Idea
The Pun Tyrant
Disclaimer:
*This thread works under the assumption that one CAN improve their writing, which in turn implies that there is an objective way to improve and thus it´s NOT just a matter of taste. If you have no interest in how the following may or may not help, and are only here to say that things are relative anyway, then please leave.
*This thread will have spoilers for the first episode of "Kotoura-san". If you haven´t watched it, I recommend that you do before reading this
Actual Content:
Hey everyone! How´s it going?
So, I am starting what will hopefully be a long series of advise on writing and roleplaying that take the way some anime handled it and explain some of the elements in how they worked for those functions, and how we can incorporate their quality. What better way to begin than by adressing the process of starting itself?
Beggining a story or roleplay can be a real hassle. It wasn´t just once or twice that I have had partners complain when they were to start the roleplay about how hard it was to make a first post. We all probably had that experience of just staring at the blank page or document or whatever and racking our brains just on what to do for the first sentence or so. A lot of shows, books, etc... are really boring in their early parts over the need to make exposition for the audience and introduce characters no one cares about immediately.
Still, even in such an area, there are those who do pull it off quite well. One such piece, in my view, is the first epsiode of "Kotoura-san", an anime centered around a girl who was born with the automatic ability to read minds. It has a brilliant transition between happiness and sadness with a very realistic portrait of it´s one supernatural element and how it comes into contact with our modern world. There is no narration involved, we´re only shown the progression of things, so how exactly does this anime communicate what we need to know going into the rest of the series? How does it set up the tone, general conflicts and the situation and character of Kotoura, the main character?
The show opens with the camera paned away looking down from the sky onto Kotoura walking alone surrounded by people who are clearly distanced from her, even though she is walking right in the middle of the way. If you froze the image, you would still get the picture right away: This girl is isolated, and people are actively stepping away from her. We are introduced to really dark tones in lighting and a sweet melodic piano is in the background from moment 1.
The camera then pans down and we can hear people murmuring as she has an empty, dead expression but just keeps walking unphased. Then, we cut to the flashback and the dark tone is replaced with bright as we witness Kotoura as a newborn crying in her mothers eyes as she smiles down with joy, not realizing that right from the start, something is wrong, as it is normal for a baby to be crying. From here, and without our meta knowledge that something this happy IS gonna crash innevetably because we had seen what comes after the flashback, there is no reason to believe something may be up.
We move on to a scene that first brings into play the supernatural element. Kotoura greets her mother who comes to call her for breakfast and Kotoura asks what it is. Her mother doesn´t tell her, but Kotoura immediately guesses correctly that it is in fact soft boiled eggs. Her mother shows shock, but immediately dismisses it as a lucky guess (without actually saying it) and moves on to congratulate her little girl on the guess. Later, she surprises her parents again when she reveals that her father would rather tea over the coffee he accepeted a moment prior. Both her parents are, again, surprised, but don´t suspect anything. Afterall, who would even conceive this little girl can read minds in a world where no one else can? Kotoura herself doesn´t even phantom the possibility either, really. She hears voices and assumes what she heard was spoken. This is extremely important to note here.
The almost blinding light of the previous scenes starts to fade into a normal anime lighting here, and we see Kotoura´s victory in rock paper scissors against everyone all the time. She giggles, claiming everyone was saying their move before they did it, which of course, no one understands. We thus start getting glimpses of how Kotoura´s ability isn´t so flashy as one might otherwise think about mind-reading. We are treated to a very typical scene of girls her age rejecting any form of affection towards boys (we´re talking elementary school here), and vice-versa, but Kotoura once again reveals what´s on their minds without realizing it was even hidden in the first place. She reveals who people had crushes on, why etc... And when one of the boys states out of shyness that he doesn´t like the girl when they both have a crush on one another, said girl calls Kotoura a liar and states her hate for her.
From here, the shows starts to spiral. A close up in a room barely lit by the afternoon sunlight, but overall covered in shade gives a glimpse at her mother´s shock as she is told that Kotoura is a compulsive liar, and immediately after this we are shown her teacher with a drop of sweat in her forehead, a possible indicator that she is hiding something. She tries going to Kotoura´s father about this, but in the first introduction to the grim almost black and white tone the show will be taking from there on, the father states that he is too busy with work. More meta people may already have realized the implications of "Busy with work", aside from the most important factor of the man distancing himself from his family at their time of direst need.
The tension starts to quickly ramp up as her mothers takes Kotoura to see doctors, each telling her they don´t see anything wrong with Kotoura. Several close up to her sharpening eyes shows her increasing tension and worry, as the doctors go from politely telling her that they can´t do anything, to one yelling that she is being rude, to her mother having to be litterally pushed out of the hospital to get out of there. At this point, Kotoura asks if she is sick and she cries at being bullied and her mother once again tries to contact her father, but he is away. That night, as she drinks, Kotoura asks for her father and her mother throws the drink she was holding at the little girl. Realizing what she had done, the mother turns away unable to face her daughter.
Kotoura seeks her grandfather´s comfort, who tells her no one hates her. With her spirits restored, and her father finnally home, she goes to spend the day with them, only to accidentaly reveal that both her parents had been cheating on one another. Her mother inquires "How much do you need to destroy our lives before you´re satisfied?"
Both her parents divorce and leave the mansion. As her mother prepares to go away forever, leaving her at thr care of her grandfather, Kotoura makes one last desperate attempt to have her stay, promising never to upset her again, to do everything for herself namely cooking and cleaning, begs her to not go. At this, her mother kicks her away, tells her she should never have been born and leaves. Kotoura is left looping apologies in utter trauma.
At school, her classmates bully her, calling her a monster. For the first time in the whole episode, someone says "reading minds". Up until now it was pretty obvious for the audience that something of that sort was going on, but if that were to happen in real life, whose first guess would be this little girl had supernatural powers that we can´t perceive and no one else has? And then, as her friends abandon her, and Kotoura asks if they aren´t best friends, one of them says what is probably the best summary for the conflict here presented, as I will explain later:
"I´m sorry, I can´t."
We cut to her in middle school, unable to make friends with anyone. The tone is the dark one we saw at the beggining, her expressions wavers between normal anime eyes and the dead ones. She encounters a cat, and gains hope once again. She can´t hear it´s voice, and it´s all alone like her. She starts feeding the cat, until one day she comes and finds it gone. A lady appears and tells her she took it to a shelter. After the lady leaves, Kotoura drops her umbrella, and beauitfully saddening piano music replaces all sound as we see her crying and yelling to the wind in utter agony, dropping to her knees. At this point, she breaks completely and the flashback is over.
She enters the highschool, a transfer student. Everyone is commenting about her being a pain already, which she apologizes for in an unphased monotone voice. She approaches her seat, wishing people would just ignore her like the guy daydreaming in the window seat, seeing the weirdo images he is imagining, and finds herself focused on those in such a way that it actually seems like she may be staring. Makabe, the daydreaming guy, notices at last and looks at her directly and inquires about who she is. The dark tone litterally shatters as we enter the second half through the introduction of the weird pervert Makabe.
I realize this is already super long, but bear with me just a ltitle bit more and we will adress the second half of the episode next time. This is almost with needle point precision two halves, and we can see how the show creates the dark and tense moments. If you were paying attention, we can see how a pretty common way of communicating a dark or light scene, the lighting, was used in guiding us through the atmosphere. It got progressively darker as Kotoura´s life spiraled down into her trauma, but breaks for the introduction of happiness.
Now, in writing, this is not as simple. We can´t draw light for words and it´s not as effective to describe shade as it is to show it. However, we can take something from this tactic. The environment a character is in can communicate the tone of a scene, or even the whole story in general. For example, if the character is in a room full of knives at grabbing distance, one might feel the tension of the possibility that the knives will be pulled and used at any second, even if they don´t really think that will happen. A very ironically described setting can introduce a more lighthearted tone, comedical even. And so forth....
Kotoura-san´s realism and the way it progresses without direcly stating what happens is also a useful tip. We see how no one realizes that she can read minds, except for a few who choose to deny it. By the time it is actually stated she can read minds, the damage is done and is too deep to come back from so easily. Things happen, people struggle, and everything is gradual and slowly eroded. There isn´t so much a particular villain as there is the overwhelming despair of this alienating situation that no ones knows how to handle because it is unique. This is where the statment her friend says as she leaves becomes clearly meaninful
"I´m sorry I can´t" is the perfect description for the situation. Her friends, her mother, the doctors, everyone around her tries to help and to be there but in the end they are hurt either by Kotoura´s innocent and naive spouting of secrets or by seeing Kotoura herself get too hurt and not being able to face the fact that they can´t help her overcome that. Kotoura herself struggles to get back on her feet but every time, things organically lead to her being left alone and hurt.
While many will look to the sadness and drama here and dub it as "just another edgy backstory", this one has progression and actually shows the natural consequences of this singular element. Rather than being just for sobs, the story actually explores the concept of this power, shows how it would apply when people don´t have awareness of it. Likewise, your writing should look at the aspects of the character and setting as well. Does the character love sweets? Then they should be fat, no? How did that affect them? Where did they have the funds? Did they regret it, fight it, what?
Much like Kotoura-san never mentioned reading minds until later on, the "show dont tell rule" is just as meaningful in any other story. Kotoura-san shows us how we can showcase something entirely intangible by it´s effects and consequences alone and your start should focus on those things and more importantly, it should be aware that the character´s sense of what it normal will be affected by where and when they live and were raised. Pushing ideas that don´t fit the context will only make your character feel forced and unnatural in their setting.
Although there would be a lot more I could dissect here, I will adress as the last tip here today, the opening shot. Kotoura-san is showcased isolated form everyone with dark tones and a camera that is also distanced. This is the central clause of the main plot, Kotoura´s reunion with company, having friends and ceasing to be isolated like that. As such, from the very first second we are given a taste and sense of what the tone of the show might have in store, and we have an idea of what the plot is about, and we understand a bit about the character, such that we can already make a connection.
Needless to say, this is about what your introduction should do as well. It is important that, from the very first sentence, you establish what tone you want to be interpreted under, that you guide the focus of a reader and that create an immediate connection of the reader to the thematic, character or plot, right from the getgo, in order to get investment.
That is all. I hope this is useful or at least enjoyable to read, and see you around!
*This thread works under the assumption that one CAN improve their writing, which in turn implies that there is an objective way to improve and thus it´s NOT just a matter of taste. If you have no interest in how the following may or may not help, and are only here to say that things are relative anyway, then please leave.
*This thread will have spoilers for the first episode of "Kotoura-san". If you haven´t watched it, I recommend that you do before reading this
Actual Content:
Hey everyone! How´s it going?
So, I am starting what will hopefully be a long series of advise on writing and roleplaying that take the way some anime handled it and explain some of the elements in how they worked for those functions, and how we can incorporate their quality. What better way to begin than by adressing the process of starting itself?
Beggining a story or roleplay can be a real hassle. It wasn´t just once or twice that I have had partners complain when they were to start the roleplay about how hard it was to make a first post. We all probably had that experience of just staring at the blank page or document or whatever and racking our brains just on what to do for the first sentence or so. A lot of shows, books, etc... are really boring in their early parts over the need to make exposition for the audience and introduce characters no one cares about immediately.
Still, even in such an area, there are those who do pull it off quite well. One such piece, in my view, is the first epsiode of "Kotoura-san", an anime centered around a girl who was born with the automatic ability to read minds. It has a brilliant transition between happiness and sadness with a very realistic portrait of it´s one supernatural element and how it comes into contact with our modern world. There is no narration involved, we´re only shown the progression of things, so how exactly does this anime communicate what we need to know going into the rest of the series? How does it set up the tone, general conflicts and the situation and character of Kotoura, the main character?
The show opens with the camera paned away looking down from the sky onto Kotoura walking alone surrounded by people who are clearly distanced from her, even though she is walking right in the middle of the way. If you froze the image, you would still get the picture right away: This girl is isolated, and people are actively stepping away from her. We are introduced to really dark tones in lighting and a sweet melodic piano is in the background from moment 1.
The camera then pans down and we can hear people murmuring as she has an empty, dead expression but just keeps walking unphased. Then, we cut to the flashback and the dark tone is replaced with bright as we witness Kotoura as a newborn crying in her mothers eyes as she smiles down with joy, not realizing that right from the start, something is wrong, as it is normal for a baby to be crying. From here, and without our meta knowledge that something this happy IS gonna crash innevetably because we had seen what comes after the flashback, there is no reason to believe something may be up.
We move on to a scene that first brings into play the supernatural element. Kotoura greets her mother who comes to call her for breakfast and Kotoura asks what it is. Her mother doesn´t tell her, but Kotoura immediately guesses correctly that it is in fact soft boiled eggs. Her mother shows shock, but immediately dismisses it as a lucky guess (without actually saying it) and moves on to congratulate her little girl on the guess. Later, she surprises her parents again when she reveals that her father would rather tea over the coffee he accepeted a moment prior. Both her parents are, again, surprised, but don´t suspect anything. Afterall, who would even conceive this little girl can read minds in a world where no one else can? Kotoura herself doesn´t even phantom the possibility either, really. She hears voices and assumes what she heard was spoken. This is extremely important to note here.
The almost blinding light of the previous scenes starts to fade into a normal anime lighting here, and we see Kotoura´s victory in rock paper scissors against everyone all the time. She giggles, claiming everyone was saying their move before they did it, which of course, no one understands. We thus start getting glimpses of how Kotoura´s ability isn´t so flashy as one might otherwise think about mind-reading. We are treated to a very typical scene of girls her age rejecting any form of affection towards boys (we´re talking elementary school here), and vice-versa, but Kotoura once again reveals what´s on their minds without realizing it was even hidden in the first place. She reveals who people had crushes on, why etc... And when one of the boys states out of shyness that he doesn´t like the girl when they both have a crush on one another, said girl calls Kotoura a liar and states her hate for her.
From here, the shows starts to spiral. A close up in a room barely lit by the afternoon sunlight, but overall covered in shade gives a glimpse at her mother´s shock as she is told that Kotoura is a compulsive liar, and immediately after this we are shown her teacher with a drop of sweat in her forehead, a possible indicator that she is hiding something. She tries going to Kotoura´s father about this, but in the first introduction to the grim almost black and white tone the show will be taking from there on, the father states that he is too busy with work. More meta people may already have realized the implications of "Busy with work", aside from the most important factor of the man distancing himself from his family at their time of direst need.
The tension starts to quickly ramp up as her mothers takes Kotoura to see doctors, each telling her they don´t see anything wrong with Kotoura. Several close up to her sharpening eyes shows her increasing tension and worry, as the doctors go from politely telling her that they can´t do anything, to one yelling that she is being rude, to her mother having to be litterally pushed out of the hospital to get out of there. At this point, Kotoura asks if she is sick and she cries at being bullied and her mother once again tries to contact her father, but he is away. That night, as she drinks, Kotoura asks for her father and her mother throws the drink she was holding at the little girl. Realizing what she had done, the mother turns away unable to face her daughter.
Kotoura seeks her grandfather´s comfort, who tells her no one hates her. With her spirits restored, and her father finnally home, she goes to spend the day with them, only to accidentaly reveal that both her parents had been cheating on one another. Her mother inquires "How much do you need to destroy our lives before you´re satisfied?"
Both her parents divorce and leave the mansion. As her mother prepares to go away forever, leaving her at thr care of her grandfather, Kotoura makes one last desperate attempt to have her stay, promising never to upset her again, to do everything for herself namely cooking and cleaning, begs her to not go. At this, her mother kicks her away, tells her she should never have been born and leaves. Kotoura is left looping apologies in utter trauma.
At school, her classmates bully her, calling her a monster. For the first time in the whole episode, someone says "reading minds". Up until now it was pretty obvious for the audience that something of that sort was going on, but if that were to happen in real life, whose first guess would be this little girl had supernatural powers that we can´t perceive and no one else has? And then, as her friends abandon her, and Kotoura asks if they aren´t best friends, one of them says what is probably the best summary for the conflict here presented, as I will explain later:
"I´m sorry, I can´t."
We cut to her in middle school, unable to make friends with anyone. The tone is the dark one we saw at the beggining, her expressions wavers between normal anime eyes and the dead ones. She encounters a cat, and gains hope once again. She can´t hear it´s voice, and it´s all alone like her. She starts feeding the cat, until one day she comes and finds it gone. A lady appears and tells her she took it to a shelter. After the lady leaves, Kotoura drops her umbrella, and beauitfully saddening piano music replaces all sound as we see her crying and yelling to the wind in utter agony, dropping to her knees. At this point, she breaks completely and the flashback is over.
She enters the highschool, a transfer student. Everyone is commenting about her being a pain already, which she apologizes for in an unphased monotone voice. She approaches her seat, wishing people would just ignore her like the guy daydreaming in the window seat, seeing the weirdo images he is imagining, and finds herself focused on those in such a way that it actually seems like she may be staring. Makabe, the daydreaming guy, notices at last and looks at her directly and inquires about who she is. The dark tone litterally shatters as we enter the second half through the introduction of the weird pervert Makabe.
I realize this is already super long, but bear with me just a ltitle bit more and we will adress the second half of the episode next time. This is almost with needle point precision two halves, and we can see how the show creates the dark and tense moments. If you were paying attention, we can see how a pretty common way of communicating a dark or light scene, the lighting, was used in guiding us through the atmosphere. It got progressively darker as Kotoura´s life spiraled down into her trauma, but breaks for the introduction of happiness.
Now, in writing, this is not as simple. We can´t draw light for words and it´s not as effective to describe shade as it is to show it. However, we can take something from this tactic. The environment a character is in can communicate the tone of a scene, or even the whole story in general. For example, if the character is in a room full of knives at grabbing distance, one might feel the tension of the possibility that the knives will be pulled and used at any second, even if they don´t really think that will happen. A very ironically described setting can introduce a more lighthearted tone, comedical even. And so forth....
Kotoura-san´s realism and the way it progresses without direcly stating what happens is also a useful tip. We see how no one realizes that she can read minds, except for a few who choose to deny it. By the time it is actually stated she can read minds, the damage is done and is too deep to come back from so easily. Things happen, people struggle, and everything is gradual and slowly eroded. There isn´t so much a particular villain as there is the overwhelming despair of this alienating situation that no ones knows how to handle because it is unique. This is where the statment her friend says as she leaves becomes clearly meaninful
"I´m sorry I can´t" is the perfect description for the situation. Her friends, her mother, the doctors, everyone around her tries to help and to be there but in the end they are hurt either by Kotoura´s innocent and naive spouting of secrets or by seeing Kotoura herself get too hurt and not being able to face the fact that they can´t help her overcome that. Kotoura herself struggles to get back on her feet but every time, things organically lead to her being left alone and hurt.
While many will look to the sadness and drama here and dub it as "just another edgy backstory", this one has progression and actually shows the natural consequences of this singular element. Rather than being just for sobs, the story actually explores the concept of this power, shows how it would apply when people don´t have awareness of it. Likewise, your writing should look at the aspects of the character and setting as well. Does the character love sweets? Then they should be fat, no? How did that affect them? Where did they have the funds? Did they regret it, fight it, what?
Much like Kotoura-san never mentioned reading minds until later on, the "show dont tell rule" is just as meaningful in any other story. Kotoura-san shows us how we can showcase something entirely intangible by it´s effects and consequences alone and your start should focus on those things and more importantly, it should be aware that the character´s sense of what it normal will be affected by where and when they live and were raised. Pushing ideas that don´t fit the context will only make your character feel forced and unnatural in their setting.
Although there would be a lot more I could dissect here, I will adress as the last tip here today, the opening shot. Kotoura-san is showcased isolated form everyone with dark tones and a camera that is also distanced. This is the central clause of the main plot, Kotoura´s reunion with company, having friends and ceasing to be isolated like that. As such, from the very first second we are given a taste and sense of what the tone of the show might have in store, and we have an idea of what the plot is about, and we understand a bit about the character, such that we can already make a connection.
Needless to say, this is about what your introduction should do as well. It is important that, from the very first sentence, you establish what tone you want to be interpreted under, that you guide the focus of a reader and that create an immediate connection of the reader to the thematic, character or plot, right from the getgo, in order to get investment.
That is all. I hope this is useful or at least enjoyable to read, and see you around!
