Plan of attack

[1mper1um]

Originally Posted by mr_purple

What would help you is to have a detailed back story for all of your principle characters.

Thanks for the input but this doesn't help nor do I place much stock in such auto bios. There is a pro who feels the same but no doubt his is a lone voice. The bulk of his reasoning is that characters may change if required. Mine is that I don't need to know his favourite drink, where he went to school or when he lost his virginity. I only need to know the relevant details. And if I did, I'd already know them. I've already figured out the necessary aspects even without writing them down.

Anyway, I don't want to start down that path but if others do then fair enough. But what helps you doesn't go for all. Harry Dean Stanton created an indepth bio for his character in Alien, right down to high school. Yet Laurence Olivier - re: the Dustin Hoffman tete a tete - would just turn up and act. Shake your heads at my "ignorance" all you want. It doesn't matter.

With regards to the way this thread has panned out: to save you all time and trouble, I wouldn't say the scenes are interchangeable if they weren't. They serve to shrink my protag's options. Eg: ex girlfriend won't help him, he gets mugged, his acquaintances turn out to be fair weathered etc. All scenes also help demonstrate his character and persona too so the audience learns about him and sides with him.

Now, the listed examples aren't the ones in my script but you get the drift. And they are interchangeable. So thanks for offering advice about pushing forward and being interesting to the viewer but I know that and it wasn't relevant. Anyway, never mind, I'll take some time and figure this s.hit out.

Apologies for my weariness, I just sense things going askew from my OP. I need to ask myself some questions instead of the forum and I fear this thread will descend into a hoo ha about the necessity of character bios. And I've had enough of simple posts turning into protracted, philosophical debates, and topics where there is no right or wrong, just preference, being ran over by people laying down their beliefs as facts. My "quick question on voice" thread got hijacked by the "I'll tell you what voice is" brigade and now another member of this clan has started another such thread to impart their autocracy.

Jesus....

And the same people will wade in: "you're wrong!", "no, you're wrong!" - "it's the way you write", "no - it's what you write about" - rinse and repeat. And you know what? None of it makes a jot of difference to my writing. So I'm just gonna take a back seat from all this pontificating and point scoring and just focus on writing a good script. Feedback I've had is that I've got off to a flyer and that's all that matters. And I did it, apparently, being completely wrong about "voice".

So f.uck it. F.uck the semantics. And f.uck the "Im right, you're wrong, I'm gonna squabble this pointless point into the ground" mentality. I want to write - not be a screenwriting lecturer, or pompous ass sat in a coffee shop impressing my other non pro writer friends so none of it frigging matters. You win an argument, your understanding of a term is correct, hooray! Now did it move you nearer to a sale? Did it improve your script? 'Til it does, and 'til scripts get optioned based on your knowledge of non existent writing "rules" and history of lexicon, I don't wanna know.

Cheers to all. Out.

[darkestbeforedawn]

Lots of blackspace imperium. I'd like to believe that writing is a lot like fishing. You cast the line out maybe 100 times in the day and maybe that line comes back only 8 times with a fish at the other end.

The point is to cast that line out and see what works for you. Cast it out again and see what works for you. Cast it out again . . .

Never know what you're gonna catch.

DD

[FADE IN]

Originally Posted by cshel

Wow, you must be really old, then!

I read that "the sequence approach has its foundation in early Hollywood cinema" and that "until the 1950's, most screenplays were formatted with sequences explicitly identified". It's been taught at some universities for decades. Gulino taught the method and wrote a book on it way before that "Million Dollar" guy popped up to make a buck off of it.

LOL!

Gimme a break, I just missed it ya know, too busy writing. I've never pursued nor followed up much on the "method of the day" either, like "How to Write a Screenlay in 21 Days," or even the stuff that Syd Field wrote. I took some courses from UCLA Film School on-line and was mentored for a year by a Hollywood pro and hung out in the writer crowd in that town for a spell.

Still, never heard of "sequencing" until I stumbled upon the Screenwriter's Goldmine some months ago, where it was being flogged like the best thing since sliced bread.

Shoot me!

[spinningdoc]

Well, I've used it on stuff I've sold, but each to their own.

The didacticism about it is interesting though. Giulino's book is actually pretty non-didactic: doesn't claim anything more than you can deconstruct a lot of films into sequences, and not even necessarily eight, and certainly not the same length. It focuses more on 'what happens next' than the subsequent 'leechers' allow, too.

[jonpiper]

Originally Posted by mr_purple

As far as the structure issues you mentioned in another post. Consider applying the sequence method. It allows you to attack your story in 15 page burst or "mini-acts". Give your protag something to get to(goal) by page 15,30,45,60 ect. You'll still come out with a classic 3 act structure but the story will have more focused emotional crescendos that keep the reader/audience interested.

This is helpful. I would add: The "goals" in the first act can be plot points important to the story (like the plot points Fields talks about, the turn into Act 2, etc.), not necessairly goals the protag is actively seeking.

Originally Posted by FADE IN

We need something to help us organize our second Acts...

I usually start by telling myself I want this guy (my protag) to encounter and have to deal with five or six big obstacles over the next 50 or 60 pages and I want them to become progressively more difficult and complicated, until the last one is so challenging it appears to take his life.

So then I can have him rise like a Phoenix from the ashes and make his dash to the end through the third Act, whereupon he conquers all in a climactic scene that provides the audience with a meaningful emotional experience. Whew!

Nice approach for many stories...if not all.