In regard to writing a mystery, i just wanna throw in my two cents quick: Predictability isn't a bad thing and if people can solve your mysteries that means you set it up well! Well-foreshadowed plot twists are better than shock value plot twists. That's not to say surprises aren't still good, but that's where red herrings come in to make the solvable truth less obvious I know some people may feel bummed at first if a reader solves your case before you reveal the truth, but i think it's a much healthier mindset to feel happy and proud if you see someone solve your mystery!!
Question: How would you foreshadow a character either being the mastermind or being heavily involved in the making of the killing game, especially if the character(s) die early on?
I'm obviously not who you're asking, but I do have quite a bit of experience with writing fangan scripts, so I'll give my advice on this regardless. If you're trying to hint at something like this, you could have the character do things that help those behind the game, like how Tsumugi would spin discussion in the direction Monokuma wanted them to go throughout all of V3. but for one that dies early, maybe have them say something that they shouldn't know, but it isn't given much focus until after they're dead, like Rantaro mentioning the Ultimate Hunt in V3 chapter 1, when the Ultimate Hunt was only first mentioned by Monokuma in chapter 2. regardless of if you take this specific advice or not, I would say that looking at the canon's attempts at this in Tsumugi and Rantaro would be smart, figuring out what you both like and don't like from both of their executions on this idea.
One subtle symbolic thing with Tsumugi that only tends to be noticed in hindsight: she's always against the protagonist in Debate Scrums. Little things like this can also serve as foreshadowing.
This is some writing advice if anyone needs it. Sometimes it can be hard to portray a character’s personality, see if you’re willing to write a character’s personality, or something different that’s related to something in those lines. If you’re having trouble with something similar or exactly like that in writing, here’s something I suggest. (I’m obviously not Barbie or some expert but this is just advice that’s helped me in writing anything related to a character’s personality.) Find a scenario for a character you’re having trouble with. It can be something simple or something very specific, it doesn’t matter. Write a third person POV of that character in that scenario and a first person POV of that character in that scenario. The third person POV will help you with writing those characters actions. Same with the first person POV but instead of helping writing the characters actions, it’s the characters thoughts. It’s also supposed to help you see if a character’s personality is too hard to write and you might want to change something. (Third person POV’s can also help you write when the protagonist is describing what a different character is doing, while first person POV’s can help you write what the protagonist is saying or thinking. I thought you might’ve already figured this out but I decided to briefly put it in just in case.) Here is an example of a third person POV. (Name) opened the fridge and a light cold breeze tickled his face. He wasn’t the type to eat with others around, so he decided to skip eating dinner with his peers. He found it uncomfortable to eat around people because he felt like they were creepily watching him. He’d rather enjoy his supper, especially with the situation he was in. There wasn’t exactly any motive for anyone to kill him but, if any were to, he would want to be satisfied in his last moments. That being said, after everyone had already finished eating, he opened the fridge in the kitchen’s storage room to grab something he had saved for himself. Of course there was a fridge in the actual kitchen but he didn’t bother storing his food in there. There were 15 other people with access to that fridge and someone could take what he was going to eat. The other 15 ultimates could also use the fridge in the kitchens storage room but mostly didn’t since the regular fridge was more convenient. Therefore, he stored his food in the storage rooms fridge because of the less possibility of someone stealing it. But, after being greeted by the icy air released from the fridge, (Name) noticed his food was no where inside the fridge. This comment is already long enough so I decided to cut it off there. I would’ve done a first person POV one but, as I already said, this comment is already very long and I think you get my point. If this was useful to anyone, then, you’re welcome! I’m happy to be of help.
I’m currently working on a fangan where the antagonist is not actually bad, they aren’t insane or even rude. They are nice and helpful. They just have a talent that is the opposite of the protag, the protags arc is slowly learning to except them.
I appreciate this so much. I broke down one of my characters and realized while I did have motivations and distinctive personalities. I didn't have the rest of the five parts. Before it was, what they do, they're personality, and animal symbolism that suggest what kind of development they go through (not necessarily how). Now I've gotten somewhere. Here's a bit of info I came up with my first character Backstory: (insert name) comes from a large family. Her Mother, Father & Five little siblings. She is older than all of them. She's often has to take initiative and care for her family's needs rather than her own. Motives: To live a life of solitude and own pacing with (motivation) Flaws: Too invasive and pries into helping too much. Development: She will learn to take care of her own needs first. After dealing with the conflict from (person 1) & (person 2) during chapter (???). Not much, but I think I've already made this character better.
This series is incredible, thank you so much for the advice. I am not currently working on my fangan because I am with a personal project. But when I work on it I will watch the series again. ❤❤ One question I have is how would you write a "mastermind" his reasons for creating the game, his story, etc.
I should definitely keep the character thing in mind. My main issue with writing characters is that they tend to be one note inconsistent. It's especially bad since one of the characters I'm using is Kazuo Tengan, a guy I hardly know anything about, and barely even remember much from DR3!
Another thing id like to add is have characters have little personalities arguments during a class trial, maybe outside of the murder itself. It makes the trial feel a bit more realistic and entertaining! but make sure to not drag it out too long!
3:40 I'm just gonna bring up an example of this of my own (one of the characters in my fangan, but it's an older version of that fangan, so nothing said here is guaranteed to be in the final version). The character is Isaac Lachlan, the Ultimate Pro Wrestler. I'll skip over backstory, since it's sticking for the real deal, so I'll go straight into motive. To put it as simply as possible, he wants to protect/help people, no matter the cost (there's some more specifics about it in his backstory). This ties in with his biggest flaw, which is that he'd be willing to put his like in danger to make a crying baby smile i the situation demanded it. His role is mainly as a mediator for the group, doing his best to get the more hotheaded characters from getting too violent with each other (which kinda worked, since the one actual fight he had to stop included two of the survivors). He is selfless to a fault, and is one of the people least likely to ever raise his voice. Onto his development, he doesn't get too much (I was bad with balance screen time when I wrote this version), but he does get some. After being put out of commision by the chapter 3 motive, and therefore being unable to stop the murder that went on mere feet away from him, let alone see the killer's face, he blamed himself heavily for it. So when the next motive came, which was even worse than the last one, he resolved to not let anyone else die because of him (or at least what he thought was his fault), and took his own life to end the motive.
Once again, thanks a lot for this series! I have a question for part 5 - do you have any tips on writing the main story and by extension the final chapter (the mastermind and the "truth behind the killing game" and all that)?
Thanks for this very detailed video, I definitely needed this after my too fast spaced fangans of MLP when I was younger and Multironpa which got cancelled right before Chapter 2 deadly life But I do have one question, what do you suggest I do to advertise your fangame, video series or anything of the sort and do you recommend a Dev Vlog? I need it because I'm working on a fangame myself called Rainbowronpa which so far doesn't have that much attention PS. I loved your Redemptionronpa and yes I know what you did but mistakes happen so far PPS. For the people that don't know what you did wrong in Redemptionronpa can you tell them what happened?
Question: my fangan has some mechanics similar to a choose your own adventure game, where due to the actions/inactions of players, the Victim and Blackened are vastly different, idk how to make that feel not only possible but also feel organic to the gameplay, I understand that this is drastically different from most fangans but it's an idea I've had for a while ever since I played Your Turn to Die Also How do I make a mastermind who's not only absent from the cast, but controls the game from the shadows? How do I hint to their existence without it being overly obvious or completely forgotten about?
I'm not a writer, but for non-obvious foreshadowing, having red herrings foreshadowed as well, having your foreshadowing have narrative purposes that aren't just foreshadowing the mastermind, and having your foreshadowing be vague enough that it could be foreshadowing multiple different things are some ways to do so. For having your foreshadowing not be forgotten, having the foreshadowing happen in otherwise memorable scenes is one way, and repeating the same foreshadowing is another.
Hi Barbie I wanted to say thanks for the advice given in these videos. I am currently making my own written fangan named: Danganronpa: Surpressed Despair. Basically the idea for it is that it’s about a cast of U.S. college students that go to Anastasious University which is basically just the U.S. Version of Hope’s Peak for college students. The prologue actually has the main character: Lucas Wilson (Ultimate Music Producer) explore the university and discover 4 of the students before them being sent on a funny elevator trip to see the 2 headmasters and see that not only has the killing game already begun and that they’re several feet underground and any chance to escape is completely impossible since….. well none of them have shovels to break the walls. I made this happen to not only show a unique path of: “what if we see some new folks thrown into a situation with already traumatized participants to alienate both ends and lower trustful bonds, but also the underground theme is to make place that relates to both the title of the game, and have it relate to the theme of Denial vs. Acceptance. I’ve been writing it since 2020 and while it hasn’t officially been published yet, I wanted to make the best versions of the characters I had before I put it out. Without giving specific spoilers I wanted to do a few different things to make it unique such as: Funny trial gimics like not everyone is there because nobody knows who the victim is and everyone has to narrow down who’s alive and who actually died, having subway stations to travel between locations, secret areas the characters find during normal free time events that may or may not become murder locations ;), depression, a second story involving the rejected students that are forced in a different game that’s more like the game: The World Ends With You, a lot of EarthBound influence, and most importantly! REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED the false profit wants to end is Al-- REDACTED REDACTED. Just a few things I wanted to do to make my story stand out, I plan on using Archive of our Own to Publish it, and once again I’m glad you have this series for people making their fangans
Im thinking something like this bouth put poison in some food and the victim eats the food and dies and because 2 People had put the poison they culdent point only one killer
