Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi everyone. My name is and I am
based in risotto. And as you know, this
course is for everyone. And in today's class project, we're going to be talking
about how to figure out your thumb and what I
call a red herring. Okay.
2. What Is A Theme?: So before we even begin, what is the stem
I'm talking about? How does this help you
with writing your story? And how do I haven't
come up with this theme? Is the overall message you want to read or to get
from your story, right? The meaning behind the story and as expressed through what
happens in the plot, right? And through the character's internal
and external journey. Okay? So in other
words, in other words, plot as what happens in
then we have your theme. Okay? So how do you actually figure out the
stem I'm talking about? What do you have
to say about life? What do you have to say about
the world, human nature? Most stories start with our
spark of an idea, right? You might only have
the slightest idea of your plot story in your
head and your characters. But chances are they already know what they
want to say, right? You already know what
you want to say. So for many of us, the reason we write
is because we have so much to say
about life, right? Or the world, human nature. And so when you first want to write some of the first questions you
have to ask yourself. Why do you want to tell
this particular story? What's the reason for you
to actually even think your story is worthy of having
people want to read it, okay, So what point are you trying to
make with that story? What are you trying
to prove or disprove? Those are some of the questions
you have to ask yourself. Do you have something
to say about life, the world, or about
human nature? Anything? Just ask yourself questions before
you actually say, okay, this is the idea,
unsettling width, okay? Ask yourself, what issues do
you constantly think about? Which issues under
your skin and why? Why are they so under your skin? Either being political, anything anymore, abuse,
relationship issues, diseases, anything, just
have something heavy like a reason behind your idea. And ask yourself
more questions like, what's a general question you're always asking or
wondering about life. Those are great questions to answer when you want
to write a book. Why? Because you want to, what? You want to involve
your readers in things that they have probably
already experienced, or they're going through, or things that they
want to know about. What visuals do you
personally value and what veggies do you
think are undervalued? And why? You see? Ask yourself
interesting questions. Questions that are going to trigger your reader's emotion. Like I always say, the most important thing for you as a writer is
to make sure that you have your reader so hooked onto your
book emotionally. And what, what vices scare you? What devices do you dislike? Why, why do you dislike them? What kind of changes would
you like to see in the world? And why, why would you
want the world to change? What's this big reason for you to want the
world to change? You know, ask yourself
questions like that. Once you've answered
these questions with no doubt, trust me, you have the theme to your story and it's
gonna be amazing. Why? Because your emotions
are involved, that you're filling
the involved with it. So you're going to turn it into a great, great, great idea. Okay? But if not, don't you worry, there are two more ways
you can figure out how to actually come up with a theme for your
work, for your story.
3. Character Development : So the second one is, how does your
character change from beginning to end, Okay? The point of the story is not expressed by what happens
externally in the plot. Rather, the point is meat by how the events of the
plot change the, the, the, the, the, the protagonist sticks
internally, right? So this internal changes
called your arc, or rather I call it what? A character arc. Okay, so it's called
your character's arc. And usually your character changes through,
throughout the story, relating directly to the
message you're trying to, what you're trying to pass
to your readers, right? And so ask yourself
these questions about your main character. Who is my main character in
the beginning of the story, like when you first
heard that idea of writing that novel and you have a character that
you're so solid about. Ask yourself, who, who is
this character that I, I am so, so, so in love with and by
who the character is. Giving us the characters of this character you have, right? Give us an idea of who
this character you have in your head or you want to start writing on,
is you understand. So how do the events of my story sheep my character for the
better or for the worst. It's always important to somehow relate yourself to some of the characters
that you write on. Because it's going to make
it easier for you to watch. It's gonna make it
easier for you to have more ideas on how to
develop your story and how to develop what
out to develop more points on that
idea of your holster. Still structuring what? Structuring your story and what you're
developing morphemes, morphemes and morphemes and morphemes giving you
what more ideas on, on the main idea that you had in the first
place for your stroke. It keeps what? It keeps your story going
and going and going. So you ask yourself, what
are their floors and what, what, what holds them back
from happiness fulfillment? You have to ask yourself
questions that, questions that are going
to have your reader. So, so connected
to this character that they're gonna believe that somehow you're writing
about yourself, right? So do they overcome
their character flaws and obstacles that
stand in their way? If so, how did they do it? How do they do it? Tell
your reader how they do it, and remember, you do not
have to make that easy. You have to give us a lot of things before
we actually get to what we get to the point
where your character has solved, solved
their problems. Yeah, So what will he gained? What will he lose by the
end of the story, we want, we want to know where
this person is going to end up being right from
where they started. They started here,
they are here. Now we want to know
where are they going to end up being, okay.
4. Universal Themes: And so as soon as you've answered these questions
about your, your character, your characters in our
transformation with you, what you've written
and tried to identify any things that naturally arise. If you need some inspiration, I can definitely give you like a few of my favorite
universal themes. So universal thumbs
definitely guide me with focusing on the
main theme that I have. The 1111, like the one ideal
film that I have, right? So I usually just take inspiration from my
universal themes. And so I'm sure you
know most of them. But my first universal them
will have to be forgiveness. Forgiveness, you forgive
yourself and forgive others. Love. Definitely you have to love
yourself before you can run. You can love the other person. So you can only write, you can normally
write a character, or you can only write
a thin based on what? Based on great emotion
once you'd like, you know, this universal
themes, right? So I have like, like acceptance. We have what your people need to learn to
accept themselves. They need to learn to do what, to accept their circumstances and what in-phase reality wait, another one I have is faith. So they've faith in yourself and others
and so on and so on. Fear, you need to
conquer your fear. Makes sure that you find the courage to
overcome your fear. Like this one is important
to me because like fear is literally what fear is like. The one thing that
keeps people from doing some other things
they want to do. And for me, I think most of the books
I've tried to write, I've never really finished
them because I was so scared of where they would end up
being or how far they'd go. So it's very
important for you as a writer or you as an
individual to what? To overcome fear, right? Then you need to trust, I love this universal them. You need to trust, trust yourself, others in life
and trust in the unknown. Because literally you're
writing that book, you all know how things are
going to turn out for you. You're doubting yourself. You're not doubting yourself. Perhaps, maybe you even saw
competent in your book, but you don't know
what may happen. Wait, you really don't know, or you just have to do is one, trust the process
that you are doing, and trust where
you'll end up, right? And then survival. Oh my God. If you have the
will to survive, trust me. Anything, any obstacle
that comes your way, you're going to
want to face it and challenge yourself to
get through it, right? I mean, yeah, I think for me, some of those all of those
universal things are what keeps me going when
my writing starts to get really worrying, I'd say, or else I'm not even worrying, but I get so locked
into my writing, it starts to feel like
it's missing something. So every time, every
time I feel like that, I tried to go back to
my universal themes and pick that one universal
thing that I feel like, okay, this is how I'm
feeling at this point. Let me let me try to figure
out how I'm going to, what I'm going to use
this universal theme in this the storyline that
I have going on, right? So that actually
works because we use, we as writers use like our, our inspiration is mostly
what is mostly from the things that happen
in our lives, right? And sometimes, yes, it's not necessarily in our
lives personally, but it's around the peep is around the people
who surround us, right? So and having to have
all of that inspiration and like a lot of ideas coming in all directions
is a very good thing. But at the same time you
have to be able to what? To keep yourself
motivated, right? Because sometimes you're
not going to have anyone motivating you, okay? You are going to
need to motivate yourself to actually
do everything, okay? So all of these things will definitely have been moving in the direction of a
strong storyline, okay?
5. Writing All Of Your Truth: I realized that as a writer you definitely have to be
a very brief person. You know, you have
to write all of you. Truth, ugly or beautiful. And sometimes we as writers are very afraid of sharing parts that parts of our stories that I think I'm only coming
to realize now that, you know, we as people will
all like good people at, at a certain point. And then we are all somehow villains because
we're not perfect, right? For me as a writer, I don't
feel there's a need to be ashamed or embarrassed of
your fault or your flows. So just believe everywhere to be brave enough to just share things they're not
even ready to share. So hold. So having said this, I want you guys to be bill, TO story things like the real TO stoic themes and deliver harder
than you normally do. Because as a writer, you know, when you're, when you're working on a
story or when you're working on a theme or a plot. Thus certain thing does
certain things that you remember from your past, or things that you would not
have been from your past, things that you'll just remember that you have once been in or you've once faced
and they are so personal you think
I can share this. I can't put all of me all out on this paper or in
this left top like this. And it's okay to do
that because when you do that, somehow you healing, Somalia healing and somehow
you're learning and you're helping the other person learn from the things
that you've faced. So be brave enough
to share truth. It being ugly or beautiful. Just say everything,
Don't leave anything out. Remember like I told you before, that if you're not happy
with what you've shed, once you're done writing
your book where you, while you're editing it, there's still time for you to want to actually
go back and say, okay, I think I need to take this part out or I need
to take certain lines out. What I need to take
this whole plot, I need to change it because
it's not working for me. You understand? It's
okay to do that. It's okay to do that, but just be free. Wifi while writing. In that period where
you're writing, just be free and brave enough to share anything and everything. And then you worry
about the rest once you've completely like
Dan writing, okay? Once you're completely
done and you say, okay, this novel is complete or
the story is complete. Let me just edit. Forget about the
editing immediately. Like I told you guys before, I forget about the editing
immediately take time to like get out of the
right to zone, okay? Get out of the writer's own. And trust me, take, giving yourself time out is definitely gonna
give you what is going to give
you enough time to what to actually be sure. Be very short and very competent
in what, in your plot, in your annual theme or your
story structuring, right? And at the same time, when you come back later to
your novel or your story, whatever, you are going
to come back with a different mindset from
when you were writing, okay? So this gives you, this gives you a different
view of your writing, okay? If you felt you were doing really good work
item, this novel, you will really
enjoying it and you've, you've thought, Oh my God, this is the story. And then you come back two
months, two months later, one month later, and you
read what you wrote, you actually forgot that. No. This is not as great
as I thought it was. Or a missing a lot of things or this story is
just not that story. I thought it was in my head. Okay. Because remember,
everything starts in here. It starts a new head and
then you actually forgot. Okay, let me put a dot. So if we say that in your head, it was a great idea. And then when you
actually put it down, it's not so great. It's okay. It's okay. I'll just figure out what
it is that you have to do and add a little in a little space to everything
that you do, okay? And I'm gonna, I'm gonna give
you tips on how to do that. We are going to be talking
about red herring. That's what I told
you that we're gonna be working
on today, right. So that is also definitely
going to help you with what? Still structuring your
story and giving you ideas like a lot of sauce, okay.
6. What's Your Genre?: Yeah. So number three, I'm definitely
going to be talking about what's your general? What is your general? Okay, so another way to actually come up with the theme
of your story is to consider that consider
the general abuse story. In general. Each general has its own topic, or rather my favorite, favorite, favorite way to call
it universal theme. Okay, So for example,
action stories, right? Action stories explore
things like survival, life, death, fear,
safety, good versus evil. Yeah, So we definitely
know that reactions story has that has a villain
in IT, investment for it. I'd bet you guys are getting very bored of hearing
me saying villain, villain, villain,
villain all the time. But I love, I love bad people. Well, not necessarily
bad people in real life, but bad people. It's stories like give
me, give me what? They give me so much pleasure in wanting to read
the book feather, because I'm a person
who likes to learn. I love learning a lot, right? So I like taking
villains, characters, and what I'm trying to
formulate my own characters, lack of my own
personal characters out of the villains
I read from books, and sometimes not necessarily
even formulate my own. Because now that feels like
i'm I'm saying I change. I change, but that's
not what I mean. What I mean is I
simply just like to learn from other
people's mistakes. Or I like to like, I enjoy villains characters
because they have, they have a lot
more to like what to teach them to good people. Yeah, Understand. So
that's where I met. So, you know, action stories have we have the right
villains, right? They have, they have
the right villains. And then we have loves stories. I hate, I hate, I hate reading novels that are romantic novels are just not doing it for
me this time around. I don't know why. I used to. I used to enjoy more
of the Romans novels, y and the comedy, but now I'm more into
light dangerous books. The action, the ministry,
that third law. Okay. So I don't know, I don't know the love stories are just
not doing it for me. But you know that once you talk about love stories were
talking about what? We're talking about,
friendships, Romans, human connection, intimacy,
all of that, right? But I love mystery stories. Okay, so mystery
stories come on. You're exploring things. I, justice, injustice, safety, and like every other place, good versus bad, right? Because come on. I
told you this before. I told you guys
before that there is no way a story can be good
without the good and the bad. Dislike this slide thing we're
doing, real life, reality. Life is full of bad,
bad people, okay? So it's pretty obvious
we need bed every way. That's how we learn. We learn from the back, right? So we need it.
7. Status Story: Then we have what
we have what is called status stories, right? So status stories,
status already says it. We're talking about success, failure, admiration,
sometimes even PT. So I've read, I've read a couple of novels that were based on, well, most of the
novels that I read that are based on state
has a probability. Like probably some of the
mafia books I'm reading because I'm more into
mafia books now. I am, yeah, I want to
be that gangsta girl. But anyway, we joke about
what is called Mallory. Morality. Morality stories. Stories are focused on
selfishness, right versus wrong. Like always, we
have three layers. Three lies about
survival, life and death. Like anywhere else, Good, good versus evil, right? So we have what is
called the worldview. Stories about the worldview, how you see the world, your politics, all of those things that make
up your world, right? So we have ignorance, wisdom, meaning and maturing. And then we have
like western stories where they talk about freedom, survival, carriage still
good versus bad and right, this is wrong, right? So you're writing like, if you're writing
like murder mystery, what do you have to say
about justice or METAR? A bit does a lot to say about justice or metta in your story. Does justice prevailed? Does, does it actually probate? So, if so, why and how, what does justice mean
to you? You understand? So those are some of the things you need to
ask yourself as you want, as you focus on with them
that you're working on, you need to keep asking yourself more
questions to answer. That way you what you're
creating and developing, what you're creating
and developing. A strong character base, okay? You're creating and developing
a strong character based. Definitely you're
writing a Roman's. What do you have to say
about love or human? What human connection
in your story? Does love conquer everything, like we're always told. Love conquers all. Does it, does it
in your stomach? If so, why, and how? What does love
actually mean to you? Because first, you
have to know and have an actual connection to every theme that you're
going to write about. So you have to be
sure and competent and very confident that you know what this is about and
you know how things usually turn out for this
theme that you're working on. Or if you're writing
a worldview story, what do you have to
say about coming? Like? What do you have to say
about coming of age? What does maturing mean to you? That's a, that's
a tough question. What does maturity
even mean to you? What does, What gaining wisdom
or experience mean to you? Like, why do you even
care about this topic? Why do you care about it? Why would you even think of
writing a worldview story? Why is it that isn't
that interesting to you? Those are some of the things
you'd need to ask yourself. Do you have enough
points to even focus on the stem that
you're trying to write on. Okay. Is it, is it going
to carry you through out the very first page of your
book to the very last. Yet what I'm saying, Remember, we're trying to avoid
that marathon what? That marathon race. We don't want to get into
the middle of the book. And now you don't have
anything to share anymore. You don't have the
motivation to continue. Why? Because the
inflammation that you have on the kind of general or
theme you're working on. Smart enough to carry a book. It's not enough to
finish a book, right? So you have to make sure
that you have all of these questions in
your head and you have all of these answers for
those questions, okay? So ideally you'd,
ideally your story theme is what is something that you can express in one sentence? Write a sentence
statement, just shuttling, simply just a short line, not not anything wrong, just something to describe. Just give us a short description
that was just one lane. Just a short description that I'm going to understand
from the get-go. So you should work, you should, you should definitely
describe the changes, the changes that are going
to take a new story. And specifically how and why things have to change or
they have changed, right? So for example, in
Pride and Prejudice, the theme statement would be something like love
times when lavas, what dismiss that judge mental aptitudes and
embrace the word, the vibrant mix of people within all social
classes, right? So you may, you may have what? You may have imagined, the most charismatic character, the most detailed and inviting setting in
the perfect foil. But without what, without a clear understanding
of what is, what it is you're trying to
get across to the reader. You will never get to
hear the magic words that every read a
definite needs, right? Come on. I know. We all might have been
just a write-off. Not even just you as a writer like hearing this magic words. Everybody likes being praised, not embraced, praised at 1. You like being told, Oh my God, you're good at
this or Oh my God, this helped me so much. We all like that, don't we? So as a writer, you definitely, you definitely, definitely want to hear
the magic words, right? And the magic words as
a writer are definitely in what your book
changed my life. Now told me, who doesn't
want to hear those words? Someone just coming up to you or someone just writing
to you, you're right. Your readers or your readers just write to you or come
up to you and tell you, Oh my goodness, you booked
just changed my life. And trust me. Trust me, every
writer wants to hear those words and
you're simply going to hear this width if you want. If you follow the,
what you follow, what you're supposed to
follow, to write, what? A great book. Follow the rules. Okay. Following the rules doesn't mean you're not
allowed to break them. I already mentioned this. You can break rules, but the only rule is
you're supposed to break other wolves
that you know, because there's no way
you're going to break rules that you do not know. The minute you think of breaking rules and
you don't even know, you don't even know them. You're simply just
not doing anything because your work is not
going to turn out great. Let's not going to
turn out good at all. You're not, you're
definitely not going to get the magic words from anyone. Okay? What do you have
to ask yourself? How does this help
you write your story? How does this developing a FIM or figuring your
thimble the story, actually even help
you write the story. Okay? So thing is, when you
know what your theme is or what you're trying
to say to the reader. The rest of the rest of
your story, we'll what? We'll just start
taking shape, okay.
8. Character Arc: Well, your thermal help you, or I can help you determine
your storage and rewrite. It can help you select. You can start to see the narrative up or what,
the shape of your story, what I call what preferably
your character arc, right? So you're going to know
like your story plot, you're going to like learn
what the shape of your, what the shape of your
story plot actually is. Okay? So figuring out your theme for the steroid is
actually important because it goes hand-in-hand
with the plot of your story and without
the plot of your story, literally means you don't have a strong idea for your book, and that means you're not even going to go
further with this book. So if you have like ideas and new head of writing a novel, but the ideas you have are not strong enough to actually
complete a novel. I suggest you just
write an e-book or something like short, short, short short stories. Short short stories. Yeah, that, that can help. Because we don't
want you thinking you have a great
idea for a book. And then you actually put all of your effort into
writing, writing a book. And then when you
get to, when you get to like halfway of the book, you can complete it. Imagine, imagine what
you could have done with all of that time that
you just wasted on something. You're not even going
to complete something, you're simply just going to put there and forget about, right? So don't, don't do
yourself like that. Figure out your character's
internal transformation or the lesson that your
character has to learn, okay? Like I said, all of that builds what Google's a great
idea for your story. And I'll keep, keep on repeating
this idea for your story because sometimes we
create ideas in our head. As writers write, truth is, we have so many
ideas, so many ideas. But some of them, I'm not strong enough to what? To give us the kind of
book that we want, right? So what we do is we allow
ourselves to get confused by the large amount of ideas
that flock our brain, right? While we are focusing on
one idea that actually has enough points and has everything it takes for you
to complete a novel, right? So focusing on, focusing on and actually trying
to understand this, figuring out what your theme is and what your plot is going
to help you in that one, in that competence of you
actually sticking to what? Sticking to the right idea that you have been
competent in that, in that particular
idea of the story. Okay, So for example, I'll say, I'm sorry, I've
answered the question, why do I want to write
the story, right? And I answer it like this. I want to write the
story because I want to show that getting close to someone doesn't always
mean equal to paint. We definitely think when get into someone who already know, oh my god, I'm gonna get hurt. No, no, no. What? I'm trying to show you that
it doesn't always mean that. So ever since I'm giving
you guys an example, right? Ever since my best
friend passed away, I've avoided getting close to people because I don't want to feel the pain of losing
someone again, right? But in doing this, I've
missed out on having relationships with some
really great people. And I'm starting to get
really, really lonely weight. And I'm starting to wonder if keeping
myself closed off from others isn't isn't
the right thing to do or way to live, right? So if I was writing a, what? A romance novel, you could say the theme of the story would be something like Love
trumps when you let go of fear and allow what? You allow lives. I'm setting what circumstances
or events, right? Because now this person here
is they've lost a friend. They are so afraid of what? Of letting other people
in because they feel like once they get their cells attached to his new people, forming new friendships, they're eventually
going to want, end up losing them. You see the theme of
your story there. You've incorporated the theme of your story very, very well. And like I already mentioned, we are going to talk about
what red herring and I'm gonna be showing you
guys what red herring dust, what the structuring
your story and actually developing a strong thin, okay? So you can also start to get
an idea of the characters, often the story, right? For example, the character might start the story
as someone who is afraid of getting close to people and then
transforming into what, into someone who let's
love in their life. So you see, if I was writing
like a mystery novel, you could say that the theme. Of this story with the same, with the same example
that I gave you. Say that justice prevails when you learn to trust
others, right? Something like that.
So in this story, the character might start
the street as someone who doesn't trust others because
they are afraid of what, of getting hurt, right? But in other to solve
the mystery, he or she, what he or she needs to work with others
or trust someone. By the end of the story, the character might
have transformed into someone who not
only trust people, but who's also
weren't interested in forming relationships and
finding new friends, right? Yeah. So I like mostly I
like to like motivate myself with a few
you call them a few. A few codes. Yeah, I like to motivate myself with
a few quotes, right? So there's this other
code I got from. I once heard. It's about whom Vivien deviant, iconic, something like that. But it's Vivian where she says, every work of
literature has what both what a situation
and the story. The situation is the, what is the constant, is the context or circumstances. Sometimes even the plot and the story is the
emotional experience that preoccupies the right tab, the inside, the
inside, the wisdom, the thing that one
has to say, right? So for me, I think
that for writers, we need, we need so much
strength to actually write. You need to be very, very emotionally intelligent
TV writer, right? So that you don't
end up getting, you don't end up getting
lost or distracted by what? By other writers. Work in what? In another writer's
work while you're while you're also going through your personal
personal life, right? And do you, you seem
to find motivation and other peoples in other
people's work, right? So that should never,
ever district you. Just like I said, like I said before, when you feel like
when you feel that you're not motivated enough, just just do it. Just right. Anyway, when you
feel that today, I don't feel like writing. I don't feel like
writing it all. Just do it, right? Right. And write and write
because that lack of motivation as already motivation
for you tonight, okay? Because as you're writing, you're going to find
the motivation in what, oh my God, I didn't
even want to write. But now I'm coming
up with great ideas. And you can even what you
can even find a theme, you can even find a
thumb literally from the fact that you were
not motivated to write. So you see, as a writer he can, he can get ideas of actually
constructing new study from literally anything
and everything that happens around you, right?
9. Originality?: Remember something to always
remember that your thumb does not have to
be original event, not every new story has to be what are original, Okay, Why? Because listen, I'm
giving you guys examples. I'm giving you guys
examples here. And so what if you choose
to use those example seems to be one of the
one of your story lines. It doesn't matter. Okay. Lake I'm going to
let you in on a secret. Teams are like are almost always denote or
cliche even, okay? They're always so very cliche
in the beginning, okay. And ask yourself, how
many books have you read? That could be like, well down to good or evil, or love conquers all. How many? A lot, right? Does a lot, and probably some of them have
a similar per tin, have a similar plot to them. Okay? Perhaps different. They have different
characters, of course, but the idea, the idea
is always the same. The idea is always the same. Look, think about how many, how many, how many
movies have you watched? And you've probably watched
a movie and thought, I've seen this movie before. But then because of what? Because of the, of the
characters in the movie. And then you remember that, no, this is not
the movie, right? So what happens is, you could write about either of the Sims I'm
giving you, okay? And you can read about them for hundreds of years and never run, run out of unique
what perspective? We just don't get tired
of this universal sym. They get, they get tired of the same things being
expressed in the same way, in the same gender, the same plot, and the same? Correct does. Okay, so you can read a book today That's literally
the same genre. And then read another book tomorrow that's of
the same general. But what everything
in the book is not going to be the same from the previous book that you read. Something is gonna be different. So don't worry, if you've come, you've come up with all those generic or cliche seems real. Theme will grow, it will deepen, and it will change as you get to know your story better, okay? And you can definitely
want, you can, particularly what your book is about and why you're
telling the story. And telling the story
actually even matters, okay, that is more than
enough to guide you through your first few
drafts of your book. And the most important thing I will keep seeing
is for you to what? To actually trust yourself. Trust, trust yourself more
than you actually trust. The noise that comes with advisors criticism,
all of those things. It's very, very important for you as a writer to
find competence, confident in your own work
before you go and seek what? Go and seek advice from outside. And so we are talking about
what I call a red herring. Okay, so how to mislead or sub
10. 'Red Harry': So you're probably wondering
what does red herring is. So you get less all the
genera of your writing. I'm the probability what? The probably some things
you'll find hidden or you want to keep hidden from what your readers until the time
is right to what? To actually surprise
them, right? So in order to pull off
a world done surprise, you need to be sure right? To play fair with your
reader from this dot, play fair with your
reader from the start. This simply means you need to plan crews that point to what? To the truth in plain sight so that everything makes sense
when you weren't, when it comes, when
it's time for you to actually reveal everything
to your reader, right? So how do you actually
surprise the reader? If all of this drill clues are hanging out in plain sight, How do you balance playing fair and dangling the carrot in front of your reader's space. How do you do that? How do you do it? You simply let me just
put it simply weight. You'll need a mixture
of, of true clues. This is true what to play
fair with your reader? Truth clues. It's only simply to play
fair with your reader. And then you have
what false clues to send your readers down
to the wrong path. This false clues are
called red herrings. But I'm still going
to explain further actually what actually this
red herring actually means. And so that's what
we are covering now. So what is this red herring? What is it? Red herring is simply a piece of information that
mislead your readers. Okay? Isn't it misleads
your readers or your character from
an important truth. They can also lead readers
to what to mistakenly expect one particular
outcome over another. Red herring can be anything. It can be anything. It can be a character who seems evil or suspicious and object person's relevant and
invent that seems to be significant to what the
story or the character. So red herring, media rings are a type of work for
sheets foreshadowing, right? So what does foreshadowing mean? It means different
ways that an offer can give us hints or clues about
what is coming ahead, right? What is coming ahead? Readers pick up this clues to what to figure out
what's coming next. But not all of these
crews are actually. Okay. You understand that
red herring is simply where assembly
where you weren't, you mislead your readers, right? You give your readers certain information
that you want them to believe and you
have to be so careful, it has to be so need. And we'll put within
what the plot of whatever you have going on in that time of
the story, right? This is so readers can not work, cannot figure out, can not figure out that
you actually play mind games with them, okay? Because as soon as you read it, figures out that there's
something wrong here. Something is not
connecting here. They're not gonna,
they're not gonna be as connected to your
character as they should. And remember, like I said, the most important thing to
think about as to what is to have your readers connected
to what, to your writing. Okay? So I'm gonna be giving you tips to write this red herring. And trust me, it's not easy. It's very, very difficult. I've tried this a number
of times and my stories, my plots didn't come
out really neat. They were neat but not as neat
as they should have been. Why? Because a few of my
readers could tell that something here is
disconnected and something here is not so good. And that's not what we want. So make sure that when you use this method
of red herring, you are confident in your show that it's going
to work in your favor. And it's going to have what? It's going to have
your readers actually, what actually connected to whatever plot you have going on. Okay, so the first thing is incorporate the red herring
into the fabric of the story. And what I mean by incorporate red herring
into the fabric of the story is make sure
that your story is. So the plot of your story
should be very, very clean. It's so clean that your
reader is not gonna be able to what to split the potholes that you have
while trying to watch, while trying to incorporate
the red herring. And remember, the red
herring is where you're trying to mislead your reader from the truth or even what your character
from the truth, right? So you can just wet, you can just pull written, you can pull the red herring
out of your account. You can simply just pull the red herring out
of your head, right? You can just wake up. Today. This is my plot and my plot is so and so,
and so, and then, boom, you just dropped a red
herring right there. No. It's not gonna be
easy when plots, when you plot legs, tension and excitement
or conflict, like most storied techniques, rate so rate hearings
have to save or what? They have to serve several
papers in your story, right? They need to be what? They need to be very logical, very logical, very,
very, very logical. You can just, you can just have a plot and come back
and watch this video. And then he has this rehearsed
this red herring thing. I'm trying to explain for a
good 30 minutes and think, okay, I've got it, I can do it. It's going to take way more, way, way, more than that. You're going to need practice and practice and
practice and practice. You're going to develop
different and different lots and lots of stories
or plots or ideas. You're going to try it. You're going to have to try and incorporate it in
different diff, different genres of your work. So it requires a lot of work. It requires a lot of work
and it's definitely, definitely not easy, okay.
11. Motivation: So number two is give
you innocent characters. Motivation means an opportunity. I think this.
12. Play Fair With The Reader: Playfair would the reader. This is very important for
what are called red herring. You have to play fair
with the reader. Okay? Don't go reader shouldn't feel like you're doing too much. But at the same time they
shouldn't feel like you're depriving them of so
much information. You need to play with them. I mean, Playfair with them, give them information
that they should know. They should ask themselves questions about something
that you've given them, okay? Even if they create
things in their, in their own minds, they create their own idea of how your plot is going to go. At least give them what, give them something
that is going to work, that is going to make them
remember in the end that, oh, I missed this hint. So this is where this
plot was actually going. I thought it was actually
going to end this way and it didn't. Okay. You played fair with them. You gave them what? You gave them. You give them this feeling of, Oh my God, I know, I know, I know it's
gonna go like this. I know this movie is
going to end like this. Then it doesn't. And then this movie simply just
ends in another way. And not in a way that's
going to disappoint them. Because what? Because they'll own idea in their head was so
different from the plot. But why? Because they missed,
they missed what? They missed the glue
your head for them while trying to guide them to the
end of your novel, right? That's what we need, that's what you should do. So definitely if
you're thinking that red herring is easy as a writer, trust me, it's not. So I'll need you
that from today. You need to figure out like, you need to figure out
a way for you guys to actually incorporate red
herring in your writing. Because it definitely makes
work very, very interesting. It makes your work
very, very interesting. But talking about your theme, I'm actually going to go back to the very first time we actually, what, we actually started
this whole lesson. The first time I'm gonna
be giving you guys, we're gonna be going back
to what do I actually need to actually even start potentially even start thinking
about writing this novel. What do I even need? Okay? What are the things that you
have to know for you to say? Okay, I have it in me to actually write a
book and completed. Okay, we're gonna be running back to through all
of those things. First, you remember I
told you guys to what? To establish your space. You definitely, definitely
need to establish a place because your space is
also motivation to you. Your space is also
what is also what's going to make you want to
continue with your work. It's very important. As a writer. You are going to lose
motivation very easily. You are going to get
tired very easily. Why? Because it's not Charles
played to sit on your laptop for hours or even
days, years, months. For the longest
time you can think. Again, the longest
time you can think, and then you're just there for nothing
different, nothing. You have to be there
because you are motivated. So you have to make sure your place is something
that's going to excite you and it's
going to make you want to add one to work. Even when you just look at the environment that you use
to write, you should think. Did I write today? At that time you did. But you don't even remember why? Because your space
excites you and mixed what it makes you want to keep writing and writing and writing. And number two, you make
sure that when you write, your tools are with you, right? That's important. We need your tools
close with you. We don't need them rumbled
all over the place. That is not important. And make sure that
you break down your project into smaller ideas. I already said this. You make sure that your
idea is into smaller ideas because that will work for
you is going to be easy. You are definitely
going to make things very easy for yourself. You're going to enjoy. It's very important to
what loosen up in joy. In anything that you do. You have to make sure
that you enjoy it. Okay. Whatever work you do, whatever work you do. You can wake up in
the morning and say, I'm going to work. Enjoy excited. If your workplace
is not a fun place, you are definitely not gonna be excited to even
go to that place. So we need, you literally
know that, okay. My workplace is very fun. When you wake up in the morning, you're not even
going to waste time. You're straight up
gonna do everything on time and get to business, right? So same thing with what? Breaking your project
into smaller pieces. You're going to give yourself so much from leaf and
you're going to give yourself so much
motivation and excitement, It's very important for you
to have that motivation. So make sure that you
construct your outline. This one is important. You see your outline
and making sure that you can face the
marathon of the middle. Very, very, very, very
important because your outline is where you
weren't simply just what I, what I just talked about. You need to know your theme, you need to know your general. You need to know like your
plot, well-structured, your storyline on its own has to be very much
well-structured. And you have, you have to
be very competent in it, very competent in it. Alright? And of course, fill your story with all of the details that I already gave
you that make what? Make your writing very,
very interesting. And remember, do
not definitely eat, don't quit when you get to the marathon of them
middle, alright, because I don't know how many times I'm going
to emphasize this. The marathon of the
middle is not easy. It's tense,
devastating, annoying, and very much depressing, trust me, very much depressing. But all of those
things you're going to fill, if only what? If only you cheated yourself
while starting, right? While if you cheated yourself
or starting in cheated yourself in terms of your
ideas, not very strong. You don't have
things planned out. All of that is not
going to work. All of that is not
going to work. So what I do, what I do, what I normally do
is I take my gentle, this very gentle, just very
same general I have here. I take it. And every
time I have a story, live in a poem that
I want to write, I have a few points
that I outlined. First. Points that I need
to walk to work. Points that are going
to guide me through the whole piece that
I'm working on, right? So that way, it means, trust me, it makes things so easy
because you focus on a small amount of a small
amount of work. Here. You finish it, you
move to another, you finish it, and
you move to another, you finish it and
you move to another. While you are doing that. There's like this. There's this, I don't know if it's
how your brain works, but there's this pause
that makes you what? That makes you want
to keep going. And then I'll post
that says, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna enjoy
this pause and Alexa little. But while you're still relaxing, I need to write this idea here. I need to incorporate
this new idea in this. I need to, I need to find a way this idea is going to work for what I'm working
on. You understand? So it's those little
things that what, that motivate you to work, to keep going, to keep
going, and to what? To enjoy your work. Because those, those two things
I'm talking about a very important enjoying your work and get them motivated
throughout your work, okay, so make sure that makes sure that you do all
of those things right.
13. Class Project: So what I'm going to
need from you guys today is I'll need from you guys to figure out what some of
your plot twist on, right? How do you create clues or
red herrings in your stories? How do you guys do all of that? And definitely How do you approach things
in your writing? You start with a theme in mind, or do you write a
first draft and identify common threads
in your work later? So how does all of that
work for you guys? Please do let me know. Alright. Um, I think for today, this is all I hope
that you guys enjoyed. Today's video.
Bohlokoa Thamae, Poet & Author
