I have returned with part 2 of the many writing tidbits I’ve picked up from Stranger Things! Today we’re diving into some of THE best tricks this show used to make it downright bingeworthy, and how we can make our own stories go from okay to GOOD.
If you missed it, click here for part 1, where we learned things like how to make your readers fall in love with a character within the first 10 seconds of meeting them, how a simple gesture can make your reader’s heart swell, and basically a ton of other things to manipulate readers’ emotions which is always great. We writers are so nice.
Content Advisory: Just a quick reminder that I wouldn’t exactly recommend this show to everyone. It’s filled with language and gore, sadly. So I’m not really endorsing it, just showing some of the fabulous tricks these writers used to make such a good story.
Annnd THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. For all three season, so do be warned.
ALRIGHTY. Let’s get to it!
STRANGER THINGS PT. 2
Think about it. The way you talk to a customer at work is probably very different from the way you chat with your bestie, and your chats with your bestie most likely look different than conversations with your grandpa.
I really thought about this one with Mike—Will’s best friend. Mike is a little bit smitten with El, so he always speak with her softly, kindly. But, being as how he’s a preteen boy, he sounds very different addressing his older sister. He’s very short tempered with his mom. With his friends—Will, Lucas, and Dustin—he’s usually excitable and geeks out. Not only is this totally realistic, but it also helps show the different types of relationships the characters have with one another.
Your character may be, for example, snarky, but that doesn’t always mean they’re going to snark every single person they address. Mike is a bit awkward, a little shy, and has a temper, but we don’t see that in all his dialogue, because with his friends he’s comfortable so of course he wouldn’t be shy. He knows El has experienced some awful things, so he’s gentle with her. Of course, as tension rises, certainly he can be short tempered with his friends. But on a day to day basis, that’s not who he is to them.
It’s really important that we think about how our characters would react to each person. Realistically, no single person reacts the exact same to everybody they ever come across. And to go right along with this…
Let’s say you’ve got a scene with five different characters in the room. Suddenly, one of those characters starts having a seizure. Chances are, the other four characters are going to all react a little differently. One may rush to help the person, one may call the ambulance, one may just stand there panicking. We all react differently to situations, and our characters should do the same. The Stranger Things crew always excelled at conveying this.
Let’s look at the scene in season 2 when Will is in the hospital bed at Hawkins Lab screaming his head off because the monster that has possessed him is in physical pain. Poor Mike is covering his ears because seeing his best friend in such a situation is unbearable, and he’s still just a child. Joyce is a tough cookie and will do anything to stop this monster, so she grits her teeth and snatched a tranquilizer to put Will to sleep. Bob, being the quiet, analytical thinker he is, just stands there in silence, trying to take it all in. These are all extremely different reactions, but totally logical ones based on the characters’ personalities.
It’s so, so important to consider our characters’ personalities when they take action. ANY action. Nooo one wants to see a character do or say something that’s totally out of character for them. That’s just lazy writing.
One really fun thing about this show is that it’s set in the 80s. The old technology and simpler ways really adds to the charm of the setting. And season 1 does a spectacular job of making you really FEEL like you’re experiencing the 80s lifestyle—the clothing, kids riding on their bikes, old television sets, so many little details. It’s subtle, and it really brings it to life.
Thennn in season 2, the 80s references start to go a bit overboard. It calms down a bit as the season goes on, but the first couple of episodes seemed to cram as much EIGHTIES in as possible. Then, by season 3, I felt like the 80s was vomiting all over me.
And it cheapened it.
Yes, the 80s setting is great. But just because you lived in the 80s didn’t mean you embraced every single 80s thing that exists. And this story is about regular people living in a small town. The first season really captured that, but I felt like they started going way too overboard with the pop culture references and bright colors and things as time went on.
All that to say, if you set your story in a specific decade, DO bring in some culture from that decade to make it feel realistic, to really immerse your reader in the times. But DON’T just vomit every reference you possibly can of those times all over your story. It’s fun in things like Back to the Future. But for something more serious, like Stranger Things, it really cheapens it and takes away the realism which, in turn, jolts us out of the story.
If you want your story to be classy and realistic, less is more!
This is another subject I could easily make a whole post on (and preaching to myself, because I can struggle with it too, it’s hard, I know!) but I just want to address it real quick here.
Nancy is, to me, one of the the strongest characters in the whole show. This seemingly bratty high schooler really shows her mettle when the going gets tough. I mean, gracious, the girl’s got drive and courage, let me tell you. And we know that because in seasons 1 and 2, she’s constantly willing to face the monsters for the greater good. We’re SHOWN this. Not once is there a moment where it’s the writers being all: LOOK. LOOK AT THIS FEMALE WARRIOR. SHE’S SO STRONG. SO BRAVE. STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS FTW. You know, like basically every other modern story out there right now. *rolls eyes so far they fall out of my head*
Buuut then, enter season 3. Nancy is working as an intern at the newspaper and all the guys are being sexist toward her. And suddenly, Nancy’s entire existence in season 3 is basically her trying to prove her worth and just??? We don’t NEED her to prove her worth. She proved it a dozen times over in the last two seasons. Honestly, if this had happened in season 1, I wouldn’t have thought much about it. But here we are in season 3 and it feels so meaningless and agenda-y because WE ALREADY KNOW NANCY IS EPIC. Why on earth are they wasting her whole storyline in season 3 with this nonsense?
If you have a book series and a character has already proven their worth in book 1, it’s gonna be really frustrating if suddenly by book 3 their arc kind of…goes backward, you know?
Never once in the first two seasons did I feel like a single message was being shoved down my throat. And you know what? Those two season left such an impact on me. About loyalty. About bravery. About fighting for those you love, no matter what. Because the characters just did these things, without agendas being shoved in the storyline. But season 3 made me super annoyed during quite a few instances because heaven forbid we have a modern TV show without modern agendas puking all over it.
Ahem.
Aaaanyways. Clearly this is a touchy subject for me. *cough, cough* To sum it up: If you want to make the most impact with your story’s theme, don’t be pushy with it. Just show the characters being their awesome selves and the theme will shine beautifully all on its own (without being annoying).
If you’ve been here for any length of time, you’ve probably seen me mention this before. What I call “fireside chats” are the moments when the action slows and the character get a chance to take a breath and bond. Action is fantastic, but we won’t care about all the action if we haven’t had a chance to get to know the characters. And the best way to do that is those “fireside chats”. I wrote a whole post on the subject a couple of years ago (using the actual fireside scene in Tangled as an example *grins*).
This is a signature thing in Stranger Things. You can pretty much always expect a few moments where the characters reform, regroup, and take time to discuss personal and emotional matters before the next big action-y scenes. And these are the scenes I LIVE FOR in this show. Just having the characters talk can make a way bigger emotional impact than…anything. Honestly. Dialogue is your bestie. They say actions speak louder than words, but that’s now always true when it comes to fiction.
These little quiet moments especially always happen right before the climax. And the season climaxes of this show are GREAT. But you know what makes them great? Those quiet moments beforehand. The climaxes are intense, they make you fear so much for the characters. But WHY do we fear for the characters? Because you love them. And why do you love them? Because you got to know them in the quiet moments.
Action movies fail at this miserably. Like…I don’t care about the big action scenes and the fact that the characters almost die every 5 seconds because I wasn’t given a chance to care about the characters! I’m not here for car chases and explosions, as great as those are. But I am totally here to watch characters I love run from explosions and thrust themselves into a car chase scene. (Wow, we fiction lovers are so messed up.)
I can go on and on about this but, like I said, I wrote a blog post on it already soooo I’ll just leave it at this: Your action scenes are only as powerful as the quiet moments in between them. If your story is all action, ironically, it’s going to end up being boring.
And, finally, we come to the THREE KEY INGREDIENTS that can make any story strong and compelling…
So there’s monsters from an alternate universe haunting a small town, right? And it seems like the characters would just have to deal with that and be tossed around and react to all the bad things going on, right? ACTUALLY so much of what happens is because the characters weren’t reacting, they ACTED.
The plot moves forward because these characters don’t just sit around waiting for monsters to come. They take ACTION. They go monster hunting. They discover the secrets of Hawkins Lab. They fight back. They do things, and that is what keeps the plot going and going.
I’m gonna be honest, I often fail with this one, which is baaaad because, seriously, it’s so important. The main characters should always be taking action and moving things along. Not just sitting around waiting for the villain to do something. They should have purpose. Which brings us right along to the 2nd key ingredient to a good story…
This series has a fairly large cast with people ranging from like 11 years old to teenagers to adults. They all have different walks in life, all different skills and outlooks. It doesn’t even seem possible that they each could aid in discovering what happened to Will. I mean, a sheriff, sure. He could be useful. But 11-year-old-boys? A spoiled teenage girl? How are they useful?
And that’s where this show really shined. Because every single one of these people aided in the plot and moved it forward. And if you can make a cast that does that, that is where you’ve got a strong story.
But how do you accomplish that? Especially if your characters aren’t even together and may not even know one another at the beginning of the tale?
Let’s look at how they did it in season 1. Mike, Lucas, and Dustin are the ones who find El who, with her strange abilities, can possibly discover Will’s whereabouts. Joyce is the first one to discover something supernatural is going on. Jonathan and Nancy find evidence that there’s a monster haunting the town and literally go monster hunting. Hopper discovers the secrets in the lab (not knowing El came from this lab). Collectively, they’ve all found a piece of the puzzle—El, the lab, the monster, and that it’s all a little supernatural—and, in the climax, they come together and put their pieces together to, at last, see the whole picture. Then they’re able to use their individual knowledge and skills to fight the monster and rescue Will.
The others seasons do much of the same thing, because I think that’s how you succeed with an ensemble cast. Every story is, essentially, a bunch of puzzle pieces that come together in the climax. If you have a big cast, they should each be actively finding one of those puzzle pieces. And then they can all come together in the end and put together everything they have discovered. And isn’t that always the best when the full picture forms and everyone works together to solve the problem? Storytelling can be so exciting, guys!
BUT. In order for each person to be off on a puzzle piece hunt they have to have something very, very important. THE most important tool in storytelling…
Giving each character a purpose was vital, but giving each character motivation to pursue that purpose is what made us viewers cling to these characters with all our heart and soul.
Motivation is everything. Saving the world is great, and you may have a righteous character who really does want good for all, buuuut if you’re going to make them walk all the way to Mount Doom, no amount of righteousness is going to cause them to keep pressing on. They need more than that.
These characters may as well have walked to Mount Doom, for all the horrors they went through. But they just. keep. fighting. They keep seeking the truth. They keep pressing on to make things right. Why? Because they’re MOTIVATED.
Joyce and Jonathan are obviously deeply motived because Will is their son and brother. They are a tight-knit family and they will do anything to bring little Will back home.
Mike, Lucas, and Dustin have been Will’s best friends since kindergarten. Mike and Will are especially close—each being somewhat outcasts. They’re like brothers, so of course Mike is going to go above and beyond to find his best friend.
El wants to make things right because SPOILERS it’s kind of her fault that Will is missing in the first place.
Nancy’s best friend, Barb, goes missing as well so now Nancy is determined to find the truth. But, DOUBLE MOTIVATION, Barb went missing after Nancy ditched her at a party. So, not only is Nancy devastated her friend is missing, but she feels responsible for it.
Hopper keeps pressing on because he and Joyce were good friends back in highschool and clearly he still cares for her, AND his own daughter died from cancer when she was little. He can’t bear to see Joyce suffer the same torture of losing a child.
So much motivation! These characters face some craaaazy, nightmare-inducing things. And on multiple occasions they could give up, turn a blind eye, mark Will off as lost for good. But they don’t. And it’s believable that they don’t because of their motivations. Also, remember my first point in part 1? About how we saw within 10 seconds that Will is a precious person? Yeah, MORE MOTIVATION. You just can’t blame these characters for throwing themselves into these horror because any of us would to save that poor baby child.
BASICALLY: If you give your characters purpose and add motivation to that purpose and then force them to take action, you have THE keys to a strong, good story.
CONCLUSION
I’ve seriously just scratched the surface, guys. There is just SO MUCH to learn from this show. But if you’ve noticed, I’ve barely even talked about the plot. The plot is AMAZING but that’s not really why we stick with the story.
We stick with stories for the CHARACTERS.
That is the key. If you can make characters that readers fall in love with, they will follow them to the ends of the earth. It’s alllll about the characters, guys.
Yes, this show has a super compelling plot, the small town setting is great, the music is superbly used, the whole premise in general is spectacular. But if you stripped ALL that away and just left the characters, it’d still be a good story.
Throw in some compelling, active characters with motivation and purpose in a pot and BOOM! a good story.
This has been so much fun studying this story and learning from it. Sooo many of these are things I need to apply to my own writing. But I’m excited to put this into practice and keep learning!
Let’s forever strive to make good stories!
Do you agree that stories need to mostly be about good characters? What do you think of these tips? Anything you agree or disagree with? Anything to add? Let’s discuss all the things!
I LOVE THIS POST SO MUCH.
One thing that I think movies struggle with more than books is making likeable characters. Because, face it, all we can do is see what the dialogue and the actors choose to show us. In a book, you can be inside someone’s head. So I think that’s part of the reason it’s even MORE impressive to find characters like this on the screen. It’s harder!
But in every medium, we need to remember: the characters are the main event. You can have a wild plot twist, but without decent characters, it’s all useless. I recently watched Contagion (hahaha sign of the times amirite) and while the plot was all ove the place, hair-raising, suspenseful…I only cared about ONE character for the entire movie, and that was because she had the most personality, the most drive. And none of them had any motivation! Like…yes, everyone here wants to save humanity from a virus, but at the same time, they didn’t have any backstory to help you understand who THEY were. They were just faces in the middle of a crisis. Sometimes that works, but I really really wanted MORE from each of the massive cast and I didn’t get it. So this is something I’ve been thinking about lately, too.
Wonderful post! You’re making me wish I had netflix so I could watch this show 😉
I’M SO GLAD! 😀
I could not agree with this more, and it’s actually something I’ve been chatting about with the Fairy Tale Central girls a LOT. We are so frustrated with the lazy writing of characters in media these days. You are right, that it IS probably harder since you’re not inside the characters’ heads. But I also think sometimes you can convey MORE emotion because the viewers are able to SEE the emotions, like SEE the characters crying or screaming or laughing or whatever. And I’m a sympathetic crier, so I tend to cry more with movies/TV shows than with books since I’m actually seeing it. So yeah, they both have their pros and cons and methods of really conveying emotion.
But yes, yes, yes. I am finding more and more often movies just have people…doing stuff, but we don’t know who they are. The writers lean more toward the plot than why the plot matters a.k.a THE CHARACTERS. Of course I’ve read books that way too, but it seems much more common in media these days. And it’s getting sooo tiring.
And I mean, writing characters IS SO FUN. I don’t understand why these screenwriters are being lazy about it? It frustrates me to no end, if that’s not obvious.
I wish you had Netflix tooooo than we could flail about it together! ;D
This is amazing writing advice! It is also a judge shaking its head at me for defying its laws….
Ooohoo, but I love this advice and yes, everything in here should be followed UNLESS…you’re satirising. Then exaggerate to your heart’s content, I say. 😀
But really, I do think it’s either the theme (looking at literature of old) or characters that make or break a story. I mean…you WANT to love a character if you’re a reader, so just do it right and you’ve got your own hoard of sensitive dragons…
Thanks for sharing this all, Christine! 🙂 <3
There’s just so much to learn from this show! Sooo many of these things are elements I need to work on in my own writing!
BUT YES. If you’re writing satire you can throw ALL usual writing advice out the window. That is totally different! And I am a firm believer in that all rules can be broken. There’s always exceptions!
“Own hoard of sensitive dragons”. Bwahaha! I love that! It’s true though! Writing characters is so funnnn. Why wouldn’t we want to create a bunch of lovable fictional people? It’s the best!
You’re so welcome! I had a blast with these posts. ^_^
FANTASTIC POST, Christine!!!! *further convincing me to watch this show* I think I love this one more than the last one because WOW.
I especially loved the point where you mentioned that each character should contribute to the plot somehow. That’s something that isn’t talked about much, I feel??? But the way you laid it out was EXCELLENT. And now I NEED THIS SHOW. XD
Aaahhhhh thank you, Nicole!!!
Awww, I’m so glad that was helpful! It really struck me while watching this. The writers are SO GOOD at making sure everyone has purpose. UGH. YES. It’s just so good! I wish more shows these days were so high quality! (Though I do wish it was cleaner…but still.)
IT’S SUCH A SHAME THAT THIS SHOW’S NOT CLEANER BECAUSE IT SOUNDS SOOO INTERESTING. And I had no idea it was set in the 80s??? Even better. *shakes head at the travesty*
I am ALWAYS thinking about how I can make my characters react to situations differently! It’s tricky because you want to give everyone their own distinct personalities and tendencies, but you don’t want to exaggerate their reactions all the time JUST to point to their personality.
Oof, I can just imagine how a show would make all the 80s references explode in your face. I thought of Captain Marvel when you were talking about that, and I feel like the set-in-a-past-decade thing was done pretty well there. In fact, it could almost have done with a few MORE 90s references?? Because if I hadn’t been told, I probably wouldn’t have even known it was set in the 90s. Maybe that’s just because I was born at the end of the decade. xD
YES I IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF TANGLED WHEN I READ “FIRESIDE CHATS” AND YOU DID NOT DISAPPOINT. xD But I totally agree with that point! WE NEED TIME TO SLOW DOWN AND GET TO KNOW OUR CHARACTERS. I think something else is that we need to see our characters having fun, smiling, laughing. Obviously this would look different on a family sitcom than it would on a dark thriller series or something. But much like those “fireside chats”, it’s during those lighthearted scenes that we grow to love our characters and see what makes them happy. THEY DON’T NEED TO BE SAD ALL THE TIME FOR US TO CARE ABOUT THEM.
And yesss I agree that stories are all about the characters. I mean, like you said, if you take everything away from a story but the characters, they’ll still carry it (if they’re good characters). But if the only good thing is the plot and you take everything out but that… now what? There’s nobody there. xD CG Drews at Paper Fury said something one time that I adored (paraphrasing here): Don’t let the plot happen to the characters. Let the characters happen to the plot. And I just LOVE that idea.
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I KNOW. UGH. Why must all shows have content? It’s so frustrating! Because yessss. Otherwise this show is AMAZING.
That is SUCH a good point! :O It’s true, you don’t want to go overboard with your characters’ reactions and make them seem like caricatures. It’s all in that balance. Wonderful point!
Oooh yes, Captain Marvel is a GREAT example. I was proud of them for not exploding the movie with 90s references (like I kind of expected them to). And I actually agree that it could have almost used a few more references! But I’d rather too few than too many, so. I won’t complain much. XD
ANOTHER GREAT POINT. About seeing our characters happy??? YES YES YES. That’s actually another thing this show did well. We DID get a few moments of laughs and joy from the characters, and it just made you love them and WANT them to be permanently happy all the more. I think that’s a great way to string your readers along and make them root for your characters to win. Because if we see moments of happiness, we want them to be able to make it to their full “happily ever afters”. As opposed to just seeing them sad all. the. time. Again, BALANCE! You’re bringing out such good points, Emily!
I couldn’t agree more to ALL of what you said about characters! And that is suuuuch a good quote from Cait! That reminds me of something Abbie Emmons always says: “Stories aren’t about what happens, but about HOW what happens affects the characters.” I’m not sure I’m quoting it just right either, BUT STILL. It really makes me think!
You’re so right! There is so much to learn from this show! I personally didn’t mind the 80ness of the third season but I could see how it could be annoying. I also love how the characters break their archetypes. Nancy is not the typical ditzy teen and Steve is not the typical cool kid. I’m excited about season four but I hope it’s the last one because I don’t want the story stretched too thin. Four seasons would be solid because it would be one for all four seasons since each season has taken place in a different season lol.
IT’S JUST SO GOOD. YES.
That is a GREAT point about the archetypes! You’re so right. It really broke the mold with the characters, and I just love it so much.
I had heard from a friend that the creators set up the story for 5 seasons, so we may be getting at least two more? I was relieved to hear that, because I was worried they’d just drag it on and onnn and it’d start getting low quality. That happens way too often with TV series. >.> So if they have an endgame in place, maybe it’ll stay pretty solid to the end? One can hope!
But you’re RIGHT. They should have set it for 4 seasons, one for each season. That would have been brilliant!
This is such good writing advice!! I haven’t watched Stranger Things partly because I don’t have Netflix and partly because of the *strong language* and the *inappropriate things*, BUT it’s great to read about the lessons that can be drawn from the show! Those writers seem SO STINKIN’ TALENTED. I loved reading this! (And the first part of this series; somehow I didn’t get around to commenting on it!)
Yeeeah, sadly I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. But I do love seeing how SKILLED these writers are at tugging on the emotions. There’s just so much to learn!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these posts! Thanks, Amelie! <3
ANOTHER GOLDEN POST. Soooo many great things to be gleaned here, wow!
I especially loved how you pointed out keys to making ensemble casts work. The motivation, characterization, how EVERY SINGLE PERSON needs to have a reason to exist in the plot, how they need to be moving the story forward–yessssss.
That’s actually one of my favorite parts of the show: that moment right as the climax is about to ramp up, when all the storylines converge. All the characters join forces and put their puzzle pieces together and it makes me SO JAZZED. *fistpump*
Some aspects of Season 3 weren’t as good as the first two seasons, I agree (like Nancy’s job, lol), but even so, the writers did nail a lot of things. I’m hopeful about Season 4! (And like you said in your reply to Tori, since they have an endgame in mind, hopefully things won’t drag on and on… like OUAT. *cough*)
Awwwww, thanks!!! So glad you enjoyed it! ^_^
They did SO WELL with the ensemble cast. So often, shows with a huge cast always ends up kind of letting some of the characters fade out or just BE THERE without DOING anything and it gets really annoying. But this show gave everyone an even amount of time and goals and motivation and and and YEAH. IT’S SO GOOD.
OH SAAAAME. It’s so exciting!
Yeeeeah. Season 3 wasn’t my favorite. *sniffles* BUT it still had a LOT of fantastic moments. And yes! It was actually Arielle who told me she heard they were planning 5 seasons, so that’s hopeful. ‘Cause I was sooo scared they were just going to keep milking it. (Like OUAT. Ahem. YES. >.>)
Confession: I’ve been waiting till I had a solid chunk of free time to read this post, because I knew that I would want to soak every little piece in, and I would need time to do that, and HOLY GUACAMOLE, I WAS RIGHT.
Christine. Seriously. Please make some sort of a writing class. Become my mentor. I NEED AN ENDLESS AMOUNT OF YOUR WISDOM AT MY FINGERTIPS. There are SO many things in here that I just want to quote and print out and paste on my wall. Like how people talk differently to different people??? This is so true, but it’s never something I noticed enough of to actually implement it in my writing! I mean, obviously I kinda do this to an extent already (hopefully? maybe? XD), but I’ve never actually done it intentionally, and that’s something that I need to fix ASAP. I love the concept of the snarky characters having someone soft and smol that they must protect and are therefore gentle towards. It almost reminds me of Flynn Rider once he truly realizes his feelings for Rapunzel…
AND THE FIRESIDE CHATS!!!!! Oh my goodness, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I absolutely ADORED that post you wrote! Since reading it, I’ve tried to be much more intentional about padding my action scenes with moments of quiet and regrouping. (and, might I say, I feel it has greatly strengthened my writing. XD)
And I wholeheartedly agree about less being more. Sometimes I feel like people try so hard to force a concept down our throats that they end up choking us to death in the process. XD And THE FEMINIST AGENDA IN THE THIRD SEASON. Oh my word, that bothered me so much. I mean, don’t get me wrong–I absolutely loved this show (thought the swearing was a bit…much.)–but I definitely agree that there were some things in the third season that were slightly on the annoying side. BUT. Steve kinda made up for all that…. Aha… *hides face in paper bag*
Goodness, I could go on and on for days about all of the things I agree with in here, but I guess I’ll try and leave it off with YES!!!! CHARACTERS ARE SO SO IMPORTANT. I absolutely love how that’s the general conclusion to this series! Characters mean SO much to me–that’s why I tend to write character-driven stories, rather than plot-driven–and if a cast of characters aren’t relatable or–at the very least–lovable, then I’m not going to care about the plot, even if it’s the most epic thing in the whole entire world… So yeah. I’m definitely bookmarking both of these posts for future reference when I’m stuck with drafting or editing or whatever. This series was amazing, and aside from making me want to binge the whole Stranger Things show again, I also feel like I’ve learned so much from these posts…. So THANK YOU!!! Please please please write more writing craft posts someday. XD I need your knowledge like a plant needs sunlight. XD
*hides face in hands while grinning ridiculously hard* How do you ALWAYS manage to brighten my day x1000000 when you comment???? Just just just EEP. I’M SO GLAD YOU ENJOYED THIS. AND ALL YOUR SWEET WOOORDS. I CAN’T.
Oh my goodness. GIRL. Honestly, soooooooooo much of this stuff were things I had never thought about EITHER. I was just watching the show intentionally trying to glean writing wisdom and all these things jumped out at me. I had never really thought about how people talk differently to certain people either!!!! Like, we give our characters these specific personalities, but I forget that they’re going to be a little DIFFERENT with each person they address. SO YEAH. It was a HUGE revelation for me too! What we need is the Stranger Things writers to be writing mentors! ;D (ALSO ALL THE YES TO FLYNN AND HOW HE SPEAKS TO RAPUNZEL. MY HEART. <333)
D’AWWWW!!!! I’m glad that post was helpful! I do so love me some fireside chats. XD
UGH YES. It seems like TV (and even books) are more and more getting agenda-y and just ??? Can we not just have a good STORY?!?! The story should create the message, the message shouldn’t create the story. Like if you just TELL the story, the message will come through all on its own without blatantly stuffing it down our throats. Ahem. Yeah, I’ve been super annoyed with modern stories lately, if it’s not obvious. XD The third season was definitely my least favorite. But Steve ABSOLUTELY 100% made up for all the things I didn’t like. He was PERFECT. PERFECT I TELL YA.
YESSS. SO MUCH YES. Characters are e v e r y t h i n g. I just don’t think there’s much point in having an epic plot if you don’t have fantastic characters to go with it. People love people and we consume fiction to, ya know, have our souls crushed by fictional people, like you do. That’s normal, right???
ANYWAYS. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING ALL YOUR PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. Honestly, people saying they’re bookmarking my posts is like the best possible comment I can receive on a post. XD It makes me SO happy! And just ALKJLSKJLJF. You’d like more writing craft posts from me??? AWWWWWK. I AM SO HONORED I JUST CAN’T EVEN SAY. I honestly feel like such a newb still sometimes. Like do I even know anything??? WHO CAN SAY. BUT writing these posts actually helps ME sort through these things. I felt like *I* learned so much writing these two posts. SO. If there’s ever any specific topics you’d like me to discuss, let me know! If I have Thoughts(TM) on said topic I’d be happy to write a post on it! (And I’m always looking for blog post ideas!)
I adore these posts!
Awwww! I’m so glad! ^_^