What tone are you going for in your story?

So I was thinking about Okami the other day, and I started getting super-excited — as one should.

It’s a game that’s close to my heart for plenty of reasons. Case in point: when I think of Okami, I think of the word “majestic”, because that’s one solid way to describe it. Granted it’s kind of superficial to get sucked in by a game’s graphics, but so many of its elements leave me with a feeling that I’m on an adventure in a beautiful world. Leaving that sort of impact on people through a story is something I think would be pretty cool — or required of a would-be writer, but you get the idea.

Maybe I’ll get there someday, but in the meantime? I thought I’d ask you guys how you’re handling things with your stories (no matter what medium they’re in). I know I used the word “tone” in the title, but that’s a bit of a simplification. That plays into it, sure — with questions like “is your story serious or silly” — but right now I’m more interested in asking what you’re looking to impart on others. What are you trying to make them grasp? A web of mysteries? The spirit of adventure? Unrelenting terror? And more importantly, HOW are you trying to get that feeling across?

Anyone who wants to explain their thought processes — or just show off their brilliant works — is free to respond. I welcome it. Ready? Let’s rock!

There’s a free one for you. Guilty Gear is pretty hot-blooded — for better or worse.

I find that that very first question you just listed — whether to go the serious path or the silly path — is the trickiest to answer. I always start out asking myself that when coming up with a new concept as well, but whatever the initial resolution, it always spirals out of control. Other details are much easier to keep in control (I never really fail to make a story extremely cynical, for one, at least based on my past audiences' feedback).

As for how I go about it, I usually aim to convey a specific theme through use of character exposition. A hint of mystery webs may be there, but the important thing is to tell the story of the world and how miserable everyone in it is through dialogues, character actions, etc. As to what I'm trying to get across: mostly hopelessness, and how depraved and twisted people can become, even despite their virtues or supposed 'purity'. Also, how, more often than not, the bad (relatively speaking) guys win, how heavily it will cost the good (again, relatively speaking) guys if they even manage to win.

edited 18th Nov '15 8:19:14 PM by arreimil

Most my works I aim for "realistic" and "serious" with internal humour (rom the characters) and "adventure" is generally the flavour, usually fairly "hopeful" - no matter how bad the situation gets, there's always some hope for a "happy ending" or someone willing to strive to succeed against the odds.

I want my readers to be terrified for my protagonists. I want them to be biting their nails and sweating bullets over whether or not my characters will make it through. And I don't want it to feel like a foregone conclusion; HALF of my stories end with the hero's defeat. I want to beat them to a bloody pulp and make them work damn hard for their happy endings.

I don't do darkness for the sake of darkness, but dark themes play an important part. Nobody is really safe from being tortured and mutilated.

I explore personal tragedy wrapped in social turmoil seen through the lenses of mystery, fantasy, horror, and science fiction (weird fiction, essentially).

edited 18th Nov '15 9:31:54 PM by nekomoon14

I'm aiming for a fairly idealistic Cerebus Rollercoaster, although I'm not sure I'm doing it right.

Overall my tone tends to be dark, but ironically enough I adore playing with themes like Dark Is Not Evil or The Sacred Darkness, and I'm heavily on the idealistic side of the Cynic/Idealist scale. I tend to be very comfortable comparing my style as a mix of Guillermo Del Toro and Peter S. Beagle, especially with my more overtly fantasy works—gigantic, weird imagery that captures the wonder in fantasy.

Tone-wise, my characters go through shit and I love putting them through hell, but they will Earn Their Happy Ending.

Also, I like to play with The Power of Friendship / The Power of Love in a realistic manner. There's no literal heart-powers, but I like giving it some sort of spiritual power and the emotional boost that indirectly leads to awesomeness happening.

edited 19th Nov '15 6:43:31 PM by Sharysa

My books are riding on the Cerebus Rollercoaster. It's a very nice setting, especially where the Stone Cutters are concerned, but the villains won't let it stay that way.

In addition, while I'm not averse to including mature themes and subject matter in my stories, I've made it a personal rule to never include rape.

To be fair, it's not as if a Cerebus Rollercoaster is the easiest thing to nail. I mean, how do you keep things balanced when one chapter has some teens shooting the breeze at the park, and then the next chapter has a gang leader trap and force innocent civilians to start rioting (or burn alive)? The mind boggles. But we'll all get there eventually, I bet.

That's probably a good rule to live by. It's not as if those themes should never be tackled, but I'd imagine that it's a lot harder to do them right than it is to have them go so very, very wrong. Also, I have to be honest: hearing about "Stone Cutters" made my brain immediately jump to the obvious.

Even I will do Questionable Consent or at most Attempted Rape. They capture the horror of rape without actually having rape. The latter tends to make it very hard to write about the rape victim without invoking Unfortunate Implications.

In addition, it makes the rapist a Complete Monster. I would end up with a shallow rapist villain and a shallow rape victim, both of which don't really make for good stories.

Even if I managed to put Character Development on either character, the sheer horror of rape overshadows that. I would be wondering why I allowed my own characters to rape or get raped when better alternatives exist. No number of people telling me "not all rape victims shy away from sexual activities forevermore" will make me change my mind.

I have not been raped or such. It's just how my thought process works.

edited 19th Nov '15 11:39:16 PM by hellomoto

We actually discussed that here once. I was wondering about that very thing myself, and I was told that "Stone Cutters" sounds generic enough so as not to be confused with The Simpsons.

I want threats to my characters to be taken seriously. When I finish my first draft and start my second one, I plan to have each confrontation (whether violent or not) cost the viewpoint people to a variable extent; anything from slowing them down to long term injuries. It would feel fake for me to only have their enemies die, but with my tendencies toward small casts I need think of the consequences of each potential death.

I want people to watch my stuff and get a feeling of wonder. Awe. I want them to get chills up their spine — good chills — from the perfect interplay of story, picture, and sound. I want people to laugh and weep with the characters. I want to start conversations about the themes in my stories. I want my work to be thought-provoking, but also a fun ride. I want to make people feel all the good feels I get when I watch amazing art with an entertaining story.

I want them to see the world the way I see it.

That's so beautiful

A bittersweet reflection on childhood that descends into a very dark Coming of Age Story, with Surreal Horror used as metaphor.

I want people to go all "Oh, shit!" Or/and "Fuck yeah!" while reading my story. That's all I'm going for.

Not a bad goal to have, in all fairness. Nothing says "quality" like the ability to bring the hype.

I want fairly upbeat Slice of Life with only a slight undercurrent of darkness.

I'd have and idealistic tone although there are some dark parts to it. Would go all over the place on the Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness.

When I look at it as objectively as I can, I see that my project is probably lighter than I really intend it to be. One thing I have as intentional is that if a ally character dies, it's unlikely to be a Heroic Sacrifice. That doesn't mean they die acting selfish or anything like that, but it's more likely that they were outmaneuvered in some way by their enemies or just got unlucky.

We probably need to see more of this in fiction to counteract the vast amounts of Plot Armour that currently abounds and also to depict villains that are actually - Shock! Horror! - competent.

It took me a while to think up of this, but I'm ready now. It takes me forever to write something, but I'm beyond time's reach now.

Honestly, all I want for my story is to present it an exciting way that will demand your focus. I want its ideas to spark a damn revolution in those people's heads. I want to move the audience around like a fucking rollercoaster, to explore the world I've created, the characters that struggle in the name of god and country, the mind-blowing themes that are designed to challenge old ideas and shatter falsehoods (at least in my perspective).

I'd try to keep the words simple, partly because of my limited vocabulary and mostly because I don't want to screw with people's heads. Do you know how many times I've reached that god-forsaken dictionary? Feel my pain, bro.

Ironically, I've only finished a few pages of the work I want to make, but this is what I'm going for. I'm just afraid that I'll present all my good ideas in a shitty manner; that's just the worst thing a writer can do. It's like dumping shit on cake. What was supposed to be sweet turned bitter by one dick move. I don't want to be a dick or an asshole when wording it out.

You're not alone there. I've struggled with that fear plenty of times, even to this day — and not to be presumptuous, but I'd bet plenty of others have felt the same. But I guess that realizing one's weaknesses and working on them is part of what it means to be a writer, eh?

Going for a revolution, though? Sounds sick. Here's hoping you can pull it off.

The other thing I want is what I want out of any fiction: extremely engaging characters. I think that very fleshed out characters and setting can make even lighthearted slice-of-life interesting.

That's what daily vloggers and Slice of Life works live on, is good, well-painted characters. If you have good characters and portray them in the right way, you could show them doing almost anything- chores, MSTing, gaming, and just talking about stuff they're passionate about and readers can be drawn right in.

edited 26th Nov '15 10:32:19 PM by CrystalGlacia

The tone of my stories is actually pretty similar to Sharysa's.

I prefer to lean towards the idealistic side of the scale, my main characters will usually make it through the story alive, and the ending will be happy or at least bittersweet. Despite that, I'm of the school of thought that says a story can get as dark as it wants so long as things end well. Between the start and the finish of any one story of mine, there's likely a lot of darkness and freakishness (As something of a Nightmare Fetishist, I've made it a goal of mine to make sure each of my stories earns its own Nightmare Fuel page; I really wouldn't call most of my stories Horror, though), and although there's always a happy ending available the characters are going to have to work their bums off for it.