Bits of Screenwriting 101 by Film Crit Hulk

I finished reading Screenwriting 101 by Film Crit Hulk, and I recommend it for anyone who writes stories—not only screenplays.

Below are some of my favorite passages. I highlighted a lot of stuff, so narrowing it down was hard!

Hulk's working definition of storytelling:

a good narrative is compelling to the audience, economically told, feels real either in terms of emotion, detail, or texture, and speaks to some thematic truth that you recognize in yourself or the world at large.

On inspiration carrying you through to the end of a story:

A finished film is as close to the inspiration that spawned it as that original scribbled note on a napkin. To the creator, they are conceptually the same thing, no matter how much they might have changed. Never forget that. Because the germ of your idea can be the thing that must constantly light the fire underneath you as you go forth. When you are in the slog of working out the logistics, you must find that same inspiration. Even if the project radically changes, the idea itself should be a through-line that saves your script throughout the process. The moment of inspiration is both your motive and motivation.

On endings:

If all the ideas in our films mean something, then your ending should say everything. [...] do not look at the ending of your piece as a burden, but as an opportunity. An opportunity to say everything you want to say in your movie. It is an opportunity to be poetic, resonant, and interesting. It is an opportunity to be soulful and underline the purpose of storytelling.

On heroes:

It’s not that anyone can be a hero, but that a hero can come from anywhere.

On the hero's journey, and how you don't have to use that model for a good hero story:

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is 1) about a superhero 2) one of the most respected and successful superhero films ever and 3) and it doesn’t even really touch the Campbell model in any strong way. Instead, it’s built around moment-to-moment propulsion of story. It grounds its characterization in theme and keeps things going in a far more involving and modern way.

On forward motion that keeps the audience interested:

So what I’m saying is that you come up with an idea and it’s like ‘okay, this happens’ and then ‘THIS happens.’ No no no. It should be ‘this happens’ and THEREFORE ‘this happens.’ BUT ‘this happens’ THEREFORE ‘this happens.’

On genre:

Every kind of story is different. Every one of them works with a certain set of expectations and catharsis. And part of being able to write any kind of story means you should know how to write every kind of story.

On Tarantino's mastery of cinematic mechanisms:

People think that Tarantino is always trying to be cool or that he makes “cool” films, but if you ask Hulk this is a spectacular misdiagnosis. Yes, Quentin wants his films to be cool, but that’s not how he actually constructs them! Seriously! Oftentimes, his characters are grounded in a kind of regularity and focus on the mundane. He obsesses in the obscure and the uncool. More than that, he constructs his films in terms of function: his long-form dialogues are just as much about classic innovations of drama and build up and tension. He’s a guy who knows his craft and knows the purpose of every single cinematic mechanism he’s employing.

On the most important thing in writing adaptations:

You want the people of the property to be the same people in the film. That’s everything, really. Audiences just want to recognize the characters they have come to love or be fascinated by.

On getting through the first draft:

Just write the first draft no matter what. Don’t care if it’s good. Don’t care if it even works. Don’t care even if it’s gobbledygook. Just get it done. It doesn’t matter. Get it all up on the page because no one ever has to see it. Remove the paralysis. Get in a place so you can see it all before you. So you can see what needs to be done and how it needs to be changed. And then? Do, like, 7 rewrites... at least.

On having thick skin:

James Gunn said: “The key to show business is to give 110% while simultaneously not giving a shit.” Give 110% percent because you can’t accomplish anything in this business without enthusiasm and genuine intent. Be joyful and take pride when things go well. But don’t give a shit in the sense that you have to take rejection in stride. Don’t let failure bother you.

Reverse engineering Odd Thomas

In Screenwriting 101 by FilmCritHulk, Hulk explains the process of creating characters by matching up specific kinds of information to the human body. You start at the feet and work your way up to the head: "You start factual, then get emotional, then ideological, and then amalgamate those details into an actual character psychology."

He details the process and then suggests an exercise: look at an existing character and fill in the information for them.

I want to work through that for Odd, the main character in Odd Thomas (movie version, not book version). I like that this is a superhero story where the character doesn't think of himself as a superhero, and I like the idea of pulling it apart to see how that character works.

So here I go with Hulk's process.

Feet (Physical details and basic facts)

• Appearance: Male, Caucasian, mid-twenties, average height, lean build, dark hair, blue eyes
• Family: Father is police chief. Mother has been in a psych ward since Odd was 12 years old because she claimed to have psychic abilities and had violent episodes. No siblings. Middle class. We don't know about any other family members.
• Friends: Viola (waitress at the diner); Stormy (girlfriend)
• Location: Pico Mundo (desert town in California)
• Occupation: works as a short order cook at a diner. Also unofficially helps out with police investigations because he inherited his mother's psychic abilities.

 

Groin (What does he want?)

• A simple life, because his psychic abilities complicate his life
• To keep his abilities secret (so that he doesn't end up like his mother)
• To be with Stormy

 

Heart (What does he need?)

• Needs to have a purpose for his abilities (he believes they are a gift he is meant to use)
• Needs to have someone in his life who accepts him as he is, despite all the weirdness in his life. (That person is Stormy.)

 

Throat (How does he sound and project himself?)

• Speaks quietly but confidently
• Sarcastic, especially with Stormy
• Gives off a casual, easy-going vibe, despite all the danger that surrounds him
• Is confident about his abilities and insistent when he needs his father's help
• Accepts his abilities as a matter-of-fact—he doesn't brag about them and he doesn't shy away from them. 
• Is honest when he can be (with his father and with Stormy) about what he sees and what he knows. When he can't be completely honest, he tells people what they need to know so that they stay safe.
• Knows how to fight and take care of himself, but he isn't aggressive or violent unless he really needs to be (like when the bad guy is after him or people's lives are in danger)

 

Left cheek ("left-brained" abilities)

• Intelligent, sometimes more than he lets on
• Investigates on his own and sometimes will talk through things with Stormy
• Good observer
• Works a lot like a detective would: figure out a suspect, piece together a timeline, go through a process of elimination until he has a clear picture of a situation

 

Right cheek ("right-brained" abilities)

• Thinks outside the box (because of his psychic abilities)
• Strong belief in justice and righting wrongs
• BUT will break the law for a greater good
• Acts on gut feelings as much as logical decisions
• Doesn't see himself a superhero
• Believes in a higher power and an afterlife (but isn't more specific than that)

 

Crown (Who is this character?)

Odd Thomas is a man with psychic abilities that he uses to solve crimes and help people. Because of the weirdness in his life, he tries to keep other aspects of his life simple and grounded. He is confident about his psychic abilities and helping people but also humble, never bragging about what he can do and never considering himself a superhero. He is intelligent and methodical in solving crimes, but he can also be impulsive. He has a matter-of-fact mindset about his circumstances, accepting his abilities and using them to help people.

Functional fixedness in writing

There's a psych term, functional fixedness, for a concept about being stuck thinking about an object only in the way it was intended to be used. Binder clips are only for holding together a stack of papers and you wouldn't think of using them for anything else.

I have a good memory for concepts but not always for their formal names, so I referred to that idea as the opposite of what MacGyver has. He can solve any problem with simple objects (like paper clips, duct tape, and a Swiss army knife) because he thinks beyond common uses.

I've been thinking about what functional fixedness looks like in writing. It could mean that you stick with initial ideas instead of thinking of other possibilities. It might mean that you don't look beyond usual genre tropes.

So how do you get unstuck? Or maybe a better question is, how do you keep your mind flexible?

One answer is, look at stories and pull them apart. The story could be in any medium—look at novels but also look at TV, movies, comic books, podcasts, plays...whatever interests you.

Ask questions about the characters, story structure, plot, writing style, tone. Figure out what works and what doesn't. Think about why you like or don't like the story.

Stay flexible by paying close attention to stories.

Photo credit: Hallvard E via photopin cc

Day One backs up my brain

I started using Day One a few months ago, but not for journaling. Going by the reviews in the App Store, most people do that. They use Day One as a diary or maybe as a travel journal.

I've been using Day One to write about stuff that I’m reading and watching, and it has been working really well.

Before Day One, I kept a handwritten journal to record my thoughts and ideas related to TV shows, movies, and novels. Positive or negative reactions, why something does (or doesn’t) keep my interest. It's the Media Studies major in me—I can't help it.

I started recording those kinds of thoughts last year after I read Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer. He references Michel de Montaigne, who wrote “a short critical judgment” in the back of every book he read so later he could reference what the book was about and what he thought of it. He didn't have to depend on his memory to keep track of everything he read.

I liked that idea, and it works well enough for books, but sometimes I give mine away. Sometimes I borrow books from friends or read e-books, and I can't write in those. I wanted to record my reactions to TV shows and movies too, so I starting writing all of those thoughts in a notebook. Entries in a physical notebook have limitations, though, and I’ve found that Day One remedies all of them.

1. My handwriting gets messy, especially when I’m trying to get my thoughts down quickly. On the plus side, I’m used to my messy writing so I can still read it, but it’s still sloppy on the page. Not really something that’s easy to reference afterwards. I type in Day One. Effortless neatness.

2. I like going back to add things. Writing entries back-to-back in a physical notebook doesn’t allow me to go back and add thoughts, like after the second time I watch a movie. Leaving some blank space between entries doesn’t work well either, because that’s wasted space if I never go back to it. I can edit entries in Day One, even re-write them if I want to, without affecting the rest of the entries.

3. Physical notebooks can be difficult to navigate (unless I make some kind of index). Day One is searchable, and you can tag entries. It’s easy to look for something I wrote before. It’s easy to find related entries.

4. I can’t easily back up a physical notebook. (Photocopying every page is probably my best option.) Day One lets me export my entries as PDFs, so I create back up copies periodically to make sure I don’t lose my writing.

Day One has an easy-to-use, simple interface. It stays out of your way so you can write.

Photo credit: Livro ou TV? by Lubs Mary. via photopin cc

Evernote for writing

Someone asked me how I use Evernote when I write fiction. Here's what I do.

I keep one notebook for all of my fiction, and then I have a note for each story or idea. Each note basically looks like an outline and I have sections for characters, locations, and plot ideas. I add to notes as I write stories so that I have a quick reference. That way, for example, I don’t have to skim the whole story to find the name of the cafe where a minor character works. I make these kinds of notes in Evernote so that it’s faster for me to check details as I’m writing.

One fiction notebook works for me because I use it as a reference, but if I used Evernote for planning, organizing, and even drafting a story, then I would use one notebook for each story and have notes for characters, research, plot, and ideas.

I would do something like this:

Create a new notebook and name it the title of the story (or a working title…I always use working titles because I never know what to call something until it’s finished).

Then create notes.

One for the plot outline. I don't like planning out every detail beforehand, so my outlines are basic bullet points about the beginning, middle, and end of the story. If you like more detail, your outline might go chapter by chapter. If you want to set yourself on a schedule, include deadlines to complete each part.

I like making my outlines manually, but there are outline and number list buttons in the toolbar that you can use.



There is also a to do list button that you can use to make lists (maybe for things you need to research) and then you can check off items as you complete them.



Characters. This note includes physical descriptions of the characters (and possibly photos of what they look like) and comments about their personality, past, friends, family, goals, motivations, and anything else that’s important.

Locations. I don’t know about other people, but I like keeping track of characters and the plot by what happens where. I list and describe the major locations/settings for the story. Maybe the main character’s house, school/job, friend’s house…wherever things are happening in your story. Include photos if that’s helpful.

Progress. If you like keeping track of your writing progress, you can make a table directly in Evernote.



Make columns for the information you want to keep track of. Date, Number of words written, Chapters completed, Time spent writing…whatever you want. Here’s an example.

Click to embiggen

Ideas. I use this note to write ideas about the plot, characters, dialogue…anything that I want to work into the story.

Two other things. You can tag your notes by typing in tags in the top toolbar.



I don’t use tags in Evernote, but it might be useful for you, depending on how you set up your notebooks and notes. For example, you could tag all of your character-related notes “characters” and then if you wanted to see them all together (even across notebooks), they would be linked together with the tag.

Also, you can email notes by clicking on the gray arrow at the top right.



That’s helpful if you want to email a copy of a note to yourself (as a backup) or to someone else.

If you use Evernote to draft a story (one note for Chapter 1, another note for Chapter 2), I strongly recommend that you email yourself copies of the notes or copy and paste them into a word processing document. Back up your writing in at least one place outside Evernote, just in case anything happens to your notebooks.

That's how I use Evernote to help me write fiction. What do you do with Evernote?

On planning stories

George R.R. Martin says there are two kinds of writers, architects and gardeners:

I've always said there are – to oversimplify it – two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail, they design the entire house, where the pipes are running, and how many rooms there are going to be, how high the roof will be. But the gardeners just dig a hole and plant the seed and see what comes up. I think all writers are partly architects and partly gardeners, but they tend to one side or another, and I am definitely more of a gardener. (x)

When I'm writing fiction, I like knowing the basic elements beforehand and figuring out everything else in the process of writing. I'm an architect at the beginning but then I take the gardening approach.

I like seeing how other people organize their notes, and maybe you do too, so here are a few ways I have organized story notes.

In my head

When I first have an idea, I keep everything in my head. I've always had a good memory for stories, so it's easy for me to figure out characters, places, plot points, even structure—and keep it in my memory. This method lets me have my "notes" with me all the time and I can work on the story wherever and whenever (nice), but it's also possible I'll think of something and forget it before I fit it into the story information I already worked out (bummer).

Paper

When things get more detailed, I move to paper. I draw diagrams, flow charts, maps, and webs. I use a notebook for this method, so it's portable (nice), but I tend to take notes haphazardly so it can be difficult to search through my notes (bummer).

Evernote

I keep one digital notebook for a story with separate notes for characters, a rough outline, locations, and ideas. I can access Evernote from any internet connection and it's searchable (nice), but digital notes means that I don't see them all the time (bummer). They don't have a physical presence on my desk to remind me that I should be writing (instead of scrolling through Tumblr).

Index cards

Using index cards is a hybrid method of Evernote and physical paper. I just started using these for the story I'm working on. I have cards for characters (one on each card, adding details as I write them into the story), locations, and scenes. I use different colored cards to separate information (character cards are blue and scene cards are white). Hole-punching the cards and keeping them on a ring makes them portable. (So would wrapping a rubber band around the stack, but I like being able to turn through the cards.) I can rearrange the cards however I want, whenever I need to (nice), but card size is a limitation, so I might need a notebook in conjunction with index cards (bummer).

How do you like to organize notes?

Weekend Roundup - April 28

A different list this week: blogs and feeds that post creative writing prompts.

On Tumblr

FY Writing Prompts
I Dare You To Write
Odd Prompts
Photo Prompts
To Write Prompts
Writing Prompts That Don't Suck
Yeah Write!

On Blogger

Prompts for Writers
Easy Street Prompts

Lists

CreativeWritersPrompts.com
25 Creative Writing Prompts (Writing Forward)
Thirteen Writing Prompts (McSweeney's)
The Daily Prompt (Reddit)

Weekend Roundup - April 14

Articles I read this week. Sources in parentheses. Comments from me.

How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes (Copyblogger) - Tips on how to quickly write quality posts. I like #7 the best —"Never save a good idea."

Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When You Write? (Copyblogger) - I mess up with "e.g." = "for example." My problem is, I pull from Spanish and write "e.j." (for "ejemplo").

Stop calling us 'PR practitioners' (PR Daily) -  The article says that "practitioner" is "a serious-sounding word that is supposed to add credibility to the profession." I don't think it sounds serious, though, because I associate "practitioner" with witchcraft and magic. "PR practitioner," then, sounds like a role you cannot legitimize. Magic isn't real, so what are these people doing at work every day?

What Writers Can Learn From Rockstars (The Review Review) - The analogy to aspiring musicians is great.

Dresden and Thomas: when two characters trust each other

In movies and TV shows, we can see what two characters are like when they're together. It doesn't matter if they're siblings, friends, a romantic couple, or enemies. Their interactions are on the screen. They have dialogue and body language. We have a lot of information to help us figure out what their relationship is like.

Relationships can be more difficult to convey in novels because we don't have all of those visual clues. The small details are in words, like the rest of the story, instead of in facial expressions and tone of voice. And yet, in the Dresden Files series, author Jim Butcher gives us a clear understanding of relationships between characters.

For example, take Harry Dresden and his brother Thomas. Going by the conversations Harry and Thomas have and the insight we gain from Harry's point of view, we have a pretty good understanding of their relationship. But we gain an even better understanding during scenes when Thomas and Harry face a threat together. That's when we see the high level of trust between Harry and Thomas.

I noticed this in White Night's fight scenes, but there are probably examples in earlier books too. Harry yells at Thomas to duck out of the way, and Thomas immediately drops to the ground. No hesitation and no doubt. Vice versa, Harry follows whatever instruction Thomas gives him. Communicating like that during dangerous situations works only with immediate responses, and immediate responses require a high level of trust. Otherwise, a delay on either Thomas's or Harry's part could mean death for one or both of them.

The way those moments are written, it feels natural that Harry and Thomas would trust each other like that, to the point that I didn't realize their high level of trust until I read past those scenes.

Part of the reason for the delayed realization is that we don't have visual cues. If I were watching that fight scene on a screen, I would have seen how quickly one man responded to the other, and it would have been obvious that they are used to fighting together and trust each other. But reading the scene in a book, we have to meet the author halfway. He gives us the details and we have to make connections to figure out what's happening.

Weekend Roundup - March 31

Articles I read this afternoon. Sources in parentheses. Comments from me.

Nine of the Best Ways to Boost Creative Thinking (Lifehacker)

How Can I Downsize My Ridiculously Large Wallet? (Lifehacker) - I'm happy with the way my wallet is, and I still read articles like this. I like seeing how people organize their things.

On Keeping a Notebook in the Digital Age (Medium) - I go back and forth on this topic, but I still feel most comfortable with pen and paper, most of the time.

The Spark File (Medium) - I like that the emphasis is on recording bits of stuff and ideas, without necessarily thinking of the big picture or end product.

Feedly Updates with 10 New Features to Help Ease Your Google Reader Transition (Lifehacker) - Right, Google Reader is shutting down in July. That's the thing in the back of my mind that keeps making me sad. I have a few alternatives to check out, and Feedly is one of them.

You Don't Always Have to Give Two Weeks Notice When Leaving Your Job (Lifehacker)

When It's Okay to Write for Free (Lifehacker) - Be sure to check out the comments after the article for various viewpoints on when it is (and isn't) okay to write for free.

Is Clara the New River Song on Doctor Who? (io9) - Spoilers for "The Bells of St. John."

Goodreads and Three Alternatives for Soical Bookworms (PopSugar) - You may have heard that Amazon purchased Goodreads this week. Not a big deal for me, since I'm hardly even on Goodreads, but some people are worried that Amazon will negatively affect the Goodreads community. This article reviews three similar social sites.

What Extremely Successful People Were Doing at Age 25 (Business Insider)

Point of View in A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

One of the things I like most in A Game of Thrones is how George R.R. Martin uses point of view. He moves the story so that we see it from Eddard's eyes, then move on to Bran, to Jon, Sansa, Catelyn, and so on.

Switching points of view works so well because these characters' stories interlock, and this also creates tension within the story. We see all the points of view, so sometimes the tension comes from waiting to see what happens when a character finds out something we saw in an earlier chapter. At other times tension comes from leaving one character at a critical moment and not seeing her point of view again for 50 pages or more.

With seeing all the parts of the larger story, surprises might lose their impact, but that's not the case. Many times in the book, we find out something at the same moment as a character. Even when we know about an event before it reaches across the kingdom, it's still exciting to see what happens.

Does everything a spider can

For several weeks in July, August, and September, I watched every episode of Spider-Man, the animated series that was on FOX from 1994 to 1997. I had seen most of the episodes growing up, but seeing them again now, I realize how much this cartoon series respected children as an audience.

I see respect for the audience in several aspects of the show:

1. Complex characters. Peter Parker is consistently an intelligent and flawed character. We see how smart he is in figuring how to defeat villains, and when he makes mistakes it's because his  arrogance, carelessness, or anger. Everything Peter does makes sense, though. His actions are logical reactions to what happens to him and around him. The villains are relatively flat compared to Peter, but even they have logical motivations. Doc Ock needs resources for his research. The Green Goblin sabotages the King Pin's work so that Norman Osbourne can keep a clean reputation.

2. Multiple story lines at the same time. Episodes often contain one problem for Peter Parker and one for Spider-Man. Besides those, we see plot developments with Mary Jane, Harry, and Aunt May.

3. Multi-episode stories. Spider-Man often carried a story over several episodes. Recaps at the beginning of every episode probably helped children follow along, but even so, children had to pay close attention to make sense of the larger story. Characters and other elements from early seasons came back in the final season of the show. That's a lot of detail to ask children to remember.

4. Crossovers. I'm impressed with the number of Marvel characters Spider-Man features. I started keeping track after I realized crossovers were a recurring theme. The X-Men, Punisher, Daredevil, Iron Man, War Machine, Captain America, Blade, Red Skull, and Fantastic Four all teamed up with or fought against Spider-Man in the series.

Spider-Man respected its child audience by offering entertaining, complex stories. The banter and action scenes so typical of superhero cartoons are there, but so are deeply emotional scenes, like when Peter loses Mary Jane. The creators of the series must have felt that children could follow and enjoy these stories. Or else, why would they bother writing such developed plots and characters?

I feel like today's creators of children's television have much lower expectations for their audience. Children today are lucky to watch characters who behave rationally, let alone see complicated and satisfying story lines.

Flicker In The Night

I've been updating my short fiction blog often over the last few weeks.  I'm not sure if that's only because I've been home on break of if it's something that will continue, but it's something.