Rewrite 2nd edition Sample Pages

7/29/2019 Rewrite 2nd edition Sample Pages

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PAULCHITLIK

rewriteASTEP-BY-STEPGUIDETO

STRENGTHENSTRUCTURE, CHARACTERS,ANDDRAMAINYOURSCREENPLAY

2NDEDITION


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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Note on Gender

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Clarifying Story and Structure for Impact

Chapter 2 - The Alternative Structure(Mythic Structure)

Chapter 3 - The Powerful Protagonist

Chapter 4 - The Central Emotional Relationship

Chapter 5 - The Worthy Antagonist

Chapter 6 - Ensuring Dynamic Scenes and SequencChapter 7 - Dialogue: Text, Subtext, and No Text

Chapter 8 - Making Descriptions Leap off the Page

Chapter 9 - Life Support for Your Protagonist

Chapter 10 - Paring It Down

Chapter 11 - Where Am I?

Chapter 12 - The Right Look

Chapter 13 - Finishing

Chapter 14 - Applying Rewrite Techniques toWebisodes, Television, Comics,Graphic Novels, Games, and Other

Media Yet to Be Discovered


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Appendices

A - The Seven Points of Thelma & Louise

B - The seven points ofRatatouille

C - The Seven Points, More or Less,

ofPirates of the Caribbean

D - The Beat Sheet of In Good Company

E -Alien Abduction The First Sequenceand How It Developed

Bibliography

Index

About the Author


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Introduction

All proessional screenwriters, and most experienced amateurs,know that no script is ready to shoot aer only one dra. Its notat all unusual or a script to go through a dozen or more dras be-ore it gets to the set (I marked upwards o thirty on one o myown projects), and even then its not nished. Most proessionals

wading through the rewrite process, though, have people guidingthem: other writers, executive producers and producers, develop-ment executives, agents, and managers. But new writers dont havethe support system to get them rom the puke dra to one that iso proessional quality and ready to submit.

Beginning screenwriters can reer to Syd Fields Screenplay,Richard Walters Screenwriting, or Chris Voglers Te Writers Jour-ney, to name but three o scores o books available to learn the ba-sics o screenwriting. But the real application o cra comes in therewrite. Only a ew books oer any help to the rewriter. Problem is,none is a how-to book that gives specic, step-by-step instructionsto the novice writer. None oers a complete, practical approachthat guides you through the complete process. Film schools thatoer rewriting classes (ew schools do) are at a loss or texts. Indi-

viduals are on their own.

Rewrite is the new writers rst practical guide to gettingthrough the next dra o his or her screenplay. From sel-assess-ment to restructuring to revoicing, it charts an easy-to-ollow, task-specic course through the miasma o the rewrite process. Citingexamples o well-known movies and providing periodic o Do as-signments, this book makes the dicult journey a little less lone-some and a lot less oreboding.Rewrite serves as your development

executive, your instructor, and your trusted advisor to guide youthrough the rewrite process in the absence o direct eedback.

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In my twenty-ve years as a television and lm writer, pro-ducer, and director, and my eight years teaching at UCLA and

Loyola Marymount University, I have rewritten literally hundredso teleplays and screenplays and supervised the writing and rewrit-ing o another 700 plus. Heres the rst thing I learned about writ-ing: Writing is hard. Te second thing I learned: Its not done untilits rewritten. Yes, the torture o getting it down on paper, o acingthe blank monitor, is over when youve nished the rst dra. Youcan sit back and eel the warmth o having written ow over you.

Problem is, because youre not sure o yoursel or the process, youdont know what to do next, and thats why desk drawers every-where are ull o manuscripts that will never see the light o dayagain.

But now its time to take the diamond in the rough, the blocko granite that you have carved out o the quarry o your mind, andturn it into the Star o India or the Piet. Or, to drop the meta-

phors, you can take all that ink and paper o your rst dra and

recycle it, because chances are you wont be able to sell it as is. Oryou can possibly turn it into Chinatown or Shakespeare in Love.

Lets look at it another way. More than 55,000 scripts a yearget registered by the Writers Guild o America, West. But studiosand production companies (Im not talking about your riend withthe new HD video camera) make only 350 or so lms a year. And Ican say with absolute certainty that not a single one o them is the

real rst dra. Every single one was rewritten by the original writerat least once, more likely a dozen times, and quite possibly othershave worked it over as well. So the truth is, to go rom the 55,000to the 350, you must pass through rewrite-ville.

But rewrite-ville is not a bad place to be. As a matter o act,according to writer-director Jane Anderson, writer o When Bil-lie Beat Bobbie, It Could Happen to You, and Te Positively rueAdventures o the Alleged exas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom,

Its inevitable that the rst dra is a shitty dra. She even goesso ar as to recommend writing a terrible rst dra on purpose.Its not a aw, but part o the process.

IntroductIon


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Tis is where the un can be. Tis is where, as my riend VinceMcKay asserts, Te magic begins. Or, as a student o mine main-

tains, Tis is where the work begins. Tis is where those greatturns o phrase come rom. Tis is where writers choose to tellabout character and not just plot inormation. Jim Schmerer, whoheads up UCLAs online Proessional Program in Screenwritingand whose television credits range rom Star rek to MacGyverand way too many more to mention, points out that in Outbreak,Lawrence Dworet and Robert Roy Pool, the credited writers, haveDustin Homans character need inormation rom the CoastGuard. A secretary tells him that she has a riend whos in theCoast Guard. In the rst dra, Homan might have said, Could

you ask him to help? and that would get across all the inormationhe needs. But he says, How good a riend? In the nal dra, thesecretary answers, Better than his wie would like, which tells usboth that she can get the inormation as well as something abouther character.

Tats the kind o double hit you can create in rewriting that,while youre buzzing through a rst dra, you dont have time tothink about. But theres much, much more cra involved. Nows the timeto see i what you had in mind got put down on the page. Nowsthe time when you take the block o granite and chip away at every-thing that isnt the Piet. Nows when you hone and polish, expand

and contract, build and shape. Its more un now that the page isntblank. Its more thoughtul and artul. But i you dont have a men-tor, or a studio executive, or a director to give you notes, where do

you start?You start with this book. With your screenplay on one side

o the desk, and this book on the other, you ollow a clear processthat will help you analyze your screenplay, identiy strengths and

weaknesses, and create a course o action, a blueprint, or your

rewrite.A truism o screenplay writing is that rewriting is hard. Re-

writing on your own is even harder. Rewrite is like having your

Rewrite 2nd Ed. Chitlik

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IntroductIon

own rewrite mentor so you dont have to go through the processby yoursel. Each chapter has o Dos, practical exercises that

relate directly to your current screenplay but that also give you amethod to use in the uture. For best results, do them as you goalong, but eel ree to read the whole book through beore writinganything new.

Te order I have set out in this book is the order I suggest tomy students, but just as every writer approaches the rewrite rom adierent angle, doing dierent things in dierent orders, you canread and use this book anyway that suits you.

One rule about screenwriting: Tere are no rules. Tere areguidelines that have worked or a hundred years (and 2,500 yearsbeore that in play writing), but there are no rules. So, i at any

point you disagree with me, do what you eel is best and see i itworks. I it does, good. I it doesnt, try it my way and see whatyou get. Chances are itll work my way, because my way isnt myway, its the way most screenwriters and development executives

in Hollywood approach the screenplay today.Which brings up another issue. Were talking about Holly-

wood movies here. Were not talking about Jules et Jim, Shoot thePiano Player, Los olvidados, Belle Epoch, or Te Apu rilogy. Ocourse, some o what Im about to lay out here works or those lms,but not everything. I dont know how to write or French New

Wave Cinema, Italian Post-War Realism, Spain pre- or post-Fran-

co, or India aer the Raj. Teyre good lms that continue to touchthe lives o their countrymen, and even us lowly Americans, buttheyre oreign to most American audiences in structure, approach,and content, and thus unacceptable to most Hollywood studiosand production companies. And, I assume, the goal is to make alm that American studios will buy and American audiences willappreciate.

I, however, the goal is to make the best indie lm out there,

youll still do better rewriting your lm with my guidelines thantrying to copy the orm o Last Year at Marienbad (even i youcould gure it out, and I couldnt and I read the book!). A good


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indie lm still needs good structure, good characters, good dialogue,good action.

So lets get started on that rewrite. But wait. How long is this process going to take? I you haveno other responsibilities and can work ull time on it, it could takerom a ew weeks to a couple o months. I you have a job and aamily, maybe three to our months working ten hours per week.Adjust your time rame accordingly.

Writers are notorious or procrastinating. I suggest you dothe same, but with a plan. I usually straighten out my oce, vac-uum the house, go or a bike ride, and take in the dry cleaning.

Whatever youre going to do, write it down, then do it. Dont addto the list. When youve nished, youre ready. Mind clear, spirit

willing. Ten come back to Chapter One.


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When a developer decides to build a skyscraper, one o the rstthings he does, aer researching and selecting the site, is to hire anarchitect to design the structure. He knows that a builder, no matterhow experienced or educated, cant construct a high-rise without

blueprints. Te blueprints will detail the entire project rom thedepth o the oundation to the size and color o the tiles in themens room. Te plans enable the hundreds o people working torealize the project to have the same vision, to be in agreement on

process and result. Not that there isnt opportunity or change (iyouve ever remodeled your house you know about change orders)or creative collaboration. But everyone works rom a common plan.

In lm and television, that common plan is the script. Every-

one rom the props person to the lead actor relies on that docu-ment or guidance, so it is a technical document as well as a literaryone. And, just as with blueprints, there are certain conventions thateveryone relies on. One is a reliance on story.

I movies are all about characters and their goals, what char-acters do when aced with barriers to these goals is the story. odene story in the simplest way: Teres a person. He has a goal.

Teres a wall between him and the goal. He has to go over, under,around, or through the wall to get to his goal.

1

Clarifying

Story and Structure

for Impact

Chapter One


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Tats the story. Tats the plot o your movie the processo getting to the goal. Te goal may change. Te wall may take var-

ious orms (both inside your protagonist and outside o him). Butthe act remains, story is the character striving towards his goal.

Teres an expression o this orm in dramatic terms that hasworked or thousands o years: the three-act structure. Tis hasbeen rened in the last hundred years o movie making and canbe summed up in seven specic points o your movie, all o whichrelate to the protagonists goal.

Tis seems like the starting point or thinking about yourmovie, but its not the only one. My philosophy, shared by thou-sands o other writers (but by no means all), is that movies begin

with character. O course, what bealls the character or what thecharacter does in pursuit o his goal are what movies are about as

well. But I chose to start the book by discussing structure becauseyou cant discuss character without discussing structure, and Ididnt want to have to dene my terms twice.

I encourage you to ip back and orth between the chaptersmuch like a proessor would jump between subjects in a lecture.Remember that character is action, action is character. So the veryact o pursuing a goal is how you dene your character. Its all inter-twined.

So, lets see i your script has the seven points that provide thebare bones o the body o your movie. Te points:

1. Oy L: getting to know who the central characteris and what his issue (aw) is. We see the protagonist in hisusual surroundings, dealing with the usual people in his lie,but we also see that he has some issues and that there is a needor change. He may or may not know that.

In Telma & Louise, written by Calli Khouri, or example,Telma starts o as the repressed housewie to car salesman/dis-

trict manager Darryl, a male chauvinist pig i there ever was one.She even has to ask his permission to go away or the weekend.


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Her rst act o rebellion comes when Telma calls Louise backand tells her the pick-up time.

Tis is a lm ull o montages. Te rst long one is Telmapacking. But the point o this montage is to show her packing waytoo much stu (which will lead to conclusions by the cop, Hal Slo-cumb, much later) and to note that she packs a gun with distaste.How she handles the gun later will also demonstrate how ar shescome on her journey.

Once shes in the car and has handed over the gun toLouise, she hears some ateul words: You get what you settleor. Apparently, shes settled or Darryl. I she ever wants toget rid o him, we iner, shes got to do something about it. Hercondition is clear. Her issues are clear.

We have no idea what were in or while we watch the openingcredits oIn & Out, screenplay by Paul Rudnick. Te location is setup by a series o local beauty shots as were introduced to the greatbig small town o Greenlea, Indiana, that Howard Brackett (KevinKline) lives in. Tis is a heart and soul town, the kind o town thatmade America strong and rich. Te kind where the values haventchanged since it was settled in the 1800s. Or so it would seem.

When we meet Howard, hes in the classroom, his milieu,reciting a Shakespearean sonnet. We can sense his enthusiasmor Shakespeare. He makes his students laugh. He tolerates their

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Clarifying Story and Structure for Impact


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questions about a ormer student, Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon),whos up or an Academy Award. When a nervous student gives

him a letter to open rom Indiana University, we understand hislevel o commitment to his students, and his students admirationo him. Hes a likeable guy. I we werent already convinced, whenhis buddies shower him with champagne because o his upcom-ing wedding to Emily Montgomery ( Joan Cusack), were positive.Everyone likes Mr. Brackett.

And everyone knows Howards lie is about to change, but theyhave no idea how much, and neither do we. We think hes about toget married to a woman hes been engaged to or years. She tries on

her dress with Howard and his mother, Berniece (Debbie Reynolds).But whats the issue? Te issue is subtextual. Why has this pur-portedly heterosexual man not had sex with his anc o three years?Why has he not admitted that hes gay? Does he even know?

2. T Ic Ic: usually around page 15 (or 15 min-utes into the lm), give or take a couple o pages. Somethinghappens to your protagonist that will change his lie orever.

Eventually, it will compel him to act. It will help him de-ine his goal.


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3. E Ac O: when your character decides on a courseo action in order to deal with whatever the inciting inci-

dent brought up. Usually, another major event orces him todecide that he must take action. A plan is part o that. Tisusually occurs between pages 25 and 35. Now your characterhas a goal, and your story has ocus.

Telma calls Darryl at our in the morning, and he isntthere. She starts to understand maybe shes the one who should beupset about her spouses behavior instead o vice versa. Aer Lou-

ise decides they should go to Mexico, Telma has a conversationwith Darryl, but hes too busy with his ootball game. He makesan idle threat, and she tells him to go uck yoursel. Her attitudeis changing.

Telma decides to go to Mexico and learns about Louises pastrun in with the law in exas. Now she asks how long it will take toget to Mexico. She states her goal. Tats the end o Act One.

In In & Out, the pronouncement begins to create doubts incertain minds, but its ramications are ominous when the principal,played by Bob Newhart, warns Howard to prove himsel straightand get married. His students, the ones on his team, begin to doubthim and turn modest when he enters the locker room. Even his bud-dies at his own bachelor party are thrown or a loop. And then the

priest counsels him to be with his ance. He rushes to Emily andtries to make love to her only to be reaked out by a Richard Sim-

mons video. Tis inciting incident has created chaos in his lie. Hesgot to do something about it. What? By the end o the act, Howardsmission is clear he has to get married and prove that hes not gay.

4. M . Yes, this does happen rightaround the middle wherein the action takes a sudden andnew unexpected direction. Te goal may change. Te centralcharacter may realize what his aw is. His true needs become

more important than what he wants.


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Jimmy, Louises boyriend, is waiting or Louise at the hotelwhere he was supposed to wire her the money. She gives the money

to Telma or saekeeping, and we should know by now that some-things going to go wrong with that, but we dont know what. When

J. D. (Brad Pitt) comes to Telmas door, all wet and seductive, Tel-ma takes him in and her lie really changes. Darryl and she had beentogether since she was ourteen. He was the only man she ever knew.Now she learns a thing or two about sex with J. D. As a matter oact, shes light headed and drunk with sex the next morning. Tatis, until Louise asks her where the money is. J. D. has stolen it. Nowthe story spins o in a new direction. Telma wants to maintainthat Its okay, but Louise says, Its not okay. None o this is okay.

Up to this point, Telma has been pulled along by events.She hasnt yet propelled the action by design, though what hashappened to her has propelled the action. But now she has to takeaction. She takes charge. Te action spins o in a new and unex-

pected direction. Te women go on a crime spree!

Just beore the middle oIn & Out, Howard is still deter-mined to prove that he is not gay. In a masterpiece visual, he liter-ally bumps into the one person who can help him, at, not coinci-dentally, a crossroads.

Te catalyst or his sel-discovery is Peter Molloy, played byom Selleck, an out-o-the-closet journalist who just wont let thestory go. He orces Howard to come to terms with himsel. How?

By knocking him over at an intersection literally the cross-roads o his lie. By kissing him ull on the mouth and makinghim accept the act that he likes it.

Now Howards task is to come to grips with the act that hes gay.Te story spins o in a dierent direction. His goal is dierent.

5. T :end o the second act. Te all-is-lost point interms o the goal. It appears theres no way in hell hell ever

reach his goal. Happens around page 75-85 depending onthe length o the script.

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In Telma & Louise, Darryl cant believe it when the FBI and

Hal show him the tape o Telmas convenience store robbery, butTelma thinks she may have ound her calling (armed robbery).Hal later questions J. D. and asks him i he thinks Telma wouldhave robbed the store i he hadnt stolen their money, and its clearhe thinks theyre just victims o circumstance. When Louise andTelma next call Darryl, Louise asks him to put the cops on; andHal takes the phone. He wants them to turn themselves in to him; heknows theyre going to Mexico.

Tis is the low point o the lm, the end o the second act.Nothings going well. Louise says the only thing they had going orthem was that the cops didnt know where they were going. Andnow they know. Teyre rightened, but determined. Tey head ointo the night.

Tings are no better or Howard by now. Hes nally at thewedding, still not owning up. At the altar, doubts creep in, and he

admits to Emily, and to the world, that hes gay. He should be re-lieved, but hes not. Hes ustered, conused. Peter congratulates himand gets clocked in the jaw or his trouble. Howards lie is over.

But the ultimate low point takes place o camera and Howardrelates it to his ather, who has come over aer the aborted wedding.Howards been red because hes gay. Everything he ever worked oris out the window. Hes devastated the woman he loves (not in that

way, but loves nonetheless). Hows he ever going to regain his lie?6. T c. At the beginning o Act hree, your

protagonist sees something , hears something , or even re-members something that reanimates him and gives himthe will to continue. Ten he prepares to ace the nal test,the nal barrier that your character must overcome in orderto reach his goal. Te last, biggest battle. Te run across

Manhattan to proclaim his love. he inal struggle to thesummit. he last ten yards. his occurs very close to theend o your ilm.


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Once Telma and Louise have been located, their ate is sealed.

Or appears to be. Tey could give themselves up, or they could turnand ght. But either way theyd lose, and neither way would be on theirterms. I theres anything that Telmas learned, its that she now hascontrol, and has to keep control, o her own lie. She tells Louise she isa good riend. On the edge o the Grand Canyon, with no escape pos-sible, Louise says shes not going to give up. Telma suggests that theydont get caught. Tey should keep on goin. She points to the edge othe canyon. Louise: You sure? Telma: Yeah. Tey kiss, start the car,hold hands, and y into the canyon.

Tats her nal challenge, and she reaches her goal. Shes com-pletely ree now.

Howard Brackett should be receiving the teacher o the yearaward, but now he cant because hes gay. But his amily and hisstudents and the rest o the community arent about to let thathappen, so in a Spartacus moment I am Spartacus. I am

Spartacus. everyone admits to being gay. Howard is vindi-cated or coming out, lie returns to normal, and everyone is ac-cepted or who they are.

Only problem is, Howard is not the agent o his own salva-tion. Yes, he came out, but he didnt really stand up or himsel andght the principal. Tis is an example o having the cavalry makea last-minute rescue, and its one o the ailings o the lm. Had

Howard ought, the nish would have been much stronger.7. T ( -c-) m . wo

or three pages to show us that lie goes on and that our char-acter has triumphed and changed.

It could be argued that there is not a return to a now-changed orever normal lie in Telma & Louise. Teyre dead.But what could be a greater change than that? Te slide show o

their journey underscores that they had the time o their lives.And now their lives are over. But Telma went on an incredible

journey o sel-discovery and change. Te implication is that its

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the audience that is going to return to a now-changed-orever liebecause o Telma and Louises journey. Tey may never look at

men in the same way again.For Howard, there must be a moment o normal gay lie. In

this case, its the renewal o vows that his parents make with himand his presumed date, Peter (the newsman), looking on. Teresno drastic external change. Hell still teach. Hell still be popular intown. Its just that hes gay now.

Guidelines, Not Laws

Te seven points are only guidelines, o course. But the incit-ing incident should come as early as you can get it while still show-ing us who the main character is and why we should care abouthim. All points aer that are in relation to the characters goal.(See Appendix A or a compressed version o the seven points oTelma & Louise.)

Tere are scenes between these points important scenes and many barriers to get through and many people to relate to,but these are the major signposts along the way o your protagonists

journeys. I say journeys, because the story is only one o the journeys.Te protagonist is really on three journeys: the A story the plot;the B story the relationship; and the C story the internal

journey dealing with the aw. And every one o these stories has aseven-point structure. And every point along each o these journeys

is dened in terms o the goal: reaching the story goal; creating ormending a relationship and thus reaching the emotional goal; chang-ing into a better person (learning something about lie that will helphim), and thus reaching the personal development goal.

Tese journeys are intertwined and interdependent. Oen, a plotpoint or the A story serves as the same point in the B or C story. In act,the better integrated the three stories, the better the screenplay.


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o Do

By y y m .W m c c .M c f c c y c cc.

When youve done all that, come back here. Teres more todo on story.

he BeatsheetIts possible your story is out o balance or is missing some

o the points. Nows the time to really see where you are in yourstructure. Were all your points expressed in terms o the pro-tagonists goal? Were they in proximity to the balance describedabove? Now were going to get intimate with your script. With-out making any changes in your story yet, we need to see exactly

what you have in terms o scenes, so lets write a beatsheet oyour story.I youre like most proessional screenwriters, you didnt just

sit down and start to write your screenplay. You thought about it,you wrote notes, you may have even done some character sketches.And, i you ollowed procedure, you at least did a beatsheet, inot a complete treatment (thats the subject o another book). Abeatsheet is a list o the scenes o your story. Every writer does it

dierently, but most write at least a line or two to remind themwhat each scene will be (see Appendix B or a sample beatsheet).But the beatsheet you wrote when you started your script mightnot correspond to what ended up in your script. You may haveadded scenes, changed them, taken some away. Tats the process.

When youre writing the beatsheet, its easy to shi scenes around,insert new ones, take out ones that dont really move the story.

When you do your rewrite, youve got to be ready to do this,too, so you need a new beatsheet to get the lay o the land. Te bestway to do this, according to some screenwriters, is to write each

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beat on an index card. Ten shufing is a cinch. But with the waycomputers work these days most screenwriting programs give you

the ability to do the same thing, so you can choose. But whatev-er way you choose, it will help you to do that now. Tis will takesome time, but dont worry, Im patient. Come back when youvegot a one-line description o each scene including whos in it and

what the conict or character point is o that scene (more on whatshould be in a scene in Chapter Four). Do not include transitionssuch as riding in a car or establishing shots. Number each beat orconvenience. Te beatsheet will probably be three single-spaced

pages or so, with anywhere rom 30-75 scenes. Ill wait here whileyou do that.

Developing Subplots

Youre back. Good. Lets talk about subplots, because theyreeasier to talk about than to layer into your story. You should, by thistime, be thinking o the two main subplots that is, the B and theC story the emotional subplot and the personal growth sub-

plot. In most stories, the central story is the A story. In roman-tic comedies, its the emotional, or B, story.

Tere are others, too, because there are always other thingsgoing on in a protagonists lie he could have a story with the baristaat the local Starbucks; there could be something happening with hisdog; he might have an issue with his oor wax. Tese should reect

his main issue in some way, but dont necessarily have to.Te protagonist is not the only person in your movie. He has

riends, lovers, enemies. Each o these people can have a subploto his own. Te more important supporting characters can have astory with the seven points. Lesser characters can have stories thatmerely have a beginning, middle, and end, so three story pointsare all that are needed. But the main issue here is, do the subplots

somehow illuminate or reect any o the central characters sto-ries or issues? I they dont, youll need to ask yoursel why youneed them.


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Raising the Stakes

I the biggest, hardest barrier to your protagonist reaching hisgoal comes at the beginning o the story, where do you go romthere? It would be all downhill, and not very suspenseul. So youvegot to set up your story so that at each step, it gets harder and harderor your protagonist to get past the obstacles in his way. But theresmore.

What is the penalty i your central character doesnt achievea short-term and, eventually, the long-term goal? In other words,

what are the stakes? What is the jeopardy or the protagonist? Ihe drives too ast, his car will slide o the road. I he ails a test,hell have to start all over again. I he orces himsel on the girl,hell lose her.

Or his lie.Te consequences o ailure should be dire in terms o your

character. He could lose a ortune. He could lose his house, his chil-

dren, or his job. Te country or world could be destroyed. What-ever it is, it has to be worthy o our attention. Going aer a goalthat is not worthy will make your audience not care enough. I theydont care, they wont watch.

And as you progress in your script, you should be continuallyraising the stakes. Do you?

o Do

W y c cc q? W cqc ? W c .

he Barriers

Some words o reminder about barriers they come rom

within and they come rom without. Te barrier within is your pro-tagonists aw. Its what will prevent him rom achieving his goalunless he overcomes it. So we need to be reminded what that aw

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clarIfyIng Storyand Structurefor Impact


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is, and we need to see it aect the outcome o attempts to overcomebarriers. In other words, you have to set up learning situations or

your protagonist. Have you?And have you set up situations where the antagonist orce is

making lie dicult or your protagonist? Again, ask yoursel, isit tough to reach the goal or is it easy? It had better be tough. Tetougher the better.

Who Is the Real Hero?

One o the most dicult things about writing a eature lmis to gure out who the hero is. Yes, hero. Even in a romantic com-edy. Even in a teen sex romp. Even in a horror picture, there is ahero. Te hero is the person who has to overcome adversity toreach his goal. And he must be the person who does this in thenal challenge (sometimes called the climax). In other words, themain character must be the agent o his own salvation. Te cavalrycant come riding in at the last minute (as it does in Fort Apache).His best riend cant save him. A virus cant save the world romMartian invaders (one o the main aws oWar of the Worlds). Ithas to be the protagonist who ghts and perseveres and overcomes

whatever nal barriers there are between him and his goal (Lukein Star Wars, Dorothy in Te Wizard of Oz). I not, the audience

will be unsatised. Tey might not know why, but they will not behappy with the movie.

o Do

W y cm c. H c , m c, m c .

Youve done some major work in this chapter, so its time or a

little reward. Tink o something mindless that you dont ordinar-ily make time or. An hour reading the newspaper at Starbucks.Bowling a couple o rames. A trip to the library or no reason at


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all. I like to exercise aer completing a stage in a rewrite, so Id beon my mountain bike by now, challenging the Verdugo Mountains.

Go do something other than writing (or even thinking). Tencome back.

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clarIfyIng Storyand Structurefor Impact

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