User blog comment:Zathronas/Author's Advice: Complication/@comment-16763585-20140127215035/@comment-24218038-20140128140723

Thank's deafro, i'm happy you ask those questions because your exactly why i'm writing these blogs. You have some good knowledge on advance story creation but you lack basics. Don't take it wrong because a lot of internet writers have the same problem. Okay let me try and explain where your right and where your wrong...

Yes, a character can tell you which path to take in your story and i'll give you an example at the end. Problem is they don't choose the destination. I'm not talking about the ending here but the goals you've set in your story. Let me give you an example, let use the one from an earlier blog about Ruby time travelling. (Note: this will be talked about when i'm finished with basic structure.)

You've had an idea about Ruby going back in time and meeing her mother. Now here what you need to ask yourself before starting.

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

How?

Who will be in the story? Ruby, Summer, a very young Yang and a special appearance by a young Ozpin

How did Ruby get in the past? That big black ball that we see in the intro? what would happen if it interacted with dust?

Where is it set? Since she has to be in a battle to get in the past let's have arrive in a battle in the past too at Beacon of course!.

When? A little bit before the battle that had summer sacrifice herself. In Ruby's time we'll put her in Signal. Before Beacon

What is the goal of the story? To have a bitter Ruby understand her mother and her sacrifice before getting to Beacon.

Now you have a story. you intergrate it into the basic structure

introduction: explain Ruby is younger let's say 12. goes at signal with Yang, Have her in a class where they are telling them that the final exam is the creation of a weapon.

Complication: get's attacked by grimm, Yang protects her since she has no weapon. gets sent into the past. meets her mother at a critical time and she knows it. Should she explain the future to her so she can have her mother back or let her die to save countless other?

Climax: Ruby realizes how much her mother loves her and how difficult her sacrifice was. In the end Summer is battling and save the present Ruby from dying by sacrificing herself. Ruby tell to a dying Summer who she really is.

Denouement: Ruby gets thrown back in the future just minues after she left to a relieved Yang. Ruby decide to construct a scythe in honor of her mother.

Now you have guidelines and structure, what I wrote is not a story yet, you then have to make it into a story but at least you have the basics. That's what i'm trying to teach here.