| In the last chapter, I mentioned that it's very hard to give a major NPC more than five Traits without that character becoming vague. There is virtually no limit, however, as to how many Deepening Techniques can be used with a character, a plot, or in a "emotionally complex moment." (Deepening Techniques for each of these will be discussed a bit later in this book.) Let's reconsider the female alien whose crew was killed by your partner (the one in the picture), and see how she could be given even greater depth than merely by using the "emotional pain" we've given her. We'll do this by combining NPC Deepening Techniques. She has a secret. As you and she proceed through the game, you sense that she's hiding information. You're not sure what, but it's clear that she's holding something back. For instance, not all of her stories about her past add up. Time lines she describes don't quite match. She sometimes describes past events in different orders. A false emotion covers a darker, real emotion. After her initial bout of grief, she gets herself together and admits that her two crewmen who perished didn't matter much to her. She claims that she was just recently assigned to their ship. This was their first mission as a team. Then, halfway through the game, you learn this is a big lie. In fact, she was engaged to one of those crewmen. She's emotionally devastated, and has been so since the time he died. Her indifference to their deaths has been total pretense. Emotional pain. Of course, now we know the secret she's been hiding. We now see that she's got a tremendous amount of emotional pain. Fear. The reason she hasn't told you all of this is because she's actually been afraid of you from the start. She saw what your partner did to her fiancè and fellow crewman, and she's come to the conclusion that humans are violent and erratic. She's been worried all along that you might flip out and kill her.
And so, this one NPC has four NPC Deepening Techniques. Trust me, she'll be an emotionally deep character. This example shows why "Emotioneering" is a more useful word than "writing." We haven't even begun to write any of her dialogue, but we've already given her numerous NPC Deepening Techniques. How would you even know what dialogue to write for her if you haven't done this kind of Emotioneering first? |
