From Good to Great...

Now that you have written your screen play or story how would you make it great? Read though Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel. It gave me a few ideas to improve my script.
Here is a short summary from Amanda: http://amandabarratt.blogspot.com/2011/11/writing-breakout-novel-five-things-ive.html

Conflict and Endings in your Screenplay

Here is a nice blog about endings. It is said that Edgar Allen Poe used to write his endings first and then write his story to match that ending. This blog also recommends that: http://thescriptlab.com/screenwriting/structure/the-outline/72-endings-and-beginnings
And here's how you can make your stories interesting and appealing to your audience: http://thescriptlab.com/screenwriting-101/screenwriting/script-tips/464-character-want-conflict-story#

Oscar Nominated Screenplays

Check out: http://www.studiodaily.com/2014/01/read-the-oscar-nominated-screenplays-and-more-scripts-from-2013-films/

Happy New Year!!

Oh! I was not planning to blog today but it just so happened!

Here are a bunch of audio books that you can listen to when driving around or when you don't feel like reading a book yourself...

• http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Audio_Books_Project
• https://librivox.org
• http://www.audiobooktreasury.com

Keep writing buddies - if you feel that you are not able to kick start your creative juices or ifyou merely want to have a portfolio item rather quickly then here is a crazy cool idea to accomplish just that :) http://www.roberttwigger.com/how-to-write-and-get-published/2009/10/22/how-to-write-a-film-script-fast.html
Some tips to help you along: http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/screenwriting-tips

Get inspired!

Today I was searching for story ideas and landed on this site. One Sentence seems to be a good site to get inspired!

Here are a few one-liners that are still lingering...

“Today you shaved your hair into a mohawk to make my mom laugh over losing hers to chemo and today I realized that you are my hero.”

“I loved everything about her, so I introduced her to all my friends, and they loved her too, so she slept with all of them. “

“My wedding cost $6700 and my divorce cost $16425, both were worth it.”

“Today I washed my mother’s hair for the first time.”

“I don’t really want to be an engineer but I REALLY don’t want to be a failure to my parents.”

“We had a lovely day, my oldest son and I, wine tasting and driving through the foothills to celebrate his birthday, only because I did not tell him that just the previous day I was diagnosed with cancer.”

“All the skills I acquired as a violent boy have made me a helpless man.”

“It’s easy to make fun of the 26-year-old girl who is afraid of fireworks until you find out that it’s not the fireworks themselves but the sounds that remind her of gunshots.”

“In almost three years of not seeing her, I’ve swallowed oceans of booze, smoked cartons of cigarettes, slept with a dozen different women, been arrested twice, found God, fired God, and nearly died at the hands of five angry men; and I still can’t get over her.”

“In just those four words written on a brightly glowing computer screen, I realized that I’d lost the ability to trust anybody ever again.”

How to write a story?

I have been quiet for a while now; I am writing down a script for a short...
So here I am back to square one!!

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Script has some basic info on how to write a story. Writing as story is such an organic act which is an art in itself but this link puts a framework to work off of. Browse through that link for details but here is the gist:

1. Write a short sentence of the fundamental concept which drives the plot.
2. Create a basic road-map of what will happen in your story. 
3. Flesh out your story. Easier said than done!
4. Write it down in proper format.
5. Polish your work. 
6. Get feedback. 
7. Revise as necessary. 

Here are a few links that I think can help you get off the writer's block and kick start you with some ideas:

• http://shortstoryideas.herb.me.uk/index.html
• http://www.creative-writing-now.com/short-story-ideas.html
• http://www.writingforward.com/writing-ideas/23-fiction-writing-ideas
• http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-writ.php
• http://www.storitel.co.uk/beatmachine/

Here are few tips from WritingForward that I like - again fundamentals that we all forget when we take a deep dive:

• Deepen the plot. Most plots are actually pretty simple, but things get really interesting when you introduce subplots or make the plot richer by complicating it: the hero’s goal is to save the girl but what if he will gain something great if he doesn't save her?
• Add a twist. Some plots plod along pretty predictably. Give your story some zing by tying the plot up in knots. Nothing keeps readers glued to the page like plot twists and cliffhangers.
• Enhance the dialogue. Are all the characters speaking in the same voice? It’s probably your voice. Give each character distinct expressions. Maybe one character says “dude” a lot while another is constantly assigning pet names to everyone he meets.
• Push conflict to the brink. There’s a reason the hero never diffuses a bomb until one second to detonation. Get your characters so deep into conflict, readers start to believe there’s no way out. Then, save the day!
• Strengthen the themes. You can plan which themes will be threaded through your story, but if you don’t, themes will emerge on their own. Identify the themes, then strengthen them. If you notice redemption is a theme, have a character humming “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley.
• Introduce an archetypal character. These characters stand out and feel familiar. Introduce a mentor or a trickster or give one of your existing characters some archetypal qualities.
• Give your story greater meaning with symbols and symbolism. A white rabbit marks the beginning of an adventure, water indicates birth and rebirth, winter symbolizes death. Create your own symbols (like the mocking jay in Hunger Games) and look for objects of importance that can become symbols, such as a pen, pendant, or some iconic image.
• Add tension and intrigue to the plot by making a deal. One character wants something that another character has. To get it, she has to strike a deal. The higher the stakes, the more riveting the read.
• Use repetition for emphasis. Repetition works especially well with symbols. A boy gives a girl a pen when he goes away to college and says “Don’t forget to write.” She writes, but he never writes back. She holds on to the pen and the hope that he’ll come back for three years. Then, she loses the pen. As soon as she loses it, she meets someone else. The pen makes repeat appearances, emphasizing its relevance to the story.
• Make the story emotional by killing off a significant character. Some authors have a hard time with this one, but death is part of life. In fact, it’s the one thing we can all count on. Killing a character is almost necessary when your cast is constantly facing danger of a life-threatening variety.
• Plant a red herring in your story. It confuses readers in a delightful way. It looks like the heroine will fall for the charming doctor but it turns out the man she really loves is a dreamy architect. Red herrings work especially well in mystery stories.
• Let your characters be affected by the events that unfold. The point of a story is to show characters experiencing something significant or meaningful, something important enough to change them. By the end, the characters should undergo attitude adjustments, adopt new philosophies, or otherwise evolve from who they were when we first met them.
• Engage readers with irony; it makes people think. The atheist experiences a miracle. A fugitive on the run gets captured because he saves someone’s life. A fire station burns down.

Conflict and Struggle

I haven't blogged in a while. Didn't get a chance to go see Cinequest; looks like the Tamil movie Ko will be shown.
Anyways, I read this a while ago "Struggle is as important to the character as conflict is to the plot". Hmmmm pretty deep ah?

Tips for story writing

A must read for any storyteller is Scene & Structure by Jack M. Bickham. I love this book - got to own it.

Make sure to include as many elements from below in each of your scenes and in your plot:

• Struggle


• Conflict


• Dissatisfaction


• Aspiration


• Choice

Another good book that I would like to own is Make a Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld.

Check out http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/shortstory/ for good tips on story writing.

Writer's Digest Books

I found a wonderful book with very nice tips - Writer's Digest Handbook of Short Story Writing. After reading that I learnt that there are actiually two volumes! Volume 1 & 2 with ISBNs 0898790492 and 0898794633. (So looks like I have read only volume 1 and that itself is good. Since writing this I got hold of the second volume and it has a few good articles too.)
Anyways, there is an article about the various types of endings. Here are a few that I can remember:

• Summation endings


• Ideological endings


• Antennae endings


• Anti-climax or bonus endings


• Reversal endings


• Gimmick endings


• Hoax endings (false villain or figure of good)


• Deception endings


• Unconventional use endings


• Irony endings

Tips on comedy from Stephen Duncan

Stephen in his book GenreScreenwriting says that people laugh because they are setup to be familiar with the situation and expect a familiar solution or answer but instead they are hit with an unexpected answer. So incorporate familiarity and the unexpected to get the laughs.

The major collision in all successful comedy is the clash of childishness vs social responsibility. Usually the protagonist impersonates someone he is not, so the more he wants to come clean it becomes more hard.

Three storytelling approaches:
1. Teenage coming of age (American Pie)
2. Body switching (ex: Big, 13 going on 30 etc)
3. Role Switching (Wedding Crashers, What Women Want etc)

Spice up your screenplay

I have been told not to use voice overs and flashbacks when writing a script. None the less I personally find the effective use of flashbacks appealing.I thought that it was just me feeling so until I found http://www.lindaaronson.com/ when reading the book "Genre Screenwriting" by Stephen V. Duncan. (Stephen's book is ok) Linda is great check out her blog and book - I find them interesting. I would like to explore more starting at http://www.lindaaronson.com/main/page_the_six_sorts_of_parallel_narrative_.html

A quick reference and a detailed article on formatting your screenplays

I think this would serve as a quick reference on formating: http://www.writersstore.com/how-to-write-a-screenplay-a-guide-to-scriptwriting
Especially I like the image below that they have put together...

(Here is another rather detailed article on formating: http://www.screenwriting.info/)

Nice articles on story, plot and script

I liked the example they have used here and how they have explained the 3 acts. This is a must read: http://bestscreenwritingbooks.com/plot-structure-screenwriting

Here is something I liked from http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworktopics/a/play.htm

It seems that E. M. Forester once clarified a plot and its relationship to causality by
explaining:
“'The king died and then the queen died" is a story.

"The king died and then the queen died of grief" is a plot. The time-sequence is
preserved, but their sense of causality overshadows it.

Can Freakonomics contribute to filmmakers?

Here is something interesting that you can incorporate in your movies/script. I came across this in the book Freakonomics

1. Try to model human behavior on incentives of any form.
2. We feel fear when the danger is immediate and is totally out of our control.
3. Risk = hazard + outrage. The funny thing though is that people over react if hazard is low and outrage is high whereas they under react if hazard is high but outrage is low. Probably they react OK if hazard and outrage are balanced.
   

Few tips from John Truby

Let each of your lead characters have the weakness, problem, need, ghost and self-revelation... and also an inciting event...

Tricksters typically have a weakness, which is that they lie, steal and cheat to get what they want. But this seldom comes across as a weakness to the audience because the trickster is always fooling unjust authority figures.

Traveling angel stories are famous for having dual main characters: one character has the weakness, need, etc. while the perfect traveling angel character drives the action.

As for opponents, in love stories the first opponent is the lover.
The secondary opponents are the family members, like fiancé and mother etc.

John Truby's Story Techniques

I stumbled on John Truby's blog on some story techniques. He has some interesting tips on how one can combine a few genres which seems to be the Hollywood strategy nowadays.
John Turby's blog has quite a few good articles which you might want to read through. See this one too which is very interesting.
See this http://www.dramatica.com/downloads/Dramatica%20paradigms-0707.pdf which talks about the story paradigms of the following "story gurus":

• Syd Field


• Michael Hauge


• Robert McKee


• Linda Seger


• John Truby


• Christopher Vogler

Here is another web site that I found interesting.

Why write?

If you are a writer and want to write stories first before converting them into screen plays you might like http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html. Check it out!
Of course http://celtx.com/ is absolutely the best tool for screen plays.

Edited: 28 mar 2015
Of course I thought Celtx was cool until I discovered Trelby
I now like Trelby; I think it is the best free tool for screen plays - check it out.

(I am not affiliated with Trebly or Celtx)

How can you make each scene interesting?

Here are some tips to keep in mind when crafting your scenes to make thme more interesting. Ofcourse these are totally based on tips from filmscriptwriting.com.

1. Each and every scene should have a motivated conflict.

No matter how big or small it is conflict which makes a story interesting; conflict drives a story forward. Even small, less exciting, scenes should contain some level of conflict. Even the best of friends have small disagreements and you’ll find that even when two people have the same goal in mind they both have different ways to go about achieving it. In contrast the conflict between two enemies will be much greater, with both characters willing to do anything to defeat the other.

2. Every scene should have a purpose and move the story forward. Every scene should move the story forward in terms of both the plot and character's growth.

3. Make your scenes visual; dont make characters talk to reveal.

4. Consider each scene to be a mini story. Each scene should have a beginning, middle and end.

5. Pace your scenes. Fluctuate the pace depending on the reaction you want from the audiance.

6. Keep throwing obstacle after obstacle at your main character.

7. Finish the scene dramatically.

When you reach the end of the scene you should always aim to leave the main character with some sort of decision or imminent decision. Make the viewer lust after the knowledge of what is going to happen next. Throw them a cliff-hanger, a reversal or a revelation to raise their interest level. This is how you add the twists and turns in a story that make it captivating.

Yet another site on scriptwriting

Here is a nice site that discusses some of the main ideas around scriptwriting. Checkout the section on character development and story structure.
http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/theideafactory.html
You can find some sample scrips too.
Check out the resources page too.

My proff always used to say the following:

1. Define an emotion or mood of the film right from the very begining.


2. Starting scens of a movie should capticate the audience and the following scens should keep them engaged. While it’s perfectly acceptable and even advisable to start a story with a big event to grip the reader/viewer you want to save the biggest and best till the end.

Hers are a few things I liked from that site:

[There] are several types of opening that you can use to start your film. None of these are mutually exclusive, you can choose to mix and match certain elements from each type.

The Blatant Opening Within a few moments you know exactly who the hero is and what the movie will be about. The James Bond series are a great example of this type of opening. In this first ten pages of your script you will introduce the hero, the villain and exactly why they oppose each other. The blatant opening works particular well for action films, a fast, intense opening will hook the reader and keep them flicking through the script.

A Regular Day In this opening you will put over the pace of life in a regular day for your main character. Then an event will happen which breaks the normality of your character’s life, one which they will need to rectify for their life to return to the way it was.

True Beginning The script starts right along with the start of the story for the main character. They might have just been given a million dollars, or landed in a new country.

Dramatic Irony This is the only beginning that won’t contain your main character. Instead you give the audience some information that your main character won’t know and will soon affect his/her life greatly. Dramatic irony allows the audience to be in a superior position and sets up both tension and anticipation.

Foreshadowing This opening takes place before your main story begins and anticipates what is going to happen later in the story. Like the dramatic irony opening the audience is placed in a position to predict what is going to happen. This is often used for doomsday and horror movies.

Narrator The narrator can be the hero, a secondary character or just a stand alone narrator. The narrator tells the story of the events which happened to the main character at a important time in their life. [hmmm... I dont think I would like this style]

Flash forward The flash forward has two stories running side by side simultaneously. The B story has a narrator who tells the main story, which has already happened. At certain points in the story there’s a flash forward to the narrator who continues with his tale. The A story is the main story, the B story is of the narrator looking back.

Montage This is a great type of opening if you have a lot of information to get across before the main story begins. Also known as a shotgun, a collection of short clips accelerate through the information until the story proper begins. Then the speed of the story can slow down to a regular pace. In a matter of minutes you can explain years of your main characters life. [hmmm... montages are powerful but I would probably not use it at the very begining of a movie...]

Giddy-up your creative horses

Do you find it hard to start writing your script? Do you badly want some starting point? Check out these:

• http://www.bmyers.com/public/807.cfm


• http://www.maddogproductions.com/plotomatic.htm

and maybe even this http://web.student.tuwien.ac.at/~e9125168/javas/jtaggen.html?tagline=blog
One of these should triggers your creative side - saddle up and go!