![Mi's Writing Classroom: Lesson 6 [Preparation Assignment] Narrative Methods and Storyboards (Part 2)](https://og.vista.tw/mis-writing-classroom-lesson-6-preparation.png)
Mi's Writing Classroom: Lesson 6 [Preparation Assignment] Narrative Methods and Storyboards (Part 2)
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The author of this article まろ is the author of the light novel “Southern Cross”. He hopes to use his own experience to help more friends write good stories. Thank you for authorizing the “Content Hacker” website to reprint it. Thank you hereby.
The premise is that soul, conflict, and context are the sinews, and narrative is the muscle.
Recently, netizens have been asking me about “how to write good novels”. Therefore, I organized my experience in writing light novels into 34 themes, divided into three stages: [Preparation Assignment], [Plot Process] and [Writing Management].
Whether you want to write a novel, a biography, or a business history, these articles can help. No matter what your writing level is, I will guide you through the two stages of [preparation] and [plot flow] to complete a piece of work, so start right away!
With a movie-like visual narrative, the words you write turn into scenes.
Wow haha! For a storyboard geek like me, it’s such a joy to be able to write this! But it may be a scary journey for you. don’t worry! This article does not affect our practice in [plot flow]. It is written for friends who have already mastered the basic narrative, so that you will not feel that I have spent so much space on the premise, conflict, characters, world view and context, but the narrative has been simply covered.
As long as you have actually read Part 1 [Narrator and Point of View] (click to read), you will definitely be able to complete the exercise! There is no need to force yourself to challenge the same narrative method as this article. I will teach you as much detail as possible in the following courses of [Text Tonality], [Detailed Storyboarding], [Five Sense Writing], and [Special Expression Forms]. (It seems quite astonishing when I think there are 28 more lessons to come)
In the last article, I touched upon the unreliable narrator a little bit. If it is a strict definition, it means that the characters in the play give readers wrong information due to certain factors, such as lying, amnesia, and memory confusion. So generally speaking, you must use foreshadowing to hint that the narrator may be an unreliable narrator, otherwise the reader may not be able to accept the big reversal ending.
This is perhaps the biggest failure in the history of dramas: “The entire work is the protagonist’s dream.”
So, can an omniscient narrator become an unreliable narrator? Definitely not! Since you are omniscient, how can you be unreliable? As for narrators with objective viewpoints, it is recommended not to be unreliable narrators, because this violates the definition of objectivity.
Okay, taking the modified omniscient point of view as an example, how can you be an unreliable narrator? We mentioned it in the previous article, let me find another example to show you:
”…” Aguang, who was silent, also realized that his opponent’s level seemed to be higher than he expected. He secretly sighed in his heart, “I didn’t expect it to be such a torturous battle…” Perhaps he also regretted watching the interaction between Sahara and Strawberry at such a close distance.
Although the narrator clearly pointed out Aguang’s sigh, he made a speculative conclusion about “whether he regrets it.” Of course, it was just to save A Guang some face, and it was also a foreshadowing.
So, is this the only way? Can we only make hypothetical speculations about the character’s state of mind? Of course not only.
“So come back to the shrine with me to make a wish. I was interrupted by those two idiots just now. Just give it to me as some change.” Strawberry said with a smile.
“Oh? Did you know that if two people make the same wish, they can be happy?”
Sahara patted his pants and stood up. At that moment, Strawberry’s expression was concealed by the backlight.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you the day we went to the amusement park together. Do you know a girl with the same surname as you, named Yizhi? Because your surname is very special, I thought she might be a relative of yours.” After Zuo Yuan finished speaking, he laughed awkwardly.
”…Did you call me the wrong name the day you watched the movie?” The corners of Strawberry’s mouth trembled a little.
The wind that blew by chance flapped her bright red bangs that were a little orange in the sun, cleverly hiding her expression.
The above two examples represent that the narrator is also present and is also affected by physical factors. This approach is to deliberately make the narrator very close to the character’s point of view, and to completely deliberately obscure important clues. This cannot be used frequently, but can be used occasionally to create a suspenseful atmosphere.
In addition, sometimes, we can deliberately withdraw and turn the narrator into a modified objective point of view, such as:
Late at night, Strawberry sneaked outside the wooden house. Leaning against the cold wall next to the door, against the rough and uneven surface of the wood. The silver moonlight reflected in her eyes, her lips pursed slightly, and she secretly made up her mind…
The narrator made it clear what he wanted to say, because he clearly described Yizhi’s posture and expression, but only gave the sentence “I secretly made up my mind.” The purpose is to create a foreshadowing that “Yizhi has had some changes in his heart”. If you pull away more it will look like this:
“Stop saying those self-defeating words! Don’t you want to fulfill your agreement with Sahara? Or do you want me to kill him?”
The blond boy shouted excitedly. The red-haired girl lying on the hospital bed looked at him with tears in her eyes. Outside the window of the ward, late spring cherry blossoms were falling like rain, which seemed to echo the conversation between this young boy and girl.
“Don’t…I beg you please don’t…”
The girl’s sobs stuck in her throat, cutting into the boy’s body.
Seeing her like this, the boy felt heartbroken.
“Please at least give me a chance to confront him openly. Yizhi, let me prove it to you.”
Although the narrator brings out the physical characteristics of the character, he does not name the character. But in the character dialogue, you will still know who the character is. In a movie or animation, it’s probably like deliberately covering the character’s eyes with shadows.
Strictly speaking, I am not sure whether the above unreliable narrator meets the academic definition. But it’s fun, give it a try if you’re interested.
Next, I would like to ask, where do you think the limit of textual narrative is?
Although in practice, a compromise must be made between accuracy and rhythm, but…
I think written narrative can do anything.
After walking into the box on the second floor of the theater, looking down, I saw ladies in richly decorated clothes chatting artificially among the golden and shining seats. It seems that they can be heard discussing whose peacock feathers are tacky and whose diamond ring is actually a bargain.
Ever since the beginning, I had no intention of seeing what was going on on stage until…
“Alas! Give me some datura juice. 』
The high and sharp voice of the actress sent this sentence into my mind, as close as a whisper and as lingering as the ringing of a bell. Under the spotlight, the voluptuous heroine sat lazily on a throne decorated with tiger skin. She had black eyeliner on her fair face, and the golden bracelets on her wrists were like thin snakes. When she twisted her body in a pretentious manner, the large chest ornament made of gemstones on her chest shone with colorful light.
As if being hypnotized. I got up, walked towards the arched opera window, stepped on the seat and stood on the window frame…
───Let me sleep through this long period of time.
“Princess Thearese! Come down quickly!”
The boy’s voice caused the mirage-like image to collapse. The gorgeous theater, filled with elegant carvings and crystal candlesticks, and the people all turned into quicksand and disappeared without a trace, leaving only Thea Reese standing on the side wall of the top floor of the sanatorium.
Under the bright moonlight, the corneas of Siarese’s amber eyes reflected the silver-blue water halo. The cool plateau night breeze blew through her soft curly hair and skirt. She placed her hands behind her back, and a gentle smile appeared on her face.
“Good night… unknown friend.”
Siarese, who was completely different from the daytime person, stood leisurely on the side wall, seemingly unaware that falling straight from the fifth floor was not fun.
You must have noticed that two things happened at the same time in this plot. When Siarese walked onto the theater window frame, the entire background collapsed because of the boy’s voice, and the narrative point of view was changed from the first person to the third person. What’s clever is that in Siarese’s memory, she was standing in the window frame of the theater, and when she came to her senses, she was standing on the side wall of the top floor. This is the film-style storyboard narrative technique, and this paragraph:
”…Yes. I didn’t say that.”
The tears in his eyes fell down again, dripping on the chest of the boy’s uniform. But this time there was a smile in the tears, and Ciaresse, whose shoulders were shaking, wiped away the tears with her fingers.
“Then…are you okay?”
“Speaking of this… I may need to trouble you to find a priest… My eyes seem to have turned dark.”
“Hey! Wake up!”
The young man who fell to the ground closed his eyes, and no matter how much Siyarese called, she couldn’t wake him up.
“Huh?” Where is this? 』
There was darkness in front of me, and a sense of emptiness like a black hole. The curiosity that draws me forward is at war with the rationality that worries me about missing a step and falling.
“Ah! East, can you come here for a moment?”
“Is this…Dad’s voice?” 』
A familiar voice called my name from behind, and I turned around subconsciously.
In an instant, the light extended along my line of sight and illuminated the surroundings.
The large stone pillars made of neatly stacked beige stones are engraved with the vulture totem composed of geometric patterns such as concentric circles, trapezoids and cones. The lonely stone pillar stood on the vast grassland, like a punished giant holding up the sky. It was so heavy and lonely.
The altar-like trapezoidal building seems to be missing the upper half of the pyramid, with layers of stone bases stacked upward at the same internal distance. On the four corners of the top are placed the heads of patron saints with columns as the base, showing two rows of square teeth in an exaggerated expression, and wearing a leather hat decorated with various bird feathers and animal teeth.
Is He mocking the world? Maybe.
After the boy passes out, we change the scene and go from third person to first person. And after the boy turned around, the originally dark background suddenly lit up.
The next storyboard should be considered my masterpiece. (laughing)
“Look at the gift I’m going to give you this time, right?”
Holding Siyarese’s chin, the man whispered in her ear in a lewd tone.
In an instant, the gray clouds and fog disappeared without a trace, and the gun battle in the brightly lit hangar was frozen.
The dark machine holding the tip of the obsidian sword against the ground looks like a reappearance of ancient mythological sculptures. Leopard prints, tassels, feathers and tooth-shaped totems are inlaid with gold, surrounding and climbing on the matte armor like stone slabs. The arrogant expression on his face is like a beast showing its fangs, seeming to despise everything in the world.
Metholia’s soldiers, standing still in a running posture on the scaffolding and walkway, fired at it. Strictly speaking, it was strafing, but the flight of all bullets was stopped in progress. You can see the heated orange tail of the warhead and the distortion caused by the pressure, and the bullet casings thrown out of the gun are still in the air. The air flow that each bullet cuts through the air and is slightly separated from the top is clearly visible, and the flames ejected from the barrel’s flash cap also maintain a snarling attitude.
The HRN-28 pilot who was also in the hangar was about to climb into the cockpit of the aircraft and join the battle. His expression seemed to be shouting and yelling, commanding the infantrymen who were firing madly to cover; another HRN-28 outside the hangar opened the steel shed door with his hand and pointed his 40mm cannon rifle at the chest of the black body, which is the cockpit.
“Look. The beautiful destroying angel Uluvapata, we meet again.”
Unable to suppress the ecstasy in his heart, the man shouted excitedly at the black machine.
”…Who’s in the cockpit?”
Siarese’s voice was as weak as if the air had been sucked out of her lungs, and her trembling lips finally managed to utter these words.
“What are you talking about?”
The joking and teasing tone is like saying “You should know, right?”
“Ever since you entered that pagan’s life, you were destined to etch his miserable fate.”
The cold words came out of the man’s mouth, causing the tears in Siarese’s eyes to flow.
Time pauses and scans the room.
It’s very interesting~ The above three paragraphs are all selected from my experimental work “AuroraThe Grace of the Cursed God”, I had a lot of fun with this work. If you are interested, you can take a look at the first chapter released so far.
You must now understand the power of storyboarding. To use marketing terminology, it is how to guide the other party “without any sense of friction”. Let’s take a look at the opening of “Southern Cross”:
Midsummer.
The blue night that had just arrived was too late to take away the burning heat in the wind (sky scene). The wind chimes and the chirping of cicadas are silent, releasing a sense of laziness in the air (in a corner of the house). The boy was taking a nap in the Japanese-style wooden corridor, leaning against the wall and the low cabinet in the corner (house corridor). At this time, Aoi’s phone rang (zoom in).
“Wow!” The boy who stood up in a hurry fell down. (Full view of the character)
“I…my feet are actually numb! How long have I been waiting for?!” The boy’s incredible whine and phone ringing echoed throughout the small two-story building.
“Ah… Hello, Sawara family. Ayuya? Yes, I’m waiting for your call… eh?” The boy who answered the phone immediately had a friendly and cheerful tone and expression, but was suddenly stunned. (Cut to half-length view of the character)
“Is that so… Sure enough, it still doesn’t work? It doesn’t matter. Let’s hang out together when you come back to town!” The young man couldn’t hide his lonely expression, but he still managed to smile. (close-up of expression)
“Well, I will go to the festival, and I will snatch all the snacks you like! Then I will take pictures of you eating them! Envy! Wow hahahahaha!!” He laughed exaggeratedly, as if telling the girl on the other end of the phone, “It’s okay, don’t worry, I will be happy alone.”
“Then, goodbye…”
“Beep…beep…beep…beep…beep…”
The boy who calmed down as the conversation ended couldn’t bear to put down the microphone in his hand (zoomed out, probably a half-length view of the character). The only sound in the room was the beeping sound coming from the microphone (continued to zoom out).
Maybe you’ve noticed a spectrum: Objective descriptions with a low level of emotion create a feeling of being far away from the character; conversely, omniscient or subjective descriptions that emphasize the character’s body or facial expressions create a feeling of being closer to the character.
Therefore, you can create a movie-like storyboard effect by switching the narrative point of view and focus.
At the end of this lesson, let’s take a look at the original text at the end of the first season of “Southern Cross”, and the comic storyboard.
The moment he took the step, Strawberry grabbed Sawara’s sleeve.
“If your kiss could lift my curse, would you choose the princess or me?”
The soft conversation penetrated Sawara’s body from behind.
He turned around slowly and stiffly, only to see Strawberry’s moist rose-colored eyes staring closely at him.
───Don’t make me reluctant to part with you. You know cats can change their minds easily, right?
So close that you can feel the breath and the beating heartbeat.
The world becomes silent, just like the night we first met, the background has become patches of halo. In his eyes, only Strawberry’s deep eyes seemed to be able to stop the world from turning.
The delicate face as white as porcelain and the gently pursed red lips are still waiting for his answer.
───In this way, we are even?
Just like the night of the festival in late summer.
The moment before the world turns around again, the faint scent of lavender comes from the strawberry hair.
Has the bitter taste of sea water.
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If this class makes you interested in storyboarding and wants to challenge it, that would be great. It’s just that the storyboard narrative is very complicated. It’s like asking a movie director and photographer “how to shoot a movie.” I can’t yet estimate how much space would be needed to tell the narrative storyboard in detail. It’s definitely a lot, though.
After you have learned the basic narrative, you can try to translate your favorite movies into words, especially the scenes that are unforgettable for you! The next article is [Midterm exam: write homework and send novel] special event (click to read), you are invited to participate.
If you have any thoughts and suggestions about this article, please feel free to write to maro.huang@hukaka.com and I will reply to you personally. If you are interested, here is further reading for this class:
Further reading
- まろ’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 6 [Preparation Assignment] Narrative Methods and Storyboarding (Part 1)
- Misaki’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 7 [Plot Process] Prologue (Part 2)
- Misaki’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 7 [Plot Process] Prologue (Part 2)
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