City of IF

[Fats_Masterson]

Story Types

I would like to bring up an idea here that I think may help some Ifians.

Have you ever heard of the MICE Quotient? I believe I first heard it in an essay by Orson Scott Card, but I think it is a valuable tool for writing. MICE is a concept that all stories consist of four elements in varying quantities. These four elements are: Milieu; Idea; Character; and Event.

Every story will focus it's main plot on one of these elements (we'll explore what each of these stories looks like later) but good stories will blend all of these element together. What I've done here is given a common example of each type of story and how, for the most part, each of these stories should flow. Remember that these are only guidelines, I am not writing rules of good literature on the stone walls of If, here. If you disagree with something I've written here, and it's working for you, by all means ignore everything I say here. If you are struggling, however, and you are unsure why perhaps you are trying to force a story into a shape it doesn't like.

Milieu

Milieu means Setting, ones environs, et cetera. A Milieu story is a story about a setting. It is a forum for writers to showoff the worlds that they have created. Many sci-fi stories are set-up this way. Classic Milieu stories begin with your main Viewpoint character entering this strange new world and usually end when the character leaves the setting (or Milieu).

Some examples of Milieu stories are; Gulliver's Travels, Jason and the Argonauts, and the movie 'Batteries not Included' however that one uses some interesting techniques with viewpoint character.

Idea

An Idea story is a story where the central theme revolves around knowing a particular piece of information. Murder mysteries are good examples of this kind of story, however, it has been seen in modern fiction as well, (Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, & Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton). I personally advise against this type of story if you are just starting out, or are unsure of where you want your story to go. Idea stories require an enormous amount of effort to keep the audience looking one way while laying enough clues and evidence so that when your 'twist' appears in the plot, it seems natural and expected, not forced and contrived. (For an example on how this is done well watch 'The Sixth Sense' by M. Knight Shyamalan. For an Example on how it's done poorly watch anything else Mr. Shyamalan has done.)

Character

Ah, Character stories, I really hate these stories. A Character Stories are about how one character changes from one set of beliefs to another. A lot of Victorian literature falls into this category, as do most romances. The only requirements for this type of story in that your character must be clearly defined in the beginning of your story and by the end, they must have undergone some meaningful character change.

Event

Finally we come to the Event story. The Event story focuses on Events in the world, a great catastrophe must be avoided, or an evil stopped. Many fiction and sci-fi stories fall into this category, as do Disaster stories and movies. Usually the Event can be stopped or avoided by an action or decision of the Main Character, this decision would obviously be the climax of this particular story. In a Disaster story the climax is usually a decision to survive or help someone survive, but essentially the same idea.

Some examples of event stories are; The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkeen (It is interesting to note that 'The Hobbit' is a Milieu story), The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, and any Series by David Eddings, (If you don't want to read a series pick up 'The Redemption of Althalus' it's all Classic Eddings in one book.)

Ok, so that's all the different types. Now if a story was simply just one of these, that would be a pretty boring story. A true story is a blending of all these elements into a larger, greater whole. Use one of these elements to guide your story and use the others to help it blossom.

Hope You Enjoy!

[Guest]

Quote: Ah, Character stories, I really hate these stories.

Is that true... J.K Rowling writes wonderful books, but you can't compare them to Character stories then really, you wouldn't really know what it is, since it's got modern day and it's got fantisy. Maybe it is a character story, becuase there is three main characters, mainly Harry potter and alot happened to the three of them.

[Chinaren]

I've moved this to the TI, as it's worthy of such a place.

[Fats_Masterson]

Thanks for the Move and the Compliment C-ren.

and Crady, all stories have all parts. Harry Potter, most of all. Miss Rowling seamlessly integrates all these parts. For a couple of examples Look at the way Harry's attitude towards girls throughout the series, thats a definite character line, so is Ron and Harmionys relationship. Harry Potter has these elements even though it begins as a classic Milieu story. (The books where the setting is one of the most important elements begin shortly before Harry enters the world of Hogwarts and ends just before he leaves)

It is interesting to note that in the Harry Potter series, Miss Rowling (or is it Ms. I'm not sure) used the Milieu story to get readers interested in her world and plot-line, and then after they were interested, hit them with the plot. Heck, He Who Should Not Be Named, the Villain, doesn't even show up until the end of the fourth book.

If you look at the Harry Potter Books I believe the first three are Milieu stories, and the last four are some of the best blendings of these elements I've ever seen. As far as I'm concerned J.K. Rowling is a brilliant writer, business woman, mother and teacher. I loved the series and honestly could teach an entire course on good literature using that series alone for examples.

[Smee]

A very nice refrence, Fats. Thanks for this. :)