Writing Tips from Over the Garden Wall

After several months of trying, my sister finally convinced me to watch Over the Garden Wall. I'm glad I did, because it's cute and dark and funny all at the same time. Also, Elijah Wood plays my favorite character, Wirt, which she didn't mention at first or I would have watched it sooner. Anyway, let's go ahead and look at some tips we can learn from the writing of this show.

Spoilers ahead!

1. Beginning In Medias Res

Over the Garden Wall starts off with two boys, who we learn are brothers, walking through the woods. We know nothing about them or how they got there, only that they're trying to get home. As we continue through the series, we learn more and more about the characters and their situation, but at first we're thrown into it in such a way that it almost feels like you missed something.

Now, I normally would have a problem with this kind of opening. I've written a whole post on mis-use of in medias res in the past. But in this show, it works. Firstly, because it sets up what kind of show this is. A show that is weird and bizarre and doesn't always make sense. Secondly, because the show is very mysterious for most of it and the beginning helps emphasize that.

In medias res should be used carefully and thoughtfully, but if you think it will work for your story, go for it. Many great writers have made it work, like in this show. For more of my tips, check out the post above.

2. Subvert expectations

One of my favorite things about this show is how often they manage to surprise you. Each of the stories is only about ten minutes long, but they still manage to pull off plot twists and subversions galore. Like in the Granny Whispers episode, where you think she's the villain, but it's actually the cute girl. Or the Uncle episode where it turns out the two people built into each other's houses. Things never end quite the way you expect them to, and I love that about this.

Plot twists and subversions are integral to most stories, but like everything else, you need to make sure you do it right. If it's a bizarre story like this, then you don't need worry so much about foreshadowing and all that, but if it's a more realistic one, you will need to give the readers some hints to keep them from being annoyed. There's nothing worse than a bad plot twist and nothing better than a good one.

3. Accepting absurdities

I love stories like this one, that take place in worlds where nothing makes sense. Frogs on a steamboat playing the oboe. Pumpkin people with skeletons inside. Witches, Beasts, and taverns in the middle of the woods. And yet, even though the stories are absurd and weird, they make a strange sort of sense. Of course this woman as opened a school to teach animals or your frog can sing.

Worlds like this are fun, and yet hard to write. Striking that balance between weird and logical isn't easy. There may seem to be no established rules, but there are. Anything seems like it could happen, but it won't, because some things would break the suspension of disbelief. You need to figure out for your individual story what the "rules" are and where you draw the line.

4. Give it lore

We learn so little about these woods while we're here. But the little things we do learn are so tantalizing, it makes you want hundreds more episodes to explore them. Where did the Beast come from? What is this place, exactly? How does time work here? Who is the woodcutter and how did he lose his daughter? Adding all these hints to a much deeper world make it feel more real and alive and leave us with just enough questions and answers.

Often, less is more. You might want to give your reader the whole history of your world or the current war that's going on, but that's more likely to bore them. Give them just enough details to make sense of everything, but leave enough out to give it that "tip of the iceberg" feeling. It's a delicate balance to strike, and some scenes might call for more or less of one or the other.

5. Character dynamics are important

Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice are our main characters, and I think they're an excellent pairing. Greg is too silly to carry the story on his own, while Wirt is too serious and angsty, and Beatrice too jaded. But together, the three balance out and give us the right blend of humor, realism, and cynicism to explore this world. (Although, may I ask why they give us three potential ships for Wirt? It's a tad excessive.)

Your characters need to go together in such a way that you couldn't remove one without losing something. I'm still working on this myself, but having good dynamics can be a game changer. Even a bad story can be made tolerable when characters have great chemistry.

You can probably expect me to continue talking about this show in posts to come. For now, I leave you with this cursed Latin version of "Potatoes and Molasses". Enjoy.

Have you seen Over the Garden Wall? Which of these tips is your favorite? Tell me in the comments.

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