The month’s half over and amazingly, I have yet to reference former Valiant Comics editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden<\/a>‘s lecture on “The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot<\/a>“. This must be remedied immediately because, even though you are probably deep in your story, you may have hit a few snags along the way. Her own plot advice says “steal from the best” and so I’m going to steal from her<\/em>. Take it away, Teresa:<\/span><\/p>\n Start with some principles:<\/p>\n Looked at from this angle, the Internet’s various lovingly-compiled 1. Below, you’ll find a comprehensive collection of the various Evil 2. Now go to the Evil Overlord lists, which I’ve divided into five You now have five juicy cliches.<\/p>\n You’re going to make a plot 3. You’re not done yet. Before you start writing, roll one die. Take Alternately, you can go here<\/a> and have them 4. You’re allowed to throw out one cliche, but only if you’re 5. You may be tempted to throw out awkward-seeming list picks and go for 6. If you’re trying to write science fiction, it may be useful at Me again. And since this is comics, we would be remiss if we didn’t include these comic cliche lists:<\/em><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.comicsalliance.com\/2009\/11\/03\/roasting-old-chestnuts-our-favorite-comic-book-cliches\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.jonathancrossfield.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/comic-scriptwriting-superhero.html<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n http:\/\/forums.comicbookresources.com\/archive\/index.php\/t-50446.html<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n And if you have a few hours to burn, you can go through the lists at TV Tropes<\/a>. But be very careful– you only have two weeks left to finish writing your graphic novel, and if you go there, you can easily spend two months. You’ve been warned.<\/em><\/p>\n Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n Be the first person to comment! <\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nhas to get past him. (It helps if the story’s moving fast and there’s
\nlots of other interesting stuff going on.)\n<\/li>\n
\ncliche, but it’s also a trick that works. That’s why it keeps getting
\nused.\n<\/li>\n
\nplots. If you have three plots presented one way, you have one plot. (I
\nstole this principle from Jim Macdonald’s lecture on how to really
\ngenerate plots, which is much better than my lecture on stupid plot
\ntricks.)\n<\/li>\n
\ncliche lists are a treasury of useful plot devices. The instructions that
\nfollow are one way to use them.<\/p>\n
\nOverlord lists<\/a>. Don’t go there yet. First, using whatever method pleases
\nyou, generate five random numbers that fall within the following ranges:<\/p>\n\n
\ncategories. Take your five random numbers and match them up to the
\nappropriate entries in the lists:<\/p>\n\n
\nout of them. You’ll find it’s fairly easy to make a silly one, but
\nit’s not all that much harder to turn them into a decent one. You’ve got a
\nlot of potential story to work with.<\/p>\n
\nwhatever number comes up, and generate that many random numbers which fall
\nbetween 1 and 141. Now go to Murphy’s Laws of Combat<\/a>, which follow the
\nEvil Overlord lists, and find the laws that match your numbers. These are
\nplot twists. Use them as needed. If your story absolutely requires that
\nGareth go from point A to point B and drop off a package at the Post
\nOffice along the way, but you’re finding that part dreary, tossing in
\nmodifiers like “Every man has a scheme that will not work” or “If your
\nattack is going really well, it’s an ambush” will suggest ways to liven it
\nup.<\/p>\n
\nall generated for you. <\/strong><\/p>\n
\nconvinced you know another comparably lurid thing that should be
\nhappening there instead. You’re also allowed to use the cliches
\nstraight or reversed. Say you’ve drawn A-34, “I will not turn into a
\nsnake. It never helps.” You can have a character turn into a snake and
\nfind it doesn’t help, or do it and find it very useful indeed, or decline
\nto do something so obviously useless and do something else instead. That’s
\nfine. Just get in there and make the story start happening.<\/p>\n
\nmore obviously writer-friendly cliches. That’s your choice; but try the
\nawkward set first. It’s figuring out how to make them work together that
\nproduces interesting and unexpected story lines.<\/p>\n
\nthis point to pull the same stunt using the mighty and compendious SF
\ncliches list at http:\/\/users4.50megs.com\/enphilistor\/cliche.htm<\/a>. For a
\nperfectly shameless mixture, you can also toss in a few cliches from the
\n“Things We Learned at the Movies”<\/a> list\u2014but only if you use them in
\nreverse.<\/p>\n