I start with short stories that have extremely brief character back story, extremely limited or cliche or overt plot arc, and more cliche plot.
* Two brothers in Edo Japan learn a lesson about human nature and the inability to trust the improbable through exposition of "group think". There are sword fights and mystical powers to defeat a giant bat and a giant ape (both with scary monster features).
* Plot, Setting, Character ^
**NEW STRETCH AND ADD IRRELEVANT DETAILS AS YOU THINK OF THEM! I START WITH SOME WORLD RULES AND ADD OTHERS AS I NEED**
* The red flowers are illegal to break.
* The twin brother break them and make fake blood dye so they can hustle the travelers through the village for money as "not beggars".
* They're paying for mother's medicine and can only buy it once every 2 moons when "The man with the hat" (A western white man) comes from the boat. (Optional sub-plot--especially if he's a snake-oil seller. But personally I think think he should be a badass)
* The old man catches the two at night breaking the pedals the next year because the year before many trees only half bloomed.
* The two boys are banished but at the last second they're not.
* Only 3 people can use magic in the story. Use them wisely.
* No spirit animals.
* The boys become farmers and move to the bigger village.
* There is a war with the people over the mountains
* Only travelers are allowed to travel between places.
E.G: 2 Japanese identical brothers in edo Japan deep jungle find two totems sitting in the middle of the road. They're spooked. Who put them there? They ignore it and go to work. Later that night on way back into village they find the same two idols they'd moved off the path back in the middle of the path, this time with what appears to be blood on them. They tell no one and they're scared.
They finally tell the elder but because they waited until Spring, and Spring is the time of life, not harvest and death, no one believes them. The village elder spooky Japanese lady says its just the red-buds of the trees and not blood. Said they were the same two that used to use the fake blood in their street plays to get money for mother's medicine from the western man. (see that's some backstory shit!)
They're pissed. But they ignore it. A month passes. Happens again. This time it starts with what appears to be fresh blood (They're mad spooked) go to work and talk about it hush-hush (optional romance opportunity to distract from horror--The girl is a guard on a horse that patrols the border between the two feuding tribes or villages). On the way back. DUN DUN DUN a dead beautiful jungle bird, or something that wouldn't normally be killed (like a kitten).
Then the entire village believes them and they get prepped for war and that same night they send a dude to purposely piss off the creatures (who are suspected to be the slain boogymen of some lost expedition seeking vengeance) as a trap. So the monsters fall for it and come attack the village but even though it was a trap shit gets real and they fuck up half the village and everyone is dying. So the entire tribe goes and gets the not-first-time-mentioned-but-first-time-exposed neighbors from the other village they're at war with and they team up and defeat the monsters, but then the monster gets really big and then at the last second the 1 brother has this crazy idea from their childhood about what their mom told them when they ruined their clothes with the fake blood.
"Never take these clothes away with you to the other village because the two guardians keeping the peace for over 1,000 years will get super butt hurt. But those 2 idols the black and white didn't represent us. We shouldn't be fighting over which the black represented and who pissed off the demons [they were secretly arguing about this out of earshot of the rest of the village who] and really its because you went over and fucked that girl and you gave her the dyed red scarf."
The conclusion is they go get the scarf and both villages burn down and the third is destroyed and in order to survive the two waring clans *MUST* unite and the 1 brother gets with the chick afterall, and the other brother becomes a war hero and a leader.
Epilogue they have kids or something cliche. The kid will have 1 albino eye from the mother's side. He will be the narrator. He will be fighting some other enemy in the future at the very start of this.
**ADD STUFF YOU WANT TO INCLUDE**
* Motif about Ying-And-Yang at every possible opportunity that isn't extremely notiable or stupid--but extremely often and recurring: not subtle. It will be a core element of the story.
* Dark and light.
* Nature / nurture.
* Life / Death
* All those opposites and shit
* Full circle stories.
* No "grey zones" -- i.e no moral ambiguity. "If 100 have to die to save 10,000 those 100 have to die. It isn't ambiguous"
* Two moments where the brothers disagree and 2 where they agree--have them fighting and at each others throats through ACT#2. (Rising Action--Tension building--the romance distraction)
* act 3 get them together but only for a bit (climax 1 through act 3 transition)
* Rising action: Rip them apart and ally them with a piece exactly alike. They don't balance and it is a disaster. It needs a ying yang--not a mix. This time really make them fight. Possibly even war. **Subtly** no deaths can come from this. This will be character war while in the battles they're still friends. The classic "FINE I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU" only it's Japan so way more serious.
* Absolutely no "evil brother" and "Good brother" in anyway. They are extremely equal and very similar. It is the subtly "in their hearts" that tears them apart--but they eventually realize how fucking stupid that is.
* 1 void in ideology causes a rift.
* That second motif ties into the Romeo & Juliette action.
* One brother must love the politics the other the girl.
* Character traits must be extremely balanced.
To be continued...
NEXT TIME:
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