User blog comment:Mroddy/Writer's Workshop: Organic Elimination Orders/@comment-4604642-20190115041026/@comment-5424252-20190116142440

I'm always around! Never be afraid to comment on any of these blogs, or reach me on my talk page!

Before anything else, I should say that as you've noted this is an older blog. My own way of planning my stories has changed out slightly since then. Although it still is heavily influenced by the OEO. But not entirely.

The early boots, in any story will always be the toughest. Do you want them to be memorable? (Hopefully, if not why are they even there.) Or are you quite literally just using them to fill a void. In either of these cases I think the problem can be mitigated to some extent.

I don't think it's fair for anyone to expect super fully developed characters for the first few boots. Looking back at Frozen: Andre and Leo, the first two boots were definately not. Although both would play minor roles further in the story, as I tend to do a handful of loser chapters. Looking at those two, their story pre-elimination I think fits your description. "Obvious first boots because they are obviously useless." To some extent atleast.

Then if we look at Tides, I think things changed drastically. When I was writing Tides, there were many different stories being written. It was my third/fourth story I was writing. (Frozen, Completed -> Blossoming, moved to the end of my seriest not completed -> Tides OG1, rewritten -> Tides, which is the version up today.) So I had a number of opportunities to play with how I write, and how I want to tell my stories, especially the early ones.

My first boot in Tides, as Rhonda explained was done very differently than what I normally do. I had actually planned 4 different first boots for that story. One from each of the teams. The team that ended up losing was the most popular team based on the first chapter. In that case, Blake ended up getting eliminated. I don't think based on the first two chapters you could have guessed that Blake was the one to get the boot. He checked off many traits that a ~true~ character would have. Did Blake have a real story? No. But did Blake feel more real or dynamic than the first boots from the cannon series? I'd hope so.

This trend continues into third story of the seasons series. Without spoiling as the story is still very much alive, and in progress. The first few boots have all been shocking. They have all been exctiting, and most importantly all of the characters have felt so alive, and felt like they could have gone far in the story. I don't think your early boots need to feel like early boots. If they do, it's more than likely because you weren't interested in writing the character in the first place, as Rhonda mentioned in her comment.

I think that's one of the biggest things. You NEED to love your characters. If you don't edit them, adjust them, or remove them. Tides had a handful of characters I just did not like their direction of their overal character; Damien, Trixie, and Yasmin being perhaps the biggest culprits in this. It shows in their writing, they either start to fade because I don't know what I want to them with them, or they end up doing something drastic in my attempt to make them relevant. In Damien's case, I ended up giving him a very real ~sub plot~ to make him feel like he belonged in the story. In Yasmin's I made her take things very seriously and go slightly loco in the process, but she instantly became a hit because of it - Because she was suddenly interesting. (On the note of Damien, he actually returned to Eclipse, where I am enjoying his character x100, because I actually am interested in him and what he represents. Some times it just takes a second opinion, or some time to really understand a character.)

All to say, because this is definately not a structured comment.... Sorry. That while OEO does help with your planning. It's not WRONG to plan out some future story bits - just know if you get to that point that you DON'T need to go through with it. The biggest takeaway I want people to get from this blog was that you don't need to set your story in stone before you even start to write it. Let it evolve and grow on its own.

Strictly to your comment though, as Rhonda said, if you love all of your characters. You'll almost never run into the problem of having an obvious first boot. If you are always looking at your characters as having more potential than just this one story, or just one chapter you'll quickly realize how easy it is to love them, and how easy it is to want to give them stories. Looking at my VERY first boot, Andre. He returned to the sequel Tides, and placed.... ok. And then he returned AGAIN to Eclipse. And you know what, there's a very good chance he'll be back for Blossoming. I get attached to these characters, and even if I eliminate them early it doesn't mean i don't love them, it just means that they were the right choice at the time. There are SO many stories I want to tell with my most current season of Eclipse, but there's no way I'll get to tell them all. So I need to hold onto a lot of those stories for another day...