2.1 Approach
The approach is the beginning of the work, if we follow the traditional three-act structure. In this structure, it usually occupies between 25 and 33% of the total volume of the work, sometimes even more in works with a more complex approach (ci-fi dura, in which we need many complex concepts to begin to understand the story), and the main function is to present all the important elements of the work that we will need to understand and enjoy it.
In the next two sections we will see how the characters are presented and how conflicts are presented, which are the main things that must always be introduced in a story (because in essence, they are character and conflict). Therefore, in this we will see all the things that can be introduced that are not characters and conflict.
It is a drawer that the approach is not only an essential part of a story, but it is also inescapable, because at some point we will have to introduce something into the void of a story. The approach can be reduced to the minimum exponent, but there will still be, even if it lasts two lines of a work of 50,000 words.
People who read know that even in the worst case the approach is a necessary evil, and we accept a little dense exposition or explanations/presentations of things we have to understand, because we know that without it we would get lost in the story we are going to read. It's like the tutorial of the video game, it's a bit tiring and lazy, but we accept it because somehow we will have to learn to play well.
As in a video game, there are many things that are presented in the approach, and not all of them are as easily identifiable as the main characters or the conflict.
When it comes to presenting things, we have two ways to do it. We can show, and we can count. As counting is a very ambiguous word considering that we are narrating, we are going to replace it with "explain". We can show, and we can explain.
Let's see what they are, and to what extent it is tolerable to show or explain each thing:
Atmosphere
The setting or context is the "when" and "where" of your story. Human beings need to reduce the degree of uncertainty we handle in a story, so starting with the when and where is a good way to keep the brain of those who read us happy.
This is also very basic, but it is important to know the context in which the story takes place, more than anything to be able to frame the characters, what they do and what they say, and what happens. It is not the same to see a person consulting the watch on his wrist in a contemporary setting than in a cave in the Pleistocene, they mean very different things and that is the same action and the same character.
The most important part of the setting that must be presented is the "normalization". That is, when we present an environment, we are saying which things are normal and expected and which are not. This is part of the status quo that we will talk about when we talk about the presentation of the conflict. To break normality, you first have to establish what is normal.
The setting is very easy to explain briefly to give a context to those who read us, but when developing it is much better to let it be seen, because if we do not run the risk of stopping the attention and rhythm of the story to look at the original tree number 3.
For a person who lives within that world and it is his normal day to day, you just have to explain what was strange. Therefore, we would not stop to look at the people with three arms that are on the street, but we would look at the one that only has two, because that is unusual.
There are times that showing does not serve us at all, especially when it comes to recreating the sensations of a special specific place, such as a city. Giving a specific atmosphere to a place is something difficult, and for this I recommend a mixture of explanation of the relevant and important things of the city with a good dose of showing what happens, what life is like, how the characters interact with that environment.
And well, there are times when you have to explain that a stone door is two stones making pillars and a third stone on top making an arch. There is not much turning of the leaf, sometimes it is time to explain and describe.
When presenting the setting, focus on what makes it different from what is expected, and a pinch of what is expected. "Maldumen would be an ordinary city... if not for the spaceships hooked to the sides of skyscrapers."
Tone
Tone is perhaps the most invisible thing in a story. It is something that is not written, it is the symphony that resonates through the rest of the elements of the story. The tone is in the choice of words, in the sensations that are evoked. In the things that happen, how they happen and to whom they happen.
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