Every time I connect with somebody on some kind of social media or community forum, I ask the same question:
How are your latest projects coming along?
It’s always a wide variety of genres in various stages of development, and always nice to hear.
Here’s what’s going on with me.
-Still trudging my way through the revamp of the outline for the pulpy adventure spec. I’m somewhere between the midpoint and the page 75 plot point. It feels a bit disoriented as I work my way through it, but it should get better as I push my way forward.
So how about you? What’s occupying your time these days?
It goes without saying that any screenwriter is a movie buff. We have to be. It’s our love of movies that got us into this in the first place.
We’ve all got our favorites. Countless genres are spanned. Writers, directors or performers we can usually rely on for solid, quality work. Who hasn’t claimed to have seen a particular movie “over a hundred times”?
So what is it about them that makes us have no problem with watching them over and over, as opposed to seeing something once and being done with it, or maybe even abandoning ship around the halfway point?
A favorite film motivates repeat viewings. You’re enjoying the whole experience so much that when it’s over, you’re already looking forward to seeing it again.
Consider the films in your home collection. What is it about them that made you go so far as to want to own them?
For as much as I talk about STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and BACK TO THE FUTURE, all of which I could watch over and over, I’m also perfectly content with something that doesn’t involve special effects, like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN or SOME LIKE IT HOT.
What do all of these have in common? For me, it all boils down to fantastic storytelling with well-crafted three-dimensional characters, both of which also motivate and inspire me to be a better writer.
Which is what it all comes down to. The writing, which starts with us.
Not only are we striving to create a story, but we want to make them so amazing that they’re practically irresistible not only to the people who make the movies, but the movie-going public.
While working on that latest project, we imagine what the finished product would look like on the big screen and hope the audience is having such a blast watching it that they’ll want to come back for more.
But imagining is one thing. Actually making it compelling and involving is another.
We must continuously write, rewrite, hone and polish each individual piece of work to make it as involving and engaging as possible.
Not sure if yours is? Ask somebody. Writing group, trusted colleague, paid analyst. Doesn’t matter. Always be striving for greatness, my friends.
Our work is definitely cut out for us. It’s hard enough to write a good script. It’s even harder to write one people want to continuously return to.
As work continues with the monster spec, some of the focus has been on figuring out the backstory of how things came to be and working out the events that lead up to where the plot starts.
If this were a novel, I could just include them in the whole body of work. Not so the case for a screenplay.
In as few scenes as possible, I need to educate the reader/viewer about this world, who’s involved and what’s at stake. Once that’s done, we shift gears and dive right into the story.
A recent example – PACIFIC RIM. The opening minutes are all about what’s already happened – giant monsters showed up, we built giant robots to fight them, and we’re off.
Consider the opening crawl in STAR WARS. A few paragraphs floating in space sets everything up: here’s what’s going on, immediately followed by a space battle.
While this kind of thing is necessary for a ripping effects-laden yarn, what if your story is about normal folks in the everyday world?
Same rules apply. We still need to know what’s going on and who it’s about. Give us those parts of the story now, and pepper it with the relevant details as we move forward.
The example I keep coming back to for this is the opening of FIELD OF DREAMS: Kevin Costner narrates a thumbnail sketch about his character over a series of photographs, then we’re on the farm in Iowa.
No matter what genre you’re working in, it’s important to know what happened before page one, both regarding the story and the characters. You don’t have to go crazy with details, but at least know what needs to be known.
This was parent-teacher conference week, so my after-school parenting schedule was shaken up a bit. As a result, not as much time to work on the mystery spec rewrite.
So in an attempt to make the most of my limited time, and without my laptop with me, I opted to tinker with the outline for the monster spec.
Like any good writer, I had my ever-present notebook and story notes with me. Seriously. I keep them in my bag for just such a situation.
The first act is really coming together, with most of the focus now on working out the details of the gaps between the plot points of Act Two. And as happened before, I’m having a blast.
At its heart, this story is a pure pulp adventure, which is exactly the mood I’m going for. Grab you from page one and not let go as it gains momentum from there on, building and building until finally culminating in a jaw-droppingly amazing, can’t-believe-I-just-saw-that finale.
Simply put, my objective is to create a simple-yet-solid story with three-dimensional characters, using the spectacle aspect as support that keeps things interesting.
Similar to how it was with the western, I’m a huge fan of the genre and know what I as a member of the audience would want to see. I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel here; just tell a fun story. Hopefully my appreciation and knowledge of this kind of material will come through on the page.
What it really boils down to is the more I can make this a smart and exciting thrill ride, the better.
As I work out the story details, I’m keeping this in mind: If there was a free-of-plot-details trailer for this, you’d be overwhelmingly compelled to want to see it. (Sort of what they’ve done for GODZILLA and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.)
There were too many to choose from, so I opted for a classic
Encouraging feedback on the western spec continues to roll in, with a recurring theme developing regarding opinions about the main character.
-“calm, cool and witty in the face of danger and indomitable odds”
-“a really great character to get behind”
-“actor bait”
Did I mention the main character is a woman? More than a few considered that a major plus.
When I first started figuring out the story, which included seeking online help for the logline, anonymous posters on assorted forums pulled no punches in letting me know what a terrible idea they thought it was.
Yet despite all that negativity, I still felt this was a story worth the time and effort to tell. The West was a harsh, brutal place. You had to be tough to survive. Why wouldn’t the women be as tough as the men?
When I write action, I’m hoping to create a sense comparable to a thrilling rollercoaster ride; one that grabs you tight and pulls you along at top speed. Whether the main character behind it all is a man or woman is a non-issue. It really comes down to two things: an entertaining story with three-dimensional characters.
To me, this had both. Being a fan of the genre helped – I know what works, what doesn’t and what I as an audience member would want to see. And as far as I could tell, it was a story that hadn’t been done before.
So I wrote it, and now it’s all about the wait-and-see.
Not surprisingly, articles continue to pop up about how a female main character in an action film is still considered somewhat of a novelty, or that since an action film with a female main character absolutely tanked at the box office, logic can only dictate it was because the main character was female, and not because the story sucked.
Count me among those hoping these ways of thinking will someday not be an issue.
Maximum Z 