HOW THE DUCK DO I WRITE A VISUAL NOVEL
- Thread starter Weird Duck
- Start date
Lol, I'm in the process of writing at the moment. Here are my thoughts on the subject and what I'm doing:
Character background is good, simply because the background of a character drives their persona. When I'm developing characters, I like to do a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for each of them - are they Introverted/Extroverted, Intuitive/Sensing, Feeling/Thinking, Perceiving/Judging? This will determine how they react to other people - someone who is introverted, sensing, thinking and judging is going to be extremely stand-offish to start with in their conversations with people, because they are constantly analysing things. They'd also be very logical and pragmatic. Whereas a character with an ENFP personality type would be very outgoing and seem to easily interact with anyone.
Look at your story - is it an adventure? Then the MC should be ISFP type, because any adventure story is primarily about the growth within the main character - what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero's Journey. Is it more about social interaction? Then the MC should be more of an ENFP/ENFJ type, because the story is now about how the protagonist interacts with the world, rather than the call to adventure being thrust upon an introverted type.
But then again, maybe your whole story revolves around the fact that the MC is a 'fish out of water' - in that case, anything goes!
Then think about the other characters you have and the environments they grew up in and where they now spend most of their time. An introverted personality isn't going to work in a strip club, for example. Someone who isn't empathetic/feeling isn't going to work as a counsellor.
A good writer is going to be highly empathetic, because you need to be able to literally get inside the mind of your characters and walk around a bit. Maybe the introvert is only an introvert because they were emotionally abused by their parents when they were younger? Then when the MC first meets them, they might take awhile to warm up, but then when they are friends you can't shut them up.
Also remember that drama is the lifeblood of your story. You want people to come across obstacles in their relationships with one another. In fact, their should be a cycle of conflict-resolution-new conflict every 15 minutes. That's what keeps the plot going and the reader turning the page/clicking the mouse. The conflict doesn't have to be a major ordeal - it could be something as simple as 'MC is running late and needs to catch the train before it leaves (conflict)' followed by 'MC catches the train (resolution)'...but then you might add 'In a rush, MC might have forgot to turn off the stove (conflict)', then give the player a choice - go back home (and cause a new conflict at work which ends up with the MC getting fired) or risk it and then come home to find the MCs house burned down (conflict)...
Notice how the conflict and resolution starts small but keeps escalating? That is drama.
Then you might say 'Well hang on, how the fuck can I keep track of all these threads? I'll be writing endlessly!" Well, I like to use a concept that Doctor Who calls a Fixed Point in Time - things that cannot change no matter what happens, that completely reset the narrative. These are milestone events that serve as a checkpoint and usually are when you will want to end the episode if you are releasing periodically. So in our little story, whether the MC gets fired or his house burns down...he still winds up having to live with his best friend.
See how that works? A Fixed Point in Time.
To illustrate - think of how a spider constructs a web.
Bridge line - your main plot
Anchor points - the main branches that the protagonist can follow that are related to the main plot (anchored to the Fixed Point in Time at the start of the story/episode (the introduction) and the Fixed Point in Time at the end of the story/episode (the resolution))
Frame threads - a rough idea how the main characters are going to interact with the protagonist in relation to the main plot
Central hub - the central conflict/drama that is going to happen in this episode (the Fixed Point in Time in the middle of the episode)
Radii - All the different ways the protagonist can arrive at and deal with the central conflict/drama
Auxiliary Spiral - how the main characters relate to each other and deal with the central conflict/drama outside of the influence of the protagonist - this is essential to world building. Main characters will react to all the different solutions that the protagonist comes up with and may end up on a completely different path then they started on.
Capture Spiral - how the protagonist relates to the other main characters and deals with the central conflict/drama. This is what draws the reader in, because most players are going to either self-insert into a story.
But the most important thing is to have fun!
Character background is good, simply because the background of a character drives their persona. When I'm developing characters, I like to do a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for each of them - are they Introverted/Extroverted, Intuitive/Sensing, Feeling/Thinking, Perceiving/Judging? This will determine how they react to other people - someone who is introverted, sensing, thinking and judging is going to be extremely stand-offish to start with in their conversations with people, because they are constantly analysing things. They'd also be very logical and pragmatic. Whereas a character with an ENFP personality type would be very outgoing and seem to easily interact with anyone.
Look at your story - is it an adventure? Then the MC should be ISFP type, because any adventure story is primarily about the growth within the main character - what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero's Journey. Is it more about social interaction? Then the MC should be more of an ENFP/ENFJ type, because the story is now about how the protagonist interacts with the world, rather than the call to adventure being thrust upon an introverted type.
But then again, maybe your whole story revolves around the fact that the MC is a 'fish out of water' - in that case, anything goes!
Then think about the other characters you have and the environments they grew up in and where they now spend most of their time. An introverted personality isn't going to work in a strip club, for example. Someone who isn't empathetic/feeling isn't going to work as a counsellor.
A good writer is going to be highly empathetic, because you need to be able to literally get inside the mind of your characters and walk around a bit. Maybe the introvert is only an introvert because they were emotionally abused by their parents when they were younger? Then when the MC first meets them, they might take awhile to warm up, but then when they are friends you can't shut them up.
Also remember that drama is the lifeblood of your story. You want people to come across obstacles in their relationships with one another. In fact, their should be a cycle of conflict-resolution-new conflict every 15 minutes. That's what keeps the plot going and the reader turning the page/clicking the mouse. The conflict doesn't have to be a major ordeal - it could be something as simple as 'MC is running late and needs to catch the train before it leaves (conflict)' followed by 'MC catches the train (resolution)'...but then you might add 'In a rush, MC might have forgot to turn off the stove (conflict)', then give the player a choice - go back home (and cause a new conflict at work which ends up with the MC getting fired) or risk it and then come home to find the MCs house burned down (conflict)...
Notice how the conflict and resolution starts small but keeps escalating? That is drama.
Then you might say 'Well hang on, how the fuck can I keep track of all these threads? I'll be writing endlessly!" Well, I like to use a concept that Doctor Who calls a Fixed Point in Time - things that cannot change no matter what happens, that completely reset the narrative. These are milestone events that serve as a checkpoint and usually are when you will want to end the episode if you are releasing periodically. So in our little story, whether the MC gets fired or his house burns down...he still winds up having to live with his best friend.
See how that works? A Fixed Point in Time.
To illustrate - think of how a spider constructs a web.
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Bridge line - your main plot
Anchor points - the main branches that the protagonist can follow that are related to the main plot (anchored to the Fixed Point in Time at the start of the story/episode (the introduction) and the Fixed Point in Time at the end of the story/episode (the resolution))
Frame threads - a rough idea how the main characters are going to interact with the protagonist in relation to the main plot
Central hub - the central conflict/drama that is going to happen in this episode (the Fixed Point in Time in the middle of the episode)
Radii - All the different ways the protagonist can arrive at and deal with the central conflict/drama
Auxiliary Spiral - how the main characters relate to each other and deal with the central conflict/drama outside of the influence of the protagonist - this is essential to world building. Main characters will react to all the different solutions that the protagonist comes up with and may end up on a completely different path then they started on.
Capture Spiral - how the protagonist relates to the other main characters and deals with the central conflict/drama. This is what draws the reader in, because most players are going to either self-insert into a story.
But the most important thing is to have fun!
- Jun 16, 2021
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