Time to Write

The Very Real Danger of Stories

We love stories. Even false ones. Sometimes especially false ones.

As great as that is for writers of fiction, it can be dangerous in real life.

THE STORY

Case in point: a video spread via Twitter in which a man stands in front of a housing project under construction.

He says this development is going up in West Virginia and it will displace White and Black Americans in order to accommodate 321 Syrian Muslims.

They'll be living on American taxpayers' money.

The community will be run under Sharia law. No Christians will be allowed to enter the area.  

It's costing $87 million and will be done in two months.

A funeral home next door is going to be torn down and a mosque will be built in its place.

Note how specific he is: 321 people, two months, $87 million. Specificity tends to make things more believable.

What he doesn't specify is the town or city, or who authorized it.

Hard to believe? That's because it's not true.

THE FACTS

Snopes.com investigated and found that "this video shows the Littlepage Terrace housing project, a low-income, housing tax-credit property allocated through the West Virginia Housing Development Fund, which houses zero Syrian refugees and many “regular” Americans."

The "funeral home" referred to in the video actually is a Rite-Aid store (and it's not being demolished).

You can see the video and the facts here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sharia-zone-housing-project-wva/

THE COMMENTS

The vast majority of the people commenting on the video bought it hook, line, and fake funeral home. 

Here are some of the comments:

"Where to move to? M13 and Isam infecting the U.S. everywhere."

"This is my state and he is speaking the absolute truth."

"This is frightening. It is a subliminal take over of the world and everyone is silent!!!"

"It's time for the Lord to come."

"Been going on for years."

"Is this how the Govt expects to integrate these invaders into our culture?"

"Thanks for speaking up, that's a lot of bullshit going on glad you brought it up."

"Fight back or lose it all!"

"Time to bulldoze that house. No questions asked. It's war, pure and simple."

"What was the name of that movie? Oh yeah, There will be blood!"

"Get them! I DO NOT WANT A SINGLE ONE IN MY COUNTRY"

"Because George Soros is behind everything. Do some deep research. They claim he isn't a communist. But the organization says this is one he funds."

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

The comments go on and on, absolutely certain this is just another bit of proof of what they already believe. Some add other "facts" about this development.

Some seem ready to take up arms to drive out the non-existent invaders. 

What if you showed them this story is false? My hunch is either they'd say, "Snopes is part of the conspiracy, for sure it's true!" or "OK, this one is false, but it's happening for real all over the country!"

If you asked for proof, they'd say, "It's all being covered up by (George Soros/liberals/the Jews/the Deep State/Democrats), but I know it's happening!"

It's confirmation bias and let's be fair--it affects us all to some degree, regardless of our political outlook.

We're happy when we find a story that confirms we're right, but we owe it to ourselves to find out whether it is fact or fiction.

How many videos like this did the mass murderer in New Zealand see and believe?

Is Your Idea Any Good?

You've probably had the experience of suddenly having a seemingly great idea pop up in the middle of the night, while you're in the shower, or just walking down the street.

Eureka! This idea is going to make you a fortune, save the world or, ideally, both!

Then you revisit the idea later and most of the time you wonder what you were thinking.

But once in a while you still believe it might be a great idea, but you're too close to it to know for sure. What criteria can you use?

That's the question addressed in a book I've been reading: Chasing the Monster Idea - The Marketer's Almanac for Predicting Idea Epicness, by Stephen Mumaw.

Despite the author's fondness for puns and his annoying practice of pointing them out just in case you didn't notice them, the book has some excellent tips for evaluating ideas in terms of their likelihood of succeeding in the marketplace.

Of course, that's not the only criterion for a great idea; you may decide to pursue one that isn't likely to take the world by storm because you believe it's worth doing even if it reaches only a small number of people. Either way, though, you want it to be as good as possible. 

THE CRITERIA FOR A GREAT STORY

One of the topics the book considers is what makes a great story. Mumaw identifies these six qualities:

• A well-defined, singular theme
• Clear characterization
• A well-developed plot
• Stylistically vivid
• Dramatically told
• Audience appropriate

Yes, I know--each of these is a huge topic in itself. But at least this list is a useful starting point. Here are a few ways to address each element.

THEME

Can you identify in one sentence the theme of your story (or product or service, for that matter)? Plot is what the story is about, theme is what the story is REALLY about. 

CHARACTERIZATION

Is it clear what your protagonist wants, as well as the personal qualities that help them and the weaknesses that work against them? Is there a solid reason that the antagonist is opposing your protagonist? 

PLOT

Does the plot have a beginning, a middle, and an end that comes from the actions of the protagonist? Have you made sure that the middle doesn't sag? If your character changes over the course of the story, is that change lined closely to the events of the plot?

VIVID STYLE

In one way, "stylistically vivid" applies more to novels than to screenplays, since the style of the movie owes a lot to the way it's directed, but even the screenplay should be an entertaining reading experience for the people who will decide whether to buy or option it. One good practice is choosing vivid verbs: Instead of "George opens the door, obviously excited" try "George slams open the door, bouncing off the walls with excitement." (Note: use strategically--a script or novel written totally that way would be annoying).

TELLING DRAMATICALLY

Have you considered whose point of view will be most interesting? Have you piqued the audience's or readers' interest, then doled out the information they want, one piece at a time in a way that keeps them interested? Have you included some surprises?

AUDIENCE APPROPRIATENESS

Deciding what is audience appropriate is trickier than it used to be. There used to be pretty clear definitions, for instance, of what was a kids' film and what was an adults' film. These days the kids' films that are successful are careful to include content that may fly over the kids' heads but will keep their accompanying adults entertained. And when I go to the cinema, I often see kids in the audience even for films that have guidelines suggesting they're for adults. I asked a cinema manager about this once and he shrugged and said, "If the parents don't care, I don't care."

It's possible for a story to have all of these elements and still flop or to have delayed success, but if your idea or story does have these six characteristics, there's a very good chance it will succeed.

That Exposition -- It's Naked!

"Beautiful Boy" was a well-acted and generally well-made film that earned Amazon Studios some critical plaudits but didn't do too well at the box office. With an estimated budget of $25 million, its worldwide earnings were just over $8 million.

One thing that surprised me was the naked exposition in the opening scene.

Steve Carell, as the boy's father, is talking to a therapist. He says he's there on a personal matter, not as a journalist, and then this is the dialogue:

DAVID It’s about my son.

DR BROWN (O.S.) Okay, how can I help?

DAVID There are moments that I look at him, this kid that I raised who I thought that I knew inside and out, and I wonder who he is? He’s been doing all sorts of drugs, but he’s addicted to crystal meth, which seems to be the worst of all of them. And I guess I am here because I just want to know all that I can about all of it. Know your enemies right? So... my two big questions are, what is it doing to him and what can I do to help him?

FADE TO BLACK.

Whoa! If this had been the first page of a script by one of my students I would have advised finding a scene that would intrigue the audience, not spell out exactly what the story is.

Stories about addiction tend to be predictable (on drugs, off drugs, on drugs, off drugs), the only question usually being whether or not the addict survives. Therefore this script needed to find fresh ways of keeping the audience's interest and that first speech didn't help. Yes, the point of view of the father desperate to help his son and willing to go to extreme lengths to do so added depth to the story, but the way it was presented didn't. 

THREE WAYS TO PUT CLOTHES ON NAKED EXPOSITION

There are a few ways to disguise exposition. The first and best is to show the information, rather than telling it. There are plenty of scenes in the movie that establish the boy's drug habit, the father's frustration, and the dad's extreme desire to help. I don't think this speech was needed at all. 

Another method is to put the exposition into an emotional scene. Instead of saying that he thought he knew his kid inside and out but now sometimes wonders who he is, it's easy to imagine that being built into a dramatic confrontation scene between the father and son in which the father's anger turns to tears of frustration. 

The third strategy is to involve an outsider who doesn't know the full situation, ideally someone who has an emotional connection to your protagonist rather than a neutral figure like a therapist. For instance, a close friend of the father, who has noticed how distracted and torn up the dad is but doesn't know why, could ask, "What the hell is happening to you?!" There could even have been a bit of irony if the friend asked, "You're not on drugs, are you?"

If you find any naked exposition in your own scripts, quick, cover it up!