A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

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  • A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

    Hi... Doovid Ooves again making his grand reappearance. Now i was thinking about my latest script idea, when I got to thinking about a way to go about writing it. Now for this script I have two principle characters: Jack, an insomniac, and Roy, a coffee addict. Now the story is about getting control over your life, but I realized that the plots I had picked out for these characters separate, and never necessarily meet in the end. They both tell a story about life spiraling into chaos, but the more the story progresses, the more contrasting the lives of these characters become, almost to the point where we almost have two completely different stories all together, except they are fundimentally about the same thing.

    So, does this seem like an idea that will work, or will it instead alienate the audience. Perhaps instead of making the two stories into one story, I should just write them separately as two different screenplays, but I felt that ideas from the one story fit into the ideas in the other. Together they work from a thematic standpoint, but plotwise, they simply stray farther and farther from each other.

    So what do you guys think. Will this work, or not?

    ~Doovid Ooves
    Insert signature here.

  • #2
    Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

    Some of the more recent Star Trek TV franchises did the "two stories" thing lots, due to lack of imagination and poor writing. Instead of telling two aspects of the same story that came together and helped complete each other, they'd tell two unrelated stories, intercutting between them to stop the audience from falling asleep. At the end of the episode the two lead characters or groups would end up back aboard the big shiny ship and would whoosh off toward the stars together, but the disconnectivity always left me feeling unsatisfied. And shaking my head at the poor writing ability on display.

    Take from that what you will.

    -Derek
    Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity.

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    • #3
      Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

      The lack of connection between the two stories is partly what I feared in deciding to do this script in such a way. I was kind of going for a Tarintino Pulp Fiction way of telling multiple stories, except telling them both at once. It was originally going to be teling the stories of many different characters kind of in the same way that Magnolia was done, but then I decided that the plots end up centering around these two characters in the end, so why not just write it as two stories wrapped in one? After giving it more thought, several movies have been done in such a way. Look at The Empire Strikes Back. In one part of the story we follow Han Solo and Princess Leia, in the other half, we follow Luke Skywalker. They come together in the end, just a split that occurs for a extended period of time. So I'm still wondering, could such an idea or concept work, especially if proper stradegy is used to weave the story together?

      ~Doovid Ooves
      Insert signature here.

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      • #4
        Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

        All those movies you mention, with split naratives, all do what D was talking about; they come back together at the end. You can split your protagonist, you can tell more than one story, but they have to come together-they have to makes sense in relation to each other. Magnolia tries to do it, but I think that film fails on a lot of levels, including this one.

        GO is another movie that uses a split narative to tell a story.

        But they all come together, they all rely on each other for resolution. They don't have to end together, they don't have to end the same, but they do have to fit together-be a part of each other.

        If you feel that the seperation is too great, then I suggest you write two different movies.

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        • #5
          Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

          In Pulp Fiction all the sub-stories are connected via characters and events. The Empire Strikes Back has connectivity throughout the SW trilogy -- individually some threads may be allowed to remain dangling as a cliffhanger (Lucas was aiming for Saturday morning Flash Gordon type episode format, after all) but these eventually tie up, too. Seems as if you're arguing otherwise, quoting these films to support your theory? If so, look at them again.

          The way you describe your script, the only connection is the theme and that's not enough. Different if you were doing a FOUR ROOMS kind of story collection but you're talking about two unrelated stories running side by side and swapping from one to the other, yes? I vote no, write something smarter that connects them. Or, if you think each story is strong enough to stand on its own then sure, split 'em into two scripts. Luckily you're only at the idea stage... bummer if you only realized this after writing 110 pages.

          Flip a coin, and may the Force be with you.

          -Derek
          Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity.

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          • #6
            Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

            Alrighty, from your advice I was able to formulate something that I hope will work. Rather than just following these two characters in their separate adbentures, we will also follow other key players in their adventure. It will all take place during a weekend, and we see what these friends went through during that weekend. It will start at the end, on monday morning, the friends telling eachother what they all went through. Do you think taht has a better chance of working?

            ~Doovid Ooves
            Insert signature here.

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            • #7
              Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

              Call it "Seinfeld".

              Seriously, I think if you're going to do something like that it's going to need a lot of planning and subtlety in the execution. I recently finished a novel that had four separate stories with a very similar theme and which intersected at subtle though significant points. Each story reflects all the others, and so at the end of the 400 pages you have, essentially, a compendium of POVs on one single subject.

              Otherwise, you'll just have a bunch of people sitting around talking about having a barbeque, going to the beach, taking in a ballgame, etc. I think you're going to need more.

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              • #8
                Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

                Yes, exactly what I am going for. When I say they tell eachother what happened, their story is told by the movie. Say Roy turns to Jack, "so how was your weekend?" Jack says "I'll tell you" (only with far better dialogue). Then we see his story start from where it all began, friday night. Except rather than following one story at a time, they will all be told in a pseudo simultaneous fashion, kinda like the movie Traffic blends three stories about drug trafficing into one story told all at once.

                ~Doovid Ooves
                Insert signature here.

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                • #9
                  Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

                  What movies is your idea most like?

                  Why aren't both of these characters in the same story and same scenes?

                  Which character will the audience *become* for the 2 hours?

                  Last, but not least - would 600 million people worldwide pay to see your story? Would *you* pay to see your story? Would a producer pay $102.8 million (average movie cost) to make the film?

                  - Bill
                  Free Script Tips:
                  http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                  • #10
                    Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

                    The answer to Bill's questions is No. Splitting the two characters and then trying to reconnect their stories is the least of your problems. Either story is not interesting enough to make a genre-type movie. You have not even mentioned the genre, because there is neither a comic premise here or a dramatic one.

                    dpaterson expertly identifies the story promlems of the later Star Trek series--the Rick Berman curse--so even if you could work out the splitting/connecting thing, it would still fail to engage the reader/audience.

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                    • #11
                      Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

                      Originally posted by DOOVIDOOVES
                      Hi... Doovid Ooves again making his grand reappearance. Now i was thinking about my latest script idea, when I got to thinking about a way to go about writing it. Now for this script I have two principle characters: Jack, an insomniac, and Roy, a coffee addict. Now the story is about getting control over your life, but I realized that the plots I had picked out for these characters separate, and never necessarily meet in the end. They both tell a story about life spiraling into chaos, but the more the story progresses, the more contrasting the lives of these characters become, almost to the point where we almost have two completely different stories all together, except they are fundimentally about the same thing.

                      So, does this seem like an idea that will work, or will it instead alienate the audience. Perhaps instead of making the two stories into one story, I should just write them separately as two different screenplays, but I felt that ideas from the one story fit into the ideas in the other. Together they work from a thematic standpoint, but plotwise, they simply stray farther and farther from each other.

                      So what do you guys think. Will this work, or not?

                      ~Doovid Ooves
                      Write it just as it inspires you to be written. The advice will come from both sides...do what you think is best for your script.

                      It does sound strange as you describe it. It sounds like you have two stories...as you admit you do...and you want to tell them simultansously. The truth is that if you pull it off and it works you're in good shape.

                      For myself...my brain jumped to imaginary connections between the two characters. At first I imagined they went to the same coffee shop and the tale wound out from there. Then I imagined a series of near miss encounters as their stories play out. This is all irrelevant...what's relevant is that I automatically tried to connect the stories in some small way. Take that for what it's worth.

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                      • #12
                        Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

                        Well, look at this... a positive response for once... why would anyone ever think of such an idea... Sorry... that came across as sarcastic and egotistical... Oh well...

                        And yes... you see you do get this idea... near misses could happen all the time, and even some chance meetings. And beyond this, we see these guys together for a while before they split up. They are really good friends, its not like I am telling two stories about two random people here. That would be a little bit crazy. But up until Jack drops Roy off at work, which will happen about ten pages into it, you already sense a connection between these characters, much as you will see a connection between their stories.

                        This plot of this movie focuses on the absurd. If there is anything that I have learned from life it is that some crazy sh*t can happen, and this movie is about dealing with it. In fact, I have decided to make Ronald (who will now be known as Roger) a third character that we follow. The movie itself will be very existential and will explore fate in very peculiar ways. Roger for example is obsessive compulsive. One of his obsessions is fortune cookies. At critical points in the movie, he will be compelled to open them and they will either dictate precisely what will happen, or the exact opposite. By following each of these characters, who you will get to know as the story progresses, each audience member will find bits and pieces of each character that they see in themselves. Don't you see that there are some things about screenwriting that don't need to be followed exactly? If every movie is made from the same formula, then you have the same movie everytime. And yes, I have been criticized for having Cliche plots. Its how the story is told that makes it interesting. Sure a brand new idea is always good... but so are the old ones. Hey... It worked for Tarintino.

                        ~Doovid Ooves
                        Insert signature here.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: A Novel Idea... meaning an interesting idea, not a book

                          Good luck D.
                          Advice from Bill et al is well-intentioned- they assume you wish to MAXIMIZE yr chances of selling a screenplay.
                          If you want to go indie or persuade a mainstream Hollywood producer to take you on, you've got a much steeper hill to climb.
                          " Life is high school with money. " Frank Zappa

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