Time to Write

Things that make a story fail (as shown in the film "Oblivion")

One of the best ways to improve our own writing is to figure out why a novel or screenplay written by someone else works or doesn’t work.

I just saw the Tom Cruise film Oblivion which looks great but, in my opinion, doesn’t really work on the story level. What are the lessons to be learned from it (I don’t think any of these points involve serious spoilers):

• A good hero deserves a good villain. Here most of the time his opposition is deadly metallic beach ball drones. Not a lot of personality there.
  
  
• A good hero deserves a good cause. The ultimate beneficiaries of this hero’s efforts never go beyond stereotypes.
  
  
• You’re in trouble when a secondary character (in this instance, played by Morgan Freeman) makes you wish the story had been about him instead.  I was also disappointed that the character of the hero’s handler, who we see only on a TV screen but whose sweet Southern accent is enticingly menacing, doesn’t get the reveal she deserved at the end.

• You’re also in trouble if the audience doesn’t feel an emotional connection with the protagonist. In  this case, probably the three points above account at least in part for that lack. It could also be that I don’t find Tom Cruise an emotionally vulnerable enough actor for there to be much of  a connection.

• If in doubt, cut. Despite the explosions and battles, this movie drags in places, and it almost feels like two movies glued together in the middle.
  
  
• Twists are good, and this has a couple of nice ones, but it isn’t enough just to surprise people. The best twists are the ones that make us feel that we could have seen them coming (e.g., Sixth Sense).

Having said all that, I don’t think Oblivion is a bad film, just that it falls far short of what it could have been if the people concerned had spent as much time and effort on the story as they did on the special effects and the rich look of the film. 

How to build a villain or just an unlikeable character

What are the hallmarks of an unlikeable character for your novel or screenplay? 

One easy way to come up with ideas for that is to look at what makes people likeable and then have your character do the opposite.

In the book “Likeable Business,” Dave Kern lists the following as the characteristics of likeable business leaders:

LISTENING —to customers, colleagues, shareholders—and competitors

AUTHENTICITY—because today’s savvy customer always knows when you’re faking it

TRANSPARENCY—honesty builds trust and any deviation can destroy your reputation

ADAPTABILITY —managing change and finding new opportunities is critical to success today

SIMPLICITY—in design, in form, and in function

GRATEFULNESS —every “thank you” is appreciated . . . and generates surprising returns!

I think we could say those are the hallmarks of likeable people in general. When we reverse them, we come up with a character who:

• Never listens to other people, being too busy trying to think of what to say about themselves next.
• Never admits there’s anything they don’t know or haven’t done; instead, they fake everything.
• Lies, cheats, and steals.
• Refuses to consider changing.
• Complicates everything, perhaps trying to keep people confused so they won’t see through him or her.
• Never says thank you, just assumes that every body should help them or do what his or she wants.

It could be overkill to give one character all of these negative traits, but having them show two or three gives you a good unlikeable character.

This can also be helpful for creating credible protagonists--give them a mild form of one of these faults. For instance, not somebody who never listen to anybody else, but maybe someone who tunes out when under stress.

(Do you want practical guidance in writing your book? Get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Write strong characters - the "spite house" example

I'm sure you have read about the importance of giving the characters in your novel or screenplay a strong motive, as well as how vital it is to show the behaviour engendered by these motives, rather than just telling us about them.

Recently I ran across a great real-world example of this: "spite houses."

These are houses whose main function is to annoy someone else. Sometimes they block somebody's light or view, sometimes they prevent access, sometimes they are built to mock legal restrictions. 

Strong motives in action! How mad would you have to be to build a useless or at least very impractical house? 

I'm not suggesting that you have your protagoist build a spite house, but maybe there is an equivalent drastic measure they take that reflects the passionate motive that drives them.

By the way, the spite house shown above was built in 1830 in Alexandria, Virginia. The owner of the homes to its left and right was annoyed that horse-drawn carriages were using the alleyway in between them. He constructed this seven-foot wide house using the walls of the houses on either side.The house is still occupied. (photo credit: shorpy.com)

(Authors who created vivid characters include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. They are among the many whose writing advice I collected and put into my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

Writers: use clothing to reveal character in your novels and screenplays

In the previous post I discussed how you can use dialogue to reveal a character's secondary intentions. Another tool is  what the characters wear. Novelists use this quite a but, but screenplay authors often don't--and should.

The two most common messages that people try to send via what they wear are, "I'm high class/rich/important" or "I'm just one of the folks."

Ironically, people who don't have much money spend a lot on clothes that suggest they do, and people who do have a lot of money spend a lot to make it appear they don't (high-price clothes designed to look like those worn by poorer people--but with a label to prove you did actually pay a lot for those torn jeans, for instance.)

The poorer people are sending the message, "Don't judge me for my lack of money," and the richer ones are sending the message, "Don't resent me for my abundance of money--but also don't fail to notice it."

Beyond these broad strokes, people use what they wear to send other messages.

In college I knew of someone who wore Native American jewelry to suggest this was his heritage (I think he was actually Italian, but this got him dates).

Some people wear an item of jewelry they hope will be a conversation-starter (they're ready with the story behind it). Or it might be something they inherited and wear in memory of someone special. 

Some people have a wardrobe that is predominantly one colour. For a while, all black was the badge of the hipster, now it's more of a cliche.

Then there's body art. When I was a kid the only people who had tattoos were sailers and the guys who worked at carnival sideshows. These days it's so common that having one doesn't mean anything in particular and you have to have something pretty intense to be noticed for it, but that's an option.

For another character the traces of a tattoo they had removed might be revealing of an incident they came to regret.

Just as dialogue can reveal what people want to communicate beyond the words, so can what they wear, and it's a tool you can use to give the reader subtle (or not so subtle) clues.

(For more on creating characters and crafting powerful plots, see my book, "Your Writing Coach." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

How to write dialogue that reveals character

On my screenwriting Q & A group call the other day someone asked about how to reveal character through dialogue. 

My advice is to answer this question:

"What, in addition to the content of the dialogue, does the speaker wish to reveal?"

Consider this example:

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa complimented the Times Literary Supplement by saying, “I have been reading the TLS since I learned English 40 years ago. It is the most serious, authoritative, witty, diverse and stimulating cultural publication in all the five languages I speak.”

Showing off a little, were we, Mario?

SECONDARY INTENTIONS AND WHERE THEY COME FROM

The speaker doesn't even have to be aware of his or her secondary intention. In fact, most would deny it. Generally they stem from insecurities created in childhood. More examples of these kind of messages and their secondary intentions:

"That's a lovely dress, I'm beginning to regreat I spent so much on a designer when dresses as lovely as yours are available off the rack!" = "No matter what you have or do, I own or have done something better."

"I'm so sorry you have such a bad case of the flu. I know from my time in a coma that being bedridden is no fun." = "No matter how badly you have suffered, I have suffered more."

"You would be much more comfortable sitting over there." = "I'm in control here."

"It's kind of you to invite me to play with you, I know you're by far the better player. I just hope it's enough of a challenge not to be boring for you." = "I'm not a threat or a rival"--unless it's said by a person who knows they're a better player than the other person, in which case the message is, "I feel safe behind a wall of false modesty" or "I can con manipulate people easily.")

AN ADVANCED FORM

There's an advanced form in which the speaker bigs himself up while appearing to put himself down, as in these examples:

"I was so stupid not to stop playing roulette when I was a hundred grand ahead--I ended up with only fifty thousand in winnings."

"The breakup of the relationship was my fault. I was too nice."

"I really admire prolific writers. I can manage to prouduce only two books a year."

LISTEN FOR THESE AND MAKE THEM WORK FOR YOUR WRITING

If you listen for examples of these kinds of statements over the next few days I guarantee you'll hear some.

Being aware of people's secondary intentions is a good way to get insight into real people, and using them in your character's dialogue is an excellent tool for letting your reader in on what your character really is like, without saying it outright. 

(Among the many masters of dialogue who give writing advice cited in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," are Dickens, Hemingway, and Elmore Leonard. Find out what they reveal--you can get the book from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

 

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Let life inspire you to create quirky characters

Do you want to create interesting, quirky characters for your novel or screenplay?

There's never a shortage of inspiration when you find out the interesting ways of many real-life people.

The only danger is that often people will accept highly unusual things in real life but reject exactly the same thing as implausible if they encounter it in fiction.

What prompted this musing was an article I read on the website of the London Evening Standard. It includes a quote from Olivia Fane's book, "The Conversations: 66 Reasons to Stop Talking":

The rules were: when my husband was abroad for a period exceeding two weeks, he could have an affair providing (a) he had my permission, and (b) the woman didn't live in England. The quid pro quo was that I should be allowed 10 snogs a year and one two-week affair every other year, providing the location of the aforesaid affair was Stoke Newington.

I assume they lived in Stoke Newington, not that it was a particularly sexy place for affairs.

And if you're not English you may not know that "snogs" are sessions of kissing and cuddling that stop short of actual sex.

Alas, this very organized approach went wrong:

What went wrong with my first marriage was that we broke our own rules. My husband asked my permission while abroad for a short affair but it happened the woman lived in London.

It confirms that inspiration for quirky characters is as close as the nearest newspaper.

PS: I wouldn't suggest recommending this kind of arrangement to your spouse or partner unless you're pretty sure it will get a positive response.

(If you'd like advice from the best classic and modern writers on how to create great characters, get a copy of my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Is the opening of your novel or screenplay like a stone in a slingshot?

What should the opening of your novel or script be like? 

In a TED talk, Pixar writer/director Andrew Stanton said it should be like a pebble in a slingshot as the elastic is pulled back...

We want to see what will happen--what is the stone's target? Are we watching a Davd fighting a Goliath? Obviously our reaction will be very different if, instead of a giant, the target is a little boy. 

In either case we want to know the basis of the conflict. And we want to know how it will turn out. 

In other words, you have our attention and you have started to pull us into the story--we want to know more. 

Although there can be variations in the pacing, you have to keep the tension going. Maybe the first shot misses. If the target is a giant, we will tend to identify with the person with the slingshot and we will worry about his fate.

If the shot doesnt miss, is it enough to kill the giant or might it just enrage him more? 

I think it's a very useful metaphor, one that can help you build in tesion right from the start, and can guide you in tightening the story when you do the next draft.

(Want guidance on writing your book, from the first idea right through publication? Or your screenply, from seed of an idea through to something you'd be hapy to submit to an agent or producer or studio? You can get it in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.) 

 

 

 

Will it hit the target? What is the conflict that 

How to get your novel or screenplay character deeper into trouble

Whether your're writing a novel or a screenplay the heart of story-telling is conflict. When it's hero vs. villain that's easy, but not every story has those. In the more realistic plots, as in life, the biggest enemy we have tends to be ourself. 

On her blog, Janice Hardy listed some of the main ways characters make bad decisions:

being impulsive

making a poor decision under pressure

over analyzing

assuming they know it all - arrogance

not considering all the options

not asking for advice

not having alternative plans

Another way to come up with choices is to consider the ways your character might respond depending on what emotion they're experiencing. Here are some that typically lead to conflict:

• anger
• jealousy
• envy
• greed
• neediness
• fear
• lust
• desperation

Use your knowledge of the character to decide which of these (or another emotion) your character would experience in the situation you've created, and then what behaviour might come from that emotion.

(For more information about how to create characters and plots, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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Go BIG with your characters for your novel or screenplay

If you're writing a novel or a screenplay, think about the characters that have stuck in your mind from the books you've read and the movies you've seen. Would you say they are average people? Most likely, no. Probably they're bigger than life. The ones I think of include the Godfather, Hannibal Lector, and Ellen Ripley (Aliens).

Obviously this is influenced by the kind of story you are writing, but at the idea stage it’s good to make your characters big. If someone is stingy, make them REALLY stingy.

A great example from real life is Hetty Green, a woman who came to be called the Witch of Wall Street. She was born in 1834. When her father died she inherited $7.5 million (equivalent to about $110 million today). She made her fiancé sign a prenup contract renouncing all rights to her money.

When her Aunt left $2 million to charity, Hetty challenged it and produced a will that left all the money to her. The courts judged it to be a forgery.

Hetty Green developed an investment strategy that made her another million dollars one year but she remained an outrageous miser. She never used hot water or heating. She did her business at the offices of the bank she used because she didn’t want to pay to rent an office. When her young son Ned broke his leg she tried to get him treated at a clinic for the poor. The people there recognized her and chased her out. 

Her son survived but eventually became as big a spendthrift as his mother was a miser. One of his prize possessions was a diamnd-encrusted chamberpot. 

Of course you don’t want to make your characters grotesques, but it’s easier to go big with them at the start and then pull back, than it is to make them more interesting  after you’ve drawn them as boring.

(Do you want to know how Dickens, Austen, Hemingway and many other great authors created their memorable characters? You'll find the answer in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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How to create vivid characters for your novel or screenplay

The heart of a good novel or film is a strong character (or several). How can you create characters that come alive on the page and engage the reader or viewer? 

Recently I read an article in Computer Arts magazine about creating cartoon characters and was struck by how similar it is to creating characters for a novel or script:

* Figure out their psychology. A basic approach is to think about the acronym OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

* Give them some contradictions. Real people always have some, if you look deeply enough. It separates stereotypes from real people.

 * Doodle. Artists often doodle in order to get inspired. You can also do what I call Mental Doodling. Example: The other night there was a little preview clip of a comedian and TV presenter going down a river in Africa. He looks through large binoculars at a monkey in a tree. My mental doodle was the monkey holding a pair of binoculars and looking back at him. There doesn’t have to be any practical application, it’s about freeing up your imagination.

* Think about how the character moves. It might be in line with what we’d expect or it might be a contradiction. For instance, we normally might not expect a bulky man to be a nimble dancer, but it might be that your characters is a star on the dance floor. 

Thinking about these elements before you start writing is helpful. So is coming back to it when you're ready to write a second draft. If a character seems flat, considering one or more of the factors above will give you ideas for how to fix that.

(There are many tips for creating great characters, in my book "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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