FILLER ARCS - Terrible Writing Advice

[Music] i wonder what i'll do today oh right deadline and all uh i think i'll just phone it in until the next real video i need a topic though something so easy that i could cover in my sleep what i need is some good old-fashioned story filler filler arcs as they are often called an anime or bottle episodes as american television calls them are cheap episodes designed to pad out the runtime due to either budgetary constraints when an adaptation overtakes the source material or there is a push for more content regardless of the quality of said content regardless of the reason filler arcs are great for a writer because they are low effort for the audience not so much but that sounds like a big old pile of not my problem besides the audience knows better than to complain about filler expecting filler to be good is like expecting a picture of a fast food burger to match what you actually get we all know it's garbage and as such there is no expectation for a writer to do their job properly now writing filler is all about bringing your c game not your a game i'm of course joking a writer's c material is way too good for filler c-minus minimum but a good writer aims for at least d-grade material when writing filler gotta save that c material for the slower arcs of the main plot as for the plot for my filler well a writer has a number of options to pad things out one option is the movie version of an established series where my filler story is a sudden high-stakes earth-shaking calamity that must be stopped at all costs but leaves no trace once resolved no matter how much collateral damage occurs this has such deep ramifications for the setting that no character ever brings it up again or even remembers it when the story gets back to the main plot the sudden high stakes can be used to explain why the main story is suddenly put on hold so the characters can go on this side adventure though why they never remember it afterwards is something that can be brushed aside since the audience will probably forget about it too now another great thing about filler is that it can be shoved right into the middle of the main series plot with no regard for pacing and with little to no transition is our fantasy world locked in a crucial battle that is the linchpin of the kingdom's defenses well just put that all on hold the dark lord can wait until the beach episode is done i mean unless he wants to go on vacation too who cares if the protagonist hasn't found the time bomb yet it'll tick down the speed of the plot anyway and there is plenty of time for an underdog sports story in between could this have been avoided with even the most basic amount of planning i mean yes but no one will care it's filler it's all about going beyond even what a lazy writer would do see a lazy writer would just say it was all just a dream or something but writing filler doesn't even need that most basic level of justification because we all know it's filler in fact i care so little that instead of a high-stakes plot i could instead go with the even lazier plot and just have an incoherent mess of misadventures that feel more like ad-lib than an actual plot basically just cram in a bunch of skits that didn't fit in anywhere else and that should be good enough the standards for filler are low which makes it match perfectly with comedy one of the lowest art forms things like series tone can be safely discarded during filler episodes so it's the perfect time to throw in that weird segment the editors cut in fact just keep throwing in random ideas until the whole filler story resembles the soup of meh seasoned with non-cutable mustard that tastes suspiciously like the leavings on the cutting room floor who cares if the ideas don't mesh one idea has to be just good enough to keep the drooling morons who like it sufficiently entertained and keep our ratings above water if too many things happening can't bring this mess soup to a boil on the back burner then maybe pat out the filler with one idea stretched to the breaking point now even a simple idea can often have untapped potential to make for great storytelling but that requires creativity and passion which are both at a premium during filler instead use this single simple concept as a crutch to make it through the filler arc until the end of the run time if it snaps midway through then just crawl across the runtime anyway it's not like anyone would really care and a writer can just blame the concept for being weak rather than their weak execution now here is where i would put a smooth transition between talking about filler plots and characters if i had the budget for it this can't do attitude is perfect for when designing new characters for a filler story see filler stories are a great opportunity for adding new characters who just come out of nowhere and then return to nowhere once the filler is finished since it is just filler and no one cares this is a perfect opportunity to sneak in my very original character who is super cool and immediately made part of the main cast is this basically a fanfic character of course not it's very officially part of the series canon even if that part of the canon is relegated to a wiki stub you know what's even better a filler story romantic interest now this is going to sound strange coming from me but the standards for filler are so low that even a love triangle is too much effort so yes a filler arc could use a love triangle but i can't be bothered even with that amount of effort because filling out the extra angle of the love triangle requires taxing my already limited creativity to the breaking point instead feel free to use the love black hole that will swallow up the filler arc's love interest once the story is done never to be seen again won't this mess up the canon relationships i mean it would but it's filler so no one cares a filler arc romantic interest doesn't count as cheating no matter what the divorce court says what about the filler arc villain the ideal filler villain consists of three parts evil two parts ham one part into the world as we know it and zero parts motivation if pressed then just say the villain's motive is to oppose the protagonist for the exact length of the run time before being killed and never seen again just make sure the villain has enough flair that the audience doesn't have time to dwell on the vague feeling that they miss something like a backstory or basic motivation kinda like most superhero movie villains come to think of it though at least the audience can find the super villain's motives in the original comics don't forget the villains goons even though the audience will in spite of their strangely intricate character designs they are super strong and menacing until they're not and are beaten anticlimactically so we can hurry along to the main boss don't worry about it too much just have the main characters tell the audience how threatening these new antagonists are but provide absolutely no details lore or anything really as to how they know that just have them say these guys are dangerous or something now we got our filler villains what about the main characters well they are there too at least the theme park versions close enough that the audience shouldn't notice unless the writer really screws up previously established characterization we can't have newly established characterization filler is all about coasting by a momentum not having some actual character development we don't want to punish the audience who is smart enough to just skip the fillers so i can't have anything important actually happened at least character-wise all character development should be saved for the main plot new powers are cool though just so long as they are never seen again outside the filler no matter how useful they are now what about the setting could filler be used to explore parts of the setting more in depth of course you know so long as my explorer you mean glorified slideshow filler has a long tradition of just adding entire countries and even continents from nowhere i mean these places are lucky to get names much less a place on the map filler is actually a really good place to add in interesting and unique concepts and then not follow through with any exploration of seg concepts wasted potential isn't a concern only wasting effort on a filler arc what if these new additions don't mesh well with the settings tone and theme well the solution to this is i don't care because this is all just a waste of time speaking of wasting time how long is this video so far not long enough yet i need more padding uh how about a fetch quest i'll send my characters to snatch some mcguffin artifact thing that is super powerful but never heard of until now and could be absolutely amazing in resolving the main plot if used but thankfully will be forgotten when i return to the main story it will vanish along with the country i added and the continent that seg country was located on probably swallowed up by the same black hole that ate the filler arc's love interest though i suppose i don't need a mcguffin hunt to keep the main characters busy i just got word of another settlement that needs your help i'll mark it on your map oh the main characters have already dealt with that um well i just got word of another settlement that needs your help i'll mark it on your map again yeah i can do this all day you'll never get that quest log clear see no macguffin need it when i can just lock my characters in an eternal cycle of busy work oh no the characters are trapped in this extremely cheap to film in location by like mountain lions or a rock slide or something see this adds tension to the scene i mean yes it is as transparent as clear glass but it will keep the characters pinned in place and pat out the runtime and i can even pretend there's tension in the scene even if it's about as fake as a video game character's inability to wade through knee-deep water without drowning okay that had to fill up some time in the video ugh still not enough okay how about a flashback yeah good old flashback man this reminds me of the time i talked about flashbacks in the exposition video man this reminds me of the time i talked about flashbacks in the beginning a story video we need to start with a flashback rather than using that flashback to show a key character moment let's instead use it to reference an event that will in no way shape the protagonist outlook or ever come up again in the story still not enough let's flashback within a flashback that won't be confusing oh that's right flashbacks within flashbacks are the best flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks are great for filler okay i should have gobbled up some run time ugh i still need more okay um i'm not getting desperate it's not like i'm trying to add filler to this video or anything um oh a clip show yeah when a writer is scraping the bottom of the barrel then they can always just throw together a cheap clip show if a writer does go the extra mile then they could try to justify the clip show like a character waxing nostalgically or they are on trial for their actions yeah good old clip show that recaps the events of last season obviously this is there to bring the audience up to speed in case they missed an episode and not because this is a bottle show and that excuse will totally fly in today's streaming media landscape in fact i think i'll add a bunch of twa clips now too um bring the audience up to speed and most definitely not to fill out the last couple minutes of this video [Music] oh crap it's already over um okay i did the flashback and the clip show uh there's got to be another cheap trick i can use anything to avoid just writing something passable we all know it's impossible to write something good when under a budget crunch it's not like some amazing episodes come out of bottle shows that's as impossible as singing duet on some ninth version of a deep space station well i guess i have no choice i have to tell everyone what the real secret behind writing great filler is it's oh hey the check cleared okay so everything is still going according to plan i just need a disguise in 10 pounds of fresh lemons and then no enough of this i am the dark lord yes we know you keep shouting it every five seconds i will be harried by these horrible hand harassers no longer the rest of you pathetic losers can watch as i march forward and take the intergate and crush greed right in his smug jp face wait are we going to are we finally it's it's a battle finally too bad i can't blast some mick gordon stupid copyright this is all you have greed a paywall followed by some paltry beast the inter gate is mine what about a region lock too bad you can't access the intergate from there well you could if you had this video sponsored nor nordvpn ah it's thanks to everyone who watches these videos as well as gracious sponsors like nordvpn that the terrible writing advice expanded universe continues to thrive as a frequent traveler i use nor vpns over 5400 fire servers across 59 countries to access my streaming services when abroad or to buy video games that the local nanny state has claimed are inappropriate for fully grown adults speaking of states sticking their noses in my business nor vpn uses anti-malware threat protection blocks trackers and mask your ip even evade bam with throttling with nor vpn encrypting your traffic twa fans can go to nordvpn.com terrible writing advice to get a two-year plan with four free months at a special discount all with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee link is in the description below curse you convoluted foreign privacy laws how are we going to get past this what did you do i just paid for it so we can hurry up and get to the intergate wait is that the inter gate you

Channel: Terrible Writing Advice

Views: 256,467

Keywords: Terrible Writing Advice, writing, Bad advice, Novel, Novel writing, Writing a book, book, J.P. Beaubien, J.P.Beaubien, Terrible, JPBeaubien, JP Beaubien, writing filler arcs, filler arcs, filler

Id: fvzrKCMTFbk

Length: 13min 54sec (834 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2022