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_______________________________

With thanks to Cameron Pattison.

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

by Ingrid Elkner

Write it down.

On paper preferably, and if you’re on your phone/tablet/laptop right now and tree-skinless, email it to yourself. Write down your goal, this thing you want to make.

Now jot down a list of things you’d have to do to birth that mental baby into the world. All the things. Once again, preferably in pen. Blurt it all out.

Turn that into a checklist. Type it up fresh or rewrite it. These are your steps to take. Keep it by your computer, on your fridge, in your shoe, wherever.

Each time you get overwhelmed by the idea of actually doing the thing you want to do, you can instead look at the checklist, see the next step and think, “That’s not that hard, I can just do one tiny little thing today”. You get to tick the page, and feel hella-proud of yourself. That kicks arse over feeling guilty, which is just a shit-spiral.

And if you’re sitting around doing nothing but hitting refresh on your Facebook feed, you can glance at the list and decide to do something constructive instead.

You get to tick the page, and feel hella-proud of yourself.

By doing this, you won’t forget an important part of the process and you’ll work efficiently. Growing into adults we forget the power of baby steps. Easy things first. You don’t even need to think of the end product. You’re just completing the task in front of you. No pressure. And next thing you know, that thing you wanted to create has been created! It’s real, it exists! And it didn’t seem like too much work looking back on it.

What do you do next? Pat yourself on your back and start the next project. You achieved so awesomely the first time, you should do it again. And again. And again! Until you have a body of work that makes you beam, and never felt like a chore to produce.

The first step is the hardest, but considering the easiest tasks will be at the top of the list, you’re slipping into the shallow end. It’s all about momentum. If you do only one task a day, you’re flying towards the finish line.

You can employ the ‘don’t break the chain’ method, committing to one tick a day. You don’t even have to create a deadline for yourself. Deadlines tend to freak us out as we get closer to them, we start avoiding the project, sticking our heads in the sand, and if the deadline elapses… We’re so ridden with guilt we may never return to the project. Another dream that meant the world to us abandoned out of self-sabotage. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

If you do only one task a day, you’re flying towards the finish line.

Maybe you can give yourself an hour to get a task done. A lot of screenwriters love writing sprints because it’s one contained hour, the work feels finite, and you can be free as soon as time’s up.

I often work more efficiently in that one hour than if I sit down and try to write without parameters. Often, I’ll even go longer than the hour, maybe 3 hours or more, on a roll. And knowing others are sprinting at the same time makes me feel competitive, against them, and against myself. Hey, whatever works!

So, hop to it. Write down that goal, create that checklist, tick that first tick. Share this article with other creative friends so you can prod each other to stay on track. Once you cross off the last line on your list, show off your achievement to the world. That’s exactly what I’m doing here – I wrote a checklist to help me complete this article, and now you’re reading it.

I’m also using checklists to finish more scripts than I have in my whole life, and it feels amazing. Achieving and creating things motivates others, who in turn achieve and create and motivate you. What a wonderful cycle.

Go on, make your dreams reality. We’re rooting for you.

-Ingrid Elkner

Photo Credits: Ingrid Elkner

Ingrid Elkner

Ingrid Elkner exists in human form and as a finger-puppet.
She’s had fiction printed in anthologies, articles published on comedy sites, creates sketches and comics for her own comedy blog 10 Minutes Later , and is the writer of new short film, THE PROWLER, starring Colette O’Neil.

Ingrid studies screenwriting in Melbourne and shakes her fist at offensively-shaped clouds.

www.10minuteslater.com

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With thanks to Cameron Pattison.

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

by David Trottier

The first is the outside/action story and the second is the inside/emotional story. To fully appreciate how these two work together and crisscross, we must first understand the motivating element that underlies each.

Goals and Needs

Crucial to any drama or comedy is your central character’s goal. The goal is what your character outwardly strives for, what she actively tries to acquire or achieve. The goal is something tangible or easily visualized. “To be happy” is not a goal. It is too vague. “To cope with life” is not a goal. “To go 15 rounds with the Heavyweight Champion of the World” is a goal.

In addition to the goal, your character may have an inner need. The need is what the character inwardly yearns for, what he needs in life to be happy and fulfilled. Often, the character is not fully aware of this need until the crisis of the story forces it into full consciousness. Even if the central character is aware of the need, she is not actively striving to fill it.

Opposition

For any story to work, there must be an opposition. The outside goal is opposed by someone or something outside the central character. In other words, there is an opposition character trying to stop the central character from achieving the goal.

The inner need, as you might guess, is opposed from the inside. This opposition comes in the form of a flaw. The flaw blocks the character from the need. If the flaw can be overcome, then the need will be filled.

For any story to work, there must be an opposition.

Two Stories in One

In Romancing the Stone, Kathleen Turner has a very definite goal. She wants to recover the stone to save her sister from the kidnappers. This goal drives the outside/action story. To insure conflict to the end, four other characters want the same stone for different reasons.

What does Kathleen Turner need to be happy and fulfilled? She needs romance. This need drives the inside/emotional story (sometimes referred to as the emotional through-line). Well then, if she needs romance, what’s stopping her from finding it? Her flaw stops her. She won’t try. Even her closest friend (her editor) can’t get her to show an interest in men. She just stays home with her cat and writes novels about her underlying need–romance.

The Real Story

But she finds romance! How? By striving for the goal. Through her efforts to save her sister she inadvertently finds the love she needs. Keep in mind that Kathleen Turner is not trying to find romance. She is not striving for a relationship with Michael Douglas. And yet, it’s her relationship with Michael Douglas that lies at the heart of the screenplay. It’s that relationship in connection with Kathleen Turner’s need that touches us as an audience. That connection is the emotional touchstone the writer has with her audience. Like all good subtext, it’s what’s really going on underneath the action. It’s the real story–Kathleen Turner finding romance.

The outside/action story is exciting. It keeps us interesting in what’s going on. But the inside/emotional story gets us emotionally involved. That’s why I call the inside story the real story. Despite the importance of the inside story, remember that it is dependent on a well-structured outside story to give it movement. In other words, the outside/action story gives the inside/emotional story a track to roll on.

Twins

Danny DeVito wants $5 million. That’s his goal. He needs the love of a family, of a brother. The flaw blocking this need is his selfishness–he was abandoned by his mother and now he’s going to make sure he nails everyone before they nail him. There doesn’t seem to be a way for his brother to break through this defense and give DeVito what he truly needs.

At the crisis point, DeVito already has his $5 million in hand, but someone holds a gun on his brother. Although not revealed through dialogue until a later scene, this is the moment where it enters DeVito’s consciousness that he needs his brother more than he wants the money. The goal and the need now directly oppose each other. Danny must choose. He returns the money to the gangster, thus overcoming his selfish, greedy flaw.

In the end, he gets what he needs to be happy (his brother and his mother) and a couple of million bucks besides. The real story, of course, is Danny DeVito finding his family and his true self.

But the inside/emotional story gets us emotionally involved.

The Love Interest

We often read and hear of the importance of a love interest in a screenplay, but the best inside story runs deeper than that. The love interest often represents an inner desire for some basic human need–love, self-respect–that is blocked by some basic flaw–selfishness, pride, or greed.

In some movies, however, the central character has a goal but no need. James Bond doesn’t have a need. He simply accomplishes his mission. He’s a super hero who doesn’t grow and that’s the nature of that genre. The same is true of many action/adventures, thrillers, and horror movies. I admired DIE HARD because the attempt was made to give Bruce Willis a need along with his powerful goal. That need had to do with improving his relationship with his wife.

As you can see from the above examples, the need relates directly to the character’s potential for change. The more character-driven the screenplay, the more important the need and flaw become. At the heart of the inside story is a relationship.

Common Problems That Are Really Solutions

In a great many scripts that cross my desk, the central character’s apparent goal is happiness or coping with life or trying to improve a self image. These are not good movie goals, but they are a place to begin in planning your story.

Ask yourself: What could my character be specifically doing to find happiness? (A thoughtful moment may reveal a goal suggested by those actions.) On the other hand, it may be that the goal, whatever it is, will not help your character find happiness. Instead, it (the goal) may be a manifestation of a character flaw or moral lack that must change in order to find true happiness. (A thoughtful moment may reveal an inner need hiding in that non-productive goal.)

Some writers like to start with the character’s flaw or need in building their stories. Dustin Hoffman (Kramer VS. Kramer) needs to be a good father and love his son. How does he actively attempt to fill that need? By seeking custody–and that, of course, becomes his outside goal. In the end, he will choose between the goal and the need. He will decide against putting his son on the witness stand because it could destroy him. Instead, he’ll give up custody (give up his goal) to truly demonstrate that he has become a loving father.

If Dustin Hoffman’s inner need is to become a father, what is blocking him from achieving that? It is his flaw or moral lack. In his case, this flaw is manifest as a form of selfishness. Character growth is generally the process of a character overcoming this flaw by facing adversity in striving for the goal. But where does this flaw come from?

In the end, he will choose between the goal and the need.

Get Back

The flaw or moral lack usually exists because something traumatic happened to the character before the movie began. This event or series of events continue to bother the character and motivate the flaw. The past event is called the back story.

In Ordinary People, two brothers go boating on a lake in a storm. The boat is capsized. Buck drowns, Conrad survives, but blames himself for Buck’s death. Conrad tries to kill himself. This is the back story that gives rise to his flaw of trying to control his emotions so he doesn’t have to feel. But he needs to feel and not blame himself.

In Twins, the back story is DeVito’s mother’s abandonment of himself as a baby. Now he thinks he’s genetic garbage. In the end, he realizes his goodness. In Romancing The Stone and Kramer VS. Kramer, the back story is not apparent. That’s fine–every story has its own way of unfolding.

In Foul Play –and many other romantic comedies–the central character was burned by a previous love and is afraid to get close to anyone again. This is the flaw blocking the need to love again.

Another benefit of integrating a good back story into your script is that it gives your character a past and makes him more believable and sympathetic to your audience.

Remember in developing your screenplay, to focus on the outside story as well as the inside story. The two together are like a one-two punch that stands a better chance of knocking out your reader and landing a deal.

-David Trottier

David Trottier has sold or optioned ten screenplays (three produced) and helped hundreds of writers break into the writing business.

He is an award-winning teacher and in-demand script consultant, author of The Screenwriter’s Bible, and friendly host of keepwriting.com.

Photo Credits: Graffic Stock, David Trottier

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

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With thanks to Jamie Campbell and Brooke Trezise.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au