Inventing Reality Editing Service Blog

Sometimes for dramatic effect, writers employ a “false ending.” In this technique, after readers think the climax has been reached, the villain comes back one last time for a confrontation. An example is the first “Terminator” movie in which Sarah O’Connor apparently has destroyed the robot from the future in a steel factory. The Terminator’s metal skeleton rises from the flames, however, to pursue Sarah. The false ending actually is the last scene of the rising action.

Tags: climax, false ending, main character, plot, rising action, villain

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When developing your story, you’ll want your characters to face a number of challenges or conflicts. One of the most basic of them is man vs. man. In this conflict, the main characters find his goals jeopardized by another individual: a stormtrooper shooting at them, a Klingon arguing with them in a space station cantina, a lowly human turning our astronauts in to the sadistic ape overlords.

At its basest, man vs. man conflict is just two people taking on one another, with our hero usually winning. At its best, this conflict can symbolically test competing ideas and ethical solutions. A character represents one approach to a problem while the other represents an alternative path. All too often, these representations are reduced to simplistic views of good and evil. But by showing each characters’ motivations and needs, the story’s theme gains depth while the dramatic tension soars. 

A good example of man vs. man conflict is “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” The story clearly revolves around two people: Khan and Admiral Kirk. The motivations of each are given: Khan wants revenge upon Kirk for marooning him on a planet that then underwent an ecological disaster and that killed his wife. Kirk feels a responsibility to protect the civilized world from Kahn, a disposed dictator and product of genetic engineering who he had defeated several years before. They play an extensive game of cat and mouse with one another in an effort to win. In the end, Kirk wins because his motivations are not based on revenge but doing what his right by others.

You Do It
Write a 250-word piece in which your main character, to achieve his goal, must overcome another character. Make clear that each has worthy motivations in wanting to defeat the other.

Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

Tags: character, conflict, man vs. man, plot, villain

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In most stories, someone causes the problem that vexes the main character. This character is called the antagonist.

Examples of well-known antagonists include Q in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episodes, Darth Vader in “Star Wars IV: A New Hope” and the Lunar Authority soldiers in Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.

Usually a story is not told from the antagonist’s perspective. In fact, often the antagonist is a flat, cardboard character whose sole reason for existence is to cause trouble. This was one of the complaints “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry had of the Klingons in “The Original Series”.

Obviously the main character needs to be the focus of your story, and so the antagonist in contrast will not be as developed. Still, you want to think a lot about the antagonist and give him more a deeper motives than green, lust or evil. He’s arguably the second most important character of your story, after all, the reason why there’s even a story to tell. By developing a backstory for the antagonist’s motivations, you can create thematic tension. The antagonist’s motivations can be paralleled with and contrasted to the protagonist’s motivations and decisions.

Sometimes, the antagonist is not a “real” person but an element of nature or some competing idea in the main character’s internal conflict. Often these antagonists take on a life of their own, however, and become characters in their own right.

You Do It
Look back at the piece you wrote for the "Inciting incident" blog entry. Create an antagonist for the main character. Now write a 250-word biography of that piece's antagonist. How does this differ for the protagonist entry you wrote for the “Protagonist” blog entry? 

Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

 

Tags: characters, protagonist, villain

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When developing a storyline about a main character overcoming a problem, some writers fall into the trap of creating an adversary who personifies evil. In doing so, the theme and plot of the story is reduced to the level of good guys vs. bad guys.

This oversimplification is known as “evils of duality”, which is when the theme is presented as a simple dichotomy of ideas.

We’ve all seen and read such stories; they dominate science fiction television shows and motion pictures. The theme has a number of variations, including empire vs. resistance (“Star Wars IV: A New Hope”), spacers vs. earthers (rip-offs off Isaac Asimov’s “The Caves of Steel”) and us vs. them (the television show “The Invaders”).

Of course, characters can think in such dualistic terms, and they do in “Balance of Terror”. The Romulan commander has his subordinate, and Captain Kirk has a bigoted navigator. This usually is a sign of those minor characters’ narrow thinking, however, and is used for dramatic tension as he main characters deal with the story’s deeper issues.

In any case, your story’s universe should be broader than your character’s thinking. Real life is a series of clear black and white issues. There’s lots of fuzzy gray. As a writer, it’s your job to explore that unclear gray. Your readers will appreciate it.

You Do It
Go back to the piece you wrote for the “Narrator” entry about your hero defending Earth from alien invasion. Now expand on the story by developing a member of the alien invasion force who has a personal conflict with what he is doing. Write at least a 100-word scene in which this alien character must decide if he will participate in the invasion or not.

Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

Tags: hero, theme, villain

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