Thanks again for another helpful lesson. I am familiar with most of it, but it's nice to get a refresher to remind myself how I should write my stories. Too many distractions in life tend to get me to temporarily forget some of this stuff.
I’m not saying never do it. I’m saying don’t let it be all you do. There are other ways to write dialogue that avoid or sparingly use “said.” It is an invisible word to readers even when it’s there and only deemed problematic recently. I’ve traced the issue to English teachers encouraging “creative” dialogue tags in their students.
Gotcha. My main reason for doing that is out-loud readability. I've heard books where said was overused and it can be annoying. Thanks for the article, though, as I learned some very interesting definitions for things I thought I had down.
protagonist, A protagonist is a character, not neccessarily the main character that serves to move the plot along. Dual protagonists would be two characters that work together.
Antagonist is the character that's opposed to the protagonist.
An inciting incident would be incident that starts the story. The inciting incident doesn't have to be at chapter one. It can be prior to chapter one, or it can be long ago. For example, "Back a hundred years or so, the kang stole the flag from the yangs. Fast forward 150 years, some yangs wanna get that flag back.
I would have said that the inciting incident in Star Wars was when the Empire killed his uncle and aunt. That was the point he could leave and didn't have anything holding him on tattione.
This comment demonstrates the issue very well. Lots of characters move the plot along. Dual protagonists are not just two characters who work together. And your "back a hundred years ago..." is the key event, not the inciting incident. The SW inciting incident is Luke finding the recording (call to adventure at 1/8th). The murder of his aunt and uncle is what push him to answer the call of adventure (1/4th). The "call to adventure" and the "answer of the call" are not the same event, but sequential.
This is why I do definitions first.
A protagonist is the character who answers the Story Question. A Story Question is made up of three parts: Will the protagonist be able to achieve his public goal, his personal goal, and his private goal? In Dual Protagonist stories like buddy-cop movies, Romances, and stories like The Woman in Gold, they share the public goal and have separate personal and private goals. In SW it's: Will Luke destroy the Death Star (public), save the princess (personal), and become a Jedi like his father (private)? The story solution (the finale) answers this three part question.
This is why I've done deep dives into this in the past. Search previous posts if you're interested. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks again for another helpful lesson. I am familiar with most of it, but it's nice to get a refresher to remind myself how I should write my stories. Too many distractions in life tend to get me to temporarily forget some of this stuff.
You’re welcome. Thanks for letting me know.
Well, poop. I've been using the physical beats -> dialog process to eradicate the million-and-one 'he said' I end up writing.
I’m not saying never do it. I’m saying don’t let it be all you do. There are other ways to write dialogue that avoid or sparingly use “said.” It is an invisible word to readers even when it’s there and only deemed problematic recently. I’ve traced the issue to English teachers encouraging “creative” dialogue tags in their students.
New post on this topic: https://open.substack.com/pub/monalisafostertheauthor/p/why-said-is-your-best-friend?r=c85df&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Gotcha. My main reason for doing that is out-loud readability. I've heard books where said was overused and it can be annoying. Thanks for the article, though, as I learned some very interesting definitions for things I thought I had down.
protagonist, A protagonist is a character, not neccessarily the main character that serves to move the plot along. Dual protagonists would be two characters that work together.
Antagonist is the character that's opposed to the protagonist.
An inciting incident would be incident that starts the story. The inciting incident doesn't have to be at chapter one. It can be prior to chapter one, or it can be long ago. For example, "Back a hundred years or so, the kang stole the flag from the yangs. Fast forward 150 years, some yangs wanna get that flag back.
I would have said that the inciting incident in Star Wars was when the Empire killed his uncle and aunt. That was the point he could leave and didn't have anything holding him on tattione.
This comment demonstrates the issue very well. Lots of characters move the plot along. Dual protagonists are not just two characters who work together. And your "back a hundred years ago..." is the key event, not the inciting incident. The SW inciting incident is Luke finding the recording (call to adventure at 1/8th). The murder of his aunt and uncle is what push him to answer the call of adventure (1/4th). The "call to adventure" and the "answer of the call" are not the same event, but sequential.
This is why I do definitions first.
A protagonist is the character who answers the Story Question. A Story Question is made up of three parts: Will the protagonist be able to achieve his public goal, his personal goal, and his private goal? In Dual Protagonist stories like buddy-cop movies, Romances, and stories like The Woman in Gold, they share the public goal and have separate personal and private goals. In SW it's: Will Luke destroy the Death Star (public), save the princess (personal), and become a Jedi like his father (private)? The story solution (the finale) answers this three part question.
This is why I've done deep dives into this in the past. Search previous posts if you're interested. Thanks for the comment.
I found this article both insightful and inciteful.