Time to Write

If you're a writer, there are no opportunities

In his book, Creative Mischief, advertising genius Dave Trott writes:

"I hear people complaining that there are no opportunities.

That no one will give them a chance.

There's nothing they can do and it's not their fault.

Here's a thing. 

There have never been any opportunities.

No one was ever feeling sorry for themselves, when someone knocked on the door and said, "How would you like me to show you a way out of this?"

It doesn't happen like that.

Never has, never will.

That's like sitting around hoping to win the lottery.

It's about hope. 

And hope is putting your problem in somebody else's hands,

Hope isn't very creative."

THE ALTERNATIVE TO HOPE IS ACTION

Trott goes on to give some examples of people in the advertising world who took action when there were no opportunities. I've done it a few times myself:

When I moved to Hollywood and had no contacts, I started a newsletter about screenwriting and interviewed agents, producers, and experienced writers. Through those contacts, I was able to get an agent.

When I noticed that there was a new person appointed to be the head of a publishing division for business personal development books, I called to find out her email address. I congratulated her and mentioned that I happened to have an idea for that kind of book and described it in a couple of lines. She asked for more information, then to meet, and eventually published three of my books. 

And one non-business example: When I was a teenager I read in the paper that Rod Serling, the producer, writer, and frontman of my favorite TV series, The Twilight Zone, was ill and in the hospital. I wrote him a letter care of the hospital and got a handwritten thank-you note from him. I cherished that note until it burned up in my house fire, and I still cherish the memory of it.

WHAT IF YOU DON'T FIND THIS EASY?

In case you're thinking, "Sure, you're the kind of person who finds that sort of thing easy." 

Not true.

I've always suffered from what these days is called social anxiety.

One time, I had the chance to go to a basketball game with Walter Matthau and some of his friends--a great networking opportunity. I was too shy to go.

Another time, I signed up for a residential writers' conference sponsored by the Writers Guild. It was a two-hour drive from Los Angeles. I drove all the way there, panicked, and drove all the way back.

However, the times I managed it have accounted for some real breakthroughs, so it's worth the push. If you are frustrated because there don't seem to be any opportunities, try thinking of how you can make some--even if it's a challenge.

How a writer can live with uncertainty

In the time of the Caronavirus, it has never been more obvious that we crave certainty. 

The uncertainties of the creative life aren't at the level of life and death (except in some totalitarian societies, and we're not there...yet). But anybody who wants to make a living from their writing or other art constantly faces uncertainty, including:

Is this thing I've created any good?

Will anybody want to buy it?

If it's put out there, will people like it?

How long will it be before I have a breakthrough--if ever?

Am I wasting my time?

Even when a writer has a success, the doubts remain:

Will my next work be as good as this one?

Was this a fluke?

LIVING WITH UNCERTAINTY

I don't think we can overcome uncertainty, and maybe it's not even a good goal to have. We've all encountered people who are convinced that everything they produce is great and that they are god's gift to humankind. That kind of overconfidence can succeed for a while but usually leads to a downfall eventually.

Perhaps the most appropriate goal is to learn to live with uncertainty. Here are a few things I've found useful:

• Remember that you are not defined by the success or failure of any given project--or even of your entire career. As a writer, you are more than any given project, and as a human you are more than a writer.
  
  
• The value of things is not always clear in the moment. Years ago, my house in the Hollywood hills burned down to the ground. At the time, it seemed like a tragedy. While I still don't think it was a great thing, it did make me consider whether I just wanted to rebuild the house--and my life--in the same form, or use this as an opportunity to make changes. I moved to London, where I met my life partner and have enjoyed my life more than I had in Los Angeles.
  
  
• If you enjoy the process, the outcome has less control over you. I know there are writers who claim they don't enjoy writing. I do, and I think if I didn't, I'd stop doing it. Of course, sometimes it's frustrating and the finished work never totally lives up to my fantasy of it, but the enjoyment outweighs the frustrations by a long way. If you're not enjoying writing, ask yourself why. Is there a different type of writing you could be doing? 
  
  
• If you enjoy writing but worry that you may be wasting your time, what would you be doing with that time if you weren't writing? If you'd be curing cancer by all means switch. But if you'd be watching more TV or doing more crossword puzzles, why not keep writing?
  
  
• It can help to hang out--in person or virtually--with people who are in the same boat. Look for people who are constructive and supportive and avoid the bitter ones who just want someone to listen to their complaints. 

If you have other strategies, let me hear about them in the comments or at [email protected]. When a few have accumulated I'll share them in another post.

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!

 

 

More on how and why to make your writing distinctive

"In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive."

from "Art and Fear," by David Bayles and Ted Orlando

That's easier said than done, of course. It's difficult not to start thinking about whether the marketplace will want what you create, which usually leads down the road of doing what's been done before, in a familiar style. That, in turn, makes your work less likely to stand out.

Here's a fact that is often missed: If you write something distinctive, something very different from what is out there now, it may not sell. But it will get you noticed, and getting noticed is the key to getting hired or getting people to ask to see what else you have written.

What if you're not sure what your voice is or should be? It's not something you decide. It's something that emerges when you write a lot. It may be that you're the last to notice it because it's so natural to you. 

Beware of books and teachers who try to "smooth out" your writing. They are not your friends.

I'm not suggesting you shouldn't learn the craft of writing. You absolutely should. But once you have mastered that, let the story itself and your intuition play a strong role in shaping what you write. 

image by Stefano Ferrario

Does your screenplay or novel story stand out?

The script pipeline is clogged not only with bad scripts but also with OK scripts.

An OK script is the right length, has a story that hangs together, is populated with mostly believable characters, and has no major formatting problems.

OK is not good enough, despite the fact that there are plenty of just OK movies. Many of those started out as better scripts but gradually changed to just OK under the weight of the demands of the actors, the ego of the director, and/or the fear-based decisions of the producer. 

What you need to do is write an outstanding script--as the adjective says, one that stands out. 

That starts with a fresh idea. Yes, it's true there are no totally new stories, but there certainly are fresh ways of telling the old ones. Recent movies I'd put in that category include Jo Jo Rabbit, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (I"m not making that up, it starred Sam Elliot), Midsommar, Ad Astra, Hustlers, Parasite, Booksmart, Peanut Butter Falcon, Honey Boy, Us, The Lighthouse, Yesterday. I'm not saying these were all the best, but they all had something different about them that made them stand out, and quite a few of them were very good.

What's the difference?

If you analyze the films above, you'll see how they differentiated themselves. That includes:

• Telling the story from an unusual perspective or with an unusual protagonist 
•  Telling a story some might find uncomfortable
• Telling a classic story with a contemporary touch 
• Telling the story of an alternative reality
• Telling a story of emotional extremes

In the best of these films, the level of writing was very good, too. For instance, I thought Booksmart had some of the smartest dialogue I've heard for a while. But it starts with the idea.

Before you commit to your story, take some time to consider whether it stands out from the ordinary. If not, try applying the characteristics above to your core idea. 

Writing the all-important first page/ first scene of your novel or screenplay

The first page of your novel or the first scene of your screenplay is really important--it can make the difference between somebody immediately being hooked or breathing a sigh of 'been there, done that.' 

At the same time, being weird just for the sake of being weird won't work, either--if the first thing that happens doesn't have a strong connection to what follows, the reader will feel like how we all feel when we fall for click-bait on the internet. Cheated.

It's easy to get hung up on what the first scene should be, which is why it's a mistake to assume you have to get this right in your first draft.

For the first draft, do the best you can but know that you will come back to it when rewriting. It's much easier to come up with a powerful first scene when you've written the whole work. Often, a new opening will be inspired by something that happens later in the story.

DEAD MAN TALKING!

One of the most memorable opening scenes is from "Sunset Boulevard." It shows the street sign, Sunset Blvd, and police cars and speeding somewhere. Cops and reporters rush to a swimming pool in which floats the body of a dead man.

That's already an arresting image (no pun intended), but it gets better. In voice-over, a man describes the scene...and then we realize that it's the dead man himself, setting up how it all got to this point. 

It was a daring move, it could easily have been considered funny, but it was done so smoothly that it worked, an integral part of one of my top ten movies of all time.

Can you think of an equally daring start to your novel or screenplay? It's worth giving a lot of thought!

 

How to Name Your Novel or Screenplay

The first thing that attracts people to your book is the title. Here are a few guidelines for coming up with a title that will grab readers of fiction (these also work for screenplays):

• Make it appropriate for the genre. Sure, it can be fun to give your book an ironic title, but the only people who will know that it's ironic are the people who have already read the book.
  
  
• Avoid generic titles. For instance, if your crime or thriller novel has the word "killing" in it, combine it with a more unusual word or phrase. This piques the potential reader's curiosity. 
  
  
• Look for it inside the novel. Often you'll find a line of dialogue or a phrase that fits perfectly
  
  
• Get inspiration from the automatic book title generator at the Reedsy site. Here are a few examples it came up with for different genres:
• Crime: Outrun the Shadow
• Fantasy: Warrior's Legacy
• Mystery: Case of the Winged Monkey
• Romance: Midnight Bride
• Sci-fi: Apex Colony
• General: The Ruins of Time
  
• Check to make sure the title isn't already taken. There's no copyright on titles, but if you give your book the same name as one that already exists, the author could sue you for trying to get people to buy your book thinking it was theirs. If the other book is out of print or not popular this is less of an issue.
  
  Side story: I wrote a marketing book called "Do Something Different" and got an outraged letter from someone who'd written a (very bad, very obscure) novel with that title. They wrote me nasty emails and gave my book a terrible Amazon review (which I had removed). I tried to explain that my book was non-fiction and therefore wasn't likely to be mistaken for theirs, but logic wasn't their strong point. 
  
  
• Try the title out on friends who are fans of your genre. Put it in a list with the titles of other books in that genre and ask your friends which of the titles they find intriguing (don't tell them which one is yours). To get more input, ask a blogger who covers your genre whether they'd be willing to ask their readers to do the same. You can also do this if you have a couple of titles you really like and don't know which one to choose.

What's the secret of writing comedy?

So you want to write comedy?

Here's the problem: humor is subjective. What makes one person double over with laughter just elicits a groan from another. That's why writing comedy probably requires a little more self-confidence than writing other genres. At least you have to fake it long enough to finish the script and send it out.

How do you do it? Here's what writer Ian Southwood said about that in Screencraft magazine recently:

"I used to write what I thought other people would think is funny, always second-guessing my own sense of humor...But it never works. Never. Trying to write like someone else is like wearing a rented tuxedo. It doesn't fit. Not like it should. Now I just try to be honest, with the writing and with myself."

To the degree that there's a secret to comedy writing, that's it:

Keep it honest.

Honest to yourself and, equally importantly, honest to the characters.

Never have a character do something just because it's funny.

However crazy what they say or what they do may be, it should feel like something they would actually do.

If you want your character to beat a car with a tree branch (a famous scene from Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese), create a character who is so full of pent-up frustration that this action is not only funny but believable. 

The source of both the humor and the plausibility is the character's attitude to the world.

Take the leads of the Odd Couple as an example. Oscar is a lazy slob, Felix is a compulsive neurotic. Put them in the same situation and they would have totally different reactions--which could both be funny.

I served my comedy writing apprenticeship with TV writer Danny Simon and I've never forgotten his most important advice: "Never sacrifice a character for a laugh."

What he meant was if you have a character do something they wouldn't really do, you may get a laugh but you've destroyed their believability.

Huh, turns out honesty is the best policy, even in comedy writing.

 

 

Is your screenplay structure strong enough?

In a previous post, I shared some questions that Hollywood script readers ask in order to tell whether the big idea of a story will work. In this post, we look at the questions that apply to the plot and structure of your script:

1. Does the first scene grab our attention?

Often this can be done with a strong visual image or an unusual action. What question will be in the audience's mind when they watch the first scene or two? It doesn't have to be something epic. For instance, if we see a child crying, we immediately wonder why.

2. Do the first couple of scenes make it clear whose story this will be--and is it someone we can relate to?

Occasionally it may work to start with someone other than the protagonist, but usually that's who we want to see first or at least very soon.

Your protagonist doesn't have to be likable, but they DO have to be interesting and we have to be able to relate to them in some way. For instance, the first scenes in the classic, The Godfather, introduces us to the title character on the day of his daughter's wedding. We may not be able to relate to him in his role as a mobster, but everybody can relate to him as a doting father.

3. Does your protagonist have a strong goal? What's at stake?

Not every story has to be life-or-death, but it has to feel that way to your protagonist. For a nerdy kid, winning the contest to be Prom King can feel as important and desperate as a rock climber's quest to save their life as they hang from a cliff. 

The goal should be one to which the audience can relate, and If there's no strong consequence if the protagonist fails, we won't care. 

4. Does the story feature a series of obstacles that get in the way of the character's goal?

Sometimes there's a villain who is trying to thwart your protagonist, but the obstacle can also be a force of nature (fire, floods, meteors), or aliens, or something else. If the main obstacle is internal (like an addiction) you have to figure out how to represent it externally (or write a novel instead).

5. Do the obstacles escalate?

Each new hurdle should be harder than the last, otherwise there's no sense of momentum. If the obstacles could occur in any order the events will feel random rather than motivated. As much as possible, keep them linked by cause and effect.

For example, let's say your story is about a poor couple that wants to get married. One obstacle is that her parents are opposed. They throw a few roadblocks in the couple's way, but the lovers get in a car and leave town.

They think they're in the clear when suddenly they hear a police siren. The police arrest the guy for stealing his own car because the young woman's father reported it as his stolen car. 

While he's in jail waiting for the mistake to be corrected, the guy meets a sympathetic guard who says his brother in another city will hire him if he goes there. What the guy doesn't know is that the guard is corrupt and has hidden something illegal in the guy's possessions when they're returned to him. Of course, this leads to more danger. It's not the greatest story but the point is that you can see the logical chain of cause and effect.

Naturally, there should be variations in pacing. At times your protagonist should seem to be winning--only to encounter an even bigger obstacle. 

6. Are there surprises along the way?

Audiences have seen a lot of movies. If they're consistently one step ahead of the plot, they''ll get bored. The surprises have to make sense in the context of the story, rather than being arbitrary.

7. Is the ending logical yet unpredictable--and a consequence of the actions of your protagonist?

If the ending comes out of the blue--for instance, as a result of the actions of a peripheral character--the audience will feel cheated.

The same is true if your ending depends on coincidence. A good rule of thumb is, "You can use coincidence to get your characters into trouble, but not out of trouble."

Sometimes you can't get around the ending being predictable: it's not likely that Lex Luther will succeed in killing Superman, for example. In that case, you have to come up with a surprise in how the ending comes about.

RELATED: IS YOUR SCREENPLAY STORY STRONG ENOUGH?

How Albert Einstein can help you rewrite your book or screenplay

Do you get stuck when you set out to do another draft of a screenplay, novel, or other creative project?

Albert Einstein allegedly said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them."

He wasn't talking about writing, but I think it applies.

When we write fiction, we're in a kind of dreaming state. We imagine what might happen and what people might say. It's a highly intuitive state, unless we are slavishly following a formula or template (not recommended if you want your work to be original).

If we stay in that state when we try to figure out how our first draft could be improved, often we'll either draw a blank or come up with something that makes the work different, but not necessarily better. 

The trick (thanks, Mr Einstein) is to move to a different level. In this case, the critical level.

The creative level vs. the critical level

The writing process is subjective, the critical level is analytical.

When you write, you're on the inside, in the moment with your characters. When you critique, you're looking at them from the outside and you can take a step back to assess the big picture.

How to switch levels

One way to change your mental state is to change your physical state first. 

• To snap out of the creative state, do a bit of movement--a brief brisk walk or a few stretches
  
  
• Move to a different location, even if just across the room from where you write
  
  
• Change your body position. Instead of sitting upright in a chair, lean back in an easy chair

Another strategy is to make the material seem less familiar, more like it's something someone else wrote since it's always easier for us to be objective about someone else's work.

• Print the script rather than viewing it on a screen
  
  
• Print it on different color paper
  
  
• Print it using a different font from the one on the screen
  

Remember you're a critic now, not a creator.

• Just like a professional critic would do, start by considering the totality of the work and identify any big problems. Read through the entire script and consider whether it has any major issues that will impact multiple scenes. Jot down your conclusions. For instance, a review I read recently said that the film couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a comedy, a satire, or a drama with amusing moments.
  
  
• Next, go through the script scene by scene and note weak points, inconsistencies, or other issues. For instance, when I go back to the first scene in a screenplay I ask myself whether it immediately creates a question in the minds of the reader (and, later, the audience). If they're curious, they'll want to continue reading or watching. 
  
  
• Don't try to solve these problems. A critic's role is to point out the good and bad points of a work, not to fix it. If a solution occurs to you, go ahead and note it but do not make any changes in the script--doing so will flip you out of the critical state.

Time to go back to the creator's state

When you've finished making your critical notes, go back to your usual work station and get back into the creative state. You'll have a list of things to fix but not how to fix them.

For instance, maybe one note is that the opening scene, an argument between the protagonist and his father at the dad's apartment, is too talky and doesn't make a visual impression. Now you can imagine how it would play out if, for example, it took place in public, or if the father showed his anger physically. Because you'll be tuned back into the characters, you'll think of options that are what they would actually do, not an arbitrary solution.

Keep shuttling back and forth

You don't have to wait to make all the changes before you go back into the critical state. You can take a printout of an individual scene to your critic's easy chair and assess whether the problem has been solved. This back-and-forth continues until you've made it the best you can.

Warning: don't do this just in your head!

Resist the temptation to think that it's just as easy to make the mental switch without the other changes I've suggested above. Yes, some people can do it, especially after years of practice, but it's difficult and often trying to create and judge at the same time leads to writer's block.

 

Is your screenplay story strong enough? Five questions that will reveal the answer

It's hard to be objective about your own work, but a good start is knowing what questions to ask.

A few years ago I came upon a Hollywood script reader's checklist--the questions they used in deciding whether or not a screenplay is worth recommending. In this post, I'll share the questions that relate to the basic story of your screenplay. I think they'd be useful if you're writing a novel as well:

1.   Imagine the trailer. Is the concept marketable?

Of course, nobody really knows what will be successful, but it helps if you can imagine how it might be marketed to catch people's attention.

2. Is the premise naturally intriguing? Does it make people want to know what happens?

A good way to test this is to tell people your premise. If they don't ask you questions about it, the idea may not be interesting enough.

3. Who is the target audience? Would your parents want to see it? Your children?

It's not that your script has to appeal to everybody, you just have to be clear from the start who you are targeting. For one thing, if it's an epic that's going to cost a lot to make, it had better have a broad appeal.

4. Is the concept original?

There's nothing new under the sun, but what aspect of your version makes it fresh and worth telling again? I know, there are plenty of movies that are tired retreads, but that's not what you want for your story.

5. Is there strong emotion at the heart of the story?

People go to movies to feel something--to be scared, or to laugh, or for the satisfaction of seeing rotten people get their comeuppance. Does your story have the potential to transport the audience out of their ordinary lives and give them an emotional experience they will enjoy and talk about with their friends?

Answer these questions as honestly as you can, and call on your gut feelings as well as logic.

Sometimes I've caught myself rationalizing that the story works but knowing in my gut or heart that it really doesn't.

That will catch up with you eventually, so it's much better to respond to it early on. That way you can fix it or move on to another idea.

If you have strong, honest answers to these questions and the ones coming up in the next post, you'll also have all the ingredients for a great pitch.

Post coming soon: IS YOUR SCREENPLAY PLOT AND STRUCTURE STRONG ENOUGH?

Which is better--revenge or forgiveness?

If you're writing a screenplay or novel, you may want to opt for revenge.

According to Science Daily, "When it comes to entertainment, people enjoy seeing bad guys get their punishment more than seeing them be forgiven, a new study reveals.

But even though they don't enjoy the forgiveness stories as much, people do find these narratives more meaningful and thought-provoking than ones in which the bad guys receive their just deserts.

"We like stories in which the wrongdoers are punished and when they get more punishment than they deserve, we find it fun," said Matthew Grizzard, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University."

Maybe the best bet are stories in which your wronged protagonists exact revenge...and then forgive themselves.

 

Your weakness can become your strength

What if your weakness could also be your strength?

In the previous post, I wrote about Dana Terrace, who persisted with an idea for a TV series that her colleague called dumb. The Owl House was renewed for a second season by Disney before the first one even aired. 

In an interview in the L. A. Times, Terrace mentioned feeling left out when she was a kid because she was kind of an oddball. She patterned one of the series' main characters on herself. She says, "He's just a little guy that wants to be big, so I always related to him. He's tiny and no one takes him seriously. He just wants to be taken seriously."

The reason I wanted to revisit this topic is that I think it demonstrates not only the power of persistence in the face of discouragement but also how we can turn what other people see as a weakness into a strength.

This is especially so for writers and artists because supposed weaknesses make great material. People will relate because everybody feels defective in some way, even the most apparently confident ones.

I did something similar in an animated series I created, called Norman Normal. The premise was that Noman is the only normal one in a family of superheroes. Even his baby sister and his dog have powers.

I think this mirrors the feeling of a lot of kids that they're surrounded by parents how have all the power and other kids who are smarter, better looking, or more talented. Of course, it was always Norman who came up with the solutions or was able to help his superhero family win the day. I hope some kids watching the show were comforted or inspired by that.

TURN IT AROUND FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Sometimes we avoid writing about our weaknesses and fears, even in the form of fiction, because they make us uncomfortable.

I'm suggesting that if you face your weakness or your fear and turn it into art--a script, a novel, a short story, a painting--you may end up creating your most powerful and appealing work. It could even be your most profitable work--56 episodes of Norman Normal were produced and because I had a good "created by" deal, it was quite lucrative.

This process can also be therapeutic, as I discovered when I wrote a play called "Killing Mother." (No, my mom never saw it.)

You don't have to make the work directly autobiographical--in fact, usually it's better if you give yourself a lot of leeway to fictionalize so that you can serve the story instead of being bound by the limitations of reality.

At the moment, I'm doing this with a screenplay called Leaving It Behind, about a criminal facing the end of his life. It was triggered when I had to have open-heart surgery and considered the (admittedly slim) chance that I might not make it. I'm not a criminal nor do I have a terminal illness (the operation went well) but the story incorporates a lot of my fears and thoughts at the time.

Maybe you're already doing this, but it may be worth checking whether there's anything in the darker corners of your psyche that you might turn around by putting it at the heart of your next project.

Can You Learn to Write Funny?

An old friend who teaches at a performing arts school recently asked me to look at a script for a short film, written by one of his students, that they are planning to film. It's the story of a young man who decides that using his gift for comedy is more important than going to college.

The problem with the script is that the writer doesn't have a gift for comedy and therefore neither does the character. If you're going to write a convincing funny character, you have to be able to be funny yourself. That brings me to a question I've been asked quite a few times:

CAN YOU LEARN TO WRITE FUNNY?

Sorry, but I think the answer is no. If you are naturally funny, certainly you can learn how best to channel that into screenplays or novels or essays, and the difference between writing for stand-up, sketches, sitcoms, movies, and plays. You can also learn how how to compose works that integrate comedy and drama.

However, if you don't start with a knack for comedy--which usually means you have an ability to see things from a different perspective--reading a book about the theory of threes, or why words starting with consonants are funnier than words that start with vowels, or that exaggeration is important, probably will not work for you. 

HOW TO FIND OUT WHETHER YOU'RE FUNNY

If you don't know whether or not you're funny (plenty of people who aren't, think they are), ask an honest friend whether they think humor is one of your greatest strengths.

That gives them the chance to say, "Hey, sure you're funny, but actually I think your greatest strengths are (x, y, z)."

Translation: "You're not funny." 

WHAT IF YOU'RE NOT FUNNY?

Write to your strengths. If you're not naturally funny, write drama, thrillers, horror, romance, or any of the other genres. Your gift, like that of my friend's student, may lie in other areas. 

 

The best opening for your screenplay or novel

I just read an article about Stephen King's new book, The Institute. The person who wrote the article admires King's novels but in this one he got to chapter 7 and there was still no story.

The Amazon blurb for the novel reads, "In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV."

That's intriguing, but even by chapter 7 there was no hint of that story.

Of course, King has millions of followers who are happy to let him take his time to get the story going, but the rest of us will do better to follow the advice to open your novel or screenplay with something intriguing going on that draws us in and has a strong connection to where the story is going. 

THE PROBLEM WITH NORMAL 

Usually, the first chapters or script pages are about the normal life of the protagonist, before the inciting incident that draws them into the main story. That allows us to identify with them and gives us a sense of their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, in a story about a teacher who is falsely accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student, the first act of a screenplay or the first chapters of a novel would give us a sense of the life that's about to be destroyed. The problem, of course, is that normal life typically isn't very compelling.

FORESHADOW WITH A HINT

Foreshadowing is giving a clue about what's going to be happening later. In our example story, we might have the teacher discipline several students for a prank. One of them comments to the friend who leads their little clique that he's surprised the friend isn't more upset about it. That student says, "That's OK. She won't be teaching our class--or any class--for much longer." OK, maybe a little heavy-handed, but it makes us wonder what he has in mind and we know it's not going to be good. That keeps us interested and buys the writer some time to get more into the life of the protagonist. 

FORESHADOW WITH A METAPHOR

If you can't foreshadow with an incident directly tied to the story, sometimes you can foreshadow with an incident that serves as a metaphor. For instance, during the teacher's happy birthday party there's a scream as one of the guests spots a rat running through the kitchen. Even though rats will not be playing a role in the rest of the story, it gives a hint that in the midst of this happy norm, there's a dark element that will disrupt her life.

This is especially useful if you have a story in which the tone changes drastically as the story goes on. It helps to prepare the reader or viewer on a subconscious level for what's to come.

USING BOOKENDS

You can open at the end of the story if it's exciting or intriguing, flash back to the start, build to the same ending moment with which you began. For instance, you might start a script with your protagonist on the gallows. As the noose is placed around his neck, he turns to the camera and says, "It all started so innocently..." Then you flash back to how it started and continue until we're at the moment with which you started. Then, either he dies, or he manages to get out of being hanged and is available for a sequel.

Another example is Titanic, in which we see old Rose at the start and end, but the core story belongs to young Rose.

OPENINGS TO AVOID

One opening to avoid that I've seen sometimes in novels and short stories is something like, "Little did Posie know that in a mere few days her life would change forever." Clunk!

A dream, especially a nightmare, as an opening tends to feel like a cheat, especially if we don't know it's a dream. 

Prologues can work but tend not to be popular with publishers. Sometimes the prologue is a moment in the heart of the action, a preview of what's to come, and then the novel starts back at the beginning. Or they might show, for instance, a trio of witches brewing up a curse that will come into play later in the story. 

IF YOU CAN'T THINK OF A WAY TO FORESHADOW

If you can't think of a good idea for foreshadowing as you write the first pages, don't worry. It can be easier to come up with that idea after you've gotten farther into the story or even completed the first draft. Often, I'll just write the first act without it and then go back and add it.

And once you get to be as popular as Stephen King, you won't have to worry about it!