One of the main drivers of story is the principle of CONTRAST.
A character in a traditional story arc begins one way and ends up in a very different state of being - the underdog to the victorious hero, or the innocent, unaware victim to the final survivor, or the selfish, shallow person to the loving partner with depth of character; or the high-and-mighty jerk brought down to humility.
Heroic characters and villains can be inverted reflections of one another. Reflection characters, which we've talked about, can show the consequences if the hero chooses certain paths, and may turn out to be a hint of the hero's fate, but are usually or a contrast to the hero who will overcome a sad fate and win in the end.
The highs and lows as the conflict and drama of a story unfold…the “normal” life of Act 1, whatever that “normal” might look like, versus the bizarro world of Act 2, which is a contrast in some way…
It's just all about contrast. Contrasting goals, or conflicting goals I guess, can drive a deeper character, or can be a fun, or tense, way to create partners. The wild partner and the by-the-book partner. Tall and short. Big and small. Loud and Quiet. Color schemes. So many contrasts to choose from.
Cranking up the contrast can be a way to give spice to a story, character, or scene that isn't popping.
Contrast was also the topic of my very first Newspost, which was TEN YEARS AGO! Wow!
Thought I'd revisit it here, since I'm a fan of that kind of symmetry. I'm gonna be stepping back from Newsposts for awhile, and the happy news is that the legendary GUNWALLACE will be stepping in to make Newsposts. I'm excited to read them, I'll tell you whut!
I want to thank you for reading my posts, and commenting on them - it's always a treat. I liked the surprise when one of my confused, last-minute scrambled-together post received a bunch of great comments.
Be seeing you around the site, anyway.
Have a good one,
-Banes
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This and That (the power of contrast)
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 23, 2025
3 likes!


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PaulEberhardt at 7:25AM, Jan. 27, 2025
Contrast is the root of soul of all kinds of storytelling. It doesn't always have to be extremes, either, it just has to be enough to give each character a distinct individuality. In stories where you don't really have a protagonist-antagonist division, for instance a classic setup of a screwball and a straight guy as a foil, the contrast between crazy and what passes for normal is vital for craziness to really come to the front. Crazy set against a different kind of crazy works too, but it's easy to do too much of a good thing that way.
PaulEberhardt at 7:19AM, Jan. 27, 2025
Thanks for ten years' worth of great newsposts to fire our thoughts.
bravo1102 at 5:43AM, Jan. 24, 2025
Have a good break Banes. Always good content. And now the legendary Gunwallace. That could turn out to be a study in contrasts right there.
marcorossi at 2:43AM, Jan. 24, 2025
Logically there should be a lot of contrasts in a story: contrast between the protagonist at the beginning and at the end, contrast between the protagonist and the antagonist, contrast between the protagonist and the main sidekicks (love interests, mentors etc.). But I find it difficult to conceptualize exactly how these contrast differ one from the other. The antagonist might be an exaggeration of the "evil" side of the protagonist, whereas the love interest and/or mentors generally represent the good sides, but in some way that they can't solve the story all alone and still depend on the protagonist (so maybe the love interest is morally upright but practically incompetent, or the mentor has to be killed off in some way); another idea is the contrast of these people being too much of the opposite (e.g. the protagonist is too wimpy, the love interest is too reckless); also aren't there contrast for the antagonist too? I find this argument interesting but difficult.
Ozoneocean at 5:38PM, Jan. 23, 2025
And Vice verso- for villains who aren't that evil but the good person is so good that a person who'd only slightly bad looks awful haha!
Ozoneocean at 5:36PM, Jan. 23, 2025
Contrast IS a great way to set up extremes. It's also why we think a lot of hero characters in things are good guys when in reality they're usually pretty horrible and it's only contrast with the villain that makes them seem good.
Ozoneocean at 5:35PM, Jan. 23, 2025
Will be sad not having our regular dose of Banes! T_T