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"The stakes are not ours. They are the characters."* Stakes are both easy and hard. It’s a category that's easy to fill in with something, hard to fill in well. Stakes are consequences. They are what will happen if the hero fails to meet his goal. If our heroes are blue collar heroes who... Continue Reading →
1. ROOTING INTEREST IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PLOT Midway through DUNKIRK, I turned to my friend and said, “Wait, is that the plane from earlier? Are sea and air narratives about to intersect?” My friend said, “I have no fucking idea. Shut up, I’m watching this.” This illustrates a truth about story telling. Everything, plot,... Continue Reading →
Record ideas as soon as you have them. We think we won’t forget, but the truth is we do. If you have your ideas recorded somewhere, your brain will give you more… if you never do anything with the ideas you have, eventually you stop having them. It’s important to record your ideas as soon as... Continue Reading →
The first act sets up a script. It needs to be entertaining, efficient, and most of all focused. If a first act forces me to learn something, there'd better be a damn good reason for it. If there isn't, the useless information crowds out the useful stuff. It punishes the audience for paying attention and... Continue Reading →
I recently wrote up a series of notes for a client script. I got this in response: “My only question for you is whether you think there is something salvageable here(1). Obviously as a writer there's always value in finishing a project in order to improve. But I really don't wanna put my time into... Continue Reading →
Reading services, from the Blacklist to me, prefer to give overall notes in a general way. They're easier to do, and harder to specifically challenge. Unfortunately, they're not always the most helpful. Take these Blacklist notes posted by reddit user wolfduke : The narrative suffers from a premise that is ungrounded, as it introduces a sprawling... Continue Reading →
They say all dialogue should further understanding of the character or further the story. It also needs to convey distinct character voice, be entertaining, and convey the impression that the writer is worthy of being hired. It’s a lot, and people often get lost trying to do everything at once. Here’s my trick: I like... Continue Reading →
Writing characters is a varied art form and there's a million ways to develop characters that are "great" "dimensional," "original." Here's a simple trick I like to use: Who is this character, really? How do they present themselves to the world? These are also good questions for life. If you want to know how someone wants... Continue Reading →
