antagonist

Going for that streamlined look

Maximum Z antagonist, creativity, editing, outlines, podcasts, productivity, protagonist, rewrite, scenes, screenwriting, story, structure, westerns, writing ,
No, no. The car.
No, no. The car. Aw, never mind.

With most of the querying out of the way, I’m now focusing on two things: getting the podcast up and running, and fine-tuning the western outline.

There’s not much to say about the podcast, except it just hasn’t been a priority. I could have spent more time on it, but opted to get the queries out, which was very time-consuming. It’s looking more likely now to be a February launch.  Stay tuned for more details.

Regarding the outline rewrite, although I had a pretty solid outline already done, it still needs a lot of work.  Up first: tightening things up.  There are just too many scenes.

Using the existing outline, I’m now figuring out ways to move story details and plot points around so everything moves along faster.

For example: the earlier draft didn’t really introduce the villain until around page 17 (he’d been lurking around in the shadows up until then). I’ve since moved things around and now he shows up around page 4, which also includes a follow-up scene to show just what kind of a bad guy he is.

There was also the decision whether or not two scenes could be combined into one. I’ve gone back and forth on this. Scene 1 advances the story/continues to set things in motion, while Scene 2 provides some backstory about the connection between the hero and the villain. Although each has merit on their own, I’ll probably remain undecided up until the end.

Happy to say I’m still enjoying the whole thing.

-Movie of the Moment Two-fer!: THE OTHER GUYS (2010)   I don’t really care for a lot of Will Ferrell’s films, but this caught me totally off-guard. It was actually funny and had a good story. Surprisingly entertaining.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011) Another clever film from Woody Allen. Probably doesn’t hurt that I love Paris too. Kind of wish he’d write characters other than those from the upper classes.

Darn my stubbornness

Maximum Z antagonist, creativity, feedback, Mary and Max, rewrite, screenwriting, The Matrix, writing
My eyes have been opened. No pill necessary.

I’m getting over a nasty bout of some kind of respiratory virus, which at one point included a fever of 104.1, thereby completely nullifying my ability to do just about anything. I was hoping to utilize the time being laid up to work on the rewrite, but it’s kind of difficult when your head feels hotter than the surface of the sun.

Over the weekend, I got some helpful feedback from a trusted colleague. This was a repeat evaluation for him, and he again raised some points about the antagonist and the way she acted. At first, I basically glossed over his comments, most likely because I didn’t necessarily agree with them.

But his words gnawed at me. If he had issues with that, who’s to say a potential future interested industry-connected person wouldn’t say the exact same thing?  It’s up to me to make this thing as tight, connected and bulletproof as possible, so any criticism needs to be taken into consideration.

Since my health wasn’t exactly around 100 percent, and it was easier to read then to actually write, I went through the sequence he was talking about. I read through it not as the person who wrote it, but as a reader/audience member going in blind.

And of course, he was right.  Why would the antagonist do these things? It made no sense.  That and a two-scene sequence that the more I thought about, didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose. So out that went as well.

Suffice to say, a mini-rewrite is in progress.  It’ll take a little bit of effort to work my way through this, but as usually happens, the new end result will (in theory) be stronger, more effective and just improve things overall.  At first I was annoyed that I had to go through this, but upon reflection, anything that has to be done to improve the script is necessary and should always been seen as a positive rather than a negative.

Hopefully, it won’t take too long.

-Movie of the Moment – MARY AND MAX (2009). Don’t let the animation fool you – this ain’t no kids film. This claymation feature from Australia deals with adult subjects such as depression and mental illness.  The title refers to 8-year-old Mary, growing up lonely and ignored in the suburbs of Melbourne, who becomes pen pals with 44-year-old Max, living alone and afraid in New York City.  Their relationship spans 20 years as we get to see the impact each has on the other’s life during that time.

This description really can’t do the story justice; it’s one of those films you have to see for yourself. Highly recommended for adults, NOT recommended for kids.  This has also got to be one of the most heart-wrenchingly sad movies you may ever see (if you don’t cry at the end, then you just have no soul), but at times can also be extremely hilarious.  It leans more towards black humor, so if that’s not your thing, you might not enjoy it as much.

>Insert diabolical laughter here<

Maximum Z antagonist, conflict, creativity, ideas, Monty Python, outlines, protagonist, rewrite, screenwriting, westerns
Followed immediately by this. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

 

I vowed to get to the end of Act Two, and by gosh, I did. And then some. This really is the “all seems lost” moment for my protagonist. I had to make sure it seemed like she has no way whatsoever of reaching her goal, and that’s how it’s playing out so far.  How in the world is she going to get out of this exceptionally insurmountable situation? Which is exactly what I want you to think.

(Actually, you should be thinking that in every scenario for anybody’s script.)

While it’s fun to put the whole story together, I get a certain joy from devising what kind of obstacles to keep throwing into the mix. Taking this one step further, after I come up with the problem, I have to figure out how my hero gets out of each scrape. And since this is a Western, there’s a whole lot to choose from.

Those who know me personally would not hesitate to call me a nice person. “Still a boy scout,” even. But when it comes to developing the bad guys? Hello, dark side! From somewhere deep within the far reaches of my mind, I’m able to conjure up actions and characters most sinister.  The harder I make the conditions for my hero, the more interesting the story gets.

I want my hero to succeed, right? Then they have to go through hell in order to do that. And it’s up to me as the creator of this particular world to devise every hellish detail and solution.

If the prospect of doing this doesn’t make you giddy, then you’re in the wrong business.

Next up: keeping you on the edge of your seat while wrapping it all up in Act Three.

Follow that bad guy!

Maximum Z antagonist, creativity, Movie of the Moment, originality, plot, Raiders of the Lost Ark, screenwriting, story, writing
Villains should be just as interesting as heroes; maybe even more so

It’s been a real process working my way through the end of the current project’s Act Two. I know what comes before it, and how Act Three plays out; it’s all that stuff in the middle that’s throwing me.

So while that occupies part of my attention, I also need to build up the antagonist’s story line.  Right now, he’s pretty absent from most of the story, which is not good. I came up with some stuff early on, but it was too silly, so out it went.

I thought about watching/studying something to get a better sense of how to approach this, but I’m not sure what would be comparable.  Basically, the protagonist is actively pursuing the antagonist, who doesn’t know it and is going on about his usual bad guy business until the protagonist catches up to them.  My first thought was RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but any other suggestions would be welcome.

Developing that storyline will also mean cutting back on protagonist scenes.  At first this was a negative, but eventually became a necessary positive.  The last thing I want to do is drag this out.

-Movie of the Moment – BATTLESHIP. Wow. Somebody was actually paid to write this? Shouldn’t they have done a couple of rewrites before production began? This reeked of amateur. Cliched characters straight off a checklist. Bad guys with ambiguous intentions. Unoriginal dialogue. Predictable to the nth degree. Major overuse of rock music to ’emphasize’ the mood of a scene.

Imagine a second-rate 80s action flick spruced up with 21st-century special effects.

What’s even worse is that this is NOT the last movie based on a board game. Apparently we can look forward to catching RISK, MONOPOLY and CANDYLAND at the local cinema sometime soon.

And the studios wonder why they’re losing money.

Good to be bad

Maximum Z antagonist, screenwriting
a good villain can make all the difference

Today’s progress involved finally introducing my antagonist .  A short scene, but moves things ahead on several levels.  But it was also fun to write.  Villains are always fun.

Reveling in a sense of overall wickedness.  Pursuing their own sinister goal, which they consider perfectly sensible. Adhering to their rules and morals, which may go against those of the rest of us.  The chance to tap into one’s dark side and let loose.

And if you can create a villain with depth and personality, all the better.

This all comes back to the recurring theme of pure, simple enjoyment. For me as the writer, having a blast during the process AND getting pages done.  And if the writing part is fun, then it doesn’t really seem like work.

For whoever reads the finished product, the feeling of entering a new and exciting world. Wondering what’s going to happen next. Getting swept up in the adventure-ness of it all.

That’s what I’m striving for.