characters and fighting "scenes"
Posted: February 14th, 2010, 6:20 am
Now, here are the last two problems I'm struggling against right now.
So first, let's start with characters - really secondary characters who are the main villain's sidekicks.
I managed to create to every character a backstory, however some of these characters appear only in a few pages (before they die). Some of them even die before I present their background. So, would it be too confuzing if there are many named characters?
Of course there are some of the important villain's sidekicks whose actions are significant and some of them are developing and showing the colors of the main characters. But I had one sidekick appear on chapter 7 and then he appears again in chapter 17 and he has a name. Would the reader suddenly go like "Who is that guy again?" and another example is a sidekick who gets killed by one of the main characters...and a chapter later I present his background. Another example is of two twin sisters whose background is in like chapter 14 but they are only physically presented (have action/talk) in chapter 17. I also created a backstory for one of the villain's sidekick which I intended to make the reader sympethize with her a bit and understand why she helped the "evil guy" but now that I think about it, wouldn't the reader be like "this character only appeared three times throughout the book, who is she and how is any of this releavent?" I intended the villain to have an "evil group" but out of the 10 sidekicks considering only 5 of them are those who are worthy enough to elaborate about, maybe I shouldn't have given each one a name and a background.
I know that I'm creating again the wrong comparison bwteen a novel and a movie (in which having a lot of characters can be confuzing). In a novel it's much easier to have many characters but is having a lot of characters would be alright with the mind of the reader? (I'm watching on occasions the "Nostaligia critic" in "That guy with the glasses" and that guy simply can make every movie look bad)
regarding main and secondary characters - there are 3 main characters, one villain and five secondary characters (without including any of the talked about villain's pawns).
Next - fighting scenes. I'm very specific regarding fighting scene and each time, I try to make the fight look different and not be repetitive, but maybe I went a bit overboard. Since I'm so specific with a lot of details, maybe I overused fighting scenes. Again, I watched the reviews about Mortal Kombat (the movie) and the nostalgia critic is right, it's just a piece of crap with random fights. True, it's based on a fighting video game. True, I am writing a story of 80,000 words so I have a lot of freedom to write and focus both on fighting scenes and...everything else. And when you write a story about some people who slay demons, you would expect fightings to be inside it. But I afraid I overdid that.
chapter 1 - mini fight
chapter 3 - (really) mini fight
chapter 6 - first encounter with the villain - obvious fight is obvious
chapter 7 - introduction of a new secondary character who is also a demon - mini fight
chapter 10 - a fight against a secondary villain of a sidestory which isn't really releavent to the story as a whole, but I felt like it had to be there. And it gave good development for some characters, as well as introducing two other secondary characters. (in the movie adaption they would probably ignore these chapters though 8))
chapters 11-12 - a fight against the villain and some of his pawns (four were killed) - the most significant secondary character dies.
chapter 14 - fight
chapter 16 - fight (the village near the heros' home is attacked. might post a detailed summary later)
chapter 17 - fight against the villain and his leftover pawns
chapter 18 - final fight (though it's a bit cheesy. But as it seems, cheesiness sells, and it's not "love conquers all" or "we are friends" or all the sailor moon cheesiness. It's only a bit cheesy.
Now, assuming I also want to make the story "girl-friendly" should I delete some of the fightings so it won't be too violent? (which isn't so violent anyway)
If it looks like I already decided what I want to do, then I didn't.
So first, let's start with characters - really secondary characters who are the main villain's sidekicks.
I managed to create to every character a backstory, however some of these characters appear only in a few pages (before they die). Some of them even die before I present their background. So, would it be too confuzing if there are many named characters?
Of course there are some of the important villain's sidekicks whose actions are significant and some of them are developing and showing the colors of the main characters. But I had one sidekick appear on chapter 7 and then he appears again in chapter 17 and he has a name. Would the reader suddenly go like "Who is that guy again?" and another example is a sidekick who gets killed by one of the main characters...and a chapter later I present his background. Another example is of two twin sisters whose background is in like chapter 14 but they are only physically presented (have action/talk) in chapter 17. I also created a backstory for one of the villain's sidekick which I intended to make the reader sympethize with her a bit and understand why she helped the "evil guy" but now that I think about it, wouldn't the reader be like "this character only appeared three times throughout the book, who is she and how is any of this releavent?" I intended the villain to have an "evil group" but out of the 10 sidekicks considering only 5 of them are those who are worthy enough to elaborate about, maybe I shouldn't have given each one a name and a background.
I know that I'm creating again the wrong comparison bwteen a novel and a movie (in which having a lot of characters can be confuzing). In a novel it's much easier to have many characters but is having a lot of characters would be alright with the mind of the reader? (I'm watching on occasions the "Nostaligia critic" in "That guy with the glasses" and that guy simply can make every movie look bad)
regarding main and secondary characters - there are 3 main characters, one villain and five secondary characters (without including any of the talked about villain's pawns).
Next - fighting scenes. I'm very specific regarding fighting scene and each time, I try to make the fight look different and not be repetitive, but maybe I went a bit overboard. Since I'm so specific with a lot of details, maybe I overused fighting scenes. Again, I watched the reviews about Mortal Kombat (the movie) and the nostalgia critic is right, it's just a piece of crap with random fights. True, it's based on a fighting video game. True, I am writing a story of 80,000 words so I have a lot of freedom to write and focus both on fighting scenes and...everything else. And when you write a story about some people who slay demons, you would expect fightings to be inside it. But I afraid I overdid that.
chapter 1 - mini fight
chapter 3 - (really) mini fight
chapter 6 - first encounter with the villain - obvious fight is obvious
chapter 7 - introduction of a new secondary character who is also a demon - mini fight
chapter 10 - a fight against a secondary villain of a sidestory which isn't really releavent to the story as a whole, but I felt like it had to be there. And it gave good development for some characters, as well as introducing two other secondary characters. (in the movie adaption they would probably ignore these chapters though 8))
chapters 11-12 - a fight against the villain and some of his pawns (four were killed) - the most significant secondary character dies.
chapter 14 - fight
chapter 16 - fight (the village near the heros' home is attacked. might post a detailed summary later)
chapter 17 - fight against the villain and his leftover pawns
chapter 18 - final fight (though it's a bit cheesy. But as it seems, cheesiness sells, and it's not "love conquers all" or "we are friends" or all the sailor moon cheesiness. It's only a bit cheesy.
Now, assuming I also want to make the story "girl-friendly" should I delete some of the fightings so it won't be too violent? (which isn't so violent anyway)
If it looks like I already decided what I want to do, then I didn't.