What I want out of a story
May. 10th, 2009 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI've been having fun worldbuilding for my space dystopia. I've thought up a bunch of stuff about government and neighbours and how to keep the citizens in line. I can think of tons of reasons for our small band of rebels to stand up and decide to change things.
The basic trouble is, I can't seem to think of proper ways they could succeed in making improvements.
I've apparently got a head full of stories where you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game.
... I think I knew that ...
The problem is now I've thought up this world, which has a very Blakes 7 ending in store if I even bother running through it, I can't really think why I'd want to watch these stories.
So I sat down to figure out what I want to watch:
Disability stories. Two categories: actual disabled people get on with living and saving the world a lot, and people who would not usually be considered disabled being thrown into situations where the power imbalance is such that they're really on the short end. Batfamily stories give me both kinds of goodness - we have Oracle, and we also have mere humans, albeit humans at the top of their acrobatic and intellectual game, going up against everything from common or garden supervillains to your actual in world devils and gods. Oracle shows how being disabled doesn't stop you being a useful part of the team. Batman and similar human heroes show you how even at the top of your game there's always something bigger. It gives the inequality feeling without the depressing something not working parts. And how to deal with it is always the same: team up. Superhero teams do the same mixed ability thing, like when the ones that can fly get the ones that can't fly into position and they all work together, with or without assistive technology. This is what it's like being a disabled person, coming up against your limits hard and still having something to bring to the team. And this is why disability stories are always going to be relevant to all mortal humans, because each and all we have limits and there will always be something we cannot deal with alone.
Women stories. Possibly stories of particular interest to women, though I'm fuzzy on what that means. But particularly stories involving women. Actual women making up actual half the characters. And then they do a whole lot of different things. This should be really obvious, but I keep on looking.
Children stories. Not for children, with children being made. I can see why television doesn't want to have random babies around, because more difficult to film. But I want babies. I find it vaguely embarrassing for reasons I can't really articulate but all my epic tell myself stories are about having babies. It's one of the things that has to happen before Ever After is even a possibility, let alone Happily. With descendents there can be a *lot* of Ever After. I have this warm happy glow where I imagine humans going out into the universe and making more humans. Humans have a tendency to want babies. Babies are cool. And yet it seems like all the cool stories, save the world and have adventures and all that stuff, only happen to people who have no babies, or possibly to the babies themselves. Kids TV has kids surviving all sorts of everything, but grown up TV has people leaving to have babies, or moping about how they can't have babies, or just a whole ongoing lack of babies. Humans have managed to have babies, children, and descendants of all ages in all conditions. We do this. If we find it difficult or impractical, we throw teamwork and science at it until everything works. I want a story where there can be saving the world and raising children.
Multigenerational stories. And I don't just mean high school stories with a few random adults getting in the way. There are a few years of life where everything apparently happens to people within about a year of your age. Then we grow out of it. Mostly life happens to people of all ages. They work together. Some of them will be older and some younger. And I don't just mean they're ages between 21 and 29. I keep seeing the world saves being in the hands of people of an age I'll never be again, frequently ages who I wouldn't quite trust to fix my plumbing let alone my world. Need more ages! Ages all the way up to actual old people you'd have to worry about not surviving to next season. Does saving the world stop need doing when you get older? No! Can you do it so well? Depends which parts you're counting. And even if people slow down, we're back to disability stories.
Teamwork! With a range of characters that covers the range of actual humans! And saves the world a lot!
Also there should be people of lots of skins and cultures and beliefs. I remember to want that later than the other stuff though. And would be less good at it.
But that's my list of stuff I want.
Power inequalities to deal with through teamwork, and thoroughly diverse teams.
Also sex. Just as balanced part of story.
And then making homes that work. It's not much use stopping the monster if all you get out of it is stopping the monster again next week. Stopping the important monsters means being better able to build something worth having, live lives.
*rereads*
... so, just a modest little list of wants there.
There's also moments in stories that I like. The one where someone stands up and everyone notices they're brilliant. The one where someone stands up and declares someone else brilliant or beautiful or loved. The one where someone realises they've found something worth fighting for, and the rallying cry moment where they tell everyone else exactly why. The time when the monster thinks it has a room full of tasty snacks and they all take up arms and kick arse together. The times when knowledge keeps going, where the student steps up and becomes a teacher, where the students will keep going even if the teacher is stopped. You can't stop the signal. The last minute save, where someone is ready to make the sacrifice but they've got a team to save them. I'm not so fond of the non-save, though that always has to be a possibility; the idea of the noble sacrifice seems to get in the way of the idea that some jobs need doing every day a little. But I do like the big kabooms, or the moment where the villain thinks their tower is unassailable but finds it crumbling around their ears. Boom! But... only after giving them a chance. Making friends to go fight the next thing is the best way. Got to build a team cause there's always another bad out there.
If I worldbuild something bleak, even if I can't see any out at the end of it, I can still hit a lot of the moments along the way. And for that I'd keep watching. Then the story is about how you can't get out of the game, but you can grab moments along the way.
think I knew that too.
The basic trouble is, I can't seem to think of proper ways they could succeed in making improvements.
I've apparently got a head full of stories where you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game.
... I think I knew that ...
The problem is now I've thought up this world, which has a very Blakes 7 ending in store if I even bother running through it, I can't really think why I'd want to watch these stories.
So I sat down to figure out what I want to watch:
Disability stories. Two categories: actual disabled people get on with living and saving the world a lot, and people who would not usually be considered disabled being thrown into situations where the power imbalance is such that they're really on the short end. Batfamily stories give me both kinds of goodness - we have Oracle, and we also have mere humans, albeit humans at the top of their acrobatic and intellectual game, going up against everything from common or garden supervillains to your actual in world devils and gods. Oracle shows how being disabled doesn't stop you being a useful part of the team. Batman and similar human heroes show you how even at the top of your game there's always something bigger. It gives the inequality feeling without the depressing something not working parts. And how to deal with it is always the same: team up. Superhero teams do the same mixed ability thing, like when the ones that can fly get the ones that can't fly into position and they all work together, with or without assistive technology. This is what it's like being a disabled person, coming up against your limits hard and still having something to bring to the team. And this is why disability stories are always going to be relevant to all mortal humans, because each and all we have limits and there will always be something we cannot deal with alone.
Women stories. Possibly stories of particular interest to women, though I'm fuzzy on what that means. But particularly stories involving women. Actual women making up actual half the characters. And then they do a whole lot of different things. This should be really obvious, but I keep on looking.
Children stories. Not for children, with children being made. I can see why television doesn't want to have random babies around, because more difficult to film. But I want babies. I find it vaguely embarrassing for reasons I can't really articulate but all my epic tell myself stories are about having babies. It's one of the things that has to happen before Ever After is even a possibility, let alone Happily. With descendents there can be a *lot* of Ever After. I have this warm happy glow where I imagine humans going out into the universe and making more humans. Humans have a tendency to want babies. Babies are cool. And yet it seems like all the cool stories, save the world and have adventures and all that stuff, only happen to people who have no babies, or possibly to the babies themselves. Kids TV has kids surviving all sorts of everything, but grown up TV has people leaving to have babies, or moping about how they can't have babies, or just a whole ongoing lack of babies. Humans have managed to have babies, children, and descendants of all ages in all conditions. We do this. If we find it difficult or impractical, we throw teamwork and science at it until everything works. I want a story where there can be saving the world and raising children.
Multigenerational stories. And I don't just mean high school stories with a few random adults getting in the way. There are a few years of life where everything apparently happens to people within about a year of your age. Then we grow out of it. Mostly life happens to people of all ages. They work together. Some of them will be older and some younger. And I don't just mean they're ages between 21 and 29. I keep seeing the world saves being in the hands of people of an age I'll never be again, frequently ages who I wouldn't quite trust to fix my plumbing let alone my world. Need more ages! Ages all the way up to actual old people you'd have to worry about not surviving to next season. Does saving the world stop need doing when you get older? No! Can you do it so well? Depends which parts you're counting. And even if people slow down, we're back to disability stories.
Teamwork! With a range of characters that covers the range of actual humans! And saves the world a lot!
Also there should be people of lots of skins and cultures and beliefs. I remember to want that later than the other stuff though. And would be less good at it.
But that's my list of stuff I want.
Power inequalities to deal with through teamwork, and thoroughly diverse teams.
Also sex. Just as balanced part of story.
And then making homes that work. It's not much use stopping the monster if all you get out of it is stopping the monster again next week. Stopping the important monsters means being better able to build something worth having, live lives.
*rereads*
... so, just a modest little list of wants there.
There's also moments in stories that I like. The one where someone stands up and everyone notices they're brilliant. The one where someone stands up and declares someone else brilliant or beautiful or loved. The one where someone realises they've found something worth fighting for, and the rallying cry moment where they tell everyone else exactly why. The time when the monster thinks it has a room full of tasty snacks and they all take up arms and kick arse together. The times when knowledge keeps going, where the student steps up and becomes a teacher, where the students will keep going even if the teacher is stopped. You can't stop the signal. The last minute save, where someone is ready to make the sacrifice but they've got a team to save them. I'm not so fond of the non-save, though that always has to be a possibility; the idea of the noble sacrifice seems to get in the way of the idea that some jobs need doing every day a little. But I do like the big kabooms, or the moment where the villain thinks their tower is unassailable but finds it crumbling around their ears. Boom! But... only after giving them a chance. Making friends to go fight the next thing is the best way. Got to build a team cause there's always another bad out there.
If I worldbuild something bleak, even if I can't see any out at the end of it, I can still hit a lot of the moments along the way. And for that I'd keep watching. Then the story is about how you can't get out of the game, but you can grab moments along the way.
think I knew that too.