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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Jul 8

How to create a great villain

In Award Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger’s short video below, he answers the question “How Do You Create a Perfect Villain?”

Krueger says we have to remember that the antagonist thinks he is the hero of his story. Most characters believe they are the good guys even if they are doing horrible things.

Example: in “Star Wars” all Darth Vader wants is to rule the galaxy with his son–he just has a twisted way of going about it. Each antagonist has a story they are telling themselves that makes them feel like a good person every day. Their desires are as important to them as the protagonist’s desires are important to them.

Krueger also says a great antagonist comes at the world with a point-of-view that is so truthful it forces the main character to deal with something they’re not confronting in themselves. A great antagonist will force the protagonist to face their flaws, overcome them, and be changed in some way.

For more tips in creating a great antagonist watch Krueger’s video below:

Jul 1

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Develop your characters through dance

Thanks to Rhay Christou, author and writing teacher at www.MargieLawson.com, for introducing me to this short video below showing a fun and creative way to develop your characters.

Actor Kevin Cox offers advice to other actors that can be beneficial for writers, too. He says we should be able to express our character physically. He suggests dancing out your scenes—try different styles of dance like hip hop, ballet, tango, salsa, waltz, etc. Give your dance the attitudes of your character. This will help unlock your body and open up your potential to connect with your character. If you have two characters in a scene dance out one character’s part then dance out the other character’s part. How do they differ? What did you learn?

Once you’ve got the dancing down and you’re still in your character’s skin, close your eyes and ask some questions. What do they feel in the moment? How are they moving? What do they taste and hear and smell? If they opened their eyes right now, what would they see?

Watch this 3-minute video and then read on:

I just tried this (in my side yard where no neighbors could see me) and discovered the following:

* My protagonist feels heavy in her body when she’s with the antagonist she is attracted to (she’s not overweight so this is a reflection of her emotional state);

* She feels lighter in her body and soul when she’s with her ex-boyfriend who she is also attracted to.

* The difference is the antagonist leans in on her energy, he is trying to get something from her and wants to control her. Her ex-boyfriend wants her to be herself and to fulfill her potential but only so that it completes her and not him. Wow. Love it. And this is just the surface stuff…I bet if I dig deeper into the dance, I find more.

Try the exercise and tell us what you experienced in the comments below.

Jun 23

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How do you define the truth of your story?

In the short video below, author and screenwriting mentor Robert McKee answers the question, “How do you define the truth of your story?”

My main struggle as a writer is to express the truth of my stories or poems in a way that will also resonate with my readers.

McKee says that there are many levels of truth in a story. There’s the surface level—the how and why things happen. The facts of the story.

For example, my protagonist in my current work starts out as a veterinarian focused on healing animals with her science and medical abilities only but, as the story progresses, she is drawn deeper into the magic of her hometown and her own special healing abilities. This is the surface story.

But, McKee says, a storyteller is after how and why what happens on the surface happens. We are looking for the deep hows and whys even down to our character’s subconscious level.

In my story, my protagonist resists using her special abilities because bad things have happened to those she loved when she used her powers as a young girl. She carries this trauma forward and it is her truth.

In a good story, says McKee, you express the truth that you believe in. Someone else may see it as a totally different truth from their own experiences but this doesn’t matter. If you express your truths well and beautifully, the reader will resonate with your work. They will come away from your book or movie recognizing they are in the presence of the truth.

 

 

Jun 16

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Character development: God is in the details

In her blog post, “Revealing Character Through Details,” Julie Eshbaugh quotes Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969,) who famously said, “God is in the details.”

A German-born, American architect, van der Rohe did not mean the more details the better. He meant it’s the small, subtle details that can give a building (and per Eshbaugh a book) the power to transcend the common.

In other words, look for telling-details that will relay worlds of information about your character to the reader. My character may have red hair, green cat eyes, freckles and a stand-out bosom but what makes her unique and memorable isn’t her outer description it’s the fact that she used to be a kleptomaniac and her eye is still drawn to bright, shiny objects, even when she’s having a serious conversation with somebody. Her eyes are greedy.

Reader Eshbaugh’s post for some fantastic examples and help in finding your character’s telling details.

You may also enjoy Carly’s related post, “Quirks make your characters feel real to readers.”

What telling details have you given your characters?

Jun 13

How to create memorable dialogue that becomes part of popular culture

A hallmark of a well-written script is a memorable line that could become part of popular culture.

Here are several examples:

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Gone with the Wind.

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” The Godfather

“You had me at hello.” Jerry Maguire

“I’ll be back.” Terminator

So how can you create memorable lines in your scripts?

Hal Croasmun, president of ScreenwriterU, explained this and other tips in “21 Steps to a Professional Rewrite,” a screenwriting teleconference on June 8. For more information about ScreenwriterU classes, visit the website.

First, go to the five most emotional moments in your script where most memorable dialogue happens. Read more

Jun 10

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Energize your writing life with these three tips from other writers

Sometimes the trick to having a great writing day is just getting started. Here are three tips from other writers that inspired me and may help you too.

Write scenes out of order. Sometimes I know the end of a story before I know the beginning. So I go ahead and write the last scene. Or sometimes I have a key scene in mind that is asking to be written. I write it, and it gives me momentum to find the rest of my story.

This drives one of my writing friends crazy because she absolutely must write her novels starting from the beginning. I say, do what works. You’ll find advantages and disadvantages to every approach. But if you’re stuck about how to approach your next piece of writing, think about writing scenes in the order they come to you. Read about how Roz Morris started doing this in her post, Writing your scenes out of order on her Nail Your Novel blog. Read more

Jun 2

Act out to create vivid scenes

When my cousin Gayle and I were kids, our idea of a good time was making up stories and acting them out. Sometimes we were spies and we had to slink around her house. We’d crawl under the coffee table and around the couch pretending that none of the adults who were sitting there could see us. I think we actually believed it at the time. Maybe it was true. Or just the adults ignoring us.

Since then, as a writer, I’ve often thought about the idea of acting out a scene to make it more real and vivid when I put the words down on the page. It worked to draw a scene out, so why not act it out? (See my post, How drawing can help you become a better writer).

I’d never heard anyone else suggest acting out a scene until now. I was reading an article in “Native Peoples” magazine last week about the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) MFA program in which Sherman Alexie is a faculty member. Alexie is author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and numerous other stories, novels, and poem.

In the article, the writer relates how Alexie instructs the class about the value of acting out scenes and advises a student to stand behind a door while another student tries to drag him out. Alexie says that simulating the events and trauma a character experiences allows descriptions to become much more accurate and vivid. I could also imagine that acting out a scene could help a writer map out logistics and order in which actions take place.

Do you ever have a scene that feels stiff or flat on the page? Try stepping away from your computer and into the world of your characters. Speak the dialogue, imagine the action, and see what happens next.

For another take on how to write vivid scenes, read Carol’s post, Use images in a scene to ground your readers.

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