Tools For Character-Driven Dramatic Questions
Last week, I wrote about plot-focused dramatic questions and how they can make your job much easier.
But not every story wants one...
The Dramatic Question
The dramatic question is one of your best tools for your story structure.
So much so, that two of my three primary goals in the "pre-outline" phase of any project.
The Magic Why
I want to talk about perhaps our greatest weapon in the creative and emotional battle we call screenwriting.
I happen to think it's our greatest weapon in any endeavor...
Four Questions For Any Character Piece
Sometimes you have a character in mind. No situation, no world. You don't even know what the character will do, let alone what they want.
It's just the character.
What exactly do you do with them?
The Big Picture - Four Throughlines
After focusing the last two weeks on Act 1 and Act 2, I want to talk about the big picture.
If you've taken any of my classes, you know I emphasize simplifying the process whenever we can.
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Act 2
It is the last Tuesday of July and, therefore, the last entry in our unofficial series on character. Last week we covered character in the opening pages, and now I want to take you to one of my favorite topics... Act 2.
Define The Character Early
We are still on character and dialogue this month, but today it's just character.
And specifically, character in the first ten pages.
We all know how crucial the opening of our screenplay is. We hear it again and again.
How To Make Characters Distinguish Themselves
You've heard the note before, "All the characters sound the same!"
The idea here is that each character should have a different sound to their speech.
I think it's an easy note to make.
Most Important Aspect Of Supporting Characters
We can mistakenly think world-building is solely the domain of sci-fi and fantasy. It is not. It refers to the entire domain of our story, whether that's a far-away planet or the single-location home of an indie-comedy.
Why Subtext is Overrated.
Subtext is usually positioned as something evasive that requires talent and nuance to capture. Another one of those elusive things people like to wield as a weapon to make themselves feel better and writers feel worse.
Use It Or Lose It.
I want to discuss little visual actions we didn't intend to be emotional, but could. These tend to be discoveries and can be a lot of fun. In these cases, it's not whether the line of action takes up too much space, but whether it takes up ENOUGH space to really work, and therefore be worth keeping.
What Emotion Are You Going For?
One of the primary principles of my rewriting is the question, "What is the emotion I want to evoke here?"
It's a simple question. I wrote a line. Either dialogue or an action line. There should be no useless words, so I ask myself, what is this line's purpose?