Chapter 6 - Story Building: The Tutorial

Ahh, story building. This goes hand-in-hand with world building, just like character building. All of these things together join together to make a nice meaty stew of fanfiction-y goodness that all the readers will want a bowl of.

To know just exactly HOW to story build, read on, my friends :)

P.S. People who call Bubble Tea Boba instead of Bubble Tea are the epitome of degeneracy :)

Introduction: What exactly is story building? Basically, this is what happens when you outline the events of your plot, arcs, and the premise of your story. If world building is creating the setting, story building builds the plot.

When it comes to story building, there are multiple aspects you have to consider: plot - as to what happens, premises - as to the big picture, conflict(s) - who or what are the obstacles your protagonist will have to get through, and theme - the message you, as the author, is trying to convey to the audience (this one is optional).

Those are the BASIC story building questions you have to answer before actually getting into writing the beginning, middle and end - this includes the individual arcs too!

Now, since writing fanfiction isn't the same as writing a normal story, we will have to build each arc like it is an entire story. Instead of treating your fanfiction as a single book, you SHOULD treat every single ARC as a book. Each and every arc will have unique characters being introduced, a unique plotline that COULD and probably will have traits and plot points from previous arcs. Of course, despite the number of arcs, each and every one might have a theme, and will have a premise. Your entire story, made of many different arcs, should also have a final goal that the main character is trying to achieve.

If you look at the Harry Potter series, you can see that every book has a particular story line as well as new characters. In the first book, Harry Potter was introduced to Hogwarts and had his first battle with Voldemort. In the second book, he had a dealing with the first horcrux as well as the snake. Then finally, in the 7th book, he defeats Voldemort in a direct battle.

Basically, what I'm getting at is, that despite the individual story of every book or arc, it slowly moves along the base premise towards the final conflict: defeating Voldemort. If you are thinking of writing a BNHA story, you probably don't want to follow the canon storyline down to the very last detail - especially if you are writing an OC story. In canon BNHA, I'm assuming the final antagonist of the story is Shigaraki (as shown so far), so you can easily have him take the place as your main villain, or in my case, add a premise that makes the final antagonist something else.

Base Story

What is the base story? As I said before, the 'base' of your story, is the plotline that is gradually moving forward towards the final conflict as every arc or book completes.

Even if you are writing a romance fic, a gore fic, or even a yaoi fic, there are usually conflicts and a base premise, however loose, in the plot.

Ex. For most BNHA stories, it is the fated battle with Shigaraki Tomura or even All For One if he is written to escape. For emotional/feelings fics, the goal of the story could just be the paired characters getting together or making up after a fight.

The base story is not as important in romance fics, or the other fics I listed above, but it is VERY important if you plan on writing a canon divergent AU that still moves forward in the timeline.

Conflict: In a story, conflict is the challenge your main character(s) need to solve to achieve their goals. It's essentially the literary element of uncertainty as to whether or not the main goal will be achieved.

Ex. Madara might kill Naruto and prevent him from becoming Hokage or bringing peace.

Now for the most part, readers might go in thinking 'Hah, I know that the main character will win.' You can easily dispel this notion by building a main character at the beginning and sending them STRAIGHT TO HELL. Then the audience will no longer be confident as to whether or not the main characters will succeed or fail.

Ex. In Game of Thrones, they killed off Eddard Stark and all the Starks, making us realize that anyone can die at any moment. After that, the audience can no longer know who will be alive by the end of the season.

Remember, you can have multiple conflicts in a story; whether if they are: internal conflicts, man vs nature, man vs society, man vs beast, man vs man, man vs god, man vs robots, etc. A well-developed story will often have multiple conflicts that match the story's plot and premise.

The simplest conflict is man vs man; this means that the driving force that is actively trying to detriment your main character is another person; an example of this is the USJ arc, in which Shigaraki is actively trying to kill all the students.

When you pick your conflict in a story, you must think of the possible antagonists that will detriment your main character(s). This can either be: an existing character - such as All For One, or an OC antagonist - like the eldritch monstrosity or the monster race from my own story (it was a short antagonist, but still served as the main conflict in the prologue). Remember, it does not matter what antagonist you choose, as long as you follow the basic guidelines of story building, you will not run into issues such as: plot holes, inconsistencies, illogical reasonings, etc.

Now that you have picked your conflict - whether if it's one or maybe ten, we can now move on to the foundation of your plot!

Premise: What exactly is a premise? A story's premise is the entire foundation of your story that drives the plot. Basically, this is what your plot circles around! If you write a story focused on internal conflict and self-development, your premise could be: 'insecurity is the absence of self-love,' or something of that nature. Even if there are multiple arcs that feature the development of individual characters, the 'base' premise remains the same.

If you are starting a BNHA story, regardless of what it is about, you start by building the base premise - the goal you want your characters to strive for.

Now, let's assume you want to insert an OC into the story - doesn't matter if they are becoming a student of UA, a villain, or a vigilante. You have to ask yourself, what are the OC's adventures or the story trying to achieve? Is it something like: perseverance breeds results, a hero is the embodiment of sacrifice, etc.

While NOT writing a big premise and simply following canon won't be story breaking, doing so will make that big of a difference.

Plot: A plot is the events of your story that follows the premise. If you don't have a premise, then they are just a series of continuing events that build on top of each other - successfully doing so is called story continuity.

For the base plot, you want a single set storyline that will gradually advance as you go through the individual arcs. Basically, some ultimate enemy or conflict that will eventually end your story when it is defeated/resolved.

Ex. The plot of Naruto was essentially him becoming Hokage at the LOOSEST. You could argue it was the final war against Madara/Obito/Kaguya/Zetsu or whoever and that would be technically right.

Why should you have a final plot?

This is so you can write an adequate ending for your story. If you write a story that is episodic, then you most likely would not have an actual 'ending' to your story.

Once you actually figured out your main plot, chances are, you already know what's going to happen at the end. You know where your character begins, and you know where it will end once the final conflict is resolved. The true challenge is writing the arcs and different obstacles that your character will have to overcome in order to achieve that resolution.

A good plot will continually raise the stakes and build urgency. The action and drama of the story will slowly build its way up every arc.

Ex. All for One's involvement being built up through multiple arcs, starting with his 'reveal' at the end of one episode.

Theme: A theme of a story is an underlying message, or some sort of 'big idea.'

While a theme is not necessarily required, having a theme will allow you to convey a message to the audience through the story. Basically, something broad your story encompasses. This is usually universal in nature, what that means is when a theme is universal, it touches on the human experience. This could be things such as not judging a book by the cover, honesty is the best policy, some other cliché bullshit, and many more.

So how do we figure out a theme for our story? It comes down to what sort of belief you have on life in general. If you feel strongly about some things - most people do, then, you can reflect those particular views into your story.

Ex. Heroes are role models, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, etc.

Arc STROY :)

What exactly is an Arc story? To put it in simple terms, it is the plot in your arcs. Considering the size of the BNHA story, each individual arc will have some sort of obstacle that the main character(s) will have to get through to advance.

Ex. All For One from the raid arc.

For the arc story, you are doing the same thing as the base story. You will be figuring out the conflict, premise, theme if applicable, and the plotline.

Ex. In the raid arc, the conflict (with Midoriya) - would be the league of villains as they are preventing Bakugo's escape, the plot would be them trying to save Bakugo, the premise (in my opinion) would perhaps be something along the lines of: sometimes problems can be solved in ways other than just using overwhelming force - as with them saving Bakugo with a perfectly timed execution rather than rushing in and smashing.

Common Mistakes

Source Material is TvTropes

When it comes to story building, there are many common mistakes associated with story building itself or the lack of story building. Any of these mistakes should be IMMEDIATELY corrected if not avoided in your story. Not only that, if you find out you HAVE done the following in your story, reread it and fix it right away. Rewrite if you have to!

Plot Holes: I'm sure many of you have heard this term, but what exactly are plot holes? They are defined by the gaps in a story where things happen without a logical reason. When a plot hole involves something essential to the story's outcome, it can hurt the believability of such an outcome, and often disappoint the audience.

Ex. Remember when Rose crashed into Finn in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi?' We all saw Finn charge towards the canon at full speed yet, Rose was able to catch and slam him from the SIDE just to stop him. This meant that Rose would have to travel a larger distance, at multiple times the speed of Finn's max speed JUST to catch up to him. Then we see him scene skip back to the base, which means he supposedly walked from the First Order army all the way back to the base without getting shot. Not to mention that incredibly horrible line that ruined the scene.

A plot hole can come in many different forms: character gaining knowledge that was never passed to them, characters not knowing what they ARE supposed to know, an event that does not logically follow from what happened before, or an event occurring that simply do not allow certain other events to actually happen - logically that is.

Why do Plot Holes Occur: There are many potential reasons why an author would want to write something that is considered a plot hole. Many of these reasons could just be negligent authors, or even just authors not caring and wanting to write anyway - I'd like to think there are VERY few people that know their story has a plot hole but just go the because-I-say-so argument against any opposition.

The first reason is that the author simply wants to write a certain scene, ex. certain interactions between characters, even if it makes zero sense. Instead of tossing the scene or writing proper build-up, the author writes it regardless due to laziness and author bias.

The second is that the author has forgotten their own world building notes - some simply just don't have it - or the events that occurred earlier in their story. Then, they unknowingly create a scene that goes completely against something that happened before. This can easily happen with authors writing extremely long stories, such as ones over 200,000 words.

Thirdly, in a fanfic written by multiple authors, there could have been a lack of coordination of agreement between them. This could cause authors to simple reject the writings of another or neglect is completely, causing a plot hole.

The fourth reason is that the plot advances without any sort of preparation. These are also called plot triggers. Basically, the plot advances episodically despite not being an episodic-in-nature story. Anime and Light Novels are notorious for having plot triggers - authors being too lazy to write a logical plot starter.

There are more reasons as to why plot holes occur, but we will be sticking with the above four as they are the more common ones.

Plot holes aren't meant to be intentional. Even in stories meant to be unrealistic, each plot point has to build on top of each other, otherwise the story will suffer. Audiences might be able to believe 9-headed dragons or the 5th dimension, but not when and ESPECIALLY when a character teleports from scene to scene with no indication of why and how. Those that do this intentionally are often comedic scenes. Remember, as an author, you can simply say 'fuck it I'm the boss' when writing a story, you can then proceed to ignore every plot hole your audience spots; however, if you do so, your story WILL suffer, even if your audience consists of preteen OCxHarem lovers.

You know how sometimes people complain about certain things in Game of Thrones being unrealistic, and someone would say, YEP REALISM IN A STORY WITH ICE ZOMBIES AND DRAGONS. The thing is, they are not referring to the realism compared to what IS possible in our world - not including the idiots arguing Drogon isn't aerodynamic, like bruh just shut up. The reason I believe this happens, is that an event in the story is basically an outlier in a previous assumed or even established common ground. Let's say, the humans in Westeros could basically be the same as the humans in the real world. However, things such as Targaryen's being immune to fire, or the Northerners being physically stronger and more enduring compared to the southerner's, were all actually specified in the book/show.

Regardless what you have in your story that doesn't match up with our world, whether it's having a completely different set of physics of genetics, it is important to actually specify this in one way or another. Don't just say WOW MY STORY HAS DRAGONS AND YOU CARE ABOUT THE LAWS OF THE THERMODYNAMICS. Don't insult people for having legitimate questions, just mention that physics is different in your story in some way or form. If you want to go above and beyond, you can even write a different set of physics to fit your story (unnecessary but could very well set apart your story from other fantasy stories).

How to find and fix Plot Holes: When finding plot holes, there are various steps you have to take to identify and fix them. Fixing plot holes are similar to fixing grammar, except each mistake takes hundreds of times longer to fix opposed to adding a 's' to a word.

1. Knowing your story well: If you are someone who has done extensive world and story building before writing the story, it can be easy to examine the scene with a supposed plot hole, and refer back to your notes - especially someone caught it in the review section. If the specific scene refers to a detail that you have already written down incorrectly, then you can simply change that detail so it matches the rest of the story - such as a character having ten limbs and you accidentally wrote that he had eight.

Of course, if you already have a pre-made plot-line, as in you already know what is going to happen before you actually write that arc, then that alone would have avoided a good majority of plot holes. In fact, many of the stories on fanfiction that end up becoming 100,000 words or longer (the ones that ended up being rewritten), is simply because they did not plan the arcs properly.

DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE. PLAN YOUR STORY OUT INSTEAD OF REWRITING IT AFTER HALF IS DONE!

2. Examining your plot: This is a step that should happen BEFORE you begin writing. Just like how I send my own arc notes to my beta, so should you. Having two or more pairs of eyes can make it significantly more efficient when it comes to picking out things that don't make sense. This is especially true when one of them is not blinded by author bias.

For those of you that TRULY want to avoid plot holes, you should first start by writing a plot summary. One for your entire base story, and one for your arcs. You should do this AT THE VERY LEAST before you start writing said arc.

Ex. If you want to rewrite a different version of the sports festival, plan out that arc as in: who wins the events, are there more events, are there different events, who's going to fight who, etc.

3. Refer to your world building notes: This is an easy one if you have world building notes. You should keep your notes regarding your quirks, abilities, physics, and just basic laws to make sure your story follows it in every chapter.

This means: outlining the specifications of the quirks of important characters that way you don't accidentally exceed them without any basis.

Ex. Someone can possibly become stronger for a short time through adrenalin, but they shouldn't struggle lifting 500kg and all of a sudden be lifting an object that is supposedly twice that much (like a car) the very next day without any explanation. Also, for the love of all that is unholy, don't just justify it to reviewers. If you really have to change it just make the car a fake prop or something that actually weights 20kg.

4. BETA: Yes again, the beta reader. For those of you that have read up to this point, the prospect of a Beta probably isn't unfamiliar anymore.

Get a beta that is competent and likes the premise of your story. If you have a beta that doesn't like your story's setting, they might half-ass it or just not reply altogether.

Make sure you listen to them as well! While it is true, opinions may differ when it comes to story lines, you have to see it from a neutral perspective. As in: if my Beta wants to change this, is it because he doesn't like it, or is it because it has a plot hole? Finding the difference could make or break you and your beta's relationship together. Believe me, there will be times stylistic differences will cause you and your beta to crash, and you will just have to discuss into it rather then get angry.

Fixing Plot Holes: Fixing plot holes has no set answer as to how. Just like treating a patient with a disease, each and every type of plot hole will have a different 'treatment.'

If your plot hole is something as simple as getting somebody's eye colour wrong, then you can simply go in and change a few details. However, if your plot hole is actually the lack of detail and build-up surrounding a plot trigger, then you might have to consider rewriting a good majority of an entire arc - why people abandon stories. It kind of sucks to keep defending your work when everyone calls it shit then finally realizing they're right - this could be a MAJOR motivation killer - in fact, I rewrote my own Fairy Tail story three times before getting it to what I wanted.

If you find a plot hole in an arc that happened FAR before to where you are now, then you WILL have to change multiple scenes, if not arcs themselves, just to keep all the story elements in tune.

Ex. If you write a character becoming sad/betrayed for angst or emotional drama, but you established in the previous chapters that the character wouldn't get that emotional from a misunderstanding and would rather just talk it out, then you will have to scrap the scene or just rewrite it altogether.

Deus Ex Machina: What is the Deux Ex Machina? Essentially, it is a shit fix for the plot. Hollywood Movies are ABSOLUTELY NOTORIOUS for using probably ten every movie. Have you seen Independence Day: Resurgence? That shit is filled with it.

What exactly is a DEM? It is when an unexpected person or event that saves your characters from a hopeless situation.

Ex. Princess Leia force flying herself from outer space in The Last Jedi.

This technique is more of a patch over a plot hole instead of an actual fix. Any of you guys do drywalling/painting? If you throw one of those metal-backed patches on a wall and try to mud over it, you will get the ugliest bump in the world in the middle of your wall. You have to properly put furring strips, an actual block of drywall, drywall tape, then multiple coats of mud, primer, and paint just to smooth it out and blend it in.

You have to stay clear of this technique as any competent reader can simply think: 'so he just randomly shows up after leaving?', 'the fuck is that wasn't he dead?', 'WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY?'

That one is particularly common, with someone presumed dead all of a sudden comes alive and saves everyone else. Like, sneak into enemy base by themselves and garner enough resources to fly literally everyone out with no damage whatsoever.

Plot Hole Examples - From TvTropes

1. Naruto is said to have failed the final exams three times - and the exam he takes at the beginning of the series is actually his 4th - but, he is in the same age group as the others from his class (who are presumably all taking it for the first time). This would mean he was some sort of mega-genius that managed to get to the last year when he was 8, meaning he advanced faster than people such as Sasuke and Neji, but he was labeled as 'dead last.'

Then, if he DID repeat the classes, he would have been in the same class as Neji, Tenten, and Lee in the previous year. Yet, none of them seemed to recognize him when they first met. - Naruto

2. Kakashi was randomly able to use Susanoo after managing to get both of them from Obito - how this is done is also a plot hole - not only that, he was able to use the perfect version of it - yes the same one used by Madara to one shot the 5 Kage's. Just to perform a Susanoo, you would need A SHIT-TON of chakra. Kakashi was never a character with super-high chakra reserves. Not only that, the Susanoo is an Uchiha blood clan specific technique, and Kakashi is NOT an Uchiha. - Naruto

3. While this isn't really a huge plot hole, Kyoka's quirk (which allows her to hear really quiet sounds with her earlobe jacks and can amplify her heart beat to create sound waves), shows her heart beat sound wave as a consistent soundwave like Present Mic's scream, instead of alternating soundwaves matching up to her heartbeat rhythm. - BNHA

I know it's easy to forget certain small details, but having that level of continuity WILL set apart your story from all else.

Meandering: Meandering is a problem I see in many stories. What a meandering story is one that loses sight on its main goal.

Ex. Too many side plots and no advancements on the base plot.

It's basically a story where the plot has forgotten where it's going, or is confused on what is exactly the ultimate objective. Instead of stopping to try and figure things out, it essentially just keeps building on top of each other, and with each additional plot point, the main purpose will become more and more vague.

This could also be because the author doesn't know how to actually get from the beginning to the end, so they end up adding too many unnecessary side arcs that don't really build towards the end plot.

Sometimes, meandering is quite prevalent in TV shows or anime as some arcs are stretched our longer than they should have. A great example of this is One Piece's Dressrosa Arc. The hundreds of minutes spent in still frames and characters running was essentially because the animation company decided to keep episodes going every week despite already catching up with the manga. While One Piece is not exactly meandering as it still has its final goal in sight, it simply spends too much unnecessary time dragging out certain scenes.

In short terms, a meandering story is one that has lost its way to the ending and is aimlessly drifting back and forth looking for the plot threads that will guide it to the end.

Now, why is meandering so bad? This is because it throws off the pacing, destroys the narrative arc, and then the constant rise and fall of tension simply goes on a drunken car ride because the tension has dropped to an unending hull. Then, the impact that actually comes after will be thoroughly lessened.

How to prevent Meandering: Now that you know what meandering is and why it's bad, we can now move on to preventing it DURING your writing process.

When you are analyzing your own arcs, you have to ask yourself: is this story contributing to the plot, development of characters, exposition, or anything related to the story? Even a lighthearted lunch scene could be used to build the relationship of certain characters.

More importantly, you have to ask yourself: is your story moving towards the end goal with what you are trying to achieve? Remember, if a chapter is not moving towards the end goal, but is providing elements to the story that WILL, then it is not considered meandering - this is simply setting up or plot launching.

How to Fix a Meandering Story: Fixing a meandering story is just like fixing any other already-completed story; it is a long and tedious road, but will be surely worth it once it is done.

You will have to reread your entire story, then cut out or rewrite all the meandering elements. This way, everything that isn't following the core plot WILL after you fix it.

You will have to fully outline your plot if you haven't already, outline all the subplots in the arcs, then reread every chapter while taking notes to make sure they are gradually moving towards the end goal.

THIS IS A FUCK-FUCK-FUCKTON of work. For those of you that finished writing 100+ chapter stories, it will probably take months just to rewrite it.

Harem (RANTY AS FUCK): Harems are the epitome of self-fulfillment. I've read Naruto Harem stories where the author decides there isn't enough girls in the actual franchise so they crossover ten different other ones so they can put 30 FUCKING GIRLS IN A HAREM. Like as angry as I am, I am FAR more confused and curious. Just what exactly goes through the minds of those authors that decided, 30 girls in a harem makes for a good story? Like shit, not even ACTUAL harem hentai manga's have that many girls.

Sometimes I feel the Naruto crossover section is basically a competition on how many different vaginas we can put on Naruto's dick - with the character not even being Naruto but rather a look-alike with his name.

When I see harems involving IZUKU of all people, I think to myself. Did I commit genocide in my past life? Am I doomed to suffer the knowledge that such a dreadful existence is in the world? How did someone wake up in the morning, and decide, HEY LET'S MAKE THIS PLAIN LOOKING INTROVERT WITH LITTLE TO NO PEOPLE SKILLS CRUSH-BLUSH TEN DIFFERENT GIRLS?

I get that Ochako admired Izuku's strength and perseverance and started liking him, but everyone else? Coincidentally, a lot of Izuku fics tend to portray him as some sort of master therapist that knows exactly what to say to people at any given situation - so that could possibly be why.

Quick note: Crush blushing is the act of causing female characters in various franchises blush in embarrassment on the first look, with no regards for the female's character, and have them think of degenerate bullshit like: 'He's so handsome! No! Bad [character name], why is he making me feel this way?'

Absolutely appalling.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON YAOI DEKUBOWL, JESUS BLOODY CHRIST.

Alright, rant over, NOT SNITCHING, and believe me I god damned want to.

Despite my own hatred for them, I will attempt to teach little kids on how to make stories in this setting logical and believable. If you are looking to write a harem story, you first have to look at which relationships are believable. Two girls, I can understand, but three, four, five? For every single girl you add, their depth you have for their individual characters decrease, and it eventually becomes shallow garbage and smut.

Let's take a look in canon and see what characters may have a reason to actually want to date Izuku. First, we have the obvious Ochako, second, we have Mei, third, we have Tsuyu, and fourth, we have [insert random OC childhood friend here].

You COULD add like 10 female OC's where all of their names are variations of Akemi just to date Izuku, but who would want to do that? Right…?

A FUCKING BEAT.

Anyways, if you want to write a harem no matter what I or anyone else has to say, then I would suggest keeping the list of women down to 3 at the MAX. Ochako, Tsuyu, and Mei seems to me that they would be the more likelier candidates to have feelings for Izuku. Would they share him? No, I think not without some quirk that makes girls love him for some reason.

Just based off the canon characters, I do not think it is possible for Izuku to actually get a working harem in which everyone agrees to share him, and Izuku agrees to 'equally love' all the girls.

You would need some love quirk that attracts women to Izuku, or make him a genius-level therapist who is also a massive flirt.

Conclusion: First off, I want to say that I am completely stumped in the quest of making a working BNHA harem within the confines of reason. If you want harem help, I would suggest going for the people that writes a lot of Naruto crossovers, I'm sure they know what they are doing.

Anyways, just like world building, the secret to planning a good story is QUESTIONS, ask as many questions as you possibly can about your own story, make sure to have a beta to pull your head out of your ass, and to have your notes ready so you don't accidentally write a plot hole!

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Chapter 6 Done! Next Chapter - Izuku has a quirk - an in depth guide on making credible changes.

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Minipa, out!