What follows is a raw version of fairly recent thinking on how to settle on the best narrative frame for the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe have Lester be a motormouth \u2014 who admits that he \u201ctalks a lot\u201d when he gets nervous. Right there, I have the seeds of a running joke. Whenever he starts monologuing, the reader will know he\u2019s nervous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So 1) he becomes oral expulsive whenever he\u2019s nervous AND
2) whenever he feels insecure he \u201cshows interest\u201d and compliments others (that is, takes his mom\u2019s advice and uses these techniques to win over his interlocutors) \u2014 whether he\u2019s intimidated by the person or the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s probably enough to really endear readers to his character. It could be a great way to SHOW his character in a way that lets the reader in on the joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s also a nice ironic contrast to his complement and partner protagonist \u2014 Aliyah, who\u2019s laconic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Aliyah gets stressed, she gets:
1) rigid in her thinking, arrogant, rule-bound AND
2) combative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aliyah\u2019s archetype, then, is combination of Royal, Fighter, and Know-It-All.
Lester\u2019s is a: Nerd, Neurotic and Pleasure-Seeker (with a splash of Fish-Out-Of-Water and Naif).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accordingly, Fief has to be a place that stresses both protagonists out in ever increasing degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I should brainstorm some more narrative frames \u2014
Right now, I have Lester performing the \u201csong\u201d of Aliyah to an audience of strikers on the picket line outside of the entrance to the Kingdom of Fief theme park. Though I wouldn\u2019t want to have him state this as an awkward form of exposition. The audience would already know, of course, who and where they are. I could leave it a mystery \u2014 just allude to it \u2014 give a couple clues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do strike supporters do to help out strikers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honk their horns, offer words of encouragement, hand out refreshments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I\u2019m pretty committed to having Lester be the narrator.
I don\u2019t want a third-person omniscient narrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would it be funny to have a first<\/em>-person omniscient narrator?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a kind of comic arrogance to that: a narrator who assumes they know what everyone else is thinking and feeling. There could be a lot of ironic tension between what they assume motivates characters and what those characters actually say and how they behave in a scene. Just how delusional the narrator’s interpretations are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s NOT for this story, though \u2014 maybe a different fantasy with some sort of minor god or goddess who\u2019s power is the ability to \u201cknow\u201d the minds & hearts of others \u2014 others are an “open” book to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other noteworthy narrative devices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holden Caulfield \u2014 talking to a therapist legal testimony \u2014 a deposition<\/p>\n\n\n\n More brainstorming of narrative frames:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would be the opposite of a song?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fan fiction forms that troubadours might use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other medieval genres \u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n The narrator has to be somewhat knowing, somewhat skeptical. Lester is going to mostly play the wavy line. (In The Hidden Tools of Comedy<\/em>, Steve Kaplan talks about straight lines and wavy lines. More on this later.) What genres complement the protagonists’ comic archetypes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lester is trying to do his best at singing this medieval song. But, of course, he\u2019s poorly equipped to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine strike conditions \u2014 a sit-in in a key building \u2014 corporate headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, it should be outside the park itself. This is really the only conceit that fits the story \u2014 the centrality of the peasant revolt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the single most damning feature of this society \u2014 the vast inequality of wealth (property & power).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who\u2019s the audience? \u2014 the strikers, the local police, park security, counter-protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the balance I\u2019m going for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lester\u2019s clumsy attempt at the elevated locution of a medieval heroic romance mixed with his middle-class kid vernacular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PLUS, if the audience is other Americans, he can try to explain things in terms that they would recognize. He can use tropes from his and his audience\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On top of that, these are KoF employees, so they would know the \u201cofficial version\u201d of the KoF \u201crealm.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an unofficial version \u2014 like fan fiction. But he is also claiming more authenticity \u2014 that KoF the theme park is actually a pale imitation of the \u201creal\u201d KoF \u2014 this fantasy world accessible by the magic portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the purpose of the song is to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like the idea that Lester has both a personal and a public reason to tell this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I shouldn\u2019t get too caught up, though, in the fine print of this narrative frame. We\u2019re not talking a Sixth Sense level surprise here. The main appeal for the reader is going to be in the premise \u2014 and the jokes\/gags as they come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The premise<\/strong>: a headstrong 12-year-old girl wants to be a knight-errant so badly, she, along with her skeptical cousin, get sucked into a fantasy medieval world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lester as narrator: the main thrust of the story is that Lester is trying to do honor to both the form he\u2019s adopting (heroic romance) but also to keep his audience (strikers) entertained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But at the same time, he\u2019s simply trying to do his best, even though he\u2019s poorly equipped to succeed. Part of the humor is in his incompetence, mixed with his sincerity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What follows is a raw version of fairly recent thinking on how to settle on the best narrative frame for the story. Maybe have Lester be a motormouth \u2014 who admits that he \u201ctalks a lot\u201d when he gets nervous. Right there, I have the seeds of a running joke. Whenever he starts monologuing, the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-process","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Gratuity \u201cTip\u201d Tucci \u2014 an essay assignment
Dearth Nadir \u2014 an autobiography (more of a memoir)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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There should be a tension between what the characters say and what they do.
They may also not listen to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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