another article!
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There was
once a coach of a high school football team. To say that his team
played poorly would be a gross understatement. Not only could his
team not win, but they couldn't rush, they couldn't pass, they
couldn't play defense. Every game was an embarrassment. Finally,
after yet another Friday night humiliation, the coach gathered his
team together. “Gentlemen,” he said, “something is seriously
wrong with this team. And no amount of practice is going to fix that
problem. The only way we are going to start winning is by unlearning
all your bad habits. So, we are starting over.
Forget everything you think you know, because we are going back to
square one.” Then, the coach held up a pigskin, presenting it as if
no one had seen one before. “Gentlemen,” he said, “THIS, is a
FOOTBALL...”
When the
coach said square one, he meant it. Sometimes, when things do not
work, you have to hit the reset button and start over.
Sometimes,
a writer has a great idea for a screenplay, but when he or she tries
to put it on paper, the story simply does not work. No matter how
many times the script is rewritten, no matter how hard the writer
works to fix its flaws, the things simply refuses to function the way
a cinematic story should. There is something fundamentally broke with
it. Tweaking some plot here and polishing there will not make that
script function. At this point, making superficial changes is like
spending money to pimp out a car with no engine and a broken
transmission. Junk is junk. The only way to fix it is to strip it
down to its core.
“THIS,
is a cinematic story.” - Note that I said cinematic story, not
screenplay. A screenplay is nothing more than 90-120 pieces of paper
bound together with words on them. It is the cinematic story told on
those pages that gives it any worth. If your script does not work, it
is the flawed principles behind its story which are at fault.
Here now
is the SCRIPTMONK advice to overhauling a broken cinematic story.
The first
rule: Don't cling to what you have written! Doing so just keeps you
holding onto the side of a sinking ship. If need be, you must be
willing to take everything you have worked so hard on and
throw it in the trash. If it does not work, it does not work. Holding
on to what you have, whether it be out of fear, insecurity, or
sentimentality, amounts to literary hoarding. Hoarding is a mental
illness where people are unable to throw things away, regardless of
how useless those things may be. If you really want your story to
work, you have to be willing to clean house.
Start by
returning to the very ideas that seeded the beginning of your
screenplay. The earlier flaws originate in the creative process, the
more fatal the effect on the finished product. Your early ideas are
called seeds for a reason. They grow and expand as the work
progresses. If your original ideas are flawed, they will grow into a
weed the size of Jack's beanstock, choking everything connected to it. At
this point, simply fixing superficial problems without considering
the sources beneath is like placing a band-aid on a mortal wound.
Real improvement starts at the foundation.
First,
review the idea that inspired the story. Does it have what it takes
to create a story? A REAL story? A story is defined as a series of
events about a) a character, b) dealing with a problem, c) told in a
structured order, d) unified by a premise. Does your idea meet all
four qualifications? If not, the idea is no more capable of creating
a functional cinematic story than a page out of the phone book.
Next,
look at your story's protagonist. Are you sure this is your
story's protagonist? Sometimes a writer will think one character as
the hero, when it is in fact a completely different character who
drives the narrative. Are you sure this is the best choice for
protagonist? Sometimes stories fail simply because the storyteller
has chosen the wrong person to tell the story through. Is it clear
to the audience that this is in fact the protagonist? Sometimes the
protagonist gets lost within all the supporting characters, and it
becomes difficult for the reader to figure out which one they
are supposed to get behind.
How is
the protagonist portrayed? Does he or she have a clear internal need?
Does the protagonist have a fatal flaw that creates a difficulty he
or she must overcome? Is the action is the story designed so that it
forces the character on an adventure where he or she must change and
grow to achieve the internal need? Remember that story comes from
character, not the other way around.
Since the
storyteller creates the events of the plot solely for the sake of the
protagonist's journey, the choice of protagonist has a dramatic
effect on the course of the plot. The choice of protagonist decides
what events are possible, and how the plot moves forward as the
protagonist reacts to those events. Plot and protagonist are
intimately connected. If you have created a plot that does not fit
the protagonist, or vice versa, the story will not work. This is a
fatal mismatch. One must be changed to accommodate the other.
Likewise,
a storyteller cannot create a plot in a vacuum. Did you come up with
the main character first, and then the action of the story based on
that particular character? Or did you come up with the actions of the
plot first, and then as an afterthought pulled some generic persons out
of the air to carry out that plot? A plot-first approach creates
a hollow and lifeless experience. The protagonist will not
be an authentic human being upon whom the audience can attach their
thoughts and emotions, but a hollow shell who exists simply to
connect the plot's dots. The audience will then feel little emotional
connection to the plot's events because there is no humanity behind
them with which the audience can connect.
What is
your story's premise? Does the script stick to this premise from
beginning to end? Or does it suddenly abandon its established premise
halfway through and veer off into an unrelated area? Abandoning a
premise means essentially abandoning the entire story and trying to
invent a new one halfway through the film. Audiences become confused
and upset as everything they have been paying close attention to
thus far has been thrown in the garbage. Now, they are being asked to
pay attention to a new story. Most audiences do not have this kind of
patience.
Next,
look at the script's Story Spine. Identify the forces that propel the
protagonist to act. What is the protagonist's main Story Problem?
What Story Goal does he or she set to overcome that problem? What
actions does the protagonist pursue on his or her Path of Action to
reach that goal? What is the Main Conflict that stands in the way?
What are the Stakes that keep pushing the protagonist onward despite
the resistance created by the Conflict? Does the Spine have all five
elements? Are they strong enough to provide enough dramatic impulse
for the entire length of the story? Does your script have a Story
Spine at all? (A missing or incomplete Story Spine is the most common
cause of failed scripts.)
How does
the action of the Story Spine unfold? Does the plot develop in clear,
structured story sequences? Does the protagonist advance the story by
willfully pursuing immediate goals that have the purpose of
furthering his or her overall cause?
Look at
the script's genre. Are you SURE this is the right genre for the
particular story? Do you understand the inherent rules of the genre?
Does your story conform to these rules? Genre creates guidelines that
help the audience understand what to expect from a story. Genre
confusion creates audience confusion. A script that does not know how
to handle its genre will create a muddled mish-mash to which the
audience will not know how to react.
Any
problem you find during this process is a major flaw at your story's
foundation. It is an enormous crack in the bedrock that radiates
out into dozens of problems on the surface. Like a building with a
damaged foundation, sometimes the only way to fix the problem is to
bulldoze the structure, lay a new foundation, and then start
construction all over again.
(BTW, I do know that the phrase "Gentlemen, this is a football" is famously associated with legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi. However, his use of the phrase communicated something different than the story of the high school coach- a story I heard of first. Lombardi's use referred to a dedication to the fundamentals, not a stripping down to start over.)
