Consult the Wall.

samsevern · Mar 17, 2012

Hey guys,

I had an idea the other day when in class, we received a paper that showed the pyramid known as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Here is a picture that shows it well.
That chart seemed like something that would be a good guideline to have at hand when trying to decide what would be the most natural thing for your character to do next, or maybe even when creating a new character. It reminded me of the "Hero's Journey" chart, which I thought might come in handy every now and then when your plot is stuck.

Also, I need to redecorate my walls.

So my idea was to find a bunch of charts and pictures like those two, add a bunch of pictures for tropes such as a picture of a red herring for a "red herring", and put them all together, hanging an enormous conglomerate of papers on my wall, so that whenever I'm stuck in the story, I can suavely spin my chair around and consult the wall. If I'm lucky, the charts will help me out, or just the right trope will catch my eye.

What do you guys think?
Any ideas on what else to hang up on my wall? I can't really come up with any charts besides the two I mentioned.

Cheers

SomethingOrOther · Mar 17, 2012

Great idea. I especially love Maslow's pyramid. I imagine using it sort of like this:

Writer sits in his writing room, staring at the screen. He hasn't written a word in twenty minutes. He's stuck--his character, Eli, has no goal.

Wait, I hung up Maslow's pyramid on my wall, Writer thinks. Goals are often a result of something important to a character being threatened. But which of these things can I threaten? The number of options I have is overwhelming.

Writer picks up a dart. Okay, I'll use whichever one I hit. He throws the dart. It lands on excretion. Writer smiles--yes, finally, an idea--and begins to write.

Eli had to poo, but his toilet was angry.

"I don't want to be pooed in anymore," flushed his toilet. "And stop leaving my seat up. It always makes your wife angry."

samsevern · Mar 17, 2012

SomethingOrOther said:
Great idea. I especially love Maslow's pyramid. I imagine using it sort of like this:

Writer sits in his writing room, staring at the screen. He hasn't written a word in twenty minutes. He's stuck--his character, Eli, has no goal.

Wait, I hung up Maslow's pyramid on my wall, Writer thinks. Goals are often a result of something important to a character being threatened. But which of these things can I threaten? The number of options I have is overwhelming.

Writer picks up a dart. Okay, I'll use whichever one I hit. He throws the dart. It lands on excretion. Writer smiles--yes, finally, an idea--and begins to write.
Eli had to poo, but his toilet was angry.

"I don't want to be pooed in anymore," flushed his toilet. "And stop leaving my seat up. It always makes your wife angry."

Exactly.

Jamesaritchie · Mar 18, 2012

I'd never go trough this in order to write something, but if it works for you, it works for you. And I'd never try to guide my character's actions this way, but whatever floats your boat is what you should do.

Susan Coffin · Mar 18, 2012

Sam,

It is important to find what works for you. Some people love charts and outlines and tropes (just heard that word for the first time last year.

), and all kinds of other things to work from. They don't work for me, because the more I relied on outside sources to shape my characters the more stifled my stories felt.

it seems to me that charts as described in your original post are based on some cardboard cutout and do not show how people would naturally react, but perhaps show some kind of normal mid-line. The truth is, due to background and life experience, no person reacts the same way to any given situation. For example, take siblings who share some childhood life changing incident. None of them will remember it exactly the same way, and the same experience shapes them all in different ways.

It is the same with stories. Your characters' emotions and reactions will come from how they react based on their life experiences because you, the writer, know every little thing about them.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.

Domino Derval · Mar 18, 2012

We don't need no education.

We don't need no thought control.

Susan Coffin · Mar 18, 2012

Domino, singing that song to my mother when I was a teen got me in a lot of trouble....

samsevern · Mar 19, 2012

Thanks for your responses.

I see what you mean, that this would cramp up my writing and make my characters unnaturally regular, but I see this more as a guideline. It's not like I'm going to go "Well, Sid definitely needs to preserve himself, so he's gonna run away now" when it makes much more sense to say "Throughout the entire story, Sid has learned to become a strong, ruthless fighter whose top proirity is to defend his comrades".

The thing is, I've often had points in stories where I needed to advance the plot and, in my haste, simply made the MC do something completely random and irrational. Like, for instance, an untrained human MC who has never been in am fight in his entire life joining up with a veteran mercenary who has magic powers to fight a demon. If I'd had the pyramid to help me, I'd at least have spent a little time getting that to make sense.

In any case, I thank you once more, and shall now return to wasting time as I have no school today.

Cheers

Consult the Wall.

samsevern

Chasm Dweller

SomethingOrOther

-

samsevern

Chasm Dweller

Jamesaritchie

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

Domino Derval

FREAKING OUT!

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

samsevern

Chasm Dweller