CWP2013: On intentionality in writing

[Neirai the Forgiven]

A couple of thoughts on creating stuff as we move into the design phase in the New Year. One of the things I'm gunning for is intentionality. That's a million-dollar word that means "when you do stuff, it should mean something." When I wrote short fiction in college, I actually had to source my writing with research. Into things like psychology, history, and game development.

I don't expect everyone to have research everything they do, but I'm looking to avoid the meaningless or the gratuitous.

I feel like the above sentence needs clarification. So an example:

Let's say we have a character named Sgt. Matthew Eddings. Let's say Patriot decides Sgt. Eddings needs to die. Why?
If Patriot's reason is "because it's cool if characters die." That's sad.
If his reason is "Eddings has always seemed to me to be a character associated with order, absolutes, and America. He needs to die at the hands of the Shades as a way of illustrating the end of American Absolutism in the late 1990s" then we're going places.

At the same time, not everything needs to be allegorical or even reference or researched. But I figured I'd say what I just wrote

 

[Patriot]

Let's say we have a character named Sgt. Matthew Eddings. Let's say Patriot decides Sgt. Eddings needs to die. Why?

because it's cool if characters die.

Other than that, character deaths can be a motivation for other characters or a way to move the story forward. They can also be to create emotional attachment of the reader to the story.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

A couple of thoughts on creating stuff as we move into the design phase in the New Year. One of the things I'm gunning for is intentionality. That's a million-dollar word that means "when you do stuff, it should mean something." When I wrote short fiction in college, I actually had to source my writing with research. Into things like psychology, history, and game development.

I don't expect everyone to have research everything they do, but I'm looking to avoid the meaningless or the gratuitous.

The majority of media nowadays is either meaningless drivel or popular culture morals. I am so with you on stories and plot points that have reason to them.

I would add making a meaning so vague as not to be perceived by the viewer is useless and making it overtly apparent can be unrealistic (like diatribes mid-fight in anime <rolleyes>). You want to compel a viewer to think about it themselves (much like painting). You need enough guidance for their thoughts to come to what you want to say but not so much as it takes them out of the experience.

Also it could be said there are different genres separated by death or no death. Crossing the character can die line early on can give a feeling anything can happen in the story. You will worry more that a character you like could die and situations of danger will be more intense. On the flip side believing characters won't die can give a more relaxed feel to a story. The lack of worry removes a barrier to becoming attached to a character because you don't risk feeling loss. Just my opinion.

 

[Patriot]

The lack of worry removes a barrier to becoming attached to a character because you don't risk feeling loss. Just my opinion.

This can be achieved by telling the story as a flashback as well.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

This can be achieved by telling the story as a flashback as well.

True.