RLTS: Part Two

So over the past week as I set the ambitious goal of having three more story drafts done before the end of the year, it occurred to me that despite figuring out the relationship between MECH, CDA, and ARC, with strong emphasis this year on figuring out and having countless breakthroughs for ARCs as the final chip and chisel into the granite wall that is storycraft… I was still having trouble breaking stories.

I went through all my ideas last Friday and I saw a lot of formats, a lot of styles (prose I want to play with), and a lot of interesting MECHs. My thought process was up until this past weekend, “just figure out the ARC”. That’s it. It can’t be that hard once you figure out the ARC. Then you can attach the ARC to the MECH, add a PROG and away we go!

The challenge with ARCs however, is that they are singularly focused on the emotional interiority of the PROT. It’s important we have that in a story, yes, because that’s how we’ll get the EGP at the CMX of the ARC. But the ARC in and of itself can’t and won’t move without… well, at first I had this very vague, very misguided notion that a PROG would do it, but while studying “The Ten” again (SIDENOTE: let’s give these ten stories I’ve studied to death a fancier name. Let’s call them The Decemviri.), it occurred to me I couldn’t just add a PROG. That doesn’t really drive they story. Just duct-taping a PROG on to a story seems very clumsy and/or could lead to OTAA type of stories. And I went back to what Kieron Gillen said in a podcast of his. “I don’t have favorite characters, I have favorite relationships”.

There’s a proto-analysis of this thought for The Decemviri here, but that one seemed rough and not exactly practical. It was, in both the prefix and suffix of “proto-analysis”, a fun exercise that didn’t lead anywhere because, ultimately, it was a post-mortem of story as opposed to a tool in which I could use to CREATE – going back to, over and over again, Craig Mazin’s critique of STRUCTURE. It’s good for dissecting a dead body, but you can’t make babies from it.

So it got me thinking. How can I make this useful? How can I use it to propel story? Because Gillen is right. ARCs are a revelation, but to make them useful, you need a RELATIONSHIP, which I will turn into yet another abbreviation as RLTS. Someone to talk to, someone to prod you, someone to catalyze you, someone to threaten you, someone to seduce you, someone to love you, someone to be your mirror, someone to help you, someone to take care of you, someone to manipulate you, someone to attack you, someone to exploit you, someone to break you. And do it at least three times in a story because stories are fiction and we like following the rule of three.

So while up at Simon Fraser University (my eldest had an orchestral concert thing and I didn’t see the sense of driving down the mountain for 20m only to drive back up later – plus, I wanted to wander the campus and feel all nostalgic about stuff)… I sat down and broke down The Decemviri once again at Starbucks, but this time, focused on RLTS and how they drive the story forward. My hypothesis is that if I can have a good sample size of RLTS, I can then match those up with my MECH and CDA, and that way, I’m not just tacking on an ARC or PROG and trying to figure things out from there. A RLTS, in my hypothesis, can drive story much better than simply an ARC. It’s the back-and-forth, the interaction, the transactions that drive a story forward. That’s what creates the try-fail cycles.

Here’s what I came up with.

RLTS: BENEFACTOR <> SUPPLICANT

Related RLTS:

RLTS: PREDATOR <> PREY

Related RLTS:

RLTS: PREY <> PREDATOR

Related RLTS:

RLTS: HUNTER <> TROPHY(S)

Related RLTS:

RLTS: CONSUMER <> THE SYSTEM

Related RLTS:

RLTS: WRONG DOER <> REDEEMER

Related RLTS:

RLTS: DEFENDER <> INVADER

Related RLTS:

RLTS: VICTIM <> SUPPORTER

Related RLTS: