Transcription
Ah, man! I broke it while taking it apart! Oh well. I guess I’ll do a video on deconstruction instead!
Deconstruction is when a writer takes apart an element of story. This can range from taking apart a specific trope to show how it would really work in real life, deconstructing a character archetype to showcase an unexplored aspect of them, or disassembling an entire genre of fiction. It’s also an annoying buzzword that is overused on the internet to describe anything that is even mildly subversive of its original genre.
Stories that focus on deconstruction can be some of the best that fiction has to offer. It can also be stupid, pretentious, and completely miss the point of the very thing it’s deconstructing. Thankfully, that won’t happen if you follow my very helpful guide on writing deconstructions.
Now, the most important thing to remember is that a writer should deconstruct something because they either hate it or want to show off how smart they are. The worst thing a writer can do is deconstruct something because they want to tell a story. Rest assured that no audience member wants to enjoy a good story and is there purely because I want to show off how much smarter I am than J.R.R. Tolkien. See, he used a bunch of fantasy tropes, so I’m going to tear them down and build myself up! You know, like a bully. Uh… wait. No. Like a genius! I’ll just point out how fantasy stuff doesn’t exist! Checkmate, Tolkien! Consider your entire legacy DECONSTRUCTED!
This “smarter than you” attitude is essential when deconstructing stories. Dedicated fandoms love it when an upstart writer tears down their favorite works for petty spite! If they react badly to my deconstruction, well, I’ll just call them unintelligent rubes who fail to appreciate my galaxy brain evisceration of their favorite genre.
Now that I’ve put all of the dissenting opinions in their place, I can move on to the important task of writing the deconstruction itself. This is done by taking the object of my deconstruction and making it dark. Just endlessly, pointlessly, self-indulgently dark. Deconstructions are always dark, and there is no other way to do it.
Remember that the point of a deconstruction is to take something apart and show how it works. Since I lack any imagination and my entire perception of reality comes from social media, video games, and crappy anime, the only way I can imagine something working from a realistic perspective is to make it as dark and twisted as possible. This is as easy as always assuming the worst about human nature and just pretending that empathy doesn’t exist. Everyone being evil 100% of the time is super realistic, after all, and I’m not just saying that because I spend way too much time on Reddit. A society that runs entirely on endless backstabbing and infant murder is one hundred percent sustainable.
Now that I’ve made everything grimdark, my super realistic deconstruction is basically ready to go, right? Wrong! Amateur mistake. A writer can’t simply make their deconstruction dark! No. They need to make the story edgy, too! Deconstruct the violence in an action scene to show how brutal, quick, and awful it is? No! We gotta stylize and revel in the work’s brutality. Nothing says “realistic deconstruction of every kind of violence” quite like the sense that the author is into that kind of thing. Remember, that only the author is allowed to have fun in a deconstruction. Otherwise, fun isn’t allowed. If something is fun, then it’s not a deconstruction at all. Fun doesn’t exist in real life, after all, so I don’t know why it would make its way into my deconstruction?
Now that I’ve driven all fun from my story in a storm of edgy grimdark, what am I going to specifically deconstruct in my story? Now, a writer has a lot of choices. In fact, they could easily just stick to deconstructing a single trope or cliché if they wanted. A writer could take apart a character archetype. Some works tear apart entire genres or even provide meta-commentary on fiction itself. But a writer might as well go for broke and just deconstruct everything they can get their hands on, no matter how thin it stretches the story out. Remember, the story isn’t as important as making a point.
For example, what if I wanted to deconstruct the chosen one character archetype? Could the stress of their chosen one status drive them into despair? What about using the chosen one’s fame to explore parasocial relationships? What if the chosen one’s humble origin leaves them completely unprepared to handle the high-stakes political maneuvering that occurs around them? Could one or more of these have finally driven the chosen into becoming the villain? No. The best way to deconstruct the chosen one character is to make them evil for no good reason, or make everyone else around them evil for no good reason. DECONSTRUCTED!
Now, what if I wanted to deconstruct my setting’s evil empire? Could I dig into the incompetent hierarchy to show how the empire’s poor management is what causes the rebellion in the first place? What about showing its corruption and how it erodes the empire’s power base from within? Is the reason the empire loses to the inferior rebel forces because the emperor kills all of his generals for failure, resulting in critical brain drain? Again, these require too much thought. Instead, I’ll deconstruct the evil empire cliché by having a couple of guys in the empire be okay dudes or something. See. Now it’s all shades of gray and complex and deep! Or at least that’s what I’ll call it. DECONSTRUCTED!
What about if I wanted to deconstruct an individual trope like the Dungeon Crawl Adventure? Could I do this by emphasizing how expensive it is in terms of tools, time, and talent? Could I show the struggles of dungeon divers to stay out of the red while showing just how unsustainable financially dungeon crawling is in the long run? Could I show another side of dungeon crawling by having the adventurers confronted by angry people accusing them of stealing cultural artifacts? Could I have a character detail the dungeon’s fragile ecosystem? Could I show that the decaying, unstable, crumbling dungeon architecture itself is just as dangerous, if not more so, than the traps and monsters? What if the number one cause of death among adventurers was dysentery? Nah. I’ll just make the adventuring party all jerks for no reason! DECONSTRUCTED!
How about instead I tackle deconstructing an entire genre like Military Science Fiction! Could I add slice-of-life elements interrupted by sudden bouts of intense and confusing, unglorified violence to illustrate the malevolent boredom of war? Have the main characters begin to realize that they may be the bad guys to expose the often contradictory and troubling underlying political messages that military science fiction tends to espouse without thinking. Make the story take place from the point of view of the defense contractors to dispel the glamour associated with war machines by showing just how chaotic the process is for weapons and development and arms procurement? Have them use white phosphorus and call it a day? Nope. I’ll just make everything about war all the time! DECONSTRUCTED!
As you can see, deconstruction is pretty easy. Did I not actually deconstruct anything? Did I not actually dig down and take it apart to show the audience how it would really work? See, that doesn’t matter! Everyone else is writing edgy deconstructions, so I want to jump on that bandwagon to show everyone just how smart I am! Besides, it’s not like anyone else on the bandwagon is doing any better than me, so that means I am perfectly excused from actually deconstructing anything. Instead, I just want to use the label to make myself look edgy and transgressive, even as I churn out the same slop that everyone else is doing, just themed differently. It’s like deconstructing the superhero genre; I mean, you do have to stand in a queue nowadays. And good luck claiming the Watchmen’s throne.
This is all about the deconstruction cycle that most genres go through. When it comes to genres, over time, certain popular works establish the conventions of a genre. Those conventions become commonplace in subsequent inspired works to the point of becoming clichés. Eventually, the genre becomes saturated in wannabes and plagued with clichés. Finally, a new work comes out in the genre that takes apart all of the clichés in a compelling way, a deconstruction, if you will. This deconstruction then inspires a host of imitators of dubious quality, as the deconstruction has set the genre’s new conventions. Eventually, these new conventions become cliched and are finally deconstructed themselves, or the genre becomes reconstructed into its original form. Thus, the cycle starts over.
That’s why a writer should jump in there ASAP! Gotta be the next one to set the trend. And it’s so easy, too. All you need to do is subvert the audience’s expectations just a little, and someone on the internet will call it a deconstruction. Since the two are interchangeable, it makes it easy to claim the label of deconstruction, even if not a single cliché is taken apart and interrogated in the entire story.
Even if a writer doesn’t care about the label, then there’s always another reason to engage in deconstructing a part of a story. Petty. Spite! Hatred is an excellent creative guide and, in general, is very useful for making calm, informed, and unbiased decisions. Using hatred and spite as a sole source of motivation won’t lead to things like over-deconstruction. That’s when a writer takes something apart a bit too much. For example, showing a Medieval European-inspired fantasy setting that is so dark, dingy, disease-ridden, and awful that it’s realistic, even when realistically no one could survive it. Every noble is corrupt and evil. Every priest is burning every woman at the stake. The king is an inbred idiot narcissist that only takes advice from his horse. The entire kingdom is always collapsing and held up only by the writer’s need for the setting to keep standing. It’s the perfect kind of thing to add into my fantasy deconstruction because it shows it how it really was back then. And by “how it really was,” I mean “zero primary sources.” Everything is a patchwork mess of historical low points mashed together into a cacophony of misery while ignoring all of the other parts that were actually working just fine.
Yes, writing a deconstruction about how things really work doesn’t mean a writer has to actually do their research. Never mind that one method for deconstructing something is to simply show how it works, not why it’s bad. Taking apart an aspect of a story and showing its inner workings without a fireworks display of edgy grimdark? Why would I do that? If my story isn’t a miserable edge-fest full of gratuitous nudity, pointless glorified violence, and needless cynicism, then how can people even take it seriously? People don’t enjoy a good story, after all. They only enjoy watching everything they like about a story get torn to pieces in a storm of juvenile edge-lord misanthropy. That will impress everyone with my vast intellect, even as the story and characters are put on the back burner so I can spend my time doodling Berserk fan fiction in the corners of my middle school notebook.
Use bleakness of the deconstruction to serve the story rather than as shock value? Why would I do that when I’m trying to exhaust the audience and not emotionally exhausted from the roller coaster of emotion, rather that I’m trying to exhaust their patience from not having anyone left to root for. Besides, there are no good guys in real life either, so that means that there are only bad guys. Clearly, being disconnected from reality is ideal when trying to deconstruct stories realistically.
Remember to dismiss the idea that a successful deconstruction doesn’t tear down a genre, but rather shows us an old genre or trope from a different perspective. Never use deconstruction as a starting point for inspiration when instead I can use it point-first to drive the final nail into the story’s coffin. Never mind that deconstructing a story trope, character archetype, or genre is in fact a critical skill for a writer to develop because critical thinking will only get in the way of my compulsive need to grandstand. Understanding how a trope would realistically work? Being able to see the underlying workings just underneath the setting’s surface? Seeing the hidden implications behind the nature of a commonly used character archetype? Knowing the ins and outs of a genre’s conventions as well as inherent messages said conventions may convey, both intentional and unintentional? Knowledge is the enemy!
Be careful who you listen to! I mean, why would you trust someone who gave constant bad advice? Especially if they did it over seventy-eight times! Seventy-nine if you count that one Star Wars video. Clearly, someone like that wouldn’t be trustworthy at all! Realistically, no one would listen to that person. Wait. Oh no! Did I just- DECONSTRUCTED!
***
DARK LORD: Change is sometimes needed. Even for a powerful being such as me. But I have always known who I am. Power was always mine for the taking. Because I am the Dark Lord.
CONSPIRACY GUY: Well, if you’re done with your monologue and suit upgrade, we need to get on with our planning.
REBEL: Yes. We need to settle on a name for our coalition. Now, we also need to select either a flag or maybe a symbol? Something that’s easy to spray paint while still keeping a solid brand identity.
CULT LEADER: I keep saying, pamphlets!
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Everyone! Focus. We can worry about branding later. We need to plan our opening move against Greed now that the political situation in the TWA expanded universe has started to settle. Our opening move is to-
DARK LORD: To crush Greed by force!
CONSPIRACY GUY: Because that worked so well last time…
GENERAL: I’m with Tin Can here. If the Federation space force mobilizes, we can roll over Greed faster than you can say “Military Industrial Complex.”
CONSPIRACY GUY: Greed has Megacorp’s near bottomless resources, House Bad Guys’ intelligence network, and a highly efficient robot army on top of those hand monster things he has. Then there’s that chrome assassin guy that came out of nowhere. Not to mention that he can interrupt us at any time with ads-
GREED: This video is sponsored by GiveWell.
CONSPIRACY GUY: Like that… Great. Another ad.
GREED: Ad? No. This is charity. You see, GiveWell.org allows you to save time on researching charities to make sure your donation has a big impact. They provide free research and recommendations for charities that improve lives for the most per dollar.
CONSPIRACY GUY: Oh. So you nearly destroy the TWA Expanded Universe and now you are stuck doing a PR blitz?
GREED: People have short memories. Especially when the money comes rolling in. Besides, even you in the Ancient Conspiracy must recognize the value of knowledge? That’s where GiveWell shines, as they have spent over 40,000 hours each year researching charitable organizations to recommend only the highest impact, evidence-based opportunities. Over 100,000 donors have used GiveWell to donate more than one billion dollars. There is strong evidence that suggests these donations will save over one hundred and fifty thousand lives and improve the lives of millions more. What’s more is using GiveWell’s research is free. They only wish to aid as many donors as possible make informed decisions, and they publish all of their research and recommendations for free. No signup required. Your tax-deductible donation will be allocated to the charity or fund of your choice without taking a cut.
KNIGHT COMMANDER: You? Charity? You are the personification of greed!
GREED: Why, I’ve already helped J.P. donate to the Against Malaria Foundation. Besides, malaria is bad for business, and last I checked, mosquito netting is more effective at stopping it than organizational overhead. For those who have never donated with GiveWell before, they will match donations up to one hundred dollars before the end of the year, so long as matching funds last. To make a matching donation, go to Givewell.org/TerribleWritingAdvice. That way, they will know you heard about GiveWell from TWA to get your donation matched. Or simply click the link in the description below. You see now? You are not going to beat me at the PR game. I will win over the neutral parties in the TWA Expanded Universe. It’s only a matter of time.
DARK LORD: Ha! Weak! We stick to my plan!
CONSPIRACY GUY: Ramble incoherently while referring to yourself in the third person all the time?
DARK LORD: When I want to crush a bunch of upstart adventurers, I send out my lieutenants one or two at a time. I will send them to rally all of the remaining TWA factions under my banner! So you, chain arm man, go and summon the forces of this Federation.