まろ’s writing classroom: Lesson 6 [Preparation Assignment] Narrative Methods and Storyboards (Part 1)

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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!

The key to the success or failure of a narrative lies in whether the reader can be possessed by the character?

Welcome back to the writing classroom! This article [Narrative Methods and Storyboarding] is the last unit of [Preparation Assignment]. This unit is very special. The techniques you will learn can be used not only in writing novels, biographies, and corporate history, but also in travel notes and reports. But in order to get everyone practicing quickly, this class will not introduce narrative in great detail. When it comes to the [Writing Management] stage, it will be explained in detail in the units of [Text Tonality], [Detailed Storyboarding], [Five Sense Writing], and [Special Forms of Expression].

Having said that, narrative is a vast territory in writing. This class will be divided into basic [narrator and point of view] and advanced [storyboarding techniques] for teaching. As long as you learn the basic narrative methods, you can practice writing [plot flow]!

Before starting the course, I would like to remind you that although narrative techniques can be independent of the various drama elements in the second to fifth lessons, to complete a complete play, it is recommended that you start from “まろ’s writing classroom” tag” Make sure you have read the first to fifth lessons. If you don’t want to create a fantasy story, you can skip Lesson 5 (Part 1).

Okay, for the convenience of the following explanation, I will first define the sentence structure of an article, in order from smallest to largest:

2. Sentence: A short text ending with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark, separated by blank lines before and after. When writing a novel, the character dialogue itself is a “sentence”, and the narrative that follows the dialogue is also a “sentence”. But when shorter dialogue and narrative sentences are joined together, we can still treat it as a “sentence.” You may want to ask, what if the dialogue itself has more than one period? If it’s something like “Ah. That’s it.” Of course it’s still a “sentence.” The most important feature of a sentence is that it is short, usually within one line. For example:

(blank line)

“Where.” Following a slight inhalation, the world turned again.

(blank line)

4. Paragraph: Multiple sentences are directly connected together, either head to tail, or front to back. The entire “paragraph” is separated by blank lines. Usually in a “paragraph”, there will be a slight plot twist. I personally recommend that the “paragraph” should not exceed ten lines, for example:

(blank line)

“I…I’m leaving, please be careful.” The boy whose face was dyed as red as a girl’s hair hurriedly got up.

“Eh? I’m sorry. It was my fault this time. I went too far. I’m really sorry. Sahara-kun, please forgive me.”

But the girl grabbed her sleeve, her pleading expression seemed to be saying “So, please don’t leave.” The girl put away her exaggerated smile and lowered her long eyelashes to cover her sadness. That expression caught the young man’s gaze, and the world seemed as silent as the two of them alone. Everything else is just the background to set off the girl, and the light shed for it.

(blank line)

6. Section: It is composed of multiple paragraphs that complete the small events (conflicts) in a chapter. They are usually separated by special symbols. For example, I prefer to use multiple groups of ”****” symbols to separate them. In a “section”, a small event must be triggered and resolved, which is usually the smallest unit of serialization. For example, the “one of” in the “first chapter of one” in the serialization of “Southern Cross” means “the first section”.

7. Chapter: consists of multiple sections and must be a medium to large event (conflict). In other words, all “sections” in a “chapter” must continue to accumulate small conflicts. At the end of a chapter, if the relationship between the characters has not changed significantly, it will be a drag. For example, the “first chapter” in the serialization of “Southern Cross” means “the first chapter”.

8. Chapter: It consists of multiple chapters. The concept of “Chapter” is a bit vague. Some stories are divided into “main biography” and “side story”, which can be said to be “Chapter”. In addition, some stories are divided into “seasons”, and each season can also be said to be a chapter. You can think of the concept of “episode” as “the scale of a complete story.” So “Southern Cross” and “Southern Cross: Season 1” are both “episodes”!

Why do we need to define “section, paragraph, sentence” first? Because it is very important to the narrator. Next, let’s take a look at the narrators. There are generally five types of narrators:

• Objective point of view: News reports that only describe the situation, such as “This bowl of shaved ice is topped with jam”.

• Revised objective point of view: reports with the narrator’s emotions, such as “This bowl of shaved ice is drizzled with jam, it looks so delicious!”

• First-person subjective point of view: Narrating from the protagonist’s perspective, for example “‘Wow!’ I took a bite. Oh my God! How can this jam shaved ice be so delicious!?”

• Omniscient point of view: narrated from the perspective of others, but can convey the feelings of the narrated person, such as ""Wow!” Yuki yelled, and the deliciousness of the shaved ice shocked him.”

• Modified omniscient point of view: Narrating from the perspective of others, conveying or guessing the feelings of the narrated person, such as ""Wow!” Yuki shouted. Is it because of sensitive teeth or is it too delicious? But looking at the happy expression on his face, it must be very delicious.”

Generally speaking, the point of view must be the same in “sentence” and “paragraph”. For example:

_“Wow!” I took a bite. Oh my God! How can this jam shaved ice be so delicious! ? _

_Old K also took a bite of shaved ice and thought it was super delicious. _

Did you find anything strange? Because the first sentence is a first-person subjective point of view, but the second sentence becomes an omniscient point of view. Based on literal descriptions, how could the narrator know how Old K felt. So we can change it to this:

_“Wow!” I took a bite. Oh my God! How can this jam shaved ice be so delicious! ? _

_Looking back, Old K also took a bite of shaved ice. Judging from his intoxicated look, he must also find it delicious. _

The purpose of “paragraph” is to use a point of view or narrator to give a simple description. Therefore, changing paragraphs is not about leaving blank lines randomly. It is when you decide to change a point of view or narrator to make a statement, or when you deliberately create a short pause before changing paragraphs. Like this example of switching narrators from a modified omniscient point of view:

“Ah? Guang, you are really early today.”

Jogging into Strawberry in Maple Park, I found a familiar figure already warming up. (Yizhi’s vision)

“I remembered what happened before, so I couldn’t sleep, so I came out early.” A Guang said.

”…” Strawberry’s expression showed a hint of gloom. (Yizhi’s emotions)

“Are you… angry with me? It’s all because of me…”

“No. You think too much, Yizhi.”

A Guang decisively clamped down on Strawberry’s words (changed to A Guang’s point of view). The early morning light reflected on his blond hair, giving it a silvery texture. The hooded sports coat he is wearing is the same style as Strawberry (based on Guang’s clothing). The two of them were four or five steps apart, with the cold wind passing through them.

So, why does the third paragraph switch to A Guang’s point of view? Because his next response to Yizhi is very important, we must turn our focus to Aguang. Unless you use an omniscient point of view, the narrator’s emotions about other characters are based on speculation based on external manifestations. You have to switch points of view to show the deep emotions of each character.

Speaking of which, you probably won’t ask me “Which point of view is better for writing novels?”. I would recommend that you use a modified omniscient point of view and occasionally use a bit of objective point of view and omniscient point of view. If you write travel notes or reports, of course you should use a modified objective point of view and a first-person subjective point of view, which will be more emotional.

Well, I guess you’re asking, why not recommend the omniscient point of view or the first-person subjective point of view? The main reason why the omniscient point of view is not recommended is that the omniscient point of view is too powerful and you cannot hide it from readers, so it lacks the beauty of ambiguity and hazyness. For example:

“Since I brought you here, I won’t regret it.” Aguang walked towards Strawberry. In the air, their body temperatures touched each other.

“But I’ve said it before, I don’t just want you to see Zuo Yuan. I hope that after you see him, you will realize that the person who has tied you up for more than ten years is just the perfect boy of your own imagination. I want you to give up.”

”…Hmm.” Facing Aguang who was slowly approaching, Strawberry only responded helplessly.

“I still want to say it.” Strawberry, who was supported by Aguang’s shoulders, shivered reflexively.

You saw the actions of Aguang and Yizhi, but do you know their mood at this time? Why don’t I write it out? I just want you to think about it (laughing). Because I didn’t specify the emotion clearly, readers would make guesses based on their own experience, which would create tension. So next, I have to let the readers put their minds down.

After saying that, Aguang hugged Strawberry, who was trembling all over. Tears welled up in Strawberry’s eyes, but her body seemed to be stiff and unable to move. Maybe she also wanted to hold A Guang, but she couldn’t.

“God…why can’t I just have A Guang in my heart?” A Guang is always so kind to me, but I can’t forget A Zhe. Do I have to torture me like this? 』 There were tears in Strawberry’s eyes, and the guilt solidified throughout her body, making it difficult for her to breathe.

The narrator in the above paragraph gradually increases his confidence in his opinion, from “Maybe she…” to “Let her…”. This paragraph clearly expresses Yizhi’s emotions. She is frozen not because she hates A Guang but can’t run away. But in her heart, her feelings for Aguang and Zuo Yuan were almost equal, so she couldn’t give any response. The ambiguity caused by limitations, this precisely controlled unreliable narrator, is the greatest charm of the revised omniscient point of view! One writer described the novel creation process as “possession”, and I quite agree. During the creative process, the author was possessed by each character one after another to write down their own opinions and feelings. In this way, readers will also feel the process of being possessed by the characters.

So, as long as your story is empathetic and relatable, in omniscient and modified omniscient points of view, you can make readers relate to all the characters! This is more difficult to achieve from the first-person subjective point of view (in theory, it may not be possible). The first-person protagonist can only speculate on other people’s thoughts. Unless your first-person protagonist can convey the emotions of other characters well (or even read minds), your readers can only resonate with the protagonist.

However, there is a trap in the first-person subjective point of view. You will see many “private novels” of celebrities, which may not necessarily have a deep understanding of the emotions of other characters, but they still sell well. “Private novels” of celebrities are a kind of disguised autobiography. The target of sale is fans, so it is mainly to satisfy the fans’ desire to peek at their idols. This is different from ordinary fictional novels!

It cannot be denied that both subjective and omniscient perspectives have their advantages. So, can the above two perspectives be combined in one work? The answer is yes, but it must be divided into “sections”, “sections” and “chapters”. Since changing viewpoints requires definition, changing subjective and omniscient viewpoints during segmentation will require some transformations, such as waking up from memories, waking up from dreams, after passing out, etc. This writing method will be more experimental, and there will be examples in the next article, but I will not explain it in detail yet.

Finally, let’s talk about interludes and flashbacks. Unless you are writing a chronicle, you will definitely use interludes. Narrative is to temporarily go back to the past in order to explain important events during the story, and then switch back when the explanation is completed. For example:

“Yizhi…?” Zuo Yuan blurted out the name.

“You missed the last word, Sahara-san.”

Strawberry’s mysterious smile and this sexy pose that she didn’t realize were all exactly the same as the night of the festival (an important event).

“Well, I suddenly feel that this is too cheap for you.” (The narration of important events begins)

At the goldfish fishing stall, Strawberry stepped away from Zuo Yuan and stood up quickly, causing Zuo Yuan to turn her head quickly to avoid seeing her short skirt exposed.

After explaining what happened “on the night of the festival”, we need to switch back to the timeline.

”…I’m sorry, I talked too much.” Sahara, realizing that he was nosy, let go of Strawberry’s shoulders.

”…Poof.” Strawberry smiled.

“You are such a strange guy.” She smiled brightly. (The incident in the narrative is resolved)

As brilliant as the shining stars in the night sky. (Abstract brilliance)

So brilliant that it overlaps with a distant memory.

It was so brilliant that it seemed to penetrate every corner of Zuo Yuan’s heart.

The last memory of tonight is so brilliant that it is almost pure white. (Like the dazzling brightness of a movie theater screen)

“After tonight…I only exist to protect you.” 』(Switch back to the original timeline, and the dialogue is foreshadowing)

On the big screen, the male protagonist, whose steel armor was in tatters, used his whole body to support the huge cement roof and twisted steel bars when the building was about to collapse on the heroine. In the opened mask, his expression was full of sweat but he pretended to be relaxed, flashing with pain and struggle from time to time.

Therefore, never use narration or monologue to explain the world view and the character’s past at the beginning of the story. Please begin the prologue events immediately after a minimum of explanation. As for the explanation of major events, just use narration to complete it!

As for flashbacks, the most classic one should be the first sentence of One Hundred Years of Solitude:

Years later, when Colonel Bondia faced a firing squad, he would be reminded of that distant afternoon when his father took him to find ice.

What! The reader is hinted at the very beginning that the protagonist will die! ? Flashbacks use the climax of the entire work to elevate the foreshadowing at the beginning to suspense. I have to admit, this narrative is really powerful. But at the same time, if this climax is really the only climax, the negative comments from readers will also be very powerful.

Because the reader knows the climax of the story from the beginning, and reads the story with the mood of “I really want to know how this climax will explode.” If there is no more powerful climax, it will be like a movie with all the essence cut into the trailer. The audience will feel that it is a waste of money and time after watching it.

Flashbacks and switching of point of view and person are perhaps the most difficult parts of narrative methods to master, so there is no need to rush to pursue them at the beginning. If you don’t have to express yourself in this way because you have a certain image in your mind, then it’s just a matter of showing off your skills.

We will see many interesting practices in Next article [Storyboarding Skills] (click to read). If you have mastered the basic skills of this article, you are welcome to give it a try!

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Further reading

• Misaki’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 6 [Preparation Assignment] Narrative Methods and Storyboarding (Part 2)
• 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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