It's been too long....

You're right QQQ. I won't bother to argue with someone who's right. I had to spend a minute to re-read exactly what it was I last wrote. Seems that I spent most of the post focusing on major structural beats of a story. What I promised to follow was a more in depth review of what to place in between these major beats so your story can flow like a roller coaster. 


With that ride in mind, hop aboard. By now you've figured out who your major players are and you've also mapped out a loose structure. What we want to follow are specific moments that build in tension and conflict. Each of these beats or scenes will in one way or another reveal one thing about your hero and or story. Each of these reveals will be executed either through action, pictures or dialog. Preferably action and pictures over dialogue but great dialogue is one of the major points that stick with movie goers. Often great dialogue becomes part of culture. "Go ahead, make my day" "I'll be back" or "of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine". Just to name a few. 


When you begin to fill in the empty space each beat should involve a place, a time, a person and most importantly, the conflict. For example. John is in an office, at night, trying to steal a file from a computer however he trips the alarm and now has 60 seconds before the cops arrive. Very short scene yet the consequences are huge. Now I don't know what's in the file nor why he wants it but that obviously could fall at many a places on the spectrum depending on your story. 


You want to have these things in place for EVERY beat of your story.  The next thing you want to make sure is to have your beats alternating from positive to negative. This isn't a hard fact however the more Ups/Dwns you have the more your reader and audience will be likely to enjoy the ride. There are stories where it's blow after blow but rarely are these commercial successes and almost never will you watch or read something that's just high five after high five. Where's the drama in that? 


It's important to think of these beats as life. You can't enjoy the gold if you've never suffered the pine. Movies are emotional experiences because of this ride. Hopefully as the story progresses the more you become emotionally invested and these beats are there to build this investment. 


A great exercise I learned along the way involves sitting down with a pen and paper and a good movie. As the film plays your homework is to write down each beat as it happens. You'll write who's in the scene, where is the scene happening and what is the conflict. As you work your way through the movie hopefully you'll see a trend of good and bad. Your hero falls but in the next beat he learns something of value but in the following scene falters only to gain ground in the next and so forth. 


This up and down, jerky motion of movies is but a constant. It's the formula that keeps you in your seat when you get that pressing urge to relieve yourself. You don't want to miss what's next. You check your watch, can I wait, can I hold it? What's the most popular place after a great movie? 


The restroom.


So now that you have your major beats start to think about how you're going to fill in the spaces in between with memorable moments that build drama and tension and continue to reveal story through action, pictures, dialogue and what.....? Conflict. Conflict. Conflict.    


Write on!

It's allright to know where you're going

I was in the shower recently, believe it or not I do bathe, in fact it's one of my favorite excuses not to write. While I was washing my body for the third time today I was thinking about my next script. And I thought to myself how I had already envisioned the story wrapping up nicely. I smiled then by chance released a sigh yet this was no sigh of relief. Instead this sigh represented the completion of a story I hadn't even started to script. Then it struck me like the sting of Pantene' in an eye. If I already knew where I was going to end up, then what's the fun of writing it? It's like driving to Disneyland and sitting in the parking lot all day after you pay the $15 lot fee. What's the fun in going to Disneyland then? Well they're not quite exactly the same BUT the point I'm getting it is after the sting, it set in, well yeah you know what it's like to go to Disneyland but you don't just sit in the parking lot. That would be the equivalent of staring at a blank page all day. You've already took a spin on Space Mountain but you don't stop there. You do it again, and again, over and over and over. On different days in different months in different years.

Does it get old? Sure you know the ride, but you still get the same jolt on the same turns, the same cheers on the same twists and the same queasy feeling on the very same dips.

So much like writing a screenplay, once you've done it, you have an idea if it's something you like you want to do it again. Saying that I'd like to introduce to you my version of the Beat Sheet. What is a beat sheet? It's a bullet point explanation of moments in your story. Written chronologically with the intent to provide yourself a certain road map per se' of how you get from Beginning to middle to end.

The most important part of the beat sheet is to help establish your structure for your upcoming story. What elements of structure say you? This is what I use, please don't take this as an edict because the only person who knows how to write your story is you. I'm trying to show one way, there are many ways to finish a script. (These are the page numbers you should aim for to have these events occur in in a 110 page script)

1) Opening Image:(Page 1) Set the tone (Comedy, Rom-Com, Drama, Action, Thriller) Give us a moment that's going to set the overall tone for this story. However you do it, make it bold. Make it clear.

2) Introduction of Protagonist:(Page 1-3) This is the first time we see your hero on the page. How are you going to paint this person? Their flaw/weakness? Their dreams?  Make it someone you would want to spend $20 to go see for two hours in a dark room sitting next to smelly strangers and crying babies. All the better.

3) Inciting Incident: (Page 1-10) This moment launches your story in a new direction. Think of it as the specific moment in time that is going to change this person's life for better or worse? It's also the moment when your hero has to make it's first important decision. And that decision is usually the opposite of what he/she will decide to do at the 1st act break. When it comes to I.I. the bigger the better. The inciting Incident also asks the essential question of your story. Your hero's family is gunned down in cold blood, will your hero get revenge?

4) 1st act break: (Page 24-30) At the end of the 1st act break your hero has a decision to make. This decision will take your story in a new direction. Once this decision is made think of it as irreversible. Does he go with the door on the left or the door on the right? One chance, one choice.

5) What did I do moment? (Page 30-32) Usually a moment soon after where your hero realizes what he just did was a mistake but remember it's irreversible. Sometimes your hero may not know the full consequences of his decision but the reader or audience member should. In the case of a new villain entering the story who will soon collide with your hero.

6) 2nd act dilemma 1. (page 42-47) This is a moment where the stakes for your hero rise. Something that creates additional conflict.

7) Midpoint (Page 58-62) This is the midpoint of your story. In this scene something needs to happen that will take your hero and your story in a new direction. Ultimately a moment where the hero realizes a new goal. One that will take him to the end of act 2 and beyond. In this scene there must be an external event that inflicts change in your hero. The event also must be directly related to the hero's overall objective and must cause a turn in your story. It must also force your hero to take a new approach to this new goal. The hero now takes control of their destiny.

8) 2nd Act dilemma 2 (Page 73-77) Something that provides a new obstacle. Something greater than your hero could have envisioned when they decided to take control of their destiny.

9) 2nd Act break. (Page 88-92) This is the worst possible event that could be conceived for your hero. Also it's a direct connection to their 1st act break decision. Your hero decided to seek revenge but now all is lost, he is captured, tortured, put out to die. He's the farthest away from his goal and everything looks bleak. Think of what means the most to your hero(goal/objective/personal) and what ever that is, they're as far away as can be.

10) It just got worse. (Page 93-94) Stack on something additional to your 2nd act break moment. Something your hero never could fathom happening.

10) Climax. (Page 94-106) Your hero gets a second chance. This is when they will achieve what they set out to do. Their goal will be accomplished but to provide the most satisfying result you can't let them have their cake and eat it to. Something must always be sacrificed. They don't get the girl and the money. It gives them one last chance to prove they've changed. Before they would take both the girl and the cash now they can only choose/get one. And be smart about this one, it's not always the girl ;)

11) Closing Image Page (107-110) Hopefully at this point your hero has been through the ringer twice and sat in hell long enough to appreciate the new person they are. Leave the reader/audience an image that wraps up the story where you started but with the knowledge that can give a new appreciation to the journey you just led us on.

That's it. At least for your major structural beats. easy right? It is. Once you do it a few times. Next time I'll go over what I do after I've created my major beats and how I go about filling the spaces in between.

Now write to it!

Writer's block

This is what we, as writers, call an excuse to NOT write. Anyone who has sat down and faced the page knows that it can be one of the most daunting and frustrating creative capsules to find oneself in. The symptoms that can be listed include neglect, severe guilt, procrastination, worry, dread, lack of confidence, a sudden urge to clean, everything and then re-clean, everything. Shows you once despised seem more interesting then ever, Yeah, I can like Snooki or it's raining but yet it seems like the perfect time for a walk. But you don't own an umbrella:( Well why not go to the mall to buy one then go for a walk? what about your stories, I'll find time. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

That is not the way.  

The first step to overcoming this common headache is to admit it's happening. Because if you can admit then you can address it. It's also an accepted philosophy that once you have acknowledged then you can take the next most useful step which is.... It should be obvious, but because I spend plenty of time at the mall then I will reiterate, myself included-- Write on through it. Yes sit down and write whatever the hell you want, free thinking, thought flowing gibberish works for me. In fact this is exactly what I'm doing write now. 

I read recently in an article from BlueCat that Jerry Seinfeld's approach to his career was to create a chain. That is everyday he will do at least one thing toward his writing. At the end of everyday he would cross out the day on his calendar with a red marker indicating he had written thus creating a chain of endless days where he created and created. Before long his fear went from writing material to not writing material. That is a goal. It is said it takes 30 days to create a habit. do you have thirty days to start something that will carry over into next month? And then the next month, the next and before you know it you've written that short story, that song, that poem, that screenplay, that novel, your Opus. Human's by nature must create. we create life, we create art, we create stories, that is what we do. The only reason anyone does anything different is because they stopped creating!   

I heard someone say recently "Don't worry, there's all the time in the world". Well unless you're a rock, that's just not true. We don't have all the time in the world. Unless in the next 20-30-40-50 years medicine finds a way for us to live forever, we d(w)on't have all the time in the world. That's why to make the most of the moments we must "do". Those moments should not be decided by something that does not exist except as a fear, an insecurity, an "I'll get to it" attitude. Now is the time. If not now, never. There's no better time than the present. These are not quotes made famous from people who wait. These people made things happen. And when you sit down and write you're making something happen. You may not think you're making progress but I assure you for every page you type you uncover something new about your creative self. It won't always be great, sometimes you'll feel relieved to delete it so no eyes will know you were ever bad. Success is out there, waiting to be embraced. But it's not going to come to anyone, it only comes to people who deserve it.  

So write to it!

My next post will be coming much sooner and it will return to Screenplay. The dreaded beat sheet!!!!!