Jamais Jochim
Bio
I'm the guy who knows every last fact about Spider-man and if I don't I'll track it down. I love bad movies, enjoy table-top gaming, and probably would drive you crazy if you weren't ready for it.
Stories (300)
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Everything You Need to Know About the Three-Act Structure
Everyone knows the traditional three-act structure, or at least thinks that they do. The concept is pretty simple: The first act inroduces everyone and everything, and then something happens to upset the status quo. Then the villains start putting their plan into place while the heroes scramble to deal with their personal problems while dealing with the villains. Then it all pulls together and everyone gets to the final battle.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Looking At Harmon's Story Cycle
The Harmon Story Cycle was developed by Dan Harmon, of "Community" and "Rick & Morty" fame. While derived from the Hero's Journey, the Story Cycle is much more suited to character development. That is, while the Hero's Journey is more interested in developing the legend overall and is thus more interested in plot development, the Story Cycle looks more at the character and how that character changes throughout the story. While both track the transformation of the character, the one tracks the narrative path and how that character interacts with his environment and society while the other tracks how the character changes from within and how his perspective changes.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
The Hero's Journey
The Hero's Journey, as put forth by Joseph Campbell in "The Hero of A Thousand Faces", is arguably one of the best-known ways to organize a potential legend. Rather than do a complete re-hash of the rather famous story generator, we're going to look at how to have some fun with the concept while tying it into the standard three-act structure. While it should be relatively obvious, the two work together rather well.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Avoiding Common Story Issues
There are a lot of traps that writers can fall into, and most of them are pretty easy to avoid when you have an idea of what the trap is. A lot of these traps should have gone the way of the dodo, while others are just emblematic of bad writing. And then there are those issues that are created when someone is trying to parody the problem but does it in such a ham-fisted way that it just comes off as bad writing.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Some Really Bad Things To Do When Time Traveling
One of the most amazing things about writers is that when they have a chance to create their very own worlds they invariably include a lot of real-world problems. While on one hand, this is not that big of a mystery (a lot of writing is about catharsis, after all), there is the valid question of, well, if you were given the ability to create your very own perfect world, why would you contain problems from the real world? If you hate racism, sexism, and transphobia so much, then why feature them in the world that you yourself are creating?
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Giving Your Characters Their Voices
For some writers, writing dialogue is pure torture. Action is easy: You're just describing what is happening. With dialogue, you not only need to move the plot forward, develop character, and not make it boring. Adding to the fun is that you need to be able to switch between two possibly very different personalities with almost no problem. While this sounds pretty complicated, it's actually pretty easy when you get into the rhythm of it.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Creating the Perfect Work Environment
Artists are a really weird bunch if for no other reason than each one of us has our preferred work environment. This is a spectrum ranging from nice and quiet, no distractions, all the way up to, well, let's just say some of us require a certain level of chaos in our environment. Everyone has a different situation they've gotten used to because of how they're raised or just because of the stuff that happened around them. I grew up in a very active household so if I don't have a certain level of chaos going around me it tends to drive me to distraction to the point where I simply can't do anything. I need some stimulation, even if it's just strapping on headphones and putting on some Viking metal.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Racism Isn't Always a Good Option for Evil
Friends, rivals, or enemies: They all work. [August de Richelieu (Pexels.com)]A lot of writers include some level of racism in their writing, and this may be a problem. Racism represents an easy conflict. It's like bullies in a high school story: It allows us to abuse our protagonists while showing who the bad guys are. Since racism is such an obvious evil, it allows writers to show the line between good and evil while giving the good guys a little sympathy. By showing someone is a racist, we very quickly show the reader who to root for and who to hiss at, making it a good choice for anyone. But there are some issues to consider.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Team Design Part 1
No character ever operates alone. Even a solo character has a support staff of some sort; Batman may say he operates alone, but he has someone to look over his mansion (Alfred Pennyworth), someone to handle his business (Lucius Fox), someone to spar with (name a Robin), and a lifelong friend (Clark Kent). When you start dealing with actual teams, that connection becomes even more apparent.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Team Building Part 3
Tactical Build For those who want to try something a little different, there's the tactical build. This team is built more in line with the characters' roles in the group, i.e., what they do rather than how they affect the drama. This is also more familiar to first-person shooter players and allows the writer to shift the dramatic roles around as needed rather than keeping them somewhat static (that is, anyone can be a leader, for example). In this case, the roles are:
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Filling in the Plot Holes
So your editor emails you and points out that the scene you thought was really cool has a number of problems: The weapon in use just doesn't do that. The character you used to shoot the villain has been established to have nothing to shoot him with. And it's in a country that makes no sense for the heroes to have traveled that quickly. And why did the princess that you've taken pains to establish as a pacifist charge into battle with a Viking battle ax, a culture you established doesn't exist?
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
