Writing Tips: The School Setting

Writing Tips: The School Setting

The school setting trope is a narrative device that places the story's events within an educational institution. This trope capitalizes on the nostalgia of school life, leveraging the structured environment to explore a variety of themes, character dynamics, and conflicts.

Pros:

Familiarity: Readers easily grasp the setting, streamlining the introduction of complex plots.

Diverse Characters: Abundance of character types, from supportive friends to minor/major bullies to wizened mentors.

Natural Conflicts: Built-in elements like coming-of-age growth, exams, social dynamics, and extracurricular activities provide ample conflict.

Cons:

Formulaic: Due to the commonality of this setting, there's a potential for the narrative to become predictable.

Classroom Limitations: Often, the most interesting events occur outside the classroom during field trips or special events.

Contrived Stakes: The school, being a structured and safe environment, may struggle to convey a real sense of danger to the students.

Common School Tropes:

Late!: Scenarios involving characters running late.

Group Project: The teamwork and exploration of relationships through collaborative challenges.

Social Conformity: Exploring themes of individuality versus societal norms.

Prom Night: The buildup to and climax of a social event such as prom, as a backdrop for drama.

Academic Struggles: Plot points related to bad grades and their consequences.

Bullies: Delving into the complexities of bullying, from both students and teachers.

Sports and Games: The buildup to and climax of high-stakes events, as a backdrop for drama.

Vacation Time: Navigating challenges and relationships during vacation periods.

Detention: The conflicts and breaking of rules, leading up to detention.

Field Trips: Exploring the wider world and lore, while encountering conflict.

Tests: Showcasing the skill and growth of characters, while tackling the anxiety surrounding tests.

Social Structures: Examining the dynamics of school groups and hierarchies.

Graduation: Feel-good denouement, when the characters celebrate their successes and reflect on their journey together

Types of Bullies:

Goons: Unpleasant, hostile characters functioning as easy obstacles, typically following a Bigger Badder Bully.

Reasonable Bullies: Characters with legitimate reasons for their dislike of the protagonist, such as family rivalries or personal ambitions.

Villainous Bullies: Truly evil individuals collaborating with external threats or evil organizations for nefarious purposes.

Magic School Subgenre:

Adventure Within the Walls: The school itself becomes the focal point of the adventure.

Specialization in the Supercool: Schools where the subjects are about magic, monsters, superheroes, or even robots.

Wish Fulfillment: The reader is projected into a world beyond the mundane.

Trials and Tests: Incorporating trials, duels, and fights as rites of passage.

Secrecy and Intrigue: The school and its knowledge are usually secluded and hidden from the world.

Building an Alliance: The protagonist has to win over a diverse cast of characters to aid them in their fight against a great threat.

Rival from Nobility: One of the main antagonists is usually a scion of a high-status, wealthy family.

Outside Threat: The school is usually a focal point for a greater conflict taking place in the wider world. And comes under attack later in the story.

Outside Adventures: Characters sometimes leave the safety of the school for adventures in the wider world.

This is part of my Writing Tips series. Everyday I publish a writing tip to this blog.

More Posts from Potato-frend-blog and Others

1 year ago

The Iranian Regime is going to execute rapper Toomaj Salehi for supporting protests of Jina Amini’s murder by the regime in his songs.

Iranian activist Elica Le Bon says, “Iranians in the diaspora picked up on the fact that the regime tends not to execute people who become known to the international community. We have seen many examples of prisoners that were either released on bail or had their sentences commuted through our “say their names to save their lives” campaign on social media, using hashtags to garner attention for their causes, and even before social media existed, through getting the stories of political prisoners to international media outlets. Once reported on, and once the eyes shift to the regime and the reality of its pending brutality, realizing that the action is not worth the repercussions, we have seen them back down and not execute. For that reason, this is part of an urgent campaign for readers to talk about Toomaj as much as you can, using the hashtag #FreeToomaj or #ToomajSalehi. Every comment makes a difference, and if we were wrong, what did we lose by trying?”

Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi Sentenced to Death for Songs Critical of Government
Rolling Stone
Toomaj Salehi, a dissident Iranian rapper, was sentenced to death on charges related to the antigovernment music he released during the 2022
1 year ago

I’d never really gotten a chance to look before, but I had the urge to look at the AIDS quilt after remembering Duane Puryear, and I was just browsing around when one caught my eye in particular on block #2336.

A quilt design with of a hilly, brown landscape under a night sky full of yellow stars that are part of the navy blue fabric. A white crescent moon sits on the left side of the design, and a white star is on the opposite side. "Greg" is signed in a cursive font on this star, and four shooting stars radiate outward toward the crescent moon. There is a white board surrounding the design. Along the top, in a cursive font, reads: "When the stars shone in the morning sky, they all sang together." Along the bottom, from left to right with spaces in between and in a cursive font, reads: "February 2, 1954 Lebanon PA Greg Kyper Dec 7 1991 San Francisco, CA".

I’m a sucker for the night sky, and upon further inspection…

Cursive font on a white background that reads "February 2, 1954".

Greg Kyper would have been 70 years old today, February 2nd 2024, if not for AIDS, and ohhhhh I’m gonna cry. I can't believe the chances of me stumbling upon his name today of all days. I'm going to try finding out more information about him and his life if possible.

I never met you Greg, but I love your quilt design. It's beautiful.


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2 years ago
My Favourite Cousins (rtte Edition)
My Favourite Cousins (rtte Edition)
My Favourite Cousins (rtte Edition)
My Favourite Cousins (rtte Edition)

my favourite cousins (rtte edition)

1 year ago

ok. I've been looking for the answer to this for a long time and I can't find it. Who actually watched the wedding night? I guess the chief and the gothi but were there any others?

WHO WATCHED THE VIKING WEDDING NIGHT?

IN OTHER WORDS, WHO WOULD OBSERVE HICCUP’S AND ASTRID’S CONSUMMATION?

Oh ho ho.  Isn’t this the million dollar question…And the answer may surprise people.

The truth is that no one watched.

I’m going to assume you’re asking this for the purpose of HTTYD, so I’m going to speak in terms of that.  And basically reconstruct the entire wedding process from start to finish.  If you only want to know about the wedding night, skip to the part in bold and then to the very end.

Keep reading


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1 year ago
Another Crochet Lace Ribbon Almost Done. They’re Yellow For The Hostages Held By Hamas, The Palestinian

Another crochet lace ribbon almost done. They’re yellow for the hostages held by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and whomever else. Let me know if you have any ideas for what I should do with them, or if you’re also Jewish and like to crochet.


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1 year ago

Tbh I think a lot of the rank-and-file goyische anti-Zionists don’t really realize that a large majority of the Jewish community sees them as a new generation trying (and thankfully not succeeding—yet) to enact another full-scale genocide against us. They’re so insulated by their tokens—who have either been gaslighted into accepting abuse or are actively trying to avoid abuse by being Good Jews—that they honestly do not understand the Evil Jews they call Zionists (who may or may not actually be Zionists) are the majority of the Jewish community.

And we despise you. We’re disgusted by you. Some of us are downright terrified of you. We see you as no better ideologically than the genocidal maniacs who have spent the last 3000 years murdering us in increasingly horrific ways. And I cannot fathom how you can see yourself as a good person or ally to Jews when the majority of the Jewish community fears and hates you as much as we do the literal Nazis.

I know you won’t, because the truth is that you do hate Jews just as much as the Nazis and everyone who came before them did, even if you deny or justify it—but you should be ashamed.


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1 year ago
Keep Eyes On Sudan
Keep Eyes On Sudan
Keep Eyes On Sudan
‘Losing hope’: Sudan civilians terrified as RSF attacks second-biggest city
Al Jazeera
The RSF is on the verge of capturing Wad Madani, a city that has hosted hundreds of thousands of war-displaced people.

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1 year ago
I'm a Transgender Peace Activist Who Converted to Judaism. I Wasn't Expecting My Fellow Progressives to Turn on Me.
Here’s what they don’t tell you when converting to Judaism: Everyone has an opinion on Israel. And once you convert, everyone has an opinion regarding your opinions on Israel. To say I chose a rather interesting time to convert to Judaism is an understatement. Considering the current politica...

”Being queer, transgender, and Hispanic, I’ve had my share of slurs thrown at me.

My social group and volunteer work are where I find a safe place from the nonsense outside. If things got bad after my conversion, I had this community to turn to. Imagine my surprise, then, to find accusations and anger not from the usual suspects, but from my own progressive communities. To give a few choice examples:

1) My Catholic parents bought me a Star of David necklace to celebrate my conversion. I showed this to someone I had attended numerous LGBT events with. Their response was to call it “pro-apartheid jewelry” and said I was wearing “that star on the Jewish flag.”

2) For about a year, I catalogued footage of humanitarian disasters during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for use by a humanitarian organization. I’m proud of that work. I mentioned my conversion to a few friends who knew me at the time. All immediately asked if I had changed my views on Israeli politics.

3) Whenever I mention my conversion to anyone in my larger social circle, the response is never congratulations. Four out of five times, I’m immediately grilled on my views regarding Israeli policy.

When I chose to convert, my rabbi made it very clear that conversion was just a ritual. “You’re already Jewish,” he told me. “This is confirmation of what already exists.” In some ways, that’s true. I was the same person when I entered the bet din as I was when I exited the mikveh. What has changed, though, is how others see me regardless of who or what I am.“


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1 year ago

Tbh I think a lot of the rank-and-file goyische anti-Zionists don’t really realize that a large majority of the Jewish community sees them as a new generation trying (and thankfully not succeeding—yet) to enact another full-scale genocide against us. They’re so insulated by their tokens—who have either been gaslighted into accepting abuse or are actively trying to avoid abuse by being Good Jews—that they honestly do not understand the Evil Jews they call Zionists (who may or may not actually be Zionists) are the majority of the Jewish community.

And we despise you. We’re disgusted by you. Some of us are downright terrified of you. We see you as no better ideologically than the genocidal maniacs who have spent the last 3000 years murdering us in increasingly horrific ways. And I cannot fathom how you can see yourself as a good person or ally to Jews when the majority of the Jewish community fears and hates you as much as we do the literal Nazis.

I know you won’t, because the truth is that you do hate Jews just as much as the Nazis and everyone who came before them did, even if you deny or justify it—but you should be ashamed.


Tags
2 years ago

Oh shit, here we go again.

Oh Shit, Here We Go Again.

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is the twins are finally back!

The bad news is they've brought a Whispering Death with them. A Titan Wing Whispering Death. An angry Titan Wing Whispering Death. An angry Titan Wing Whispering Death that is currently chasing them through the village as we speak. Someone should probably do something about that.

We're going to send them to dragon island. They got themselves into this, they can sort it out themselves.

It IS concerning that we now have to deal with the carpenter again. We're not exactly on good terms with him.


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potato-frend-blog - HellofellowHumanz.
HellofellowHumanz.

age:19 fandoms: FF14, MLP:FIM, HTTYD!movie, MHA, KH, Genshin Impact, etc. Hobbies: Art and Video games She/they (Deviant Art: https://www.deviantart.com/rainbowponypotato) ( AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potato_frend) I'm thinking about setting up a small business for my art. Any Tips for doing so are welcome.

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