#at least the part of CTB I'm at now has this central mystery that I'm leaving hints for that Warriors has to solve

[wutheringmights]

hello! I absolutely adore the political intrigue in CTB, and I'm writing a story inspired (partially) by it, but I'm sorta at a loss for how to come up with plotlines, much less juggle them so expertly like you did. How do you come up with ideas for ur political intrigue? Any tips or methods?

If you write a story that's even partially inspired by CTB, I would like to read it pretty please 👀

The fun part about this ask is that you made me sit down and think to myself: "Wait, how did I come up with the political intrigue???" (That in itself is a lesson about just throwing yourself into projects you think you are under prepared for and going for it with intention.)

To start, I think it helps not to actually think about the story as being strictly political intrigue. When you try to write something within one genre, you get tripped up trying to recreate every element of it. So release yourself from the obligations of trying to produce something that is strictly political intrigue. Once you free yourself from that expectation, coming up with the plot with get easier.

For me, writing political intrigue is less about writing politics and more about writing characters in conflict. Every political position is represented by a person who is active in the plot and has stakes in maintaining their stance. It's not pro-war royalists wanting to wage a hopeless war out of nationalistic militarism against reform war mongerers who recognize that the kingdom can no longer thrive under constant war. It's a story where Zelda feels obligated to wage a war that Warriors wants to stop.

You can see this everywhere. Every stance is spoken for by an actual character, who then get into conflict with other characters. All of these characters have stakes involved with achieving their goals, but not the full means to do so. If someone could strong-arm everyone else to achieve their mission, then there's not much of a plot. There is always something impeding your characters, and it is the goal of every character to find a means around it.

For example, Warriors wants to prevent the Chain from being enlisted. But not only is he being ordered to involve them in the war, but failure to do so will result in him being imprisoned for treason. So he has to find a way to save the Chain without implicating himself.

If you want an extra layer of drama, you can have characters who represent stances that they might not truly believe in. Zelda knows the war is a bad idea, but she feels her hands are tied. That generates even more conflict.

From there, embrace the messiness. If character X does a thing, then it should effect character Y who wants a different thing. Go down that rabbit hole of cause and effect, following the ripples to see where you end up. Let it get a little complicated! Complex webs of cause and effect is one of the biggest draws of the genre.

Whatever you do, just keep an ideal end to your story in mind and a method for your characters to achieve that. That will prevent you from going too far off the deep-end with your ripple effect.

Focusing on character conflict will honestly get you through any type of story, no matter the genre. For political intrigue, making the conflict not only about the world it's happening in but also only solvable through engaging with the politics of that world will be the way to go.

If you're having trouble coming up with the politics part, then you can look no further than the real world. A lot of the way I write Hyrule is based on things that are familiar to real life, such as the extreme nationalism and the loss of rights under martial law.

With so many different groups in the Legend of Zelda series, you already have a good framework for establishing sides of a conflict that you can graft real world politics onto.

One thing I will say is that stories that involve political intrigue often become consumed with the problems of the upper classes (primarily because the upper classes are the ones doing the politics). But at the end of the day, all of the politics will effect the common person the most. So if you can, try to explore what the actual effects of those politics will be. You can see this in CTB with the turncoats, refugee camps, and the mother trying to hide her sons from the draft.

But if you really can't find anything in real life to help inspire the politics of your world, just remember to ask yourself about conflict. What does X want? What is preventing X from getting it? How can X fix things? How does this effect Y, who wants a different goal?

From there, embrace the ripple effect of every character and group trying to solve their problems while causing problems for everyone else.

In conclusion:

Make your character conflict about the politics

Solve your character conflict with politics

Look to real life for ideas as to how political conflict works

Embrace cause and effect