Sidetracked

Make hay while the sun shines

My friend and collaborator approached me recently with an idea for a quick and simple short film project. Something we can shoot quickly and with very little money. Just my kind of project. Writing something that we’ll actually be able to make and release is always a great experience. I don’t get to stretch my directing legs as often as I would like. Because of that I’ve been working on that script rather than Harlan’s story this week. This means I don’t have anything to update or discuss that relates to the script we’re working on here directly. But I do think this is an opportunity to talk about some other writing issues.

Sidetracked but not derailed

It takes a long time to write a story. From the initial concept through outlining and finally the multiple drafts until it’s a relatively complete work can be months or even years. Other projects and opportunities will come up during that time. Some will be projects like this short that let you use your writer’s skills. Others will be vacations and life events. Sometimes you’ll just get distracted because there’s a good show on netflix you have to watch all at once. Getting sidetracked isn’t always a bad thing. Do something else for a little bit. Let your story percolate in your brain and when you come back to it you’ll be able to see it more clearly.

I said NOT derailed

It’s easy to let time get away from you. You miss writing for a day and the next day you feel a little behind. If you miss a week you feel even more behind. Suddenly you’re in the habit of putting off writing more than writing. Don’t let yourself get derailed like this. Remember that the only deadlines you have to meet are your own. If you’ve fallen behind by a year just pick up where you left off and pretend you meant to do that. As this project takes some of my attention my work on Harlan’s story will be slower. But that’s okay I work too fast anyway.

Coming soon

Now you know I’m sidetracked at the moment. All of you who feel like you’ve fallen behind with the blog can catch up. You also have a new short to look forward to. Once it’s done I’ll show the process from concept to completion. It’ll be fun.

Next week we’ll check in with Harlan and see how much I got done.

SLUGS!

Getting closer

We’re almost there! It’s almost time to start actually writing something that looks like a script. The note card stage is the last thing I do before writing something that is formatted like a script.

Words you should know

I should probably tell you what a slug line is. You can click the link for a perfect description on wikipedia. A slug line looks like this.

INT. COUNTY JAIL – NIGHT

It’s the basic heading of the scene. It starts with INT. or EXT. for interior or exterior. This is followed by the name of the location and the time of day. Keep it simple. The location name should be just enough information to identify the location. It is not a place to use descriptive language.

INT. HARLAN’S HOUSE – DAY is good.

INT: HARLAN’S LIVING ROOM BESIDE THE TELEVISION LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW – AROUND 3 PM is bad.

These are MANDATORY pieces of the screenplay format for many reasons. It tells the reader that it’s a new scene, where the scene takes place, and what time of day. Later, when they start planning to shoot the movie they’ll be able to look at the slug lines and know how many scenes take place at that location, if they need to be there at night, during the day, or both, and if they’ll be inside or outside. Lastly, the whole thing is written in CAPITOL LETTERS because it makes it easy to identify at a glance. Since slug lines are something you will be writing in your script you might as well get used to them and write your note cards with slug lines. It makes life easier.

Outlining an outline

Note cards are my favorite way to outline a script. The process is simple. Take a stack of 3x5 note cards. On each card you write the slug line followed by a brief description of the scene. Keep the description simple. It doesn’t require complete sentences or correct grammar; it’s just a note that will remind you of what the scene is about. I make one note card for every scene in the movie and keep them stacked up in sequence from start to finish. Once they’re done you could read them like flash cards and you would get the entire (summarized) story.

It’s how I do

I write my note cards with a sharpie marker for two reasons. First, this makes the note stand out as a big bold reminder of what I’m about to write. Second, and more importantly, the marker forces me to write bigger. In turn this forces me to keep the scene description simple. If my note is only one or two quick thoughts it makes it easier to write. I only have to keep one or two ideas in mind as I write the scene. I’ll make it more complex but I only have to keep the core idea of the scene in mind. Anything to make tackling the scene less daunting is good. I keep the note cards in two piles: the unwritten scene pile and the written scene pile. When I've written a scene I move it from the unwritten pile to the written pile.

??

You might be wondering why, after laying things out in beats, would I go through the trouble of writing note cards that essentially cover the same information. That’s a great question. I often skip doing beat sheets and go straight to note cards. Since I didn’t have a solid idea for this story to begin with the beats helped get my thoughts in order enough to do note cards. But, even with the beats laid out, I still want the note cards.

Quick

Note cards are easy to write, you don’t get bogged down staring at a big blank page. It’s way easier to write a quick note and go to the next card than it is to write a quick note among many other quick notes on a big blank page. It’s purely perception but it feels faster and easier to tackle.

Flexible

Note cards are easy to rearrange. If you decide a scene should be earlier or later in the story or discarded altogether you simply move the note card.

You already started that scene

They also help you get started on the scene. Remember how they have a slug line at the top to identify the scene? Well, that’s the first thing you’re going to write when you start the scene so that work is already done for you. It helps you start typing. You might say it primes the pump or gets the snowball rolling. It’s far easier to continue writing than it is to start.

Every single scene

I write every single scene as a note card. Not just the scenes with dialog but every single scene. If there is a scene with Harlan walking from his car and into a grocery store but nothing else happens I will still write that note card. It would look like this:

EXT. GROCERY STORE PARKING LOT – DAY
Harlan exits his car and walks into the grocery store.

The scene in the script would probably look like this:

EXT. GROCERY STORE PARKING LOT – DAY
Harlan exits his car and walks into the grocery store.

Why write a note card for that? There’s no difference between the note card and the scene. Motivation. It’s gratifying to move a card from the unwritten scene pile to the written scene pile. Anything to keep up momentum and keep writing.

A shrinking stack is fun

They help you track of your progress and motivate yourself to write. When I look at a page full of notes it feels daunting. There’s so much information that I have to take in and deal with. Note cards let me see one scene at a time. I only have to write that one scene and I can move on to the next note card. Or, if I don't have a lot of time but need to get some writing done it's far easier to look at the one card and know that's all I have to do. It’s like checking things off a list. They also let me see at a glance how much I’ve completed and how much is left to do. It’s great when the written scenes stack is taller than the unwritten scenes stack.

Fake it til you make it

It’s all smoke and mirrors really. One style of outline is no better or worse than any other as long as it helps you get your story written. I just like the psychological motivation that interacting with a physical object provides. Find a technique that works for you.

Next time we’ll either look at screenplay format or taking a field trip to a side project.

This Is Not Spoiler Free

Procrastination

Now that I have a reasonable outline laid out I wanted to take a little time to talk about two extremely useful tools. I’ve teased “what’s the worst that can happen” a few times now and have only briefly mentioned want vs. need. Both of these tools will be immensely valuable for the next stage of the process. As I start breaking down the beats into scenes I’ll be looking for ways to create obstacles while remaining true to the overall story. These two tools will help accomplish that goal.

It’s hard to be that mean

It can be extremely difficult to create good obstacles for our characters. We want things to work out for ourselves so it can be difficult to actually put a character through the wringer. Really excellent writers take pleasure in putting their characters in terrible situations. As much as that sounds easy to do, it isn’t. It takes skill and practice to do it well. (SPOILER) How many of us would have actually killed Wash?

Simple

What’s the worst that can happen? Just look at the situation you’ve put the character in, think of the worst that could happen, then do that. It really is that simple.

Less simple

It gets a little more complicated when you want to find the best worst thing that can happen. You want to create scenes with obstacles that are unexpected and make things worse. The obstacles should make life more difficult for the character regardless of the solution. They should be problems that make sense but the audience didn’t see coming. These obstacles should also reflect the theme of the story, the arc of the character, and set up problems for later. That’s a lot of work. You don’t want to create obstacles that end the story. The obstacles could end the story if they aren’t dealt with but shouldn’t be the end of the story. When I ask kids to come up with the worst that can happen to a character the first answer is always “they die.” While this may actually be the worst that could happen it gets pretty difficult to continue that character’s story. It’s important to understand that the result of the obstacle could be death but that can’t be the obstacle.

What’s the example that can happen?

You can find clumsy examples of “what’s the worst that can happen” in almost every show or movie. Next time you’re watching your favorite show start asking yourself what’s the worst that can happen and see if you’re right. I was watching a show recently where the main character was going to give his lady love a Valentine’s Day gift. He wanted to surprise her by slipping it into her coat pocket. He slips it into a coat that he thinks is hers. Oh no! It’s not her coat. It belongs to someone who shouldn’t know they’re dating. Oh no! He can’t get it back without being caught. Oh no! The wrong person found it. Oh no! He wrote a note and the wrong person reads it. Oh no! etc… What’s the worst that can happen? This was all expected, obvious, and we’ve seen it countless times but it worked because things kept getting worse. It wasn’t great but it was serviceable.

What’s the good example that can happen?

One of my favorite examples of this tool is in Die Hard. Bruce Willis takes off his shoes to relax. What’s the worst that can happen? The bad guys start shooting up the place. What’s the worst that can happen? We expect the bad guys to come after him. We expect the shooting and the yelling and the whatnot. But we didn’t expect him to leave his shoes behind. That’s a great worst that can happen. It’s something unexpected, reveals character, and sets up obstacles for later. What’s the worst that can happen? The bad guys find out he’s barefoot. They shoot out a bunch of glass so that he has to run through it barefoot.

All about the story

Obstacles that serve the story are difficult to create. We can find the worst that can happen easier than finding the worst that can happen that serves the story. In Die Hard the worst that could have happened at the beginning could have been a toilet overflows in the bathroom where Bruce Willis is hiding. Would this have served the story? Maybe. The loss of the shoes set up great obstacles for later and revealed a lot about his character. It showed us how he doesn’t give up. How many of us could actually run through broken glass barefoot? How many of us could do that and keep fighting? A great tool for making sure your obstacles (and everything else) serve the story as a whole is to understand wants vs. needs.

Want a cookie?

Your characters want something and they need something. Often these are the same thing. In 28 Days Later the characters want and need to survive.

Need a snack?

I prefer when wants and needs aren’t the same thing though. It adds complexity. Probably the best way to describe want vs. need is with an example. We’ll use Rocky (it won an Oscar for a reason). For those who haven’t seen the movie you probably should before you read on. It’s worth seeing. So Rocky is about this not too bright tough guy who gets a shot at boxing the world champion. After training montages and story stuff that show how he’s got a heart of gold and just needs a little self-respect and stuff he gets in the ring with the champ. They beat each other up for a while. In the end Rocky loses the fight but we still feel satisfied by the ending.

Losing ain’t losing when you win

Why is it okay that Rocky loses the fight? Why is the audience satisfied by an ending where the hero loses? It’s not because we don’t want him to win. It’s not because sad endings are inherently better and more realistic. It’s because even though Rocky doesn’t get what he wants he gets what he needs. Rocky wants to win the boxing match. Rocky needs to prove he’s not a loser. He loses but he lasts the entire fight and proves he’s not a loser. It’s good.

I want and need to wrap this up

For Harlan’s story I’ll be creating obstacles that are the worst that can happen that relates to his underlying wants and needs. Harlan wants to get away from his life and family. He needs to find a life that matters to him.

Next time we’ll be outlining scenes for Act 1.

Your Audience Is Smarter Than You

Beat it out of him

The third act is fast and brutal. The main character is at the end of the road. All of the obstacles they’ve faced so far have taken every ounce of courage and strength they have to overcome. They’re at the point where everything is lost. Somehow they find the strength to overcome that final climactic obstacle and save the day. At least that’s the idea. Obviously some stories aren’t life or death struggles. Sometimes the story is simply falling in love or overcoming a loss. Whatever the scale of the struggle that third act should be the ultimate resolution. Does the main character find love? Do they find a way to overcome that loss? Whether they do or not the struggle at the end should be do or die. And it needs to be hard. Extremely hard. Even when Frodo made it to Mount Doom it was still a struggle to throw the ring into the fire. He was broken and exhausted and he still had to face the greatest struggle of the story. I’m trying to build that struggle into the end of this story.

Harlan’s ultimate struggle

This whole story is about Harlan running away from his family. Yes, it’s about Harlan and Nathan trying to get to Nerdtacular, but the trip to Nerdtacular is an excuse to run away from his family. Harlan’s final struggle should be his return to his family. So that’s what I’m building. The third act of this story is all about Harlan finding his way back to his family after he’s done so much to get away from them. Here are the beats.

• ·      They get a ride from a pair of celebrity impersonators.
• ·      They end up at a school for celebrity impersonators. Is this fantasy or reality?
• ·      If they don’t leave tonight they’ll miss Nerdtacular completely.
• ·      They try to leave just when the FBI surrounds the compound. Fantasy or reality? Is that just a sheriff’s deputy looking for the guys who ditched a car a few miles up the road?
• ·      They have to sneak out in the middle of the night. They steal a van from the carpool.
• ·      Fantasy car chase sequence
• ·      Harlan is almost completely in his fantasy world. He’s reacting to things in the real world in very strange ways.
• ·      The drive to Nerdtacular is chaotic and dangerous. Nathan is getting scared.
• ·      They arrive at Nerdtacular. Harlan imagines it as a sneak into the death star sort of scenario.
• ·      Nathan tries to talk some sense into Harlan. Harlan thinks Nathan is under the control of the imaginary bad guys.
• ·      Fantasy sequence getting into Nerdtacular.
• ·      Harlan succumbs to his injuries and passes out.
• ·      He wakes up in the hospital. His wife and son are there. He’s suspicious of them.
• ·      He’s so awful to them that they leave.
• ·      Harlan discovers Nathan’s real motives for the road trip.
• ·      Harlan escapes from the hospital again, this time to find his family.
• ·      Fantasy sequence to find his family.
• ·      Harlan arrives at the hotel where his wife and son are staying. He’s injured, delirious, and weak. He apologizes and asks them not to leave him.
• ·      A final fantasy sequence with Harlan, his wife, and his son together as a team.

I started the beats in Act 2. I wanted to make sure I got the notes about the celebrity impersonators in the beats. You’ll also notice that the act is pretty short. I like a short third act. There are a few reasons for this. Since we’re all well versed in the 3 act structure as viewers we kind of know what to expect. It doesn’t require a lot of set up or explanation to the audience to tell us this is the climax. With that in mind I think it’s best to get to it. Present the obstacle, show the main character overcoming the obstacle, and end. Some films have a long tail. They draw out the ending. I believe that once you hit that moment where the problem is solved it’s time to fade to black. Let the audience fill in the rest. For this story I think it would be cool to end with one last fantasy sequence. This time it involves Harlan and his family all in the fantasy together. If I do it well (and I probably won’t) it will show that Harlan has grown and that he sees that there is a future with his family. He doesn’t want to escape them anymore. Instead he’s bringing them into his dreams with him.

Wise readers

As Scott pointed out in the comments on an earlier post, Harlan doesn’t fix everything in the end. Instead he begins to repair these relationships he’s neglected for years. I like an ending that puts the responsibility on the audience to decide if the solution works. At the end Harlan has clearly learned something and has altered his behavior but after years of habit will it be a change he can stick to? That’s not what the movie is about. That’s the beginning of a different movie. How will his family respond to his new attitude? We’ll have to see a hint at their reaction but we won’t deal with it at length. This story comes to an end when Harlan makes the choice to invest in his family. That’s the end of this story and that’s where the script should end.

The End

The point I think this post needs to make is that you shouldn’t drag out the end of the story. Get to the point because the audience is sophisticated enough to know when you get there. They’re smart enough to realize that Harlan’s life continues beyond the events in the film. They can go home and wrestle with the questions of where Harlan’s life will go after the credits roll. Let them. Open that door for them and they will gladly pass through. Count on your audience to be smarter than you are. They’ll appreciate it.

Next time we’ll talk about some tools for the middle and end of the story. In particular we’ll talk about the often promised “what’s the worst that can happen” tool and we’ll discuss want vs. need. As always share your thoughts in the comments. There have been some excellent thoughts that have really helped this story so keep them coming.

Who's Your Favorite Celebrity Impersonator?

Good news everyone

A few people have contacted me and let me know that they intend to work on scripts and stories of their own along with me. That’s so extremely cool! I hope to be vaguely helpful. If you’re thinking about working on your own story but don’t feel like it will be good enough or that you aren’t experienced enough or anything like that then stop it now. The good news is that all our scripts are going to be awful, horrific masses of inane babble. A wise teacher once gave me permission to write an SFD. SFD stands for Sh**ty First Draft. All our first drafts are SFD’s. The second draft will be an SSD. The third will be an STD. With a little bit of luck and a metric ton of work you should reach something readable somewhere around draft 3 or 4. Fear not. It gets better as you work on it, get feedback, work on it, get feedback, work on it, etc. Just write your SFD and enjoy the process of being a bad writer. You’ll be a good writer later.

Completely unoriginal work

I try to have interesting and vaguely less than obvious ideas. The beats for act 1 and 2 aren’t all that original or imaginative. The beats for the second half of act 2 are even less imaginative. Here they are.

• ·      Harlan wakes up in the hospital. He discovers that Nathan stayed with him while he was in a coma. His family never came. Nathan “contacted” them but they never came.
• ·      Harlan wants to be left alone.
• ·      Fantasy sequence where he deals with this betrayal.
• ·      They have 24 hours to make it to Nerdtacular. Harlan decides they have to get there. They stage an escape from the hospital.
• ·      Intercut their escape from the hospital with a fantasy escape.
• ·      They make it out of the hospital and set out on the road.
• ·      Intercut a fantasy with both of them on an adventure together with the drive to Nerdtacular.
• ·      They drive through the night. Harlan takes a turn at driving.
• ·      Harlan is delirious and exhausted. He drives like he’s drunk.
• ·      A cop pulls them over and thinks Harlan is drunk. Nathan tries to explain but the cop doesn’t buy the story about the coma.
• ·      Harlan imagines the cop is an alien trying to turn them into pod people (or something like that). He drives away.
• ·      The cop pursues but they’re in the middle of nowhere and they’re able to give the cop the slip.
• ·      They decide they have to ditch the car and set out on foot.
• ·      They’re lost in the Utah desert. A truck pulls up to offer them a ride.
• ·      They end up at the compound of a very strange cult. Is this fantasy or reality?
• ·      They’ve missed Nerdtacular but Harlan points out that Dragoncon (or something similar) is happening in a few days and they can just get there in time.
• ·      They plan to leave just when the FBI surrounds the compound. Fantasy or reality? Is that just a sheriff’s deputy looking for the guys who ditched a car a few miles up the road?
• ·      They have to sneak out in the middle of the night. They steal a van from the cult’s carpool.

I didn’t finish the act. I got stalled on the point of the cult. I think it would be fun for them to end up being picked up by a cult but I’ve seen that quite a few times. At dinner my lovely wife had a great suggestion. Instead of a cult they’re going to be picked up by celebrity impersonators. The impersonators will take them to a training camp for celebrity impersonators. I haven’t seen that. I think that would be pretty funny and tie into the themes of the story well. I left the bullets about the cult in the beats above so you can see the process. I wrote it down knowing it would need to change. I knew I would change it but I wrote it down so that I could clear the road for a new idea. Not all our ideas will be good, particularly not at the exact moment you want them to be good. So put the bad idea in writing and replace it when the good idea hits.

Tell your story already

I’m in the early stages of writing this story. I barely have an idea where the story ends. While it may seem silly to start looking for feedback about a story that’s still in utero I don’t think it could hurt. If I hadn’t sat down and told my wife the story she would have never had the suggestion for the impersonators. I would have never thought of that without her feedback. Telling someone your story will help you see where it’s weak and where it’s strong. Do your friend’s eyes glaze over during that part with the bear? Do they get interested when you’re talking about the part with the dog? You don’t have to cut or keep things based on their reactions but it certainly gives you a sense of how it’s working so far. We’re going to talk about feedback at great length the more we hang out but I wanted to make sure you know it’s okay to get feedback at every point in the process. Just don’t get wrapped up in going back and working on things. Make a note and move forward.

Next time we’re going to finish up the beats and take a look at the story as a whole. Or we’re going to discuss obstacles and the “what’s the worst that can happen” tool. One of those two things. Or maybe a different thing if it strikes me as worth discussing.

Make sure you leave some comments. Let me know I’m not yelling into the void. I’ll keep yelling into the void if you don’t comment but it’s fun when the void yells back.

We're On A Road To Nowhere

Some people say that writers don’t have feelings. We have feelings.

My cousin’s name is Nathan. Nathan is our antagonist. These two people have nothing in common. Not to me they don’t. It’s an odd and sometimes frustrating thing that writers face. People want to figure out who you’re basing a character on. It’s not unusual for family or friends to read a script, nod their heads knowingly, and comment sagely “So that’s who this character is.” No. I’m sorry. You’re wrong. That character is not this person or that person you know in real life. Sure, there are probably some personality traits, names, and even events that are exactly that person but this is a character in a work of fiction. That character is entirely a figment of my imagination. I wanted to get that out of the way. These characters are not based on anyone real in any way. If you know a writer please don’t nod and wink like you know “who that character is based on”. It hurts our feelings.

99 Problems but the script aint one

Well, actually, the script is the entire problem. It needs to be written before it can be sent out and fail to be purchased or produced. Last week we took a look at the beats for act 1. In that act we set up Harlan, the world of the story, and his big problem. Then we set him on his journey with Nathan. This week we’ll look at the beats for the first half of act 2.

• ·      Harlan and Nathan leave for Nerdtacular
• ·      Every time Harlan attempts to contact home Harlan talks him out of it.
• ·      Nathan is tedious and drones on and on about his various theories and thoughts about life.
• ·      Intercut with a couple fantasy sequences
• ·      Fantasy sequence with a submarine sinking
• ·      Harlan has to pee. They pull over. Something awkward about the place they stop.
• ·      They stop for gas and snacks. Fantasy sequence at the gas station.
• ·      Harlan wants to call home to check in. Nathan takes their phones and throws them out the window.
• ·      It’s getting late, in the middle of nowhere, and the car breaks down.
• ·      They don’t have any phones and no other traffic. They set out on foot.
• ·      Nathan suggests a “shortcut” off road. Harlan reluctantly agrees.
• ·      At dawn they’re thoroughly lost.
• ·      They argue, Harlan pushes Nathan off a ledge and into a river. He leaps in after him.
• ·      The river drags them through rapids.
• ·      Fantasy sequence.
• ·      They pull themselves out and Harlan discovers that Nathan considers him his only real friend.
• ·      They find their way to a nearby town.
• ·      Breakfast at a diner. A rude waitress prompts a kung fu fantasy sequence.
• ·      They get a tow for the car at the local auto shop.
• ·      The repairs will take a few days. They’ll miss nerdtacular.
• ·      Nathan trades his car for a beat up car at the shop.
• ·      Back on the road. Fantasy sequence involving both of them.
• ·      They check-in at a motel. It’s a little roadside place. A Bates motel type fantasy sequence?
• ·      Their car, wallets, and everything they weren’t wearing is stolen.
• ·      They argue. Harlan is ready to call it quits and go home. Nathan refuses to allow Harlan to quit.
• ·      Harlan gets hit by a car.

Notice that the beats range from simple notes like “Fantasy sequence” to more detailed “They argue. Harlan is ready to call it quits and go home. Nathan refuses to allow Harlan to quit.” The beats are supposed to be simple notes that let you see how the story progresses. They let you get a sense of the major developments and changes in the plot and relationships. Feel free to put little notes to yourself about dialogue or specific imagery if it strikes you but try to keep each beat to about 1 sentence. This keeps the ideas quick and easy to understand. There will be plenty of time for detail later.

We’ve got the beats, we’ve got the beats

In this set of beats we can start to see some of the smaller arcs. We start with Harlan allowing Nathan to make all the choices for him. Nathan presents an idea or plan and Harlan goes with it. He makes that mistake over and over. It’s not until the end, right before the car hits him, that he makes a decision and takes action on his own. We also have some development of the relationship between Harlan and Nathan. At first Harlan is annoyed with Nathan. Then, after the river, Harlan invests more into the relationship. They’ll probably act more like friends on a trip together. They’ll work together rather than Nathan instigating everything and Harlan just being along for the ride. This should set up a nice pattern. Harlan will start by being led. Then he’ll participate. In the second half of act 2 they’ll work together as a team then transition into Harlan leading the way.

Let’s do the timewarp again

As I look over the beats I’m realizing that we’re losing some of the underlying themes we discussed earlier. This is fine. We don’t have to slavishly stick to our initial concepts. I would like to get a little closer to them though. I think I’ll probably rearrange some of the events so that Harlan is stripped of all his needs (remember Maslow’s Hierarchy) throughout this first half of act 2. I’ll probably arrange things so he loses things in reverse order. For example the trip into the wilderness should probably happen last so that we’re stripping Harlan of shelter, food, and water at the end of the first half. The act starts with Harlan already having lost his way with self-actualization, esteem, and love/belonging so this whole section should destroy those further as we get rid of his safety and physiological needs.

Thanks for joining me again this week. Next time we’ll either look over the beats for the second half of act 2 or discuss obstacles and the extremely important “what’s the worst that can happen” tool. I’m trying to find that balance between short enough to be easily digestible and enough to be worth the time length for these posts.

If you’re enjoying the blog, hating it, or indifferent let me know in the comments. If you have any suggestions or thoughts about Harlan’s story throw it into the comments as well.

Sam Is Wise

Busy Week, Mini Post

Sam, a good friend and excellent teacher, said recently “Observe crafte wherever you find it.” He’s right. Keep an eye out for well-crafted writing and filmmaking while you’re watching. You can learn a lot. Keep an eye out for techniques that you can use in your work. You might just find the perfect way to set up your character or reveal that tricky piece of information.

What’s the force?

We’ve all seen Star Wars so many times it’s hard to remember what it was like to experience the story for the first time. I was watching it recently with The Boy and I was struck by how skillfully Lucas revealed the force. We all know the force is that invisible energy that surrounds us and all that jazz. But how did Lucas tell us what it is and how it works? Here’s a hint, he did it in two scenes.

First he told us about the force. Obi Wan is hanging out with Luke in his shack. He’s all “Luke, the force is like this energy that is all cool and stuff.” Luke’s like “Okay bro.” Obi Wan describes it fine but at that point it’s just a religion. We don’t know that it’s a physical force in the world. At that point it could be “a hokey religion”.

Cut to Darth Vader in the Death Star. The admirals are talking smack about the Death Star and Vader is all “Step off. The force is hardcore.” Dude says “whatevs. Srsly, ur lame.” Then Vader chokes the dude out with the force. We see the power of the force first hand. It’s not a hokey religion; it’s a power that isn’t all incense and meditation, it’s choke a dude out and giggle while you do it hardcore.

What did Lucas do there? He set up the mystical force. Then he immediately shows us the power of that mystical force. It’s pretty cool. He completely sells the force in two scenes and tells us everything we need to know to accept it and move forward.

Introductions Count

If you haven’t seen the first minute of the Netflix show House of Cards with Kevin Spacey you absolutely should. It’s directed by David Fincher (a master director) and amazingly well written. The first minute is spectacular. Without spoiling it I’ll just say that in about 1 minute we’re introduced to Spacey’s character and we find out everything we need to know about who he is. Is there more to the character? Absolutely. Do we know everything we need to know to get into the story? Absolutely.

I can do it myself

I could sit here and pretend that I could come up with equally smooth and elegant solutions in my script without ever seeing it done elsewhere. I would be lying. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. There’s a fantasy element to the story I’m writing. Harlan’s imagination plays a huge part. I need to find an elegant and simple way to sell that part of the story to the audience. Maybe I’ll do it like Lucas. I also need to convince the audience to get on board with Harlan. Let’s face it; Harlan might not be the most engaging person in the world. I would love to have the first minute engage you so much in Harlan that you feel like you have to keep watching just one minute longer. Then another minute. Then two more. House of Cards pulled that off so maybe I’ll take a page from that playbook.

Some folks to pay attention to

These are a few of the writers who’s work I really recommend. These guys are mainstream writers. They know their craft and will teach you tons if you pay attention. And if you know these guys, tell them I want to work for and learn from them.

Alex Kurtzman

Roberto Orci

Shane Black

Anyone who writes for Pixar.

Joss Whedon

Jane Espenson

This is a short list of fantastic writers and by no means comprehensive or in order of greatness or anything like that. These are just names I thought of off the top of my head who’s work I enjoy learning from. Who would you recommend?

Keep Moving Foward

Procrastination works

It’s a quick post today. Last time I talked about the importance of finding an ending for a story. It’s incredibly difficult to tell a story when you don’t know where it ends. Knowing where you want to end up lets you figure out the steps that will get you there. You don’t have to know every detail but you should certainly know enough about it to give it a brief description.

Eureka

In the process of procrastinating this weekend I finally figured out the end to this story. Harlan will end up in the hospital again. His wife and son will come to see him. He’ll push them away because they didn’t come see him the first time he was in the hospital. They leave but he discovers that Nathan kept his first injury a secret and has basically kidnapped him. Harlan will decide he needs start fixing things with his family. He’ll escape the hospital again and put his life at risk just to apologize to his wife and son.

Dig it

The goal with this ending is to have Harlan put as much or more effort into his newfound maturity as he put into his immature adventure with Nathan.

The old fashioned way

A lot of the folks who read the early drafts of the script for Last Words wanted it to have a sad ending. They thought the happy ending wasn’t real enough. That it lacked power. I was convinced it needed the happy ending otherwise it lost something important. Neither perspective is wrong. The early drafts didn’t need a sad ending and the final version doesn’t need a happy ending. The ending that the movie needs is the earned ending. The end of your movie can be heartbreaking or uplifting. It can be depressing or joyous. It’s the end of your story. It should end the way you want it to end. Either way you had better earn your ending. If you have a happy ending your character must go through hell to get it. Earn your ending.

Beats, bears, Battlestar Balactica

Now that I’ve figured out who the story is about, who’s in that character’s way, and a general idea of what the story will look like it’s time to start outlining. One of the first documents I produce when I’m outlining a story is a beat sheet. The beats of a story are just what they sound like. They are the rhythm of the scenes of the story. I like to go through and figure out what steps the character has to go through to get from where they are at the beginning of the story to where they will be at the end of the story. Each important step of the process is a beat.

A beat is a term that is used to describe a lot of different things in a script. It can be something an actor makes note of to let them know they should take a breath between two words. It can be the second by second breakdown of a scene. It can be a moment-by-moment account of the entire script. In this case we’re talking about the big beats. The important moments along the path from start to end.

Even though a beat sheet is a relatively simple document it can take a lot of time to refine. I write each beat as a bullet point in a simple sentence. Here’s the fist pass at a beat sheet for Act 1.

• ·      Harlan at work, imagines a monster made of screws and washers.
• ·      Harlan on the way home, imagines a giant while waiting in traffic.
• ·      Harlan at home, argues with his wife and son.
• ·      Harlan goes to a roleplaying game at Nathan’s house. Has fun with his friends. We meet Nathan and his wife.
• ·      Nathan invites Harlan to a movie. Harlan refuses.
• ·      Harlan has a job interview. It goes horribly.
• ·      Harlan is discouraged and won’t talk to his wife about it.
• ·      Nathan invites Harlan to something geek-cool. Harlan refuses.
• ·      Harlan gets fired.
• ·      Harlan at a roleplaying session with his friends. They try to be supportive but it doesn’t help.
• ·      Harlan is depressed and searches for a job. No luck.
• ·      Nathan shows up and talks Harlan into going on a road trip.

These are quick notes about what will happen in Act 1. It’s easy to move them around if I see that something might work better earlier or later. They’re also easy to erase and replace since they literally took 3 seconds to write. It gets much harder to get rid of something after you’ve put a couple hours into writing it.

Moving forward

We’re all about forward momentum here. We’ve got some beats for Act 1 and what I think is a good solid ending. There's a lot of room for improvement but that can wait until later. It's time to move on to beats for Acts 2 and 3. Remember that writing is about rewriting. Get through the first bad version so you can go back and refine it until it's a good version. You can get stuck in an endless loop of refining the first scene too easily. Keep moving forward.