z

Young Writers Society


The Food Chain Method- Finding the essentials



User avatar
18 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 2200
Reviews: 18
Sun Jun 12, 2016 5:46 pm
View Likes
haredrier says...



I just came up with this concept today when deciding whether or not to leave a group of people out of my story, as I was unsure what role they served. The way this method works (at least for me) is mentally rewriting the story, leaving the thing in question out. Next, I think of the thing most affected by the absence of the original idea. How much would their role be changed and what would happen to the story if I removed them too? Personally, I made a chart to see what would be affected, and then continued from there. See what is linked to the concepts, places and history involving the second idea, and so on. I found it to be a great way for me to see what really mattered in my story and what didn't. I named this the Food Chain Method, because i find it similar to removing an animal or food source out of the enviroment of your book, and seeing how much it affects the other aspects or events of your own "wildlife". If the concept you're originally thinking about removing doesn't affect the others that much, it's probaly safe to cut it. This way of thinking made me realize how linked everything is and I think it might help other writers to have more cohesive storylines or fictional worlds as well.

Tell me what you think of this method, I'd appreciate some feedback!
Death isn't cruel- merely terribly, terribly good at his job.
  





User avatar
1220 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 72525
Reviews: 1220
Fri Jun 17, 2016 10:54 pm
Kale says...



I think it's a pretty neat approach, though I do have some questions on the intricacies.

How do you deal with things that have only one or two important connections though? Does this method make it easier to see how to link ideas together or which elements may be better suited for certain points?

Do you have pictures of your chart? ;P
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
WRFF | KotGR
  





User avatar
18 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 2200
Reviews: 18
Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:53 pm
View Likes
haredrier says...



I'd say that this method helps you find what thing in your story tie in properly, and what can be cut out Since I tend to think visually it was a great help for me. Since my camera only pumps out potato-level pictures that are impossible to read off of, I redid my chart in Paint: Image. Now for some world overview and background: In my planning stages for a post apocalyptic/ steampunk story, I had come up with the town of Canburg, a trading and mining town where the rich are seperated from the poor by a wall. The wall is meant to stop Mistmutes, large and spindly creatures that come out of nearby caves on foggy nights and head towards the river that runs through town.http://i.imgur.com/kc5itt5.jpg


This seperation of class created resentment over time, and now a group of rebels calling themselves the Insurgents are creating minor skirmishes and planning on taking Canburg back from the rich who practically run the town through the trade and nearby mines. The military force in Canburg is comprised of military members that have been hired out as bodyguards to wealthy merchants. However, due to the rumors of a revolutionary plot, Emmet Barbary is called in, a young officer from Glimfall who quicky rose ranks due to his effective strategies against the desert beast and Remnants in Monkey Outpost. On his trip there, the ship he's taking passage on is boarded by the Canburg Smugglers and he's forced to join their ranks or die.

The point is, at one point during planning, I wondered if the mutated people who lived in the sewers were really necessary to the plot. I thought on what the story would be like if I took them out, and what elements would now become redundant. I realized that if the Mistmutes didn't cause mutations when melting in the river water, there would have been no reason to keep them in either. If they weren't there, then there was no reason for the wall to be built and so on. Later, I managed to link other important elements to the mutants as well, butthis method hekped me see what was linked to what and how essential certain elements were. If a person, event or element isn't really useful to the story it should have little to no ties to important things that would be affected if it were removed, meaning that the thing with very few ties is probably pretty useless to the story and could be removed if the writer wanted. Whether they should be removed or not depends on the writer's judgement, as they might feel it adds to the story. However, I think this method could be useful for seeing what is important to your story and what isn't.
Death isn't cruel- merely terribly, terribly good at his job.
  





User avatar
264 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 23295
Reviews: 264
Sat Aug 20, 2016 12:59 am
Megrim says...



There's some writing advice by some well-known writer or other that states if you can remove a sentence/paragraph/scene/chapter and it doesn't impact what comes after it, you should do so.

A lot of times it *feels* like you need to over-explain something, and then if you stop and delete that section, the surrounding text holds up remarkably well. So it's a great litmus test. I think your food chain method is a great extrapolation of this idea--easy to remember, too, with the "food chain" thing!

Megrim approves.
  








cron
And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.
— Bartimaeus of Uruk