Dan Harmon is the writer and creator behind three of my favorite shows:
Community, Rick and Morty, and the one I want to talk about today because it
demonstrates how storytelling is, like any other skill, something you can
practice until it becomes an instinct. Let's talk about "HarmonQuest" So here's the premise
for the show: Dan Harmon gets together with some
comedians to play an off-brand version of Dungeons & Dragons. They improvise
their way through a familiar fantasy story of monster-slaying and magical
object-hunting, the broad strokes of which are invented by Spencer Crittenden,
the dungeon master. Spencer: So which one? You got non-lethal arrows, good-aligned arrows,
sleep arrows. Sudekis: You have this all memorized? Spencer: I'm a DUNGEON MASTER! The live recording is edited down into digestible 20-minute
chunks, and then animators bring their adventure to life. The result is really
funny, but it's not just funny. It's solid storytelling too. Because with Harmon,
it's almost as if he can't resist. He can't resist elevating the story. Here's
what I mean. So in episode 2, the gang is fighting a
demonic version of Chelsea Peretti, when this happens: Spencer: something about the ghost
smoky form staves off your blows. Fondue: I run I run. Boneweevil: What fondue? Fondue: it's a character
development thing. This line gets a laugh but it also reveals the difference
between what Harmon is doing and what his co-hosts are doing. Now don't get me
wrong, Erin MacGathy and Jeff B Davis are
hilarious on this show. But I think the gear that is turning in their minds as
they play is: "how do I make this funnier?" while the gear that's turning in Harmon's
head is: "how do I make this more compelling?" In reality, all three of them
are probably thinking both thoughts, so it's really more a difference of degrees.
But those degrees make a difference, because as a result, the arc of the story
bends towards Harmon's character, and I end up knowing way more about Fondue
Zubag than I do Baer O'Shift, or Boneweevil. Yeah the show loves
characters with ridiculous names. Spencer: what's your character's name Mr. Peanut Butter: Teflonto!
PC: I am hon jodgeman. Aubrey Plaza: My name is... Hawaiian Coffee. By calling
attention to his own character development, Harmon turns scenes that
would otherwise be just about hacking monsters to death, into scenes about overcoming
cowardice. And I think that's important because doing that is contradictory to
what the appeal of a role-playing game is. Dungeons & Dragons and other games
like it are ultimately power fantasies. You enter the game, overcome obstacles
and get stronger along the way. If that's all that happens it can be an incredibly
fun and rewarding experience for the player, but that doesn't necessarily mean
it'll be fun for the audience. Harmon's decisions on the other hand,
deliberately make his character weaker. He has an internal flaw to fight against
and that gives the story much more dramatic meat to work with later on. In
"The Anatomy Of Story," John Truby lays out 22 steps that he argues most stories
take, and one of the most important steps he calls "weakness and need." A story is
really about a character overcoming their weakness, and discovering what they
really need. In the case of fondue, he overcomes cowardice and realizes that
what he needed all along was friendship. The way the show resolves all of this is
a little bit forced. Flower-den: True heroes are courageous. Knock that shit off. Fondue: Then I'll
be brave from now on. But the point here isn't that each element is executed
perfectly, but that the elements of a good story are all here, even though this
is an improvised story. This is also something that Spencer Crittenden
recognized when putting the show together: "Usually when you're designing a
campaign or adventure, you don't plan what they're going to do, or what kind of
arcs are going to go o,n because that's the stuff that players bring to the
table, but because this is going to be consumed as a TV show, we figured that we
wanted to spend a little bit more time making sure that the story had arcs. And
that's what led me to the idea that Dan's character, didn't have a father."
Boneweevil: Fondue, your father left you and you were young right? Fondue: I, yeah, but I like to be the
one to share that. The show is able to get a lot of mileage
out of that relatively simple wrinkle in the story and if you're following along
with John Truby's book you call this step the ghost, "it's an open wound that
is often the source of the hero's psychological and moral weakness." Now,
it's entirely possible that Spencer was also behind the idea to make Harmon's
character a coward, but there are a bunch of other examples of Harmon making
deliberate choices to refocus the story on dramatic internal conflict throughout
the show. Fondue: I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be one of those cowards that
lies about being a coward. I'm gonna be brave and tell you I'm a coward. Fondue: I don't
want to be here. PC: It's just market demand. Fondue: Well here's my market demand. Some personal space and I
storm off. The other the other guys they think I'm useless you know because I
react naturally to things. I have feelings. And Erin and Jeff do this too
when they become frustrated by Fondue's cowardliness. I just know that I have
more than pulled my weight. Again it's difficult to say with certainty what was
part of the pre-planning and what was improvised, but if you look at Harmon's
Podcast, Harmontown, there is even more evidence of him doing this. On the
podcast, Harmon and Jeff regularly play Dungeons and Dragons, and pretty early on
Harmon is leaning towards drama conflict and planting the seeds for character
growth. Harmon: Let's set up camp and just get to know each other. Let's make a little fire and
let's just talk about our backstory. Alright my father, actually in a point of
fact, was a barbarian like you. Sometimes I wish I could -- I could -- I could launch
into a rage like you and just like like make everything okay. I think there's two
lessons for writers to take away from all this. First that what is entertaining
for a creator, might not necessarily be entertaining for an audience, and that
you want to mine deeply into your character's weaknesses and fears to
create compelling internal and external conflict, instead of creating characters
where we're just indulging in their awesomeness. Even the James Bond
franchise figured this out with the Daniel Craig movies. And two, that
eventually storytelling will come naturally. Dan Harmon has written
hundreds of TV episodes so he's at the point where he can't not hit the beats
he knows have to be there on instinct. I think it's pretty common for writers or
for anyone trying to do anything creative
to feel overwhelmed by how much information there is to absorb about
their craft. If you try to keep all of it in mind at once you'd never write a word,
but if you continue to study, continue to practice, it will eventually recede into
your subconscious and make the telling as natural as breathing. In Dan Harmon's
own words: You know all of this instinctively. You are a storyteller. You
were born that way. Hey guys so if you want to watch HarmonQuest, you can do so
with VrV. I want to thank VrV for sponsoring this video, since I've been
meaning to talk about HarmonQuest for a while now, and this was a lot of fun to
do. So hit the link in the description of this video and you can get a 30-day ad
free trial of VrV. I think VrV is a really cool concept for a streaming
service. The combo pack brings together a bunch of channels that you may have
already heard of, including Crunchyroll Funimation, Rooster Teeth, Mondo and more.
So it's a great way to discover content from the creators you already love. I've
been working my way through "Attack on Titan," and it's been amazing, so
definitely check that out if you haven't already, and again use the link in the
description to get that 30-day ad free trial. Also, this video referenced
Harmontown, the documentary about Dan's podcast tour, so if you're interested in
Dan I'd also recommend checking that out for a really revealing behind-the-scenes
look. As always, keep writing and I'll see you soon with a new video.