Anatomy of a Cliffhanger

[loopy777]

I posted this to my tumblr a while ago but forgot to cross-post it here. However, a recent post by LJ Lee on Legend of Korra's meaningless action sequences reminded me of this, and so I'm digging this back up for everyone here to enjoy.

How to Create Meaningful Conflict

Comments

[ljlee]

Dang, I really should be hanging out wih the the cool kids at Tumblr, shouldn't I. But I like my text-based mediaaaa...

Great point about the elements of suspense. Even in non-prequel situations, simple physical survival is simply not an interesting stake, as you point out, especially when the character is established to be extremely capable or the death if it happened would gut the entire story.

When writing pastfics I would summarize my guide to suspense with the acronym WHO: Why, How, and Original characters. In a pastfic there's no suspense about what happened or what became of canon characters. However, questions about why that past event happened, exactly how it happened, and what happened to non-canon characters are still up for grabs. That's where things get interesting, and incidentally these can be helpful for non-fanfic, non-pastfic situations too. The world isn't going to end in a ball of fire in a superhero story, but why was it threatened and how is it saved? The superhero isn't going to die (or if he does he going to come back, let's face it), but what about the little guys who don't have plot immunity/limitless resurrection coupons? A story is only consequential as the consequences it's willing to stomach, and often those consequences lie more in the subtleties of choice and character than the big, flashy stuff.

I mentioned roleplaying games over at my place, but the stakes-setting techniques in modern indie RPGs helps in this regard, too. The TV drama roleplaying game Primetime Adventures, for instance, suggests that instead of setting the stake of a conflict along the lines of "Does the Hero of the Universe save the world?" make it more like "Does she maintain her secret identity while saving the world?" Win or lose she's going to save the world, but she's going to have to deal with real fallout if she blows her cover in the process.

[loopy777]

Actually, I've been pleasantly surprised at how much play my essays have gotten on tumblr. For all that it's an art-oriented service, and that I only have a handful of followers, my essays get surprising play. I could probably get even more response if I really engaged that community, but I'm content with my little corner. I hear that the trolls and haters are especially virulent over there.

"The Burning Wheel" is another such RPG. I actually learned about it at a geek convention, at a panel titled "Losing Should be Fun," which was about both RPG's and video games. I've never been able to play that system, but hearing about it was one of the major influences that got me thinking about the stuff in this essay. The other is the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy comic book (the one that inspired the movie), where the writers (Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning) were especially adept at constantly putting the team into interesting failure states.

[ljlee]

Tumblr seems to have virulence built into it, both in the sense of stuff going viral and people getting worked up into a frenzy. I've revitalized my account and followed you, in case you didn't realize it's me. ;)

I've never played BW either, but it always seemed really cool. A lot of these indie games have worked in ideas about story that apply to writing as well.