scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/8xmuro.md

A video on writing strategies in fiction.

• Author: u/None *

• URL: https://youtu.be/wcEUAnQu8GQ

• Score: 36

• Created: 2018-07-10T08:07:13

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u/GeeJo [+16] Custom Flair (8 hours later)

For those who don't want to watch the video, a TL;DW:

1. "I Have A Plan"
   a) After words to that effect, cut away. Show the plan in action, then explain it afterwards.
   b) Benefits: quick transition to action.
   c) Example used: 'Bomb defusal' team exercise in My Hero Academia.

2. "Step-by-Step"
   a) Narrate the plan as it unfolds, either in-character or with voiceover.
   b) Benefits: Provides opportunities for the 'strategist' to demonstrate ability by explaining how they foresaw each variable beforehand.
   c) Example used: Capture of Iserlohn in the remake of Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

3. "Hide the Goal"
   a) Explain the elements of the plan but not how it comes together, or what the final goal is.
   b) Benefits: Promotes 'shock' value when the twist is revealed - that the character was aiming for something unexpected all along, etc.
   c) Example used: Purchasing the Guild Building in Log Horizon. Shown that 'the plan' needs cash and actors, but not how they'll be used until the conclusion

4. "Improvise"
   a) Explain the plan and the goal up front. Then something goes wrong, and the strategist scrambles to adapt
   b) Benefits: Shows ability of the planner to think on their feet
   c) Example used: Final battle of Alderamin On The Sky, where a guerrilla strategy is overturned through a brute force attack

u/GeeJo [+13] Custom Flair (9 hours later)

Or, to simplify it further:

1. Explain the plan after
2. Explain the plan during
3. Explain parts of the plan before, but not the whole thing
4. Explain before, then have it fail

u/Oaden [+6] (2 days later)

This entire video kinda skips over how to actually formulate a plan though.

Like 90% of the problem of strategy by fiction writers, is that writers are not genius strategists. Legend of the Galactic Heroes suffers from this, where the "genius" strategists come across as merely competent, surrounded by bumbling idiots.

There's tricks to circumvent this of course, Code Geass first combat scene despite never actually describing the plan in detail, was far more effective as establishing Lelouch as a above average military mind.

u/None [+2] (4 days later)

You don't actually have to be a genius strategist, or at least, you have to be a strategist as much as Agatha Christie was a genius detective. You just have to be good at the specific style of storytelling of hiding things from the reader and then revealing them. More like a magician than a strategist.

u/Cuz_Im_TFK [+2] (21 days later)

Yeah, I was hoping for some tips on writing it so was a bit disappointed.

Like for writing mysteries, I've heard "take the evidence and scatter it". That's a rather simplistic one, but it's still something. Didn't really get any better idea on how to write a plan than "here are 4 common tropes". Everyone already knows the unspoken plan guarantee which covers 2 of these.

u/Sparkwitch [+5] (56 minutes later)

LOTS of spoilers, yes.

What goes unsaid here is that audience satisfaction can be amped up when any given suspension of suspense cheat operates like a fair-play whodunit: plenty of clues and foreshadowing so the reader realizes after the fact that they could have seen it all coming. The resolution is just a telegraphed twist.

Also: Stakes (and suspense with them) aren't so much about who wins or who loses, as what those wins and losses cost. What are the characters and their factions willing to give up? What are they blinded by? What factors do they over or underestimate?

A plan can be fully described in advance... but with costs that are painfully high. Then, as events advance towards their grim resolution, the reader can still be held in suspense by the characters' reactions to those costs: Will the protagonist really be able to go through with this? Will the antagonist show mercy and yield? Even as everything goes exactly as described, it's riveting to watch the crucible cast these people anew.

That's a rare one, though. Great video.

u/None [+5] (2 hours later)

Well, can you give me an example for strategy you described? I'm just not seeing any advantage from that particular ploy over the regular deception tricks. Afterall, if we're told in advance what's going to happen, and then everything goes according to what we were told would happen, where is the suspense on not knowing what's going to happen?

If the character A says character B has to die for plan to work, and character B dies and the plan works, isn't it essentially giving spoilers and removing the surprise and suddenness from the death and loss?

u/RMcD94 [+10] (6 hours later)

Ron on the horse in Harry Potter?

u/Sparkwitch [+4] (6 hours later)

Indeed. The tension and suspense shifts from "How are they going to get out of this one?" to "Are Harry and Hermione willing to accept this course of action?" and then "What are the longer-term consequences of this sacrifice?" In exchange, we learn something about what sort of person Ron is for making it and what sort of persons his friends are for accepting it.

u/RMcD94 [+6] (7 hours later)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sm_-vJNCHk

Yeah the scene is actually phenomenally designed. The brutality of the cheese pieces montage just before Ron makes his decision gives us insight into the sacrifice he's making. There's no loss of tension even watching it now so many years on from the menacing turn of the Queen and it approaching him. There's never a moment where we don't know what's coming but we're invested nonetheless. The reality and brutality of his sacrifice only becomes visceral when we see it, words can't compare to actions for humans.

My only disappointment is that they didn't show the board pieces in this scene, I believe it was cut for some reason. It is actually a real chess puzzle. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7RIDfDG8wY)

u/torac [+1] (a day later)

the cheese pieces montage

It took me a moment to get which scene with the horse you were talking about. Trying to recall any brutal cheese didn’t help.

u/RMcD94 [+2] (a day later)

What a mistake to make, I was confused reading your quote and it took me some time too.

Imagining some scenes of a block of cheese being cut by a knife to dramatic music

u/Fresh_C [+3] (8 hours later)

Might I ask, what exactly is being spoiled?

I wanted to know before I decide whether or not to watch the video.

edit: Nevermind. /u/GeeJo gives a list in their response.

u/Amonwilde [+1] (8 hours later)

What is the anime depicted in the first few seconds?

u/jedijinnora [+2] (9 hours later)

The map shown at the start is from Alderamin On the Sky, and then the video cuts to a clip from Code Geass.

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