Story

                                                                           

Story is a particular kind of narrative that produces a particular kind of pleasure in the listener or reader. Aristotle listed its essential components over 2000 years ago: an interesting character with weaknesses and strengths confronts a problem that tests the character's ability to recognize and overcome his limitations, and his efforts to do so create new problems. If he fails, it's a tragedy; if he succeeds, it's a eucatastrophe. In either case, the ending feels "just" to the listener/reader, in terms of the character's own qualities or lack of them...it is the character and the character's actions (not mere coincidence or divine intervention) that brings about the final result.
The pleasure listeners/readers receive comes from the tickling of some of our hard-wiring in the brain. First, the "interesting character" engages our innate interest in people--most of us are endlessly curious about at least some of our acquaintances. We want to know what they're doing and why they're doing it. We make up our own narratives about them, about their motivations. In a story, we're allowed inside someone else's head, to see things from their perspective. Second, we have an innate sense of justice, and the intellectual capacity to connect action and consequence. The outcome of Story satisfies both the ethical sense of justice, and the intellectual grasp of causality. Third, we have an innate interest in the unexpected--in surprises--and a well-constructed Story provides them in both characterization and action, in order to produce that desirable combination of pleasures at the end.
Some people thinking Story is "mere entertainment" and that fiction, properly, should be "more than just entertainment." They don't think readers/listeners should be entertained. They devalue Story and would uncouple character and incident from the plot structure of Story. I think they're wrong...because Story contains more than "mere" entertainment along with a satisfaction that nothing else can provide. Because Story, by its nature (and our nature) is not boring--entertains the reader/listener--it can carry--does carry--other things along with it. It is a way of experiencing the other (place, time, person) and making sense of it; it is a way of asking questions and suggesting answers but leaving the reader/listener free to keep asking, keep thinking, keep feeling.
 In the view of

Marilyn Horowitz

I just got back from the LA Screenwriting Expo in Loss Angeles.  I was there to teach two classes and help some of my private students pitch, but I also did a lot of pitch coaching to the regular attendees.  The Expo is one of the few major opportunities screenwriters have in the United States to pitch their material to Hollywood producers, managers, and agents.  They also offer highly specialized classes on some of the most esoteric and commercial subjects about the craft.
The classes that I taught were about the writing aspects of the process, not the pitching part, but after I taught a new class, Writing Concept First, there was a surprising result; one of the students who had been unsuccessfully pitching a romantic comedy found his concept, went to pitch and was immediately asked for the script!  Then, another screenwriter who had also been unsuccessful pitching, took this class, and later, pitched that same script using the new concept he had developed in my class and was asked to submit the script to the production company of a well-known actress.
Finally, another student approached me in the hall and said she had restructured the concept of her script, spoken to her manager who was very excited, and told her she was now ready to pitch.
No one was more surprised than I – this writing class helped pitching!
As a result, I thought I would share the techniques I taught in this class that helped these writers make the connection.
Writing Concept First is a class about finding the larger, humanistic notions behind a story.  For example, the film, The Godfather, explores the concept of family:  What happens when a man’s loyalty to his family involves becoming a criminal?  I believe that if you walked into a pitch meeting and opened with that line, any producer who makes crime stories is going to want to know what that script is about.
Here’s another example of concept in a different genre, the romantic comedy. If your screenplay was When Harry Met Sally, the concept could be expressed as “Can men and women be friends?”  If you led your pitch with that sentence, what producer wouldn’t want to hear more?
This advice to be more indirect is counter to what you usually hear, which is usually: Just say your pitch straightaway. Instead this is a new and different approach – creating a universal playing field before you pitch so that you and your potential producers, agents, etc. are together on a larger common ground.

Here’s the Exercise:
There are three steps to developing material concept first.  I always work with a timer set to 15 minutes and write by hand.  In each of the exercises below, allow yourself to go outside and beyond your story.

Step 1.  Trace the source of your original inspiration for the idea.  How did you come up with the idea?
For example, if your story was Midnight In Paris, you might write, “As a child I wished I had been born in another time, where life wasn’t so tough.  I was really angry when my friends made fun of me.  One day, when I was finally in Paris, I thought, what if I really could go back into the past and live that life?  I was torn between entering a traditional marriage or opting out to finish my novel: What would have happened to me if I had known the great writers of the 20s and 30s, or been mentored by someone like Gertrude Stein?”

Step 2.  Complete the “What Happened Was…” exercise
Take a character from your screenplay. Now imagine that you are they, it’s 20 years later, the story in the film is over, and all of the events are resolved. As your character tell the story, starting with “What happened was…”
For example, if your script were Midnight In Paris, the hero, Gil, might write: “What happened was that I was in Paris about to get married, and I wanted to revisit the world of Paris in the 20s that I had wanted to live in as a child, and I had to choose between my future marriage and a magical chance to do so.” I ended up not getting married, I discovered that I had talent as a novelist and met a lovely woman who may or not become my wife.

Step 3. Identify the concept
The concept is the larger, human idea behind your screenplay story.  This is what inspires us to write stories but we rarely focus on articulating it.  For example, the concept behind the film, Midnight In Paris could be: Can going back to the past make you happy?  Which may remind you of another, well-loved movie Back To The Future.
Completing each exercise for your script will lead you to understand the concept behind your script and deepen your story.  Ironically, by articulating this seemingly elusive element you should find an original, yet commercial “hook” that will help you successfully pitch the screenplay.

How to Finish Your Script by Thanksgiving

As a writing teacher, a coach, and a writer myself, I have witnessed the varying levels of despair we experience when we are not doing what we want to do– namely, writing or rewriting our latest script. The two primary reasons that scripts don’t get written is that they don't get started and they don’t get finished. Fall is an especially busy time, and it is easy to put off a writing project in the service of making the rent or taking care of family. My experience has been that this plan to delay working on our script until other things are taken care of always backfires because we writers are always miserable when we are not writing, so our good intentions tend to be marred by our bad moods.

Here are five exercises to help you finish your screenplay by Thanksgiving.

1. Form the intention that you will finish your screenplay by Thanksgiving. Dramatize this by putting up a notice everywhere you often look, i.e. on the front of the refrigerator or bathroom mirror that states the name of your screenplay, “fade out,” and the date: 11/15/10. This way, even if you’re not thinking about it, your unconscious mind will be processing your story.
2. Tell a friend! In my writing classes, one of the tricks we use to ensure that people meet their writing deadlines is that they are assigned a partner to whom they speak once a week, and each person must help the other arrange a writing schedule and check up on them.
3. Eat dessert first. Before you go to sleep at night, in the morning when you get up, and whenever you find yourself idle, engage in grandiose fantasies of yourself: winning the Oscar, being on the set, getting the check, or my personal favorite – finding that the check has cleared. The caveat here is not to take it too seriously or you will begin to feel inadequate and the entire process will be lost.
4. Planning to win. You must schedule appointments with yourself to write, and keep them. If you don’t feel like writing, Try for fifteen minutes, and if nothing comes, then give up and do some related activity, such as watching a film analytically, reading another screenplay, doing research for your project, or calling your partner to tell them the story so far and get help. If all else fails, take a script that you love (by somebody else) and start copying it verbatim. Because you are a writer, within two or three lines, you will find yourself rewriting it and that may spark you to return to your own project.
5. Put your butt in the chair. Ultimately, you have to do the work. It’s kind of like dieting – although there are at least 200 diets, the bottom line is you must eat less if you want to lose weight. So with writing, with all the good will in the world, if you want to write, you must actually do it. I recommend to my writers that instead of going directly to the project at hand, they do a five-minute warm up exercise of simply writing a narrative piece about something that happened recently that they either hated or loved. Writing seems to generate more writing.

Bonus Tip

Spend five minutes writing about what you want to gain from getting this screenplay done. Even if you do this every day before you begin, focusing on what you want can be a far more powerful tool than trying to force yourself to write. As a writing teacher, I have many tips to help writers write, but these five, plus the bonus tip, seem to be the ones that always work. As a writer, you must be willing to believe that you are already a writer in order to attain a goal. How do we know we’re writers? Writers write. So remember, no matter how good or bad the material is, it’s the act of writing that defines who we are.

Here are the exercises. It’s no good reading about the exercises unless you do them. Put it up in those places where you often see it.

1. Write your intention, i.e." I want to finish my script by Thanksgiving." Put it up in 3 key places where you will often see it.
2. Find your writing buddy. This can be a friend, a family member, or a fellow writer. The point is that you have someone to be accountable to.
3. For 5 minutes write about what would happen if you achieved it? Is your goal to have your screenplay turned into a feature film? Is it to win the Oscar?
4. Schedule appointments with your writing partner to discuss your work so far.
5. Find a way to keep those appointments and keep a log so you can check your progress. 

How To Improve Your Characters' Dialogue

 

Most of the writers I work with struggle with dialogue at some point in the writing process. Here's one way to improve your craft fast.

In most American films the characters speak in their own version of the English language, which reflects the special world they live in. Within that world, each character's speech is unique, as he or she uses words and references specific not only to the general arena of the script, but also to their upbringing, education and intellectual interests. The most primary source of how people speak is what they first heard, usually what was said at home.

One of the things that I work on as a coach when trying to help other writers improve their dialogue is to explore this aspect of their characters' backgrounds.

In The Godfather, Michael's speech is always somewhat formal as if English were not his first language. He sounds very much like his father, who first spoke in Italian. If you look at the film again, notice the similarities not only in content but also in word choice and arrangement. There is no doubt that Michael is his "father's son", in more ways than one!

Another example is in the film, Moonstruck, where both father and daughter respond to verbal confrontations by saying, "I don't want to talk about it," and later in the movie, the mother tells the daughter, "you're just like your father."

So, the one key question to ask yourself is: How did my character's parents speak and how did that affect my character's speech?

How to do the exercise:

Step 1: Set a timer for fifteen minutes.

Step 2: Writing as if you are your main character or the obstacle or villain, write continuously about childhood experiences such as favorite and least favorite meal and clothes, first pet, first school day, first bike, birth of siblings, etc.

Step 3: When you're done, take a highlighter and note any unusual or repetitive words or phrases.

Step 4: Write a brief description of the first time the character ever heard that special word or phrase, keeping the example from Moonstruck in mind. For example, if that were your character, you would write about when the first time she ever heard her father say, "I don't want to talk about it."

Doing this exercise will open your imagination to other conversations in the early life of your characters, and will help you improve your characters’ dialogue right away.