Use THIS to Write and Plot Your Manga and Comics [Dan Harmon's Story Circle]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
- With 3 act story structure and KiShoTenKetsu, it always felt like I was missing some sort of integral piece to the puzzle that was creating a story. But, my eyes were open to the world of storytelling when I found out about the story circle. It's mainly used by screenwriters with film and tv, so there aren't many videos out there applying them to webtoons, comics, or manga. That's the reason I wanted to make this video, I want to share this super easy beginner's guide to the story circle and show how ALL STORIES FOLLOW ITS STRUCTURE.
But, the story circle is still only one piece of the puzzle. There are multiple elements that go into writing a story. However, I feel as though the story circle is the foundation in which all other elements sit upon. If story were a computer, the story circle would be the motherboard, stringing and connecting all aspects of story together.
timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:38 3 Act Structure
1:58 Ki Sho Ten Ketsu
5:00 Dan Harmon's Story Circle
6:02 The 8 Points of the Story Circle
10:05 Why the Circle is So Good
15:51 Breaking Down Code Geass with the Story Circle
19:54 Breaking Down Nisekoi with the Story Circle
23:24 Outro - บันเทิง
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I think a problem with a lot of story structures is that it's basically the tail wagging the dog, like you were pointing out with the 3 act structure at the beginning of the video. Even with something like the Save the Cat method, it focuses more on laying out beats for your story to follow than actually establishing the core of your story. It frustrated me to no end, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by trying to find ways for my story to fit these arbitrary beats.
The reason why Dan Harmon's story circle is helpful is because it forces you to get to the core of your story upfront and use that to drive your story.
PLEASE CONTINUE TO MAKE VIDEOS, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO EXPLAIN JUST HOW HELPFUL THIS WAS!!! Thank you SO MUCH
I can't explain how much I appreciate this video; there's so many people that believe a story can be driven without developed characters but you proved that beliefs and wants are the driving force of a story with BOTH of these studies! Keep up the great work, I can't wait to see if you come up with another comic! 😁
I think you're able to write a story without a focus on a character's beleif, but I truley believe it'll fall flat from becoming a great story. The beliefs of a character really help to string together all aspects of a story together in a cohesive thematic statement, instead of an anthology of scenes mildly related to each other.
You can also make stories on flat characters. Characters who don't develop personally but do develop the world around them. So there is still change just outward change. Flat characters tend to be iconic like Superman or Goku. They don't change. They change the people around them.
Don't want to kill the vibes here but saying that " STORIES " cannot be tell/shown or written without character development is absolutely
-1. False.
-2. Will lead you to write bad stories because of your lack of understanding of stories.
I'll just prove it to you with 1 example than you will not be able to denied and then you'll have 2 options
-1. Being dumb and not listening.
-2. Being curious about it and start trying to learn more about stories that you already know.
So. First you need to make 2 distinctions.
-1. Stories vs good stories.
-2. Story v Plot.
A good story is one that make you leave with 2 things
-1. You learning something or reaffirming you knew something like " greed only lead to loneliness "
-2. The pleasure of a GOOD IDEA ( even the darkest batman story as to be fun to WATCH or read )
That's all, main idea and theme
Main idea: what would happen if humans had to deal with dinosaurus ? ( Jurassic park )
Theme: the lesson the character add to learn or have learn at the end of the story (character arc) (flat arc is not an ARC)
-2. The real definition of a " STORY " is that simple: events in chronology. The only link between those events are they chronology 1 is before 2 and 2 is after one that's all. Therefore. Waking up, eating, and go to work IS !!! a story. You have event and a chronology.
Now Plot ! Is the arrangement of those events in cause and effect one event needs to be caused by another one and another event need to be the consequence of another event. That's all that is plot. Event that are link in cause and effect.
Where people make the mistake is when they says " story " is the character emotional journey. Nope it is not the character emotional journey is not story or the story it is the CHARACTER STORY which is a huge difference.
Therefore a NARRATIVE can have no CHARACTER STORY (emotional journey/arc) AT ALL but still have ( A STORY ) which is simply the chronological order of events in the narrative and a plot the sequence of those events.
Not trust me ? Well i said i would give you a proof.
Here: go watch " GLASS ONION " and come back here tell me what was the CHARACTER STORY ( emotional journey/arc ) there is ABSOLUTELY none. Just plot: events in a cause and effect arrangement.
So yeah if you're serious about learning the craft you should make that distinction ASAP !
Peace ! Sorry for my english, french guy here.
I also recommend checking out the "Save The Cat" story structure method that expands much better on the (vague) 3 act structure by breaking it down into 15 beats that are easy to follow and organise. Just as an extra option to consider.
This helped so much! The way you explained everything was so clear and I feel like I learned a lot watching this video.
I would love it if you made a part 2 about the things that you didn’t touch on in this one 😊
Glad you like the video!! Definitely some time in the future I'll go into a deeper dive with the story circle, but not anytime soon I don't think.
This video made me see that the stories that I have planned in my head accidentally follow the same structure of Dan Harmon's Story Circle better than they could with the most popularly taught structure guides.
Great video! I thought you had more subscribers after I watched how good and useful your videos were, but it's okay!
This channel is a treasure and I really mean it when I say that! Subscribed!!
this is so helpful, thank you!!
Wow this is very informative! Thanks for explaining and sharing! 😊
I'm so glad I found your channel!
This is exactly what I've been looking for! Very useful, thank you 😁
Glad it was helpful!
Good video Big Man, watched your other videos too. Keep up the quality and consistency of your uploads and you'll make it big. Just a minor thing I wish was better in this video was everytime the circle showed it should have kept showing what each point of the circle meant, because when you where explaining the Code Geass and Nisekoi points ect. I completly forgot what 1-8 even represented.
Thank you so much for this video! This helped me so much. I have so many point A's and B's and random situations with no way of how to go through them! Now I know! Thank you so much!
Have fun writing with this new information in your hands!!
Negating character driven v plot driven in 10:57 is not correct from how I see it. What makes stories, a story, is either the charceter or the plot. as a matter of fact, Dan Harmon's story circle is about character arching, as you mentioned it's applicable on to any characters.
The way I interpret differences on story structures is on where to focus. Whereas Dan Harmon's circle is good with character development while 3 story structure is fairly general and kishotenketsu is very good developing a plot where the twist may involve a lot of characters
I think the main problem for me not quite getting the story circle before this video is how each part is phrased and how almost every other video on it only includes change or just Western examples. For example, in my notes, I changed 5 to "Get what they want" & 6 to "Bump in the road" or "But..."
I think another thing as to why I often feel adverse towards most story structures is because I can't help but see them as instructions I have to follow. Maybe that will change once I get more experience.
When I first learned about the story circle I was very confused because of how a lot of people were explaining it, mainly with people using the shorthand version of it. You, Need, Go, Search, Find, Take, Return, Change. It seems very obvious to me now what each one of these things mean in essence, but for somebody who knew next to nothing about writing it was a lot of headache trying to wrap my head around such arbitrary terms like "Go" and "Return". So, I'm glad I was able to break down what each part meant in a more understandable way for others to follow.
On 06:53, the want doesn't have to be extrinsic, as in doing something to gain a reward or avoid punishment. It is almost always intrinsic, because their want is personal and they act out of personal desire.
Yes, you are correct. This was bad wording on my part. In the video what I meant to say was CLEAR EXTERNAL WANT. However, this is more of a guideline than a concrete rule. Since it's infinitly easier, for both writer and reader, to see when a physical goal/want has been achieved rather than an abstract one. (e.g. Getting the girl vs achieving true love)
Ultimately this is setting everything up for making a character realize their external want is just a temporary bandaid fix to their problem. The real "cure" is usually tied to some sort of intrinsic value they've yet to notice or understand.
With your interpretation, Code Geass looks completely inept. The incident at 6 isn't connected to anything and just a random occurance, it doesn't have anything to do with mistakes in Lelouches worldview. (It is famously considered the worst plot point in the series btw) At 5 he didn't get what he wanted and at 7 he didn't really resolved some conflict connected to the reason of 6. Also if Change part is unnecessary, this whole part of the circle completely brakes, including any meaning to the overall structure of going and returning. Code Geass is exactly a counterexample, showing that even a successful very character-centric story doesn't need to follow the circle.
This circle is just a template that can ease the job for beginner writers, sure, but as with any algorithmic template, when the author moves towards mastery, he finds more and more nuanced model for a type of story he is creating. The mainstream interpretation of these templates is misguided and limiting.
Thank you so much for this, I was lost