Time to Write

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)

Is Your Screenplay's Protagonist's Problem Big Enough?

The weakness of a lot of screenplays is that the protagonist's central problem isn't big enough. It has to be something formidable enough to keep them challenged for the entire script.

While many stories are about matters of life and death, the definition of "big" in this case is not objective but rather how important it is to the protagonist. 

You can write a compelling screenplay featuring a character whose goal is objectively small, like winning a school race. The key is making sure it is of huge importance and consequence to the protagonist.

For instance, if the protagonist is a girl who is participating in a contest that is traditionally only for boys and if she's bullied, made fun of, and misunderstood even by the adults in her life we will feel the urgency of her quest and root for her to win. 

IT HAS TO BE RELATABLE

The protagonist's challenge has to be relatable, but not necessarily in its specifics.

For instance, a protagonist may be striving to overcome a challenge with which we don't have any personal experience, but we can all relate to the feeling of having a big goal and having to fight for it.

When you are thinking about the central conflict of your protagonist, consider what makes it relatable for the audience. What is the emotion or goal that's driving the protagonist? For instance, it might be survival against a deadly force, the desire to better themselves, or righting a wrong.

THE PROTAGONIST HAS TO BE RELATABLE, TOO

Going back to the example of the school race, a big part of what makes us care in that example is the underdog nature of the girl. Most of us can relate to being misunderstood, to being made fun of, and to wanting to prove ourselves, just like her. 

In many cases, the protagonist is likable from the start, but that's not essential. As long as they are interesting, we'll stick around, especially if we get the feeling that the story will give them a character arc that transforms them in a positive direction.

THE PROBLEMS HAVE TO ESCALATE

If the problem your protagonist faces seventy minutes in is the same level of difficulty as it was twenty minutes in there's a good chance we'll get bored before we get to minute seventy.

Just as a boxer has to fight opponents of increasing skill levels before taking on the champ, make your protagonist come up against bigger and bigger challenges. Let them have some small wins along the way, too, to keep them motivated, but each step of the way they should be in great danger of failing.

BE MEAN!

A writer I used to know never made it because he was too nice. Even in fiction, he couldn't bring himself to subject somebody to the kind of cruelty you'll have to impose upon your protagonist. In fact, he couldn't even imagine such cruelties in an original way, so his scripts were too derivative, relying on specific plot elements he'd seen in other films. 

Don't be nice--this is one instance when any cruel impulses you may have can be put to good use!

ASK THESE QUESTIONS AT THE IDEA STAGE

It's unfortunate when a writer goes to all the effort of writing a complete screenplay before they discover that one of the above elements is missing.

Actually, often the person who discovers this first is an agent or producer for whom this lack is the reason they reject the script.

You can save yourself a lot of time by making sure at the idea stage that each of these is present. Ask yourself:

• Is the protagonist someone the audience will like or at least find interesting? What is it about them that the audience will find of interest or to which the audience can relate, like being an underdog or being confronted with unfair treatment?
  
  
• Is the challenge one the audience can relate to on a basic level? What is the protagonist's essential drive in facing this challenge, like righting a wrong, protecting their family, etc.?
  
  
• Does the conflict escalate as the story proceeds? What are the major steps of the conflict? (Tip: if you can put them in any different order without affecting the story, they're not escalating.)

If you have a strong answer to each of these questions, the odds are that your story will work.

The two things you have to know about your screenplay or novel plot

Screenplay and novel plots are ambitious, complicated things. I've found that making sure you know the answer to two questions is helpful from start to finish.

 

1. What's the story about?
   
   
2. What's the story REALLY about?
   

 

WHAT'S THE STORY ABOUT?

This simply means, what's the basic idea?

It's similar to a logline, but since the latter is designed to get somebody else interested in the story, it needs to be carefully crafted. That's not necessary here. All that's required is a simple statement like:

"It's about a husband and wife who let their divorce turn into a force that destroys both of them."

"It's about a group of middle-aged male friends whose attempt to re-create a wild night they had when they were in high school ends in disillusion about their past."

"It's about a superhero who has to give up the love of his life in order to keep saving the world."

Notice the elements: the protagonist(s), the conflict, and the outcome.

The answer will guide you through the rest of the process.

If you developed the plot of the first one, for instance, you would check that every major scene revolves around the husband and/or wife, that whatever they do keeps escalating in destructiveness, and that by the end they've both been destroyed (financially, emotionally, or literally).

Sometimes this kind of simple statement reveals that the story is flawed, and it's good to find that out at the start rather than after you've written the whole script or novel. 

For instance: "A man turns to crime in order to raise money for expensive medical treatment for his child but is able to return to the honest ways he prefers when he wins the lottery." What's wrong with this, of course, is that the solution to his problem comes out of nowhere instead of somehow being the result of his struggles.

WHAT IS IT REALLY ABOUT?

Here we're talking about the theme. If you don't decide on one it's more likely you'll lose your way in the writing process.

The three elements (character, conflict, outcome) will point toward the theme.

If the divorcing couple is fighting over who gets what, the theme might be that greed is destructive.

If their conflict stems from a desire for revenge because each thinks the other was responsible for betraying them, the theme could be that revenge is destructive to both parties.

Since the story about the middle-aged men ends badly, the theme could be that it's better to look forward rather than back.

If your story was, "By recreating a night they experienced when they were in high school, a group of middle-aged men rediscover the sense of fun they'd lost," the theme could be that it's never too late to experience the fun of youth."

Which one is right? Whichever one you believe.

If you have a story description for which you can't identify a theme, that may be an indication that the story is flawed.

Going back to the earlier example, what's the theme of, "A man turns to crime in order to raise money for expensive medical treatment for his young son but is able to return to the honest ways he prefers when he wins the lottery?"

I can't think of one.

If the ending is that he gets caught but not before he's paid for the child's treatment, then the theme might be, "No sacrifice is too great for the life of your child."

If the ending is that he gets caught and then it comes out that the child's illness was misdiagnosed and he never actually needed expensive treatment, then the theme might be, "Life is a joker and the joke is on us."

WHICH COMES FIRST, PLOT OR THEME?

Some writers start with a theme they consider important and fashion a story that fits, but in my experience, most start with a character, a moment, or the seed of a story, and then figure out what it's really about.

For example, I'm working on a script about a small group of people who go to a personal development retreat, struggle with their inner demons, and end up getting not what they want but what they need.

The theme is that when you try to find yourself, the person who turns up may not be the one you want to meet.

Note that this story, like most, could be a comedy or a tragedy. Because my experience is that life is a combination of the two, so is my story. 

WHAT IF YOU'RE NOT SURE OF THE THEME AT THE START?

Sometimes it happens that you're not sure of the theme at the start. That's fine, just develop the story until you figure out its basics, especially the ending. When you've done that, the theme will emerge.

AREN'T THESE THEMES SIMPLISTIC?

Yep. That's why you build a story that represents a more sophisticated embodiment of the theme. The theme should be so well clothed in the story that the viewer or reader is not aware of it until much later--if at all. We're telling stories, not preaching sermons. The theme will have an impact on the subconscious level even if the reader or viewer never thinks about it.

"Love conquers all" has spawned a million stories and there's room for a million more. There's also room for stories which suggest that "Love can't conquer all," for those writers who believe that.

KEEP THEM VISIBLE

I recommend that you write the answers to the two questions on an index card or a sticky note that you keep visible as you write. If you get stuck, go back to these and the chances are you'll find your solution.

 

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. 

It's not about the setback, it's about the (writing) comeback

"It's not about the setback, it's about the comeback" is a phrase I saw the other day and it really stood out to me.

Some people have used this weird time to double down on their writing, but many others have found even if they had more time it has been really hard to focus. That can easily spiral down into a long-term abandonment of your writing.

If you've had a writing setback, let's start thinking about your comeback.

Sometimes comebacks take the form of a splash of glory: a dramatic event that shows you're back. In writing terms, this could be putting aside a full weekend for nothing but re-starting your writing. Turn off your internet access, warn your significant others that you're going to be busy and not to be interrupted unless bleeding is involved. Turn off your inner critic, too. This session is about cranking out a lot of words. You'll be rewriting some of them later but, for now, just get the flow going again.

Other comebacks take the form of small steps. Fifteen minutes a day, maybe thirty. In this form, consistency is the key. Make a commitment to yourself and maybe to others that you're going to write for at least fifteen minutes per day for the next thirty days. On days when it's flowing and you have time, keep writing. On days it's not flowing, write something anyway. You can always throw it out later. 

With either approach, it won't be long before the comeback overshadows the setback!

ps: If you need some guidance, see my book, Your Writing Coach, available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

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.

How to Write Video Game Scripts

I had an email asking me for any tips I could offer for how to become a writer for video games. This is one arena in which I don't have any personal experience, but I found this excellent overview:

https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/how-to-become-a-video-game-script-writer/

I'm sure under the current stay home conditions video games are becoming even more popular and it's probably a great career opportunity for writers who are also gamers. 

How to surprise yourself

Writer and producer Andrew Yang told Fast Company, "You should be surprising yourself. You should be challenging yourself. Playing within the bounds of what everything you've seen before has done, you can get somewhere with that. But I feel like it's most exciting when you can show people something new and really surprise them."

What stands in the way usually is our inner critic, the voice that says, "Isn't that too different? If that would work, wouldn't somebody else have done it already?"

I think the best strategy for overcoming that is to tell yourself, "Let's play with this for a while and see what happens." Winning over your inner critic is challenging, but getting it to reserve judgment for a while is easier.

Years ago I decided I wanted to start a newsletter. It wasn't long before I found myself thinking, "Will people really be interested?"  and "Won't it take too much time?" and "How would I distribute it?"

I managed to fend off my inner critic enough to play around with the format and content and put together a rough version.

I found that I enjoyed the process and that the material could be useful to aspiring screenwriters like me.

That gave me the momentum and confidence to keep going. I went ahead and published the newsletter and a mention in the Los Angeles Times helped launch it. After a few years, when scriptwriting was keeping me busy, I sold the newsletter on to a friend who ran it for several years and then sold it on to someone else.

What ideas do you have that your inner critic has been blocking? Make a deal to play around with the idea for a while.

You may surprise yourself.

 

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.