Couldn’t make this any more Freudian without going NSFW
As the events of Act Three of the pulpy adventure spec outline slowly develop, it’s becoming more clear that retroactive edits/fixes/tweaks will be necessary for parts of Acts One and Two.
Act Three goes beyond making sure each of the main characters has something to do. The actions they take should be tied directly into the main story, represents them overcoming their own personal obstacles and wraps up their individual storyline, all in the most satisfying way possible.
Hence the need to go back and make those changes. The more I can set up and effectively reinforce each character’s storyline, the better the payoff will be, both for them and the overall story.
I’ve always stressed the importance of setups and payoffs throughout a script. Everything we’ve seen in Acts One and Two should come to its appropriate conclusion in Act Three.
I’ve read a lot of amateur specs where something is set up early on and ends up either totally forgotten, treated as an afterthought or pays off with less of an impact than it should.
This is what you’ve been building up to for the past 90-plus pages.
Absolutely nothing is going to divert my attention from this.
As a screenwriter working on making it as a professional, that’s been the underlying message for every one of my scripts.
I strive to create stories so involving, compelling and entertaining that each one immediately sucks you in and grabs your attention to the point where you have no desire whatsoever to stop reading.
You need to find out what happens next.
This is what I want when I read somebody else’s script, and it’s definitely what I aim for when I write mine.
Throughout the entire process of putting a story together, from the first spark of an idea to finishing the so-many-I’ve-lost-count rewrite, it’s a goal we’re consistently seeking to reach.
Being as objective as possible, take a look at your latest draft. How does it make you feel? Do the pages zoom by, move at a snail’s pace or just kind of plod along?
Does reading it excite you? Make you want to keep going? Can you easily visualize what’s happening?
Do the characters seem so developed that you actually care about what happens to them?
Always be challenging yourself as a writer. “Is this the best it can be?” “How can this be better?” “Would I pay to see this?”
You want your script to be irresistible, so do what it takes and put in the effort to make it that way.
Anybody can tell a story, but only the truly dedicated are willing to devote the time to learn how to tell it in the most effective way possible.
No matter how hard you plan ahead, or how much you think things through, there will be times when you discover you have written yourself into a seemingly inescapable corner.
Your story comes to a screeching halt. All that momentum disappears. No doubt about it – you’re stuck.
“How is this possible?” you ask yourself. “How could I not see this coming?”
Rest assured, this happens to a lot of us. It’s frustrating when you miss a small detail or two that ends up throwing a monkey wrench into the works.
The important thing is now that you realize there’s a problem with your story, you can begin the process of fixing it.
Start by figuring out the source. Does it stem from something from much earlier or from just a few scenes before?
How much of an impact does it have on the overall story? If you took it out, how drastic would the changes be? (If not very, then maybe you didn’t even need it at all)
Here’s something very important to consider – is this the only way things could happen? If you were to take another stab at it, what could you change that would get the same point across but in a different, more effective way?
Don’t be reluctant to make those changes. You want your script to be the absolute best it can be, right? So take advantage of this opportunity to unleash that creativeness.
Not only will you be thinking your way out of that corner, but honing your skills as a writer so it’s not as tough next time (and there will be a next time).
Yes, it’s great when things go smoothly, but it doesn’t happen that often – that’s why we have rewrites.
Top choice is too much, while the bottom is too little
Pop quiz!
Pick any high-profile, mainstream popcorn summer movie from the past 10-15 years, and explain, in as few sentences as possible, how the story unfolds.
This doesn’t mean provide a logline; this is about having a plot that’s easy to understand.
Okay. Pencils down.
There’s been a disturbing trend of overstuffing a story and bombarding the audience with just too much information. It’s gotten to the point that a lot of the time, the details we need to know get lost in big expositional info-dumps, which makes us struggle to follow along, or at least keep up.
Who hasn’t had a lot of questions about the movie they just watched, but those questions are more along the lines of “What happened?” You want somebody to want to watch your story again because they want to relive the great time they had the first time around, not because they seek answers.
I could list several recent major releases that had too many elements which simply made it less of an experience to watch them. Sometimes the details made no sense, or the explanations behind them weren’t adequate enough. If I have to go back and think about something from earlier on, then everything that came after that doesn’t have my full attention, which makes me not enjoy it as much.
Is it really too much to ask that a story be kept relatively simple to understand? This doesn’t mean to dumb things down. It is possible to write a smart story with simple details. One of the many reasons certain older films still hold up is because they are smartly-written stories told in a simple, straightforward manner.
THIS is what has to happen, and THIS is how we get there. Of course you’re going to throw in complications, but that doesn’t mean you make it overly complicated.
It’s very tempting to want to show off your writing skills and keep adding stuff into your story, but that usually results in just too much going on.
There’s a big difference between throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks and carefully plotting out what happens.
Keep things simple when telling us what we need to know, and leave it at that.
The whole story in one sentence? Gosh, this is tough.
When it comes to online communities and public forums, I’m more of an observer than active participant. Maybe I’ll post a comment when I think it’s appropriate, but for the most part, I sign in, look around a little, then leave.
One of the most interesting sections is always the one for loglines. Writers submit a logline and ask “What do you think?” I’ve done it myself, with mixed results.
(Side note – ask other writers whose opinion you value and trust, rather than a crowd of the anonymous and online. You’ll feel better about yourself.)
While comments and feedback can range from “brilliant” to “are we reading the same thing?”, my criteria is pretty simple and straightforward: Does it make me want to read this?
Unfortunately, a lot of the time the answer is “No,” but don’t take it personally.
If your logline doesn’t grab me, why would I want to read your script?
And this isn’t just me, a lowly nobody, asking. Those with the power to make things happen are going to ask the same thing. Don’t forget – they’re always looking for a reason to say “no”.
Just as your script has to be totally bulletproof, so does your logline.
Does it effectively encapsulate what the story’s about? I’ve read a lot that don’t.
Sometimes it focuses too much on one part of the story, rather than giving a more widespread view. Counter to that, it might offer up too much information, which just makes things confusing.
Is this a story we haven’t seen before, or at least a new twist on an old one? What’s unique about it?
A lot of the time, someone in the forums will ask about the intent, meaning or significance of a word or phrase in the logline, and the writer will then explain (sometimes with a little too much detail).
My argument is that the logline should be written in such a way that you don’t have to ask; everything should be laid out right there in front of you.
Do your homework and study the loglines of other films and scripts. How are they put together? What is it about them that’s different than yours?
And this isn’t going to be easy. You may have to struggle through several dozen versions until you come up with the one that really works.
But, like everything else we work on, it takes time and is worth the effort when we get it right.
Maximum Z 