characters

Can’t forget B, C and possibly even D

Maximum Z characters, Movie of the Moment, Netflix, outlines, plot, rewrite, screenwriting, script, storytelling, subplot, Wizard of Oz, writing
It’s not all about Dorothy, right?

It’s been a productive couple of days.  I worked a ton of hours on the air, made two well-received pies for Thanksgiving, and even got some writing in.

I’ve reached the part of the outline that says “The End,” but it’s not time to celebrate just yet.  Far from it.  There’s still a lot that has to be done before those words can really be applied.

While the main storyline has wrapped up, it became glaringly obvious that I’d completely ignored my supporting characters. I was so focused on the main character, I forgot to give the others something to do during the climax/showdown portion of the story.  And that’s just wrong.

This has the potential to become a somewhat sticky problem. It’s important that the individual arcs and storylines/subplots each come to a satisfying conclusion, but just as important not to overdo it and drag things out too long (e.g. LOTR: THE RETURN OF THE KING).  There’s always a way to wrap things up. The challenge is finding the right one AND making sure it works.

As always, this is going to take some carefully-orchestrated and organized planning.

Still, any progress is good progress.

-Movie of the Moment. This weekend was also good for making a dent in our Netflix queue.

-BLACK DYNAMITE (2009) A hilarious satire on blaxploitation films that really feels like it came out of the 70s. Star Michael Jai White was also one of the writers.

-DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (2010) A great combo of martial arts and supernatural mystery set in 7th century China. V was really excited to watch this at first, but in the end was too freaked out. End result – more kids movies for now, leading into…

-PUSS IN BOOTS (2011) or IF ZORRO WAS A CAT. Since there’s a western element, I enjoyed it, and probably would have loved it if I was a cat person.  A sequel to this would be more preferable than yet another SHREK film.

Didn’t know I had it in me

Maximum Z characters, screenwriting, script, writing
Seemingly insurmountable? Maybe not.

One of the notes I got back in August was that my main character had to be challenged more. That really struck a chord with me.  Challenged how? How could I accomplish that? Does he mean in a story sense, or character development, or something else entirely?

I had no idea what to do.

Rather than stress myself out, I opted to shut down the analytical part of my brain and just work on the outline.  Which led to the current work on pages.

Then I got to this pivotal sequence near the end of Act One.  The previous version was okay, but needed improvement on several levels.

And that’s when it hit me.

Here was the opportunity to not only challenge my hero, but to emphasize the threat of the bad guys (extra conflict courtesy of a 2nd antagonist added to this sequence) AND to play up the fantastical elements of the story (also advised via the aforementioned script notes).

It was surprising how this was working out.  Something I was anxious and stressing over was becoming easier to do.

The now-revamped sequence definitely changes things, and really sets a tone for what’s ahead and what kind of bad guys our hero has to deal with if he’s to accomplish his goal.

This sort of thing seems to be happening more.  Initial nervousness, followed by calm, analytical thinking, resulting in better-than-expected final product.

But this isn’t the time to rest on my laurels. A main supporting character is about to undergo a major personality adjustment, and that’s going to be even more of an effort.

Can’t wait to see how that works out.

Didn’t see that one coming

Maximum Z characters, rewrite, screenwriting, story, writing
Gosh!

This rewrite is really becoming an eye-opener.

While it would be too easy to stick with most of what I had before and just make some minor changes, there’s a line in the notes I got over the summer that really stuck in my head: your hero has to be challenged more.  The way the story plays out now doesn’t do that.

Something had to be done.

Now I look at every scene with the intent of changing it to not only make the hero the one moving things forward, but also to make sure he can’t just cruise through it.

This includes a key scene where the hero basically complicates things out of clumsiness, which was also commented on in the aforementioned notes. That definitely had to change.

I don’t remember which famous writer said it, but basically, if you get stuck, introduce a gun, or have somebody shoot a gun. Something like that.

And my hero has a gun.

See where this is going?

Without even realizing it, I had my character doing something I never thought he would. Or could. Now the dynamic of the scene has drastically changed, while keeping the purpose the same.

I’d heard about this before, but never actually experienced it myself.

They say your characters can really surprise you at times, and this was a prime example of that. Kind of makes me wonder what else both of us are capable of as the story advances.

Feels like things are about to get really interesting.

Ch-ch-changes

Maximum Z characters, Doctor Who, rewrite, screenwriting, story, writing
Sometimes it’s necessary, no matter how hard you fight it

Working on this rewrite has definitely helped me improve as a writer.

I started the process thinking “Okay. I’ll change what I have to in order to make this better.”

But the more I worked on it, the more I thought “I like it the way it is. Maybe I don’t have to change anything.”

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

The whole point of the rewrite is to CHANGE IT TO MAKE IT BETTER. Look for ways to improve what’s already there.

Maybe it’s something small, or maybe it’s something that completely changes the dynamic, but no matter what, you do what’s necessary to make your script stronger.  Even if you don’t want to, which makes it that much harder.

Case in point: DREAMSHIP has a supporting character I love. He was a blast to write, and I thought he had a pretty solid backstory, but some high-quality feedback opened my eyes to the fact that there needed to be more to him. How could I fix that? I ran through various scenarios until I found what I needed: flip his personality around.

And much to my amazement, everything I had come up with before not only still worked, but now even more so. He’s got more depth as a character, including a more satisfying arc, and I’ll be able to create more conflict with him in later scenes.

Lesson learned: I didn’t want to change something I considered ‘just fine the way it is,’ but I had to accept that those changes had to be made. Sure, they were hard to deal with at first, but they improved the story.

Now I’m not as hesitant about making changes, and my script is that much better for it.

Color me pleasantly surprised

Maximum Z action, adventure, characters, creativity, ideas, outlines, plot, screenwriting, story, subplot, westerns, writing
Totally wasn’t expecting that

Since figuring my way through the climactic portion of Act Three is still stressing out my creativeness, I did what any good writer would do in this situation: go back to the beginning and edit like a madman.  This will give my creative muscles a good workout while subconsciously working out the end.

Overall: the opening definitely needs some reworking, and there are a few places here and there that could stand a little adjustment, but for the most part – a lot more fun than I remember. Trying really hard not to sound egotistical, but I had to occasionally remind myself this was something I wrote.

Me.

Gosh.

Not working on this for so long enabled me to take a really good look at what I have so far. Interestingly, even though I knew what was coming, there was still a lot in there to make me want to keep going and see what happened next.

In all honesty, I’d also forgotten how much I wanted to utilize a lot of elements that make up the thrill-generating, pure adventurousness of the Western genre.  Those are definitely in there, with a lot of potential to be built up even more, but for now it’s all about the story. If that’s not rock-solid, then everything else is irrelevant.

The whole time I was looking this over, I found myself focusing less on ‘would it look cool on the big screen?’ factor, and more on making sure the characters were being proactive and realistically moving the story forward (especially the title character), and that each plotline was being established.  Maybe this is my brain quietly telling me my storytelling and writing skills are improving.

Something also very important to work on as this whole project moves forward – that the story grabs you from the start and doesn’t let go. But I suppose that should go without saying…