History SoYouWantTo / WriteAStory

We have built a myth, in Western culture, about creativity. You see it applied not just to fiction but to all artistic endeavours: musicianship, painting, sculpting, dancing, etc. The myth is this: "A {{True Art}}ist is BornLucky enough to have TheGift." All the great Creators in human history, from Creator/WilliamShakespeare to Creator/VincentVanGogh to Music/TheBeatles to Music/LudwigVanBeethoven to Creator/StevenSpielberg to Music/ArethaFranklin to Creator/MerylStreep to Creator/BabeRuth to LetsPlay/PewDiePie, are treated the same way by this myth: They have something we {{muggles}} don't. And, perhaps more importantly, they have something we muggles ''can't have''. Either you have TheGift or you don't, because it cannot be obtained by any means. Either you have it or you are going to amount to nothing in your chosen field.

Now, this does not mean your character needs to ''evolve''. CharacterDevelopment is useful, but it's not the only way to run a story; [[StructuralArchetypes sometimes]] the Protagonist is the [[BlitheSpirit only character]] who does ''not'' grow. So it's perfectly okay to have a StaticCharacter - as long as that character is ''not flat'' (and not [[UsefulNotes/{{Pettanko}} in the way you're thinking, either]]).

The UsefulNotes/WritersResources page collects links to writing communities, articles, market information, resource collections, and more. And there's always our [[SoYouWantTo/SeeTheIndex So You Want To...]] page, which has a lot of articles on how to write specific stories (as well as this one about how to write stories generally).

Where you want to fall on this scale -- on either scale -- is really up to you. There is no "right" way to write a story; ''Series/GameOfThrones'' is one of the most popular works of fiction in recent memory because it challenges its audience, but shed a sizeable population of viewers who weren't looking for anything more than {{escapism}}. ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' is one of the most lucrative works of fiction in recent memory, but shed a sizeable population of viewers who found its ''excessive'' escapism boring and unstimulating. ''There is no right answer to this question''. There is only the right answer for ''you'', the kind of story ''you'' want to write. Figure it out, and tailor your tone accordingly.

We can actually take both of these straight back to one of the most famous and influential works ever written, Literature/TheBible. Check out the picture of ''Film/{{Dogma}}''[='s=] "Buddy Christ" on the JesusWasWayCool trope page -- "He didn't come here to give us the willies! He came here to help us out!" This is certainly a valid interpretation of what Christ says he set out to do. But then in Matthew, the first of Literature/TheFourGospels, we have that immortal line, "[[GoodIsNotNice I come not to bring peace, but a sword]]," implying that Christ's mission is less about spreading comfort and more about upsetting the status quo -- which, again, is a valid interpretation of what Christ (says he) set out to do, and was backed up by action (confronting parties who held political power, spending lots of time with people who those parties discriminated against, directly attacking capitalists, etc).

We can actually take both of these straight back to one of the most famous and influential works ever written, Literature/TheBible. Check out the picture of ''Film/{{Dogma}}''[='s=] "Buddy Christ" on the JesusWasWayCool trope page -- "He didn't come here to give us the willies! He came here to help us out!" This is certainly a valid interpretation of what Christ (says he) set out to do. But then in Matthew, the first of Literature/TheFourGospels, we have that immortal line, "[[GoodIsNotNice I come not to bring peace, but a sword]]," implying that Christ's mission is less about spreading comfort and more about upsetting the status quo -- which, again, is a valid interpretation of what Christ (says he) set out to do, and was backed up by action (confronting parties who held political power, spending lots of time with people who those parties discriminated against, directly attacking capitalists, etc).

We can actually take both of these straight back to one of the most famous and influential works of fiction, Literature/TheBible. Check out the picture of ''Film/{{Dogma}}''[='s=] "Buddy Christ" on the JesusWasWayCool trope page -- "He didn't come here to give us the willies! He came here to help us out!" This is certainly a valid interpretation of what Christ (says he) set out to do. But then in Matthew, the first of Literature/TheFourGospels, we have that immortal line, "[[GoodIsNotNice I come not to bring peace, but a sword]]," implying that Christ's mission is less about spreading comfort and more about upsetting the status quo -- which, again, is a valid interpretation of what Christ (says he) set out to do, and was backed up by action (confronting parties who held political power, spending lots of time with people who those parties discriminated against, directly attacking capitalists, etc).

But please, for the love of all that is holy, don't abuse the TwistEnding gimmick.

* The dreaded SuetifulAllAlong.