User blog:Mroddy/Writer's Workshop: Rivals

One of the most important things in a competition story will always be conflict. Conflict is one of the main drives for plot, and of course drama. Imagine an alternate version of Total Drama Island where Heather and Gwen got along perfectly fine: the effect of the season would be down-played and the plot would be less interesting. Creating a strong rivalry between characters early on in a story is key to ensure that there will be some of drama, even early on in the story, when the characters in general do not know one another very well.

The goal of this workshop is to help create genuine rivals, and help writers craft conflicts to help build the stories that they want to tell.

-The Hero and the Villain-
The hero and the villain is likely the easiest to create. This type of rivalry usually has one character put into the position of being an underdog, while another in a place of power. The common highschool example would be the jock and the nerd, and the Total Drama equivalent being Island-Gwen and Island-Heather.

This particular rivalry is great for making the reader feel pity and hatred for two characters. At any point during Total Drama Island did you pity Heather and hate Gwen? Of course not, that wasn’t the point of the rivalry. Gwen was meant to be liked, and Heather wasn’t. This is the story that the writers wanted to tell, and they did it well.

Another good point about this rivalry is that it is not hard to create. It is not very difficult to find two characters who have opposing goals, especially in a competition story. Once you’ve found your two characters all that needs to be done is to start the rivalry. No real thought is needed to start it. For example, a character who is very eco-friendly, would very likely have a ‘hero and villain’ rivalry with a techno-based character. Their thought processes oppose each other, and the odds are their personalities will too.

-The Prom Queen and The Wannabe-
The prom queen, and her wannabe is a harder rivalry to create in a short time-span. This rivalry will usually have two characters who are vying for the same thing, for example the title of Prom Queen… or more relevant, the grand prize. The point is, in your story the odds are the characters will not be wearing pink on Wednesday, so only one person will win the grand title. In high school, this rivalry will usually be found between two of the more popular girls- whether they were friends first, or not.

This rivalry is great when you want to show both the flaws and pros of two different characters. Being Prom Queen is nothing to laugh about. The two characters will likely do anything they can to show off the flaws in the other character, while making sure to flaunt their own positive attributes. Usually two very head-strong characters will be featured in this conflict, due to the nature of the interaction.

This rivalry is a perfect fit for a story where you want to a change in power, often. Think of Heather and Alejandro, without all of the kissing. Both characters wanted to do whatever it took to win. They would try to poke holes in the other by showing the other contestants their flaws. This rivalry is great when there are alliances- with the two would-be prom queens leading each.

-The Sibling Rivals-
Contrary to its name, the Sibling Rivals are not exclusively blood-bond. A sibling rivalry happens when two characters who are friends with each other, but their inner competitor still has this urge to prove its superiority. This is usually a much more light-hearted rivalry, and is great for a change in pace when you think your story might be getting a little on the negative side.

These rivals will always try to edge each other on- if you have a sibling you know what I’m saying! No matter how little the issue is, it can become a competition. Eating pancakes? I bet I can them faster! The light-heartedness does end at some point. Eventually all of those little fights adds up and the duo will typically be on the ‘outs’ for awhile.

The classic way these conflicts are resolved is usually in a “family before anything” tone, where the siblings (metaphorical or literal) agree that a silly *whatever caused the conflict* will never set them apart. It’s cliche, but it’s cliche for a reason… Of course you are going to be more creative than that, right hun?

-The One-Sided Rivalry-
Made famous by a certain aquatic user, this rivalry is great for when you want to throw shade towards two characters without ever fully antagonizing either of them. This rivalry has a number of similarities to the Hero and Villain conflict. One character will typically be more dominant, while the other much more timid.

The most important difference being that in this case, the point is not the paint the characters in a black and white way. You want to throw shade towards the character who is trying rival with the other, in this way you are creating distrust between the reader, and that particular character. This is a great way to develop a character.

The other character, the one who is being ‘rivaled’ can take on a number of different roles in a rivalry like this. You can experiment with the role you would like them to take, keeping in mind the story that you are personally trying to create. Sometimes One-Sided Rivalries can lead to something more later on in the story, so it’s always important to make sure that both halves are constantly developing into a rounder character.

Carlos and Patricia are the best example for this. Through out SS Total Drama, Manatee was able to craft Patricia’s hatred for Carlos, while making sure that Carlos never really acknowledged her existence. This particular rivalry held a lot of weight in the story; creating the foggy mental state of Patricia, and keeping up the d-bag persona of Carlos. This rivalry allowed Mana to not only create a stellar conflict, with an epic conclusion, it also allowed him to develop two characters with one stone- the point of any good interaction.

Remember! This is just a small portion of the types of rivalries you can create! Think about the people you know (because if you’re anything like me, you gossip, and diss people a lot) I’m sure they have told you of this one time they got in a fight with someone. Maybe it was an authoritative figure, their lover, or maybe just a random stranger. People are uniquely messed up- we can and will find a rival for just about anything. Use this to your adventure, create something you’re proud of!

Using a Rivalry to build Character
One of the biggest things about a story is character development. The reader should feel as though the characters are growing with them. Using a rivalry to help build character is an important skill, that as a writer you should have! Whether you want to try and build up a mask for a character, or reveal a secret, or something far-less cliche, using rivalries is a great way to do it!

Rivalries don’t just happen overnight, they do take time to nurture and grow! This is great for building characters, because you can spread their growth as the rivalry builds. As an example, I’ll show how I used rivalries with Ivy, one of my own characters, from Total Drama Frozen.

--The Ivy Example-- Ivy is portrayed as very Heather-esque from the moment she arrives in Frozen. Her attitude and thorny attitude, while seemingly bringing a smile to her face rubs the other contestants the wrong way. In particular, she begins to have a number of negative interactions with a prime target, Daddy’s Little Princess, Dania. Dania’s own biography hinted towards this in a subtle way: when Dania was younger, she had an incident with poison ivy, leading to her very catered lifestyle. In another Writer’s Workshop, Sprinklemist describes a number of ways to hint towards larger story arcs right from the biographies!

Ivy and Dania simply did not get along. They had the classic ‘Hero and Villain’ rivalry. I wanted to paint Dania in the best light possible, while making sure that Ivy stayed in her villainous state. So challenge after challenge, Ivy would berate Dania, belittling her as a character. This forced Dania to find comfort in Rosalie and Mitchel, the two characters who would become her close friends. With their teams already being small, this excluded Ivy from the larger part of her team, forcing her to befriend, the follower, Jade. Who acted as her personal minion.

Remember! While a rivalry is usually between two characters, other characters are (typically) not blind to what is going on! They should react to it!

So while I painted Ivy in the darkest of blacks, and Dania in the lightest of whites, creating a very Heather-Gwen situation, Dania was a very early elimination in Frozen. While the rivalry ended there, the effects it had did not. Because of the rivalry, their team was split down the middle, Jade and Ivy on one side, while Rosalie and Mitchel stood on the other. This divide was very important for a large number of storylines later on in Frozen: Mitchel and Ivy’s relationship, Jade’s ‘coming out’, Ivy’s Heather idolization, the ‘Holy Trinity’ and so much more! I would go more in-depth about these revelations, but to avoid spoilers, I’ll leave that out!

Before moving on though, remember that even though a character gets eliminated they have not fallen off of the Earth, they have not died… well hopefully not. Eventually the rivals will have to face each other again. Whether that means they go right back to being rivals, or, like in Ivy’s and Dania’s case, become friends. Without spoiling too much, Ivy loses all of her ‘power’ when Jade turns out to be the big-baddie of the story, and turns everyone on Ivy. When the eliminated contestants return, Dania believes Ivy over Jade, which gives Ivy a friend and the little smile that she needs! And going back further, Dania still had friends in Rosalie and Mitchel, which gives Ivy a circle of friends to go against Jade.

The rivalry between Dania and Ivy did not end with Dania’s elimination, and I think that, that is one of the most important things to planning out rivalries. Remember that even though the actual rivalry is between two people, they are not in a bubble, people see and hear things too! Remember, that even when they are eliminated, they can still have effects on the story, and maybe they might return to cause more havoc!

Finding Balance
An important thing to consider whenever you want to add a new interaction to a story is balance. Balance should always be on your mind for a number of reasons. First, can you imagine if Alejandro was in the original Total Drama Island? The amount of rivals Heather would have had at once would have been toxic, and she would have hogged the screen even more. Balancing your rivalries, and interactions in general is very important. Giving all of the interactions to one specific character, not only ruins the impact that their separate interactions would have, it also risks the reader getting annoyed with them.

Balance also helps keep stories in line. There is a bizarre need for some authors to mary-sue their characters, in a negative way, so they don’t seem like a mary-sue. For example, an author will make sure they have one have character who seems to have a conflict with every other character. Please, take a step back and think about that, does that make any sense? Do you know anybody who is actually SANE, and is always feuding with everyone around them? Obviously not, because if you hate the world, and it hates you, you are going to suffer from a number of things- none of which seem to find their ways into a story. This is where having balance is important. If you want to give you character a number of conflicts, which is great! I encourage it, rivalries help build characters, make sure they also have at least one person to level it all out. No one can take all the negativity in the world.

Anyways! I’m sorry that this seems rushed! I had less time than what I had hoped! Remember that your rivalries can be as cliche as you want, it’s how the world and the other characters react to them that matter the most! If you have any questions, or suggestions for my next workshop it would be much appreciated- I had no clue what I was doing while writing this! Till’ next time,    Z a c  A tt a c k     Rawr 02:02, May 29, 2014 (UTC)
 * Credit to Mana for writing a blurb!