Time to Write

The key to great characters is "why"

You always hear about how important it is for your protagonist to have a goal. That's true, but equally important is the "why" behind their goal. You'll create a better-defined and more compelling character if you also spent time coming up with the most powerful motive for their actions. 

Let's say that both Adam and Gary have the goal of completing a marathon.

Adam wants to do it to raise money for a charity. Not a bad reason.  It suggests that Adam is a good guy, willing to go out of his way to benefit others.

Gary wants to do it because his daughter is running and he wants to show her that he can actually follow through doing something together--which he never did when she was growing up. He hopes she'll give him a chance to be a better father.

Which character do you think you would care about more? 

I think it would be Gary because his goal is personal and emotional. If we've ever let anybody down or have ever hoped for a second chance in any relationship, we may identify with him at least a little. 

WHAT'S AT STAKE?

The other difference is that if the charity doesn't get the money one participant hoped to raise it probably won't be a huge blow. But if Gary doesn't finish, or at least make a massive effort, his daughter will feel he hasn't changed and there's no reason to trust him now. We can imagine how painful that would be for both of them.

The more your protagonist has at stake, the more we will care about their goal. What's at stake doesn't have to be objectively huge. Sure, in many stories it's a matter of life and death; however, you can get equal drama from a story in which what's at stake is whether a young girl is able to earn $20 to buy her ailing mother a Mother's Day gift. Her "why" is that she wants to show her mother how much she loves her.

THE "HOW" CAN CHANGE, THE "WHY" USUALLY STAYS THE SAME

Sometimes in the course of the story, the protagonist realizes the "how" they have chosen is not actually going to deliver the result they want. For instance, Adam might start off thinking he can buy his daughter's forgiveness with presents. But then he realizes he will have to give of himself instead, and that's when he signs up for the marathon.

Likewise, maybe the little girl comes to understand that something she makes herself will mean more to her mother than anything she could buy.

Thinking about the different ways that your characters try to fulfill their "why" can be a rich source of incidents and turning points for your plot.

DON'T FORGET THE ANTAGONIST

Antagonists have their own "why" as well--or at least they should. If they don't, they won't seem three-dimensional. An antagonist who does evil things just for the sake of being evil comes across like a cartoon character. An antagonist who does evil things for a reason we can understand is much more realistic. 

REVEALING THE "WHY" IS PART OF THE AUDIENCE ARC

The character arc refers to the transformation your protagonist undergoes as a result of the events of the story. There can also be an audience arc. By that, I mean a change in how the audience sees your character. Let's look at an example:

Recently I saw a reality show in which a restaurant owner was hostile to customers who asked for any minor change in a dish (like 'no onions'). Why? It turned out that when she was a child she was constantly criticized for not being able to do anything right and told she would never amount to anything. When a customer asked for a change in an item, the restaurant owner heard it as another insult and she responded angrily. When that was revealed it changed the way I regarded her.

A movie that has an audience arc is "As Good As It Gets," in which the Jack Nicholson character was mean and seemed to try hard to make sure nobody would like him. As the story goes on, though, we come to understand how he got that way, and it changes how we regard him. He also has a character arc, but our feelings about him change before he does.

The shift in an audience's perceptions is one of many ways of keeping them involved in your story.

HINTS MAY BE ENOUGH

If understanding the 'why" is crucial to your story, you may want to go into some detail and maybe even use flashbacks to reveal it. However, that's not always necessary. Often giving the audience some hints is enough to have them become more invested in your story. 

Secrets sell books and screenplays

I noticed a pattern today in the "free reads" books featured by Amazon Prime this month. Here are the log lines of a few of them:

"A novel of secrets, memory, family, and forgiveness..."

"A chilling story of a woman with a forgotten past and a town with dark secrets."

"A double homicide and a missing woman lead a detective to unearth disturbing secrets in this gripping thriller..."

"A woman unlocks the mystery of her father's wartime past in a moving novel about secrets, sacrifice, and the power of love..."

THE SELLING POWER OF (SUPPOSED) SECRETS

The theme of secrets shows up a lot in messages from people trying to sell us stuff, too.

They' offer us the secrets of writing a great novel, or having hair that shines, or getting a promotion.

Some of them add a conspiratorial dimension by adding that these are the secrets some "they" don't want you to know.

It seems corny but it must work or else copywriters wouldn't keep using it. We keep falling for it despite repeated disappointments. I've yet to find a book or course that has revealed actual secrets that the Illuminati or anyone else is actively trying to keep me from finding out. 

DON'T KEEP YOUR SECRET A SECRET

In fiction, a big secret in the story suggests that something unexpected will be revealed. We do love to be surprised and in that sense, a plot twist is a kind of secret from the reader or viewer.

Beyond that, being able to incorporate the notion of a secret in your logline may help your project sell.

Obviously it has to fit the story you are telling, but if it is a feature or you can make it one without affecting the integrity of the story, be sure to point it out when you're writing your logline and your query letters.

How to write healing stories

At the moment our stories about what is normal are in disarray. It doesn't seem normal not to hug your friends, not to be able to go to the movies, not to be within six feet of people in a store without a mask. The stories we tell ourselves about progress and goals and what's important have been shaken up.

The silver lining is that when old stories are questioned, there's room for new stories to emerge. It seems to me what is needed now is stories that promote healing. 

Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes, in Stories as Medicine, "Stories, particularly healing stories, depend on the amount of self--the gristle, blood, and bone--that the teller is willing to put into them. Not all story is medicine. Generally, a story is not medicine unless it has caused the teller to laugh or to weep."

The teller, not just the listener. In other words, the story has to come from your heart. That doesn't mean it has to be a heavy drama; Groundhog Day and Tootsie are two examples from comedy.

EXAMPLE: HEALING AT MIDLIFE

In Fairy Tales and the Psychology of Men and Women at Midlife, Allan B. Chinen writes, "Before newspapers, radio, or television, fairy tales and folk tales were the only mass media, providing news, commentary, humor and entertainment. Storytellers put insights about their lives and the human condition into their stories. Many dealt specifically with characters in the middle third of life."

He notes, "Mid-life stories emphasize the importance of dealing with life as we find it, not as we imagine or hope it to be. These tales highlight an important point: that growth is possible in the middle years, no matter what kind of childhood one has had."

YOU ARE THE NEW MYTH-MAKER

If you write for TV and movies you are one of the myth-makers now.

Of course, traditionally a lot of commercial television has been treated as the placeholder between the commercials that sell us bogus stories, for instance, if we use shampoo X we'll have a great love life.

A lot of movies are near-duplicates of each other, seeing how many sequels the producers can crank out before we tire of that story.

However, there have always been exceptions and with all the additional outlets available now there's more room than ever before for a wider range of stories--including the one you feel the strong need to tell.

STORIES, NOT SERMONS

While your story has a theme, the screenwriter's or novelist's job isn't to propagandize, it's to say, "Here's an authentic story." Then it's up to the reader or viewer to decide what if means to them and whether there's anything in it they can use.  

THERE'S A BONUS!

I've always found when I've written about a subject close to my heart, it's been therapeutic for me, as well. That's the bonus you get when you write a healing story--at the very least, it helps heal you.

 

A Simplified Hero's Journey Structure for Scripts

In this video, TV producer/writer Dan Harmon shares the "story circle" he uses to structure storylines for his TV series, "Rick and Morty."

As you'll see, it's kind of a simplified version of the Hero's Journey (click on the text):

DAN HARMON'S STORY CIRCLE (Video: 3min 20seconds)

What is your character's secret?

One thing that makes a character in a screenplay or novel interesting is their secret.

If you need proof of the power of secrets to attract us, notice how often people trying to sell you something use the lure of secrets, especially secrets that some hypothetical "they" supposedly don't want you to know.

SECRETS ARE NOT ALWAYS NEGATIVE

In character terms, we tend to think of secrets as being about negative things, but they can also be positive, neutral, or open to interpretation:

• The person who anonymously pays another person's bill;
• Someone who, even in middle age, still harbors dreams of becoming famous;
• The woman who lets her husband think their child is his, even though she knows it isn't.

HOW SECRETS INFLUENCE PLOTS

While it can be interesting to consider what secrets your characters might harbor, the important secrets are those that influence the story in some way. 

A story typically confronts your protagonist with an internal as well as an external conflict, and a secret can be useful in both.

A dark secret may influence how open a character is about their background, and it can make them take drastic action to preserve the secret.

An embarrassing secret can be especially useful in a comedy.

A secret goal may suddenly set your protagonist on a new path if something happens to make the goal more accessible. 

Sometimes the secret just helps us to understand the character better, other times the entire plot revolves around a secret. Let's look at some examples.

SECRETS IN MOVIES

If you think back to your favorite movies you may find that secrets played a significant role. Here are a few of mine:

Citizen Kane revolves around that secret of the meaning of "rosebud," Charles Foster Kane's last word.

In Sunset Boulevard, the young screenwriter hides his relationship to the old movie star.

In Schindler's List, Schindler has to keep his intentions secret from the Nazis.

In The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard has to keep it a secret that he's just a mortal.

In E.T., the boy has to keep the alien secret from the feds.

In Silence of the Lambs, the FBI cadet tries to keep her fear and her background secret, but Hannibal Lector figures them out.

In Some Like it Hot and Tootsie, characters have to keep it a secret that they are men pretending to be women.

In Romeo and Juliet, the young lovers have to keep their relationship a secret from their families.

In Hamlet, the Prince has to keep it secret that he suspects his uncle poisoned his father.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche tries to hide several facts about her past.

The list goes on!

WHAT'S YOUR CHARACTER'S SECRET?

You can start with a secret that could be the center of an interesting plot, or if you already have a plot, you can think about what kind of secret would be useful in making a character more interesting and what useful effect it could have on the plot.

A secret can also be useful when you know you need your protagonist to do something in order to advance the plot, but there's no obvious reason for them to do so. You may be able to plant a  secret early in the story that justifies their later action.

And that's the secret of using secrets in stories!

 

 

Want your document to be taken more seriously?

Although most communication these days is digital, there are still times when you give someone a document. It might be a business proposal, a brochure, a letter, even a business card. Here's a simple way to have it valued more by the recipient:

Print it on heavier paper.

Yes, that's one of those strange phenomena that sounds illogical. It's the content, not the paper that should matter. But of course when we're dealing with humans, logic is not always what determines perception.

I found this strange and potentially useful information at musestorytelling.com. This finding comes from a couple of studies of the effect of heaviness. When some people were handed somebody's resume on a light clipboard and others were given it on a heavy clipboard, the latter judged the applicant to be more serious about the position and more qualified.

Hmm, maybe you should take along your own heavy clipboard. Substitute it for the one they give you when they hand you a form to fill out. 

In another study, two groups were given the same book. One group was told it was an important book, the other wasn't. Both were asked to guess the book's weight. The group that was told it was important guessed it was heavier than the other group did.

I guess it goes back to the old saying, "Never mind the quality, feel the weight!"

By the way, I'm a big believer in the maxim "do something different" if you want to stand out. These days, sending a letter instead of an email is different. Now you know to print it out on heavy paper. 

 

 

An easier way to write your autobiography

Do you want to write an autobiography but you're not sure your life has been eventful enough, or that you want to dedicate the time it would take?

Preparing a course on making short films gave me an idea for how you can tell your story in a different way. A short film typically is about one moment or incident in the life of the protagonist--a moment that changes something. What if you use that as the guiding idea of writing your memoirs?

For instance, last year I wrote a short film that was shot by my friend Kenny Luper about the moment a daughter realizes that her father is starting to suffer from dementia. 

We also shot a black comedy short film about the moment--at a memorial service--that a group of people realize that none of them actually liked the deceased.

And we shot one about the moment a man's relationship with his Alexa-type device changes.

To write your story, instead of the conventional format of starting with your birth and covering your entire life, you could pick out half a dozen or more of the most important turning points in your life.

These could include:

• a major event (for better or worse) in your relationship with your parents
  
  
• a moment or event that made you decide what you wanted to pursue as a career
  
  
• meeting your spouse or partner
  
  
• a key act of friendship
  
  
• what you were doing during a dramatic moment in history
   
• how a particular book or movie influenced your life
  
  
• an incident that made you proud of yourself
  
  
• a moment or action you regret

Taken as a whole, these will give a good idea of who you are and what your life has been like--a great legacy for your children or grandchildren--and they're easy to write one at a time. Much less daunting than thinking you have to cover every year and event of your life. 

You can save this collection on a computer, but be sure to have a couple of print-outs, too--technology changes so fast that there's no guarantee the formats we're using today will still be around in ten or twenty years. Of course, you can also opt to have copies printed. Unless you plan to print a large run, print on demand may be the best way to go.

You could augment these accounts with photos or memorabilia. You could also opt to record it instead of writing it. 

If you decide to do this, let me know how you get on: [email protected].

Does truth matter in inspirational stories?

I received an email today that featured an inspiration story:

A marine biologist puts a shark in a big tank with smaller fish. The shark eats the fish. Then the marine biologist puts a plexiglass barrier between the shark and the little fish. Eventually, the shark learns that it can't get at the fish on the other side of the tank and gives up. The marine biologist removes the barrier and, lo and behold, the shark doesn't even try to get to the little fish. It has been conditioned to behave in ways that no longer reflect reality.

The obvious moral is that we should all check whether we're behaving in ways that no longer serve us. I'm totally in agreement with that. But...

IS THIS A FISHY STORY?

All I know about sharks comes from watching a couple of days of "Shark Week," so I could be wrong, but it just doesn't sound like shark behavior to restrict itself to half the tank once the barrier is down. For one thing, wouldn't it pick up on the difference in the movement in the water when the barrier isn't there? I know it's a tank but even so, I think the movement of the smaller fish would have some effect. 

If you're a marine biologist, let me know whether the experiment sounds fishy to you.

THE FICTIONAL 3%

A story that has had even greater circulation but for which nobody has ever found a factual basis is the one claiming that years ago, only 3% of students at (Harvard/Yale/Stanford, depending on who's telling it) kept a written record of their goals...and 30 or 40 years later THEY were the leaders, the ones who had become wealthy, etc.

 

DOES IT MATTER?

 

Does it matter whether or not these types of anecdotes are true? Yes, they may inspire someone to examine their limitations and decide on their goals, and so on. But I do think we have to be careful about what we say 'science proves'-- it's important to separate fairy tales from fact. The internet is awash with the former masquerading as the latter, and it's another brick in the wall of "alternative facts." 

 

ASK!

 

If you agree with me on this, the next time you see a story about something that "science proves" without any link to or information about the source, why not ask the person posting it?