Seventh Day of Class
Professor KRenee was already in the room when the students filed in and took their seats. She looked exhausted when she glanced up at them and smiled. A couple of students waved, others nodded in greeting. She was standing over her laptop clicking away at something or another, though she frequently glanced up as more people filed into the room. It didn't escape any of the girls' attention that the professor had dyed her hair black.
"I like your hair," Harumi complimented with a smile as KRenee looked up for the umpteenth time. She shot the student a toothy grin.
"Thanks. Figured I'd dye it back to it's original color and leave it alone for a while." She replied, "my hair is completely done with my sass." A few giggles and chuckles throughout the room, and then silence aside from sliding chairs, tapping fingers and feet, and the occasional sigh.
Once everyone had settled in and she had finished whatever it was she was writing, the professor snapped her laptop shut and stepped around the table. "Alright," she greeted. "I'm going to consolidate the next three genres into one class because I'm sick and tired of this unit. So, let's get right to it.
"After all the waiting you've done, we're finally up to the unit you really wanted to see: action/adventure." She told them. "Action/adventure is self-explanatory. The story is about adventuring and action. In pure action/adventure, you have the heroes and-or heroines reeling from cliffhanger to cliffhanger to dangerous situation to dangerous situation, always getting out of them by the skin of their teeth.
"For example, in Jurassic Park, wasn't it lucky that one of those kids just happened to be a dinosaur nerd, and the other just happened to be a hacker?" She smiled slightly, "I bring this up because most of the time you have to be pretty careful and plan your action/adventures in advance, so you can have people along the ride that have the right skill-set, so they can get out of whatever hair-raising adventure you throw them into.
"Now, if you wanna do action/adventure really well, instead of pre-planning skill-sets, you'll just have to have real ingenuity when it comes to getting your folks out of trouble." KRenee looked around the room at the students as they took their notes.
"The other thing about action/adventure is that pacing is everything. If you stop to think about it, action/adventure is one long adrenaline-high, muscularly-punishing series of events that most people would probably not survive if they were forced to go through it," another glance around the room. "If you want to write good action/adventure, don't forget to take the frailties of humans - or whatever race you're using - into account. There's a limit to how many ravening hordes you can fight off in a day. "
"Alright, advice time. Firstly, don't write about super-powerful people." She stated. "People like that are boring. You want your character to be strong enough to fight, but not over-powered. If you make your character over-powered, and then they get beat up by the bad guys anyway, either your bad guys are ridiculously strong gods, or your character is an idiot who should've been killed long ago." She explained, frowning slightly.
"Secondly, remember this forever: the "stupid hero" trope is stupid. Don't make your character an idiot like Naruto, because that's infuriating, and it makes me, at the very least, want to strangle you and your character. At the same time." KRenee paused, gauging their understanding. They seemed to be following along nicely, so she continued. "Finally: sometimes, you can increase danger by having your main characters not trust each other. Or maybe they have difficulties communicating with each other. It doesn't always have to be that the good guys are simply outgunned by the bad guys.
"It can be that your good guys get into pickles and nearly get themselves killed because of their lack of communication." She said. "Think of sports like soccer and volleyball: If no one is talking, you will lose the game. Communication is important, so if you take that away to some extent or another, you can make things get really scary for your good guys."
"Remember this as well: Without the element of suspense, it's not interesting stuff at all. If we know that the heroes will be fine in any situation because they always come away relatively unscathed, that's boring." The professor told them as she examined her nails briefly. They were absurdly long. "If your character is super predictable - like Naruto from Naruto, or Goku fromDragonball Z - no one's going to want to read about them, because after the first two or three crises, the readers just know what's going to happen. Try to avoid predictable patterns; think of a new solution every time, and make it scary for the characters. If it's scary for your characters, it'll be scary for your audience, unless they have nerves of steel."
"And that's the action/adventure unit," KRenee concluded. "Next, we're gonna roll right into fantasy, but I'll take questions first if anyone has any."
Immediately, a hand shot up. It was the redheaded girl yet again. KRenee raised her eyebrows and nodded at her, and she quickly started speaking. "But Naruto is one of the most popular anime and manga in Japan, isn't it? If it's as bad as you say, why is it still so popular?"
There was a pause as the professor tilted her head from side to side, her expression thoughtful. After a moment, she looked at the redhead again, and spoke. "Well, to be honest, I don't actually know why. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say probably because the world is so rich with creativity and imagination, and it's just really fascinating to read about it. I hate that story with every fiber of my being, but the world was super cool and I wanted to know more about it, so I kept reading."
She paused, frowning. "I mean, it's probable that there are tons of people who don't think that Naruto is poorly written. Some of the really popular, well-liked stories on fanfiction dot net are horribly put together in terms of everything from plot to characters to grammar. When you get to a point where you can recognize bad writing when you see it, you'll see what I'm talking about regarding Naruto, and you'll probably also see what I'm talking about with what may be some of your favorite stories."
"But," she chided severely. "That does not for an instant mean that you should be thinking, 'oh, well, a lot of the bad stories are really popular, so even if my story sucks, people might still like it, so screw becoming a better writer.'" She was practically glaring at them again. "The comment section of those poorly-written stories are probably filled with people under the age of sixteen. When you're that young, you're a bad writer anyway, because your view of the world is immature, you're immature, and you're probably just starting out. So, with all that in mind, I would imagine that the people who like poorly written stories are the people who aren't quite as good at writing as some other people."
"I'm not excluding myself from these numbers, either. I know that when I was fourteen, I was the shittiest writer ever." KRenee smiled wryly, "I got better when I figured out that I couldn't just write whatever came into my head, I had to think about every chapter, every scene, every character's action, and every character's story. If you read a few chapters of my story Something Else, and then go and read Something New, you'll see the stark difference in my writing style and ability. There aren't any stories betweenSomething Else and Something New, if I'm recalling correctly. I had an epiphany about writing, and then I went and wrote a really great story relatively close to immediately after ending a terrible one."
She took a breath and looked around the room again, smiling sheepishly. "That was a long answer, huh? Anyone else have anything they want me to clarify?" No hands went up, so KRenee nodded. "Alright then. Let's move on to fantasy."
"So, fantasies are stories that are set in worlds in which the laws of physics don't work the way they do in our world." She began, the frown she'd been wearing shifting into a more neutral expression. "That covers all the paranormal phenomena, the psionic powers like telepathy and telekenesis, and the magic on those worlds - its just physics working differently.
"Fantasy stories most commonly are quest stories. The hero has to go do something. He or she usually has people who tag along and help out." The professor explained, "Interesting facet about this genre: the good guy has companions who are friends, while the bad guy has minions but no real friends, and no close relationships. To kind of make up for that solitariness, the bad guy usually has a tremendous amount of power, while the good guy has a moderate amount of power but the total power of the good side is spread out among several people, and that power adds up quick."
The students were hastily scribbling things down in their notebooks as the professor spoke. "Fantasies are usually quests and they usually involve travel - like the hero has to go to this place and get this thing or leave this thing or destroy that thing or something like that. The stakes in fantasy stories are usually impossibly high - like, something is wrong, fix it or the world will end."
"One of the most important element of fantasy is how you handle magic or sorcery." She paused to let the students catch up with her. When everyone had looked up at her, she continued. "The important thing is that you have to make it cost something. If the hero can just wave his hand and make the bad guy go away, the story will last about half a page. So be sure to create barriers in the path of using magic, so that it becomes a last resort and then you can make it really spectacular when the hero is backed into a corner and has to use it."
She smiled, "Okay, time for some advice. In general, you need to be careful with exposition in fantasy stories. Don't be lazy. Don't use the old prologue standby, where you write a kind of "here's what's happened in this story so far since the beginning of time up until now when we join our heroes." Ask yourself if your reader really, really, really needs to know that. If they don't, then you don't have to twist yourself into pretzels to tell them."
"Also, if for some reason, somebody is working hard to keep information away from your hero and you have decided that said hero is your sole viewpoint character," KRenee glanced around the room briefly, pausing in her monologue for only a couple of seconds, "then you have to live with that decision and make your reader wait to find stuff out until your hero finds it out, too. Harder to do that way but makes for a much better read. Exposition is difficult in any kind of speculative fiction - which is just a fancy word for fantasy and sci-fi - but if you take the time to get it right, you won't regret it and your readers will appreciate it."
"Questions?" She asked, but no one raised their hand. "Well, if there's anything you want to know, you can always ask me later. Next we're gonna roll into sci-fi, and then I'll give you the homework and we'll be done with it. And won't that be nice?"
"Okay, so, science fiction is a story in which the laws of physics definitely do work the same way in your fictional universe as they do in ours." she continued, "Science fiction stories operate under a premise that technology has made a significant difference to the way people live in your story, but whatever your technology is, it does needs to be realistic.
"In these stories, you really do have to pay attention to the physics - and the astronomy and the chemistry." She paused, smiling slightly. "In fact, some of the most interesting science fiction stories come from somebody reading a story in Science magazine and extrapolating the science out several centuries to how it might be applied to technology down the road. If your world has robots, do some research into artificial intelligence and try to base your technological wonders in real science."
She paused again to let the students catch up with her. She really was speaking a mile a minute. "The true science fiction buffs are often the Yale University physics majors and they laugh to scorn impossibilities like Star Trek's warp drives that make people travel in space at several times the speed of light." She continued after her pause. "You can write something like that and it might even be popular. But the real sci fi buffs will hate it and make fun of it and insult the intelligence of your faithful readers."
"Science fiction stories are usually about the technology and what it has done to people's lives and why that causes problems and how people solve those problems. Maybe the technology is a generation ship going from one solar system to another and taking a bunch of colonists with it. There are any number of sociological problems that might crop up that you'd have to deal with." The professor told them. "Or maybe the technology is the Tesseract, that's calling in greedy alien armies and forcing earth to get into a fight it's not ready for. The point is that science fiction stories are about the technology or the science and how it affects people and what they do about it."
"Now, within that context, there are still some do's and don't's." She stated. "While the technology might be a central theme in your story, that doesn't mean that you get to lovingly describe all the rivets and girders and make your characters washed-out puppets that serve the purpose of pushing buttons and flipping switches. People still want to read stories about people and about the conflicts they get into. You still have to have a compelling story to tell."
"Again, technology that makes either your hero or your villain invincible is boring." KRenee said, "Give people weaknesses. It makes them more interesting and inherently creates tension and suspense, so that you don't have to do annoyingly contrived things to create that tension instead."
"Also again, be careful about how you handle exposition in science fiction. No matter how many technological wonders you have surrounded your characters with, bear in mind that to them, this stuff isn't a wonder anymore, it's a part of their everyday world." She said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "You wouldn't go through a lengthy description of a bit of technology while you're inside your character's head, any more than you would stop your plot to explain how a toaster works."
"Finally - and I hope I don't really have to be saying this again - do your research! Don't write about things you know nothing about." She implored, "If you want to write about something that you know nothing about, you must go and find out all the stuff about that thing. It's on the internet. Just pretend your researching for an academic paper."
Professor KRenee took a deep breath. "And that's that, I think. Whew! Anyone have any questions, or did I cover everything pretty well?" No hands went up, and she smiled. "Good, good. Alrighty, then. For your homework, you will pick whatever genre you wish out of the ones we've covered so far, and write a short story based in that genre, using a line from a song as your introductory sentence or prompt. Feel free to use any of the genres we've covered - romance, mystery, horror, action/adventure, fantasy, or science fiction, and make sure you include the name and artist of the song you're using. I would've used the regular prompts, but "
KRenee grinned broadly. "That's a wrap for today's class. I'll see you all next time. Don't forget to check out the whiteboard on your way out."
The students started packing up, one by one filing out of the room. KRenee tucked her belongings under her arm and watched the students leave. Once the last student had left the room, she adjusted her hold on her papers and laptop, and walked out the door.
...
The Whiteboard
- Write a short story or scene using a song of your choice as your prompt or introductory sentence.
- Make sure you tell the professor which song you decided to use, and who it's by!
- Remember everything you've learn about all the genres and writing thus far. If necessary, go back and reread the previous lessons. If you have any questions, make sure you ask!
From the Professor:
I would like to sincerely apologize for not holding class for... two or three months. Writing in more than one project is really hard for some reason. I'll try to be more consistent, but no guarantees, for hopefully obvious reasons at this point. This class is July's, not August's. So, assuming I can get my shit together, you can expect to hear from me again sometime this month.
Happy writing!
KRenee