10 Comments
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Mr. Troy Ford's avatar

Great primer on theme! Taking notes!

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Erin's avatar

thank you!! I'm so glad you enjoyed this masterclass :)

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Hadley Hendrix's avatar

Buffy!! <3

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Nikita Eaton-Lusignan's avatar

This is awesome, will definitely be playing around with the tree for my novel! I would add Severance as an example of a central question (what if people created a new consciousness to go to work for them) and explores the ramifications of that in its romantic pairings (especially the second season- each coupling explores it from a different angle)

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Erin's avatar

I am the last human in the US who has not seen Severence, but I know I would love it!! It's my kind of scifi! I think this is a GREAT example though, you were able to pluck out the question and see how it ripples through the rest of the series. I hope the conflict tree helps your novel and brainstorming!!

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LindaAnn LoSchiavo's avatar

Poets take note: "structure, theme, and conflict" should all be part of your narrative arc, too.

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Erin's avatar

thank you so much for reading and sharing!!

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David R. Ford's avatar

I love that, really well put together piece which shows the importance of conflict in a story. I have always been all about conflict being the main pillar of a story, to the point of driving my writing students mad. Recently I was teaching them about how writing styles differ around the world though, and was fascinated by Kishōtenketsu, which is a style that goes out of its way to avoid conflict, and is extremely popular. It really made me think about my relationship to conflict in my own writing

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Erin's avatar

wow, I haven't heard about Kishōtenketsu, but I will definitely look it up!! There are so many ways to tell a story and it's always worth it to look outside the Western way of storytelling and see what is happening throughout the world and how different cultures prioritize different aspects of storytelling. You've probably read Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, but if not, check it out! Thank you so much for reading and commenting on this piece!!

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David R. Ford's avatar

I believe it's one of the main principles that Ghibli employ when thinking about the stories they want to tell through their studio. I've not actually read that, but will check it out

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