TWA: Nothing will stop my quest to enlighten
writers in the proper way to tell a story! That’s why I am going to talk about heroes
in this video and one of the best ways to challenge a protagonist. INNER CRITIC: No so fast, JP. TWA: What! My inner critic! I thought I defeated you in the Finishing
a Story video! INNER CRITIC: I studied your technique, JP. Your ability to inflate your ego in order
to deflect criticism is powerful, but not powerful enough! I have trained myself in the art of deflating
egos such as yours and now I have returned to put a stop to your bad advice! TWA: You will never defeat me, inner critic! I will show my fellow writers the proper way
to create a rival for the protagonist! INNER CRITIC: You? You couldn’t rival french fry, much less
show another author how to create a proper rivalry between characters. TWA: You’re wrong! INNER CRITIC: No you’re wrong! TWA: Grr…. INNER CRITIC: Grr…. TWA: There is only one way to settle this. INNER CRITIC: We each give our advice in order
to keep with the rival theme of the video, adding a layer of thematic affinity while
also giving the watcher more variety in terms of delivery and tone. TWA: What? No. I am going to give my amazing advice and you
will sit on the sidelines and tell me how awesome I am! So step aside, inner critic, and watch how
a real author creates a rival! Now what to start with when designing a rival? I know! I should start with how they look! INNER CRITIC: Oh that is the worst way to
start making a character. TWA: The rival should have a really cool opposing
color scheme. Does the hero wear white? Well his rival will dress in all black! Hero have blonde hair? His rival has dark hair. Blue eyes? Deep brown. Silvery elegant sword? Jagged dark blade. Oh the rival is so cool! INNER CRITIC: Is that really it? What about the symbolism? TWA: Sumbolwhat? INNER CRITIC: *sigh* Look at us. While we may have opposing color schemes,
have you also noticed that I have glasses?… You know. An item that literally helps me see clearly. We are not just opposed stylistically, but
also in the motifs and themes of our characters. Doing so allows the characters to become foils
of one another, highlighting their differences for maximum dramatic effect. TWA: You know what I just heard? Blah blah blah English major stuff. No one cares. Hey! They should also have opposing powers too! Hero uses fire! Well his rival will use ice! Is the hero hot headed and impulsive? The rival is cautious and collected. Even their ideologies are opposing. With all of this equal opposite stuff going
on I am sure the audience will just completely miss the paper thin characterizations of both
characters! INNER CRITIC: No they will notice, you fool. It is not enough that the characters merely
be opposites to each other, but also have enough character development to stand on their
own. You can’t simply prop up characters with
fancy powers and cool swords. They need to have their own motives. What you are proposing could work if the characters
are a foil to one another, but it needs to be carefully calculated by the author, not
haphazardly thrown together based on the stylistic whims of the writer. Wait… did you just fall asleep in the middle
of my diatribe? TWA: Huh? What? No! No. I was totally paying attention. You were saying something about a motive? Oh I know. The rival wants to defeat the hero because…
the hero is strong and he wants to defeat him! There! Done! INNER CRITIC: That’s not a motive. If anything, it represents a faultily programmed
for loop. Why not dig into the psychology of the rival
character and explore what makes him so competitive in the first place? Motive could be used as a way to highlight
the story’s themes and give their conflict much needed context. TWA: Motive isn’t really that important. I mean, the rival character is super cool,
but he doesn’t really stand a chance against the main hero. The rival should always loose yet be taken
seriously by all of the other characters for some reason. INNER CRITIC: Won’t the audience notice
this power imbalance? For that matter wont the characters notice
as well? TWA: Nope. They will be too distracted by the coolness
of the rival teaming up with the hero to fight a greater threat. INNER CRITIC: Are they not supposed to hate
one another due to their polar opposite nature? How do you justify their sudden cooperation? TWA: Because the rival will always award the
hero a grudging respect even though the hero humiliates and defeats him like constantly. Nope, they will just team up pretty much all
the time later in the story until the rival really isn’t even a rival anymore, more
like a grumpy teammate. INNER CRITIC: No no no! This is all incorrect. Keeping the rival’s skill comparable to
the hero is essential, otherwise he does not ‘rival’ him. Having equal strength adds uncertainly in
the hero’s victory and thus tension. The hero and his rival’s relationship could
be built up over the course of one or more story arcs culminating in their eventual alliance
to defeat a greater foe. Come to think of it, even their battle to
defeat a mutual enemy could be seen as part of their competition. The extra build up adds a feeling of catharsis
and can be used to change the relationship dynamic by… You fell asleep again didn’t you? TWA: Huh? Oh. Sorry. I’m getting bored of writing these rivals. I think I need something special to spice
up their competition. INNER CRITIC: No. TWA: Something new for them to compete for. INNER CRITIC: No no no. TWA: Something that every story needs! INNER CRITIC: Don’t you do say it! TWA: THE LOVE TRIANGLE! INNER CRITIC: Gah! You cannot solve every writing problem with
a love triangle! TWA: Gheeze. No wonder you’ve never sold any books. The love triangle is great because the rival
and the hero can both compete for the affections of the love interest. The love interest will of course be torn having
to choose between them! What great drama! Neither the rival nor the hero should have
any chemistry with the love interest though. That takes effort to write and we need to
put all of our work into the hero’s and rival’s long deep stares into each others’
eyes, how they constantly call each others’ names, their constant obsession with what
the other is doing, their every waking thought focused on what their rival is thinking, and
the occasional oiled up shirtless wrestling match between them. INNER CRITIC: Why are you even introducing
a love triangle into the story if you don’t intent to develop it properly? Also your rival’s interactions are saturated
with homoerotic subtext by the way. TWA: What? Really? I don’t see it! INNER CRITIC: It doesn’t have to be a bad
thing. Having rivals become romantic partners sounds
like it could become an interesting relationship dynamic. TWA: Eh? No. I bored with this now. I know I’ve put a lot of work into the rival,
but I think I’ll just ignore my rival for the rest of the story, then awkwardly wrap
their competition up in the next to last chapter where the rival just admits that the hero
is better in every way! INNER CRITIC: That’s just anticlimactic. You can’t just develop a relationship like
that and… what are you doing? TWA: I’m rewriting the script for this episode. INNER CRITIC: What! You can’t just… I mean, J.P. you are the most handsome and
best author ever. I can only hope to one day know even an infinitesimal
amount of your greatness. You have defeated me. My only choice now is sit on the sidelines
and constantly tell the other secondary characters how cool you are! We will meet again as rivals, but only when
you need an easy victory in order to boost your ego. TWA: Ha. I win. INNER CRITIC: Also your cheating just proves
my point about the anticlimax. DARK LORD: I am prepared for the next ad read! TWA: Yeah about that, sorry. Someone else underbid you. DARK LORD: WHAT? CONSPIRATOR LEADER: That’s right Dark Lord. Your sponsorship is mine now just as planned
for this episode of Terrible Writing Advice is brought to you by Skillshare! LARGE CONSPIRATOR: We taking sponsors now? CONSPIRATOR LEADER: Yes we are. We have to make up the budget shortfall somehow. Running the world from the shadows is expensive. SMALL CONSPIRATOR: What the heck is a Skillshare? CONSPIRATOR LEADER: According to my spy network,
who mostly just googled the name, Skillshare is an online community with over 20,000 classes
in writing, graphic design, business, technology and a lot of other things. Premium Membership gives you unlimited access
to high quality classes. And guess what, I’ve already sighed up the
entire ancient conspiracy. LARGE CONSPIRATOR: Why? CONSPIRATOR LEADER: Because you are all useless! All you do is spout cryptic nonsense at TV
screens. It’s about time you learn some new skills. It’s a new economy out there thanks to someone
forgetting to suppress the invention of the internet. SMALL CONSPIRATOR: Ugh. You are never going to let me live that one
down are you? CONSPIRATOR LEADER: So now we have need to
take some side jobs to keep the ancient conspiracy afloat. *Collective Groan* CONSPIRATOR LEADER: No complaining. Go learn something useful! [One Montage Later] CONSPIRATOR LEADER: Okay. So what did everyone learn? LARGE CONSPIRATOR: I took a course on portrait
photography by Benjamin Heath! SMALL CONSPIRATOR: I took a course on writing
emotional story arcs for characters by Charlie Aylett (Aey Let)! CONSPIRATOR LEADER: And you, what did you
learn? TREACHEROUS CONSPIRATOR: I learned to brutally
murder my fellow conspirators in order to keep all of the sponsorship money for myself. *Hissing Gas* *Coughing and Gagging* CONSPIRATOR LEADER: I... don’t... remember seeing that one... on there? TREACHEROUS CONSPIRATOR: Well… I kind of learned that one by myself, but
I did take a course on human resources and how to adequately... spend them! Check out the link in the description or go
to skl.sh/twa3 and get 2 months of unlimited access for free. TREACHEROUS CONSPIRATOR: Just as planned?
