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Spaztique — An Illustrated Guide to the Elements of Story
Published: 2013-04-01 03:49:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 5773; Favourites: 51; Downloads: 49
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Description
It's like chemistry, but for storytelling!Subatomic particles = Value charges
Elements = Beats
Compounds = Scenes
Mixtures = Sequences
Objects made of mixtures = Acts
Chemical reactions = Full Story.
A full story should be like a chemical reaction: either explosive or just plain cool to watch.
The following includes Walfasized versions of...
-Star Wars: [link]
-Fight Club: (couldn't find the illustrated scene, but here's a great scene) [link]
-The Room: [link]
-The Matrix: [link]
-Ghostbusters: [link]
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Comments: 23
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Welp I like it a lot and I learned something.... But That was a lovely "The Room" reference....
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speaking in terms of comedy, im guessing Diehard never read your guides to making stories, hence your comic series "The greatest Story never told". XD
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Wrapping my head around this concept is driving me crazy! And to think science was my favorite subject.
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This is great guide for me. I'm currently stuck on creating the 4th page of the FNAF Walfas comic. I guess I understand a few.
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Are there any story beats that you feel are the most useful or fit in with the most scenes? Or are all story beats created equal?
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Technically, all beats are equal, but how they build is important: you save the turning point, the beat where everything changes, for the end of the scene.
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This comic is a very helpful resource when writing meaningful stories. You never fail to amaze me with your knowledge, Spaz.
Could you please explain in depth what the different values are? (Controlling, Contrary, Counter, Double-Counter)
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Looks like I forgot to explain this enough in the comic itself, but it's strewn about my other guides.
It's an idea posited by my favorite writing teacher, Robert McKee. It works like this.
Controlling Value: The main "good" value if you will. This is often what the protagonists represent.
Counter Value: The opposite of the controlling value. Think of it as the "bad" value. This is usually your antagonist.
Contrary Value: The neutral ground, right in between the controlling and counter value: it's not entirely bad, but it still causes problems. This is used by skeptical characters and anti-heroes.
Double-Counter: Also known as the "negation of the negation," it's a step beyond the Counter Value in that while we can all see the Counter Value as blatantly "bad," the Double-Counter is often bad masquerading as good. Think of this as the "evil" value. This is reserved for the biggest of big bads and characters in need of serious character development.
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Very interesting. Does McKee explain why he designated them like that?
Maybe Good and Bad are not the best words to describe these values. People easily mistake them for Benevolent and Evil, when in reality they'd be closer to Positive/Helpful and Negative/Unhelpful.
Let's remember: "Good" actions do not always end with a positive outcome (e.g.: A person who fully trusts someone and is betrayed; a character that wants to help but ends up making the situation worse.), and "Bad" actions sometimes do (Extremely cynical works with a negative theme embody this.).
Context determines whether a value is positive or negative within a story. (It doesn't even have to reflect on real life, as long as it's justified.)
That said, all values are subjective when taken out of context. Just look at the thousands of viewpoints regarding abortion, firearm-ban, religion, war, etc. Anyone can tell you how great/terrible something is based on their opinion. There's no right or wrong.
David, do you know of other authors discussing values? I'd like to know their thoughts on the subject.
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Omfg thanks a million for making this 
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Now I read it better, that's very interesting! And thus, tropes would not the elements or compounds, but the type of them? I mean, if a beat is an element, a trope like Xanatos Gambit would be like aluminum or iron?
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According to this ([link] ), yes.
Though, I like to think of Tropes as chemical phenomena, like how sodium explodes in water, or iodine burning aluminum. While stories are giant reactions, the individual reactions are the tropes.
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It's a good thing I'm good at chemistry!
This is going to be a big help for my story. Thanks so much for these great guides. Even if they don't really apply to me I can still use them in the story.
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Thanks for the wonderful advice...even though i stop drawing, and i never do any comic at all. Oh well, still can use in the future if i ever draw again.
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Of course! It's a classic after all!
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