Approach Vectors Pt 1: The Best Angle of Attack Toward Your Story

This video delves into how choosing the right starting point-be it magic systems, characters, settings, or themes-shapes your narrative. It offers insights into aligning these vectors with your creative style, enhancing your story's flow and structure, and provides practical examples to help both new and experienced writers unlock their storytelling potential.
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[@cassandraarnold]

Very interesting!!! Thanks for your incisive discussion

[@JoriamRamos]

I really appreciate your "reflect on what you need" approach, instead of just proposing one place to start a story :)
I feel my process is very emotion-first and rarely I find advice that works for me. In general it's very "characters first" or "inciting incident" and whatnot. Thanks for bringing a softer approach :)

[@themagicengineer5314]

Glad it was helpful! So how does that emotion-first approach work for you? I'm not sure I've encountered that before. What does the story-building process usually look like for you?

[@JoriamRamos]

@@themagicengineer5314 I start with a core emotion or emotionlike behaviour - curiosity, hope, adventure, meditative state etc - first thinking about the poetics of it and some real-life experiences I had that bring me closer to those states of mind.
Then I start with one or two main worldbuilding elements, something like a magic system, a government type, a connection to the dead, something that's rather central and that I believe will get the audience to experience my core emotion. Often those have parallels with my own experiences, though I don't make this clear (like a world where flirting happens as a stage act, connected to my amateur theatre experiences when I was younger). With those built, I worldbuild the rest little by little out of what the story requires.
I'm not gonna say it's a straightforward process (and it's definitely slow), but it's fun and, at least in my mind, rather effective. I tend to get to those core emotions :)
Did that make any sense? I feel I'm better at giving examples than explaining methods hahah Sorry if it was a little jambled.

[@themagicengineer5314]

How do you feel that connects to your story themes? Is it a pretty close relationship or does it end up being quite different from that initial emotion you start with?@@JoriamRamos

[@keiraleeard670]

Your videos are incredible! Your friends are incredibly lucky- I would a friend like you to storybuild with!

[@themagicengineer5314]

Glad you like them! If you have questions, be sure to use the question box and I'll do my best to answer them in the future

[@KalpanaWorlds]

fyi, the algorithm on my gaming account found you (heavy in magic the gathering). I haven't seen you on this account which is my writing/worldbuilding account. Either way I'm subscribed on both accounts now :).

[@themagicengineer5314]

Thank you kindly! I don't know if it's your speed or not, but I did start another channel where I'm sharing VR content and hopefully map making and ttrpg stuff in the future (www.youtube.com/@clarkshaven183)

[@TheMichaellathrop]

So on the subject of a psychological approach I remember years ago I was making a TTRPG character and I did a I think 150 question survey for him and I remember the single most inane question (what is his least favorite color and why) turned into a really interesting bit of backstory character building. Incidentally it was orange because that was the color of tabards the noble children had to wear while serving as pages at the royal court.
On a note unrelated to the current video what are your thoughts on messy vs clean magic systems. I've been kicking around an idea for a magic system that has a couple of components that all interrelate but then several of the components have different names depending on magical sources, and then a bunch of the technical names are cribbed from either historical groups or common (a century or so back) terms so half of the terms mean two or more of the things depending on context. The basic idea is that nothing in the real world (including science) is as clean and simple as modern fantasy magic systems tend to be.

[@themagicengineer5314]

I see what you mean. I think that is something that would need to be handled carefully; there's a good chance it could confuse your readers. Of course, that doesn't mean don't do it. Gardens of the Moon is natorious for having a cliff face for a learning curve with the magic system and none of it is really explained ever.
I'll think on that though> maybe I can pull some more valuable thoughts together on the matter

[@TheMichaellathrop]

@@themagicengineer5314 all in all it's a slightly different take on magical realism.

[@naruvoll]

I think you're really onto something. I wonder if you have run into the ideas of the MICE Quotient and Writer's Compass, and IF NOT, if they might help your thinking here.
The MICE Quotient comes originally from Orson Scott Card and he describes it in his books "How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy," and "Character and Viewpoint." Though I feel he explained them better in person, the essentials are all there. And I believe Mary Robinette Kowal may have started developing the idea more but I'm not sure. The most basic idea is that the elements of story must all be present (though I've heard that challenged) but not present in equal amounts. You are selling one of them. It's the one you use to get yourself and everyone else into the story and to stay entertaining. MICE stands, essentially for Setting, Idea, Character, and Plot, just with some elaborations around those ideas. Though my biggest critique of the idea is that I think there are really too few categories. Thinking of you, where would magic and worldbuilding sit in those? Is it setting? Is it idea? Is it how plot works? Etc. With how you are thinking of things, it kind of makes more sense for there to be a separate category for it. And There are far, far too many stories where Language and metaphor is the prime seller of the story for that not to be in there. So, I do love the idea AND think it still needs development. It's simply that what is there might give you some more thoughts and some more language for how to define what you're trying to define.
I THOUGHT I knew where the Writer's Compass idea came from but flipping through the book to quote the instructions better, I can't find it. So maybe someone else will recognize where I stole the idea from, since I clearly don't remember correctly. But the idea is fairly simple, it really is just drawing a compass. But instead of North & West, you write the word, term, or short sentence to guide what you're up to. It sort of acts like principles of engagement with the story. These are the elements that I want to dictate my thinking, how I want to think of the energies of the story moving and relating to each other.
So, for example, the last time I did one for one of my stories. I had "Myth" for North, "Distrust" for East, "Warlockiangst" for South, and "Family" for West. So the idea is I'm leaning into the story if the plot elements are forcing people to think about family and how to define it. I'm organizing it correctly if it is evoking the feeling of myth, my characters are fundamentally working on issues of distrust (which is why they can't organize themselves into a found family sort of entity), and whenever magic is a way to brood and disengage, that's playing in to the deepest issues for why things don't work - essentially character flaw / wound sort of thing.
I don't recall there being specific things that had to be in each category, I think you could make the compass with whatever made sense to you. I don't think it even had to be 4 directions, just FEW.
So you could just as easily have something like "Blood is the Price of Magic," "MC's wound is they have given too much already," "The less you possess the more you have," and "The World is nearly out of water," If that works for how you want to think about it.

[@themagicengineer5314]

I haven't thought about the MICE quotient in years! That's a great reference and I'll definitely have to think on that more.
I haven't heard of the Story Compass before. Let me know if you have a good link, otherwise I'll do some sleuthing of my own. That definitely sounds interesting and like a great foundation for a magic building exercise (like you mentioned)

[@lucasfv1357]

I guess I'm all about setting and characters then

[@themagicengineer5314]

Excellent! Do you really get into factions and polotics then?

[@lucasfv1357]

@@themagicengineer5314 actually, I might need to go into more detail with politics :P I like to flesh out the customs and the "mood" of my populations. And the ecology of invented species, from time to time.

[@themagicengineer5314]

Very cool! I find this endlessly fascinating. Each approach vector seems to have its own set of angles and starting points. I really enjoy hearing all the different ones.@@lucasfv1357