming in conflict with your short term goal.

He used the example of Super Mario Brothers and the super mushroom. Your long term goal is to save the princess, your short term goal - staying alive. If you get the mushroom you have more a a chance to save the princess, as you can now take two hits. But since the mushroom moves, towards enemies or into bottomless pits...well how often have you been killed trying to grab that mushroom before it falls in the hole.

Strong stories often make sure that these two goals don't always align.

Jin faces that very choice in City of Walls. Should he dissapoint his friends and give up on the missing piece needed to finish the plane or should he risk his life and go to the dangerous Gamorratown. And oh yes there are consequences to his actions...

BUILDING A STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

I ran across an informative video about female characters. It specifically concerned female video game characters, but it left me with some great points about writing a believable female character. I thought I would share some of those with you.

While he mentioned genetic differences that show up in story, he concentrated on something many writers forget. The societal pressure that shape their lives and reaction to the world.

Societal norms for females just as males are malleable, they are not inherent they are social constructions. A fully developed character reacts to the pressure, they chose to neither fully reject nor fully accept roles forced on them. Notice they do not fully reject these roles as the roles are part of their world. Nor do they fully accept them, your character male or female must stand apart form the crowd.

And as the story progresses, they change as circumstances change. We learn the reasons why they follow or reject certain norms. And hopefully at the end of their journey your character will come to their own conclusions about what society asks of them and how they should react to them.

No other story concerns the conflict of what society demands and what the individual desires more than City of Walls. And of the three children Ariana, the female lead, is the one who learns and grows the most.

The video originated on the "Extra Credit" segment of the Escapist blog.

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