How can I create a fictional history?

[Writer’s_Magic]

Guys! I don’t know if you have this problem, too. But for my movie idea I have to have a history, which explain why vampire and werewolves have war. Yah! I know that topic sucks. However, my goal is to make it better. Even better than Twilight. – I swear it! And that’s why I put more emotional stuff in it. But I need a logical explaining of that war in the modern times. So, I hope you can explain it me. How do I create a fictional history?

 

[Mythopoet]

You just make stuff up, my friend.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Mythopoet How do I make this stuff? ?-|

 

[Mythopoet]

From your imagination. You make stuff up and then write it down in a coherent fashion. That is fiction writing in a nutshell. You really need to be able to make stuff up to be a fiction writer. If other people are making up the stuff for you, then you're more like a ghost writer.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Mythopoet Yah! I know. But how do I write it down? I have the data already in my head. But I wanna see it on my screen now.

 

[Mythopoet]

Most people use their fingers to type on a keyboard that produces words in a word processor on their computer. However, many people also prefer to use a pen or pencil to mark words onto a paper surface. The ideas form in your imagination, you use your mind to fashion those ideas into words and then use your hands to manually create the words in a more or less permanent physical form.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Mythopoet I know. i use Microsoft Word myself. But I wanna have it on screen. I mean, how should I write this?
Like:
Year XY - Event XY
Year ABC - Event ABC
...

or in a block text summary?

 

[Mythopoet]

Try both and see what feels more natural to you.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Mythopoet What do you use? ...

 

[Mythopoet]

Mostly I just try to remember everything and fail at it.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Mythopoet You’re my soulmate...

 

[TheKillerBs]

I've found that timelines work better in a spreadsheet processor than in a word processor.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

TheKillerBs Do you have one?

 

[TheKillerBs]

Sorry, one what?

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

TheKillerBs The timeline stuff. That spreadcheat

 

[TheKillerBs]

Are you asking about spreadsheet processors, or if I've used spreadsheets for timelines?

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

TheKillerBs A timeline. For the history of my vampires and werewolves. I simply need reasons why. I don’t like it if the author just say, "Yah! They were here since the first humans. " I need details.

 

[TheKillerBs]

I have timelines for my own stuff. You have to figure out the history for your own things. I'm just saying, if the way you choose to order it is by timeline, spreadsheets are better since then you can use operators to figure out the lengths of ages, etc.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

TheKillerBs Ok.

 

[FifthView]

I'm not sure I understand your exact question. Do you mean how to format, write down and then later display your history in a movie? Or do you mean how to come up with the ideas for the events in a history?

The LOTR movies used a long flashback prologue; Star Wars has that scrolling text on screen at the opening.

You could use a framing device similar to Princess Bride, in which an old Grandfather Werewolf is reading a type of mythological tale woven from the early history to his 4th, 5th, or 6th generation werewolf grandson.

Or maybe you open the movie in a classroom. The main character is a young werewolf in that classroom. It's a history class, and the teacher is going over the history of how the war began. If you have the tech in that world, maybe he could show video clips or a slideshow of events in that early history, all the while taking questions from his flabbergasted, confused students. Unlike a prologue, this scene could be used to help introduce the main character and perhaps even suggest the kind of personal character arc he's on. Or she.

Now, if your question is simply how to plot the history on paper or with a software program, before writing the whole thing, a word processor or spreadsheet program will work, or pen and paper. There is a very useful timeline program called Aeon Timeline. I won't link it, because it's not a free program, and I think that might be against forum rules? I think there's a fairly steep learning curve for Aeon Timeline if you want to use its full capabilities, but just starting out and making a basic timeline is fairly simple.

If your question is how to come up with the facts of that history, the various events and reasons for those events, the answer will be more complicated. You can maybe brainstorm using the ideas from the RPG game Microscope; there was a recent thread in which I, unfamiliar with the RPG, considered it for the first time, here: "Microscope" as a Worldbuilding Tool. The basic framework is simple; maybe this will help stir the creative juices.

If you want the history to have a strong emotional component, consider the rightness of the history. I mean, how the reasons for that war were completely reasonable — and how the war was unavoidable, given the circumstances. Also, perhaps you could tie those reasons and the results of the war, even all these years later, to the main character's arc. Maybe the main character has been trapped by this history in some way, or at least she feels that way.

As Mythopoet said, you'll have to use your imagination. I hope I've given you some food for thought that will trigger your imagination. Good luck!