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WriteHive Workshop
- Olga Ponjee -
- Arnout Brokking -
Arnout Brokking - he/him
Olga Ponjee - she/her
Plot = Characters
& Characters = Plot
Most good stories
combine both.
The conflict that drives your story, influences you characters and vice versa.
A scene should (1) move the plot forward and/or (2) reveal something about a character.
A good source of inspiration is observation
Most characters want something (their goal or want) that they cannot get. Possibly through external factors, but mostly because they are their own worst saboteur/enemy.
Protagonist vs Antagonist
An interesting antagonist:
this against them, forcing them to
change.
BATMAN
(1) Core quality?
(2) Pitfall?
(3) Allergy?
(4) Challenge?
BATMAN
(1) Core quality?
(2) Pitfall?
(3) Allergy?
(4) Challenge?
(1) Order / sense of justice / decisiveness
(2) Vigilante / seeing the world in binary (right/wrong)
(3) Randomness (parents are killed by random thugs) / ambiguity
(4) You cannot control everything / The world is gray / No one is 100% virtuous
BATMAN
(1) Core quality?
(2) Pitfall?
(3) Allergy?
(4) Challenge?
(1) Order / sense of justice / decisiveness
(2) Vigilante / seeing the world in binary (right/wrong)
(3) Randomness (parents are killed by random thugs) / ambiguity
(4) You cannot control everything / The world is gray / No one is 100% virtuous
THE JOKER
(1) Core quality?
(2) Pitfall?
(3) Allergy?
(4) Challenge?
BATMAN
(1) Core quality?
(2) Pitfall?
(3) Allergy?
(4) Challenge?
(1) Order / sense of justice / decisiveness
(2) Vigilante / seeing the world in binary (right/wrong)
(3) Randomness (parents are killed by random thugs) / ambiguity
(4) You cannot control everything / The world is gray / No one is 100% virtuous
THE JOKER
(1) Core quality?
(2) Pitfall?
(3) Allergy?
(4) Challenge?
(1) Chaos / nothing is binary / challenges systems & values
(2) Doesn't believe in anything (not in money, love, death, not even his own history)
(3) Order / knights of morality
(4) There are things worth believing in, there is meaning in your actions
Protagonist vs Antagonist
Can you think of more examples?
Your character wants something, but will fail again and again during the story. Until they learn something about themself.
This knowledge results in a transformation (or not)
What does that transformation look like? How does the plot influence your character, and vice versa?
the WANT is the specific goal of your protagonist at the beginning of the story.
The NEED is the deeper desire (or the deeper wound) of your character; what they truly miss in their life (or the wound they must heal)
want
need
Use your protagonist, antagonist, goals &
genre as foundation for your story structure.
1) Act 1. What does normal life look like for our protagonist? (arena, profession, friends etc)
2) Inciting incident. What is the conflict that sets the action in motion? (Intro antagonist)
3) Act 2. What attempts does the protagonist make to solve the problem? Why and how does it fail? What's the role of the protagonist?
4) Midpoint. At what point does your character realise they have a 'need' that is different from their want?
5) Deep shit point. Self explanatory
6) Climax. Can your character solve the
conflict or not?
7) Act 3. How does it end? Has you
character grown/transformed?
Your character is more than just their troubles, and more than their function in the story.
But how do you turn them into a real person?
(1) Emotions. Ask yourself what your characters are feeling in each and every scene? How do those feelings influence their thoughts and their actions?
(2) Details. Give your characters unique details that tell your readers more about the psychology of your characters.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople: https://vimeo.com/293380887
(1) What are you working on?
(2) What are you struggling with?
(3) What do you want to know more about?
find us on twitter: @olgaponjee & @arnoutbrokking
or instagram: @anachronisma & @itsarnoutbrokking