Screenwriting # 5 – The Beat Map.

So you’ve got your great story idea – now what?

You need to work it from start to finish and make it as logically sound and as entertaining as you can.

There is nothing worse than writing a first draft of something and having someone shoot it down with a very simple question that instantly makes your stomach drop. Their question is an obvious one and you haven’t addressed it. You haven’t even thought of it. But now it’s asked you can see it undermines or destroys your entire plot - it blows a huge hole in the logic of your story.

“Why wouldn’t she just go home and find out where he is?” – It can be that simple and it usually is. So simple you completely overlooked it as you looked ahead to your killer story unfolding. And then you start adding justifications to ‘paper over’ the hole in your logic. You’ve all seen this done, where great slabs of exposition or convoluted little scenes that attempt to explain why she didn’t do the most obvious thing are added. You almost never get away with a patch job.

This is where your beat map comes in. Think of the story as a jigsaw puzzle and the beat map as all the pieces, grouped together into categories and laid out on a table that is your mind, ready to be placed to make your story understood.

What am I talking about – I have a jigsaw of Paris. I have sky, I have the city and I have the river.

1. Sky
2. City
3. River

That is my initial beat map of my visual story of Paris. So I list those elements. Then, for each element I break things down further – the sky has areas of blue, some clouds, some white, some dark, some billowing, some thin – it has the sun. Just note these and place them close to the larger beat of ‘Sky’.

1. Sky
2. Blue
3. White cloud
4. Dark cloud
5. Billowing cloud
6. Thin cloud
7. Sun

Likewise, the city of Paris has the Eiffel Tower, The Arch De Triumph, Champs Elyse, Notre Dame and countless other visual landmarks; the booksellers, the cafes, the cobblestones and we can go on and on into the smallest details.

The only difference with a story is in the telling. You may have decided to tell the story in a linear or some other style, so the story will have an order – but it is essentially the same process. Just list everything you know in order to tell the story the way you want - from start to finish. Make it as simple as you can - so anyone can understand it.

Don’t worry at this point about the three act structure. Just arrange your story in very simple, very short beats. Think of them as bullet points – the shortest descriptions possible to describe the major moments of your story to take it from start to finish.

This is a beat map. And a beat map can grow. It can begin with very large sections held within very small concise beats:

1.      A girl meets a boy.

2.      They fall in love.

3.      He does something stupid

4.      She finds out and leaves him

5.      He wins her back.

You don't even have to be certain of beats at this stage - "He does something stupid" - just list what you know, even if you only know vaguely what should be there.

THE BEAT MAP.

To begin with you need an idea for a story.

When I do standup I have what we call a running list. It’s usually obscure headings that mean something to me. Each of these is a self contained idea and there can be a good five minute set in each listed title, but I only need to see the bullet point to know exactly what the five minutes covers. For instance: ‘Jews have cool hats’ is my bullet point, and this is what it covers.

This will be the same with you and your story when you are creating the beat map. The simpler you can make it to begin the better it will be and the easier for you to evaluate what you have. You may know great slabs of detail within some beats and little within others, but go through the process of writing the beats as concisely as possible to begin.

RED RIDING HOOD

1/ Red Riding hood wants to visit her grandmother.

2/ She’s warned not to go through the wood.

3/ She’s running late and goes through the wood.

4/ She meets the wolf who asks where she’s going.

5/ The wolf goes to Grandma’s house and eats Grandma.

6/ Red Riding Hood arrives and thinks Grandma looks odd.

7/ Red discovers the Wolf in the nick of time.

8/ A huntsman comes and rescues Red by killing the wolf.

That’s a story, from start to finish.

The first thing you want to know is, does my idea work as a story?

A lot of these things are judgment calls and your success or lack of it will depend entirely on that judgment – this is part, but not all of what we call ‘Talent’. You cannot teach something that is instinctive. You can learn it, but it takes great discipline and patience if it isn't given as a natural gift – that’s my belief anyway. 

How well you see the world, how well you see and define others and then transcribe them, how well you understand complex situations and then transcribe them into your writing and finally, how creatively you can render those moments to recreate them as a form of entertainment is all part of what we’ve come to call talent. You can certainly gain these gifts over time and by being realistic, open and empathetic as you live life and travel a journey as a writer, vowing to get better and grow as a person with a better understanding of the world you live in. If you ever feel you’ve arrived, that you have nothing left to learn or your skills are equally awesome across all genres… I have some very bad news for you.

It is a healthy and usual process to feel, at times, that you are writing crap and should give up. I know it seems counterproductive, but wanting to give up is a sign you shouldn’t – it means you’re still learning and getting better.

   

But it’s also one of the reasons why I advocate asking the really hard questions at the very beginning. Nothing is more soul destroying than to be in that euphoric state of a newly completed work, send it out into the world and have it shat upon by everyone. It’s crushing. Robert McKee advocates throughout his book, STORY, (in particular read chapter nineteen – The Writer’s Method), where he gives the best description you’ll ever find between an amateur writer and professional and the essence of his argument is in the planning of the story before any writing begins. This is where the hard work lies. And this is why amateurs rush into the joyous work of creating the first draft before the hard work of planning is complete.

I take months to get a story to a point where it is ready to be written. A lot of this time may actually be more in my head than hard grind at a desk, but it’s still about getting my story into order and that takes time.

I will take another 2-4 months, minimum, to actually write the first draft of a script. So that’s quite a bit of time and that’s my best scenario, I’ve had scripts, plays or novels that have taken me years to get from start of the idea to finished manuscript.

Now wouldn’t it be great if you could see a major hurdle on day one of that process and pull up? Some stories don’t work even in the most skillful of writer’s hands. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to spot these torturous journeys before you had wasted months or years heading down the wrong path?

Sometimes, like the question posed in my final query – “is it likely to sell?” I can decide this is a great story, but maybe I should put it away until I have a little more of a reputation and I can get something made that seems a little riskier. The story of Jesus, portrayed as a gay man, involving a cast of thousands and explicit sex scenes, may not be the ideal project to try and break through with. Just saying.

The point of the beat map is to help you find all these questions and answer them as you make your story stronger and to do this before you ever write line one. You are searching for the stories logical through line, story arc, from start to finish. That’s all. At this stage you shouldn’t be thinking about structure. Where is the first act turning point/inciting incident? Who cares! If there’s no significant entertainment value beyond a perfectly structured story, if there are no higher themes being explored or reasonable end points being aimed for – does it really matter at this stage if you got the timing right?

Entertain us!

For instance – Red Riding hood seems pretty boring to me – it has its moments, but there’s a lot of logic problems along the way.

Why is she running late and is this enough to make her disobey the warning she’s been given?

Is the Huntsman arriving to save her too convenient?

Does this story work to an audience, is it likely to sell, are producers and directors likely to be interested in this genre and style? 

Why is a wolf talking and acting like a human?

Why does the wolf go to such lengths in order to eat Red Riding Hood, wouldn’t he be full already by the time he’s eaten Grandma?

How and why does the huntsman just to appear and save Red?

What is the end result of all this. Can Red really enjoy being saved by the hunter given her granny’s blood and guts are smeared around her on the cabin’s walls?

Of course Red Riding hood is a fairytale that deals in metaphor and base fears and superstitions.

The wood is the sum of everyone’s fears. You have to eventually pass through to the other side – to confront your fears; the wolf an expression of that fear. Grandma’s house is safe haven. The hunter the hero standing vigilant to keep you safe – and on it goes.

But a simple beat map can explore the idea, without structuring it, in a simple and clear way so you can see if an idea is strong enough to create a story that is logical and entertaining. Then that story must be substantial enough to warrant a movie/play/novel – or maybe the beat map show it has characteristics that would better suit a miniseries or TV serial or series.

It can all be answered in a beat map – and before any structuring has even come into play, let alone a line of your manuscript written.

A REAL WORKING EXAMPLE:

Here’s an idea I’ve had kicking around in my head for some time: I often feel it’s better and more helpful to illustrate things from genuine working examples that come off a blank page, rather than working backwards from a finished and produced script. 

First, a production script and a final writer’s draft script are often very different. And second, often the script is an award winning script – so of course it fits the model. How about helping me with a blank page and a convoluted set of points I can’t unravel? This is the creative process – not analysis or deconstruction of something complete – this is about how a creative person takes a blank page and turns it into something that is worth having produced.

The Beat map – a working example.

1. -          A flood in a small town (How small?) causes havoc. The town is cut off and much of the rural country side has been flooded.
2. -          As the town’s folk clean up and assess the damage, the local sheriff is called to a number of bodies that have been discovered.   
3. -          The first mystery – the gore, decomposing, skeletal bodies hanging from trees and in paddocks.
4. -          He realizes the bodies are long dead. He finds coffins, proving the bodies come from the cemetery and the flood has eroded much of the land and sent previously buried bodies floating.
5. -          As the town recovers from the flood, the gruesome task of identifying and reburying bodies begins.
6. -          The morgue and the sheriff cross reference with the cemetery and they have identified each body ‘exhumed’ by the flood – but they have two bodies of young women over what they should have. One can be identified as a missing backpacker who recently travelled through town.
7. -          Rumors begin, accusations. The second body, also a young woman is identified.
8. -          The strong silent, good looking loner who lives on the outskirts is suspected. (Why? How?)
9. -          They discover a coffin lid washed well downstream. Assumed damage was due to being swept along in the flood, but a small fragment of an acrylic nail has been discovered in the wood and the wood deeply scratched – conclusion – one of the girls was buried alive.
10. -          The scratched coffin turns out to be from a woman buried in the last six months. (Related to someone?)
11. -          Something to increase suspicions that the killing of young women is not isolated.
12. -          The sheriff, on a hunch, exhumes a few other recently re-buried bodies and discovers two coffins with two bodies in each and the telltale scratched lids indicating the second body in the coffin was alive.
13. -          Linked to undertaker, a man who is a little slow, who has some link with strong silent good looking loner.
14. -          Strong silent good looking guy seen with a girl, backpacker passing through.
15. -          The backpacker goes missing. (Feels like it should be her in the coffin and a ticking clock to find her – but how, why and wouldn’t she be easily found if others new she was buried in a coffin in a cemetery?)
16. -          Town becomes almost vigilante mentality against strong silent good looking guy. The only one who thinks he’s innocent is the sheriff – (maybe a woman – ala Fargo)
17. -          I think earlier he needs to be questioned - he slept with many of the town’s women and many of the tourists who pass through. Sherriff a little shocked even – knew he was  man whore but not that much.
18. -          Strong Silent Good looking guy is a bit of a man-whore who sleeps with many – except never with local plain Jane who has lost weight, had plastic surgery etc – but still can’t get him to notice her. She’s been killing off anyone getting close to him. (Has the investigation and the Sheriff’s nagging doubt he’s innocent created some sexual energy between them. When they make it more than just tension and get physical it – a/ her investigation and b/ brings in the killer now targeting the sheriff. Is the missing girl being held, in a new location – the flood making burying in cemetery unfeasible.     

Can you feel me working the story around to help me see it clearer? It’s a mess at the moment. I am sure these notes are clearer to me than anyone else, but even I get confused about some aspects as I read them, so I imagine those of you reading cold will be very lost.

But that’s okay, That’s part of the process and this is my process. You will find your own way of notating an idea and asking yourself questions or ‘filling in the gaps’ as you plan. So I'm not advocating you copy my process, I'm just putting it out there as an example because I find it useful to know how other people work. Sometimes I steal huge portions of someone's process, sometimes barely anything - but almost always I find that listening and understanding other people's processes helps me in some way.

This beat Map is not yet a story. It’s getting close. It has a lot of ‘knowns’ as ‘Rumsfold’ would say. It also has a lot of his ‘known unknowns’ – these are things that I know I don’t have yet, but know I need so I have, in most cases, been able to ask a pertinent question about the missing ‘known unknown’ – that is, a question about a piece of the beat map that I don’t have yet. I know that it’s missing and what it should be conceptually, even how it fits in, but I don’t know what it is yet.

I should also note that characters and even the focus of the whole story may clear up or change through this process. I am feeling very strongly, now, after my initial beat map, that this is the sheriff’s story – her investigation. And she wasn’t even a she when I first had the idea for this story – in fact the character of the sheriff wasn't even in my view - but it was obvious I needed an investigator of some kind very quickly as I laid out my beat map. 

You can see how laying things out and making the links that support and strengthen those elements around help to define and even make choices for you. You just have to be open for them and willing to listen to what the logic of the piece tells you. If you head in with something too firmly in your mind and you’re too precious or stubborn to move from that view – you’re never going to get anywhere.

All of the things I can think of get listed in the beat map. Along with all the things I can’t think of – the gaps. Gaps, for me, stand for the ‘unknown unknowns’ – and these are the worst aspects of an emerging story. Because any one of the unknown beats could suddenly reveal this story is going nowhere; it’s illogical and not worth pursuing.

For interest’s sake I will admit this idea has been dumped upon by at least one established producer, although he is someone who deals in complete stories that fit the structure. And this is exactly why I preach what I preach about finding people who understand the creative process of development, not simply people who are good judges about whether a piece fits the desirable structural model. 

The producer who dissed this is not a story developer who can see something emerging. His response came within seconds of me detailing what I had –

“Where’s the story?” he asked. 

“Why is someone killing the people just to bury them again?”

He went on to make it clear he thought little of the idea. The entire exchange took less than 30 seconds and killed my pitch. But it underlines the difference and frustration of trying to develop a story with people who don’t know what development is.

BTW - This was a senior producer of one of the big production companies and a good friend. Had he not been a friend I would never have run the idea past him at such an early stage – not until I’d worked it to a point where I knew it worked. That was my writer’s enthusiasm, forgetting my own golden rules. But I learnt from it – the lesson, even with a friend, be ready for the pitch!

I still don’t really know if this idea is anything or not. That’s why I am using it as an example because this is a genuine idea being worked on and one that isn’t there yet and may never get there. It has yet to be worked past a beat map, but to this point I haven’t thought of structure once.

Structure may be applied to it subconsciously by a process similar to osmosis, imbedded in my mind by the many stories I have told before and the knowledge of structure I have studied – AND – all these influences that now make me think of story along structural lines whether I intend to or not can't help influence how I think of story at this very early stage – but it is not a conscious structuring process I'm undertaking. If anything I am trying to consciously not structure and simply let the story fall where it may.

When the map is in place to my satisfaction I will then look at it for those more analytical issues, what platform should it be aimed at – TV, Film, Play, etc. Then I’ll look to structure for the very first time. I’ll look to where it fits and where it doesn’t fit and what I can do to change what I have to make it fit better. That is when I will know for the first time if this idea has legs.

But none of that is yet. Now it is all about the story. Do I have a logical story and is that story entertaining enough for me to spend 9 to 18 months of my life working it into that required form and corresponding structure?

At this stage – my beat map is trying to head from A to Z, working through the logic and trying to find a story that is A/ Entertaining, B/ Makes sense, C/ Has something to say – thematically about life or any other of a number of comments on the world we live in that would be deemed greater than the simple A to Z of the story contained.

To summarize the BEAT MAP PROCESS.

I list the beats of the story I know.

I list the beats of the story I don’t know. This may be in questions or a holding line that says something like – “The murderer’s motives go here.”

I also leave gaps where I know something is missing, even if I don’t know what it is. Or I can fill these gaps with suggestions, questions or ideas.

“Is this the place to give him some humanity?” That type of thing that may have vaguely entered your mind on this look at the beat map – and that if you don’t mark the idea down in some way you know you will lose it by the time you come back to the piece again.

Think of the beat map at this stage as a pin board. Tack everyone on it somewhere.

I will keep working through these beats, sometimes on paper, some times in my head, until I can go easily from start to finish and tell a clear, coherent and complete story that I am happy with.

This is a lot like a pitch to yourself – if you stumble, get sidetracked, tell it like your mother tells a joke – 

“Oh, yeah, the lady, the first one, you need to know she’s his sister. I should have said that at the start.”

If any of these things jump in and ruin your clear concise A to Z pitch – you’re not there yet. Keep working on it until the story is fluent in your head, then get it onto paper and work it into a final run is developed that is clear, concise and makes perfect sense as a complete story.

That’s the point when I look again at the pros and cons of this story, as I outlined earlier. I will have done this right from the beginning – I.E. – my first idea for this story was: a murderer buries people in coffins of recently buried people to avoid the bodies ever being found.

Back then I didn’t really have much of the story – but I could still say, it’s gory, a detective who-done-it type thing. Good small rural town location. Similar to Fargo in feel. Not sure of much else. But at the beginning that was enough for me to feel there was something worth pursuing with, so I did.  

Now I can list – a love interest. A protagonist – motivated by protecting an innocent man/love interest. An antagonist, a jilted non-lover with an unrequited love for her love interest. 

Not a big budget or big production tasks. The tail end of a flood is difficult – but has been confined to outlying rural areas and could be done with sprayed water marks – showing where water was at a peak.  

There is a negative in the plain Jane, who can’t get the man and going mad over it – being labeled anti feminist. A young female backpacker locked in a coffin/box may affect ratings – this could also be conceived as anti women or women as victims – may be worth exploring if murderer could do in a young male as well – maybe someone oversees a girl’s abduction? Just to take the – only violence towards women concern out of it. Or is this man whore bisexual? Does that add or detract? Does it blur the lines? If he’s bi, surely his plain Jane ‘stalker’ would have to concede it may not be all about her being rejected. 

Does the love interest get strung up by the town’s folk vigilante – does any of that make it better?

These are all thoughts at a very early story creation stage. I am trying to find if there are aspects that would make this idea harder to get produced above and beyond the usual. I am trying to add to the themes and the story with anything that jumps out at me as a worthy idea or element I have missed or something that is contentious that can be dropped with no loss to the story.

In many ways I am looking for a fatal flaw that will stop me developing this idea further. If I find one, I won't throw the idea away, I will hold it in my head and rethink things to try and overcome this flaw. And I may go back and forward through this process many times before I solve all the fatal flaws I can spot.

Many financial people talk about risk reward. If I have to invest 100,000 to gain 10,000 it may be considered too much risk for the reward, but reverse the ratio and risk 10,000 to make 100,000 and investors would be lining up. You should think the same way as a writer.

“They have to be an elderly couple – that’s the whole point of the story,” says the writer.

But if they were a young sexy couple would the story lose anything and wouldn’t this reduce the risk – either real or perceived, towards the movie being made and then well attended? What do you lose by making that change and what do you gain. If the answer is you lose little or nothing and gain a lot then the only thing standing in the way of making that change is pride.

In my story – the murder who-done-it example, even though I haven’t got the beat map completed yet – let’s, for the sake of the example, pretend I have so we can go forward and look at the issues I'd be looking at next. 

Only at this point would I first take a look at the story for genre, and format. Genre seems pretty clear – it could be a quirky comedy drama – but that would diminish the drama of the story, so it seems clear this would be best as a thriller/drama/detective mystery.

It can’t be a TV series – the location and characters make it a one off, to extend it would deliver a “Murder She Wrote’ conundrum – as in – how, in such a small community is one woman at the centre of so many murders/crimes? I could create a series like 'The Killing', but I think it would work best as a film.

Even though I knew this far earlier as I worked on my beat map – you can certainly leave this decision this late without doing any harm and sometimes the platform that best suits hides until late.

Now I would look to my structure for the first time.

What is my set up? The town and the characters – easy.

My inciting incident, the bodies discovered and then too many bodies discovered kicks us into the second act.

The first half of the second act is the pursuit by the sheriff and town of the quiet good looking loner.

A good midpoint would be whatever makes the Sheriff go from suspecting him, to thinking he’s innocent. Possibly a setup to sexual tension between them.

Then the second half of the second act is both sexual tension heading towards something physical and inappropriate for the sheriff – probably not good for her career or this investigation if she’s sexing the main suspect of an investigation. And let’s not forget he’s a man whore – what are you doing Sheriff who we like? You know you’re going to get hurt unless he can somehow change his ways.

Maybe that’s the missing piece from my story map – as the sheriff is closing in on the real murderer and our good looking loner is seeing the risk to his life and freedom increase – maybe it’s having this one woman genuinely care, believe in and fight for him that makes him realize the love of one good woman is better than sex with many?

And that has just come out at me through going over this ‘working beat map’ for this blog entry. This is how this process and all creative processes work. Sometimes an answer is in you all along – you just have to look away to find it. In this case, concentrating on my thoughts for this blog entry has allowed something to be pulled from the shadows of the ideas in this beat map. It may be the same as the method used by many creative minds who swear that concentrating on your dilemma the night before will allow you to wake with the problem solved. 

THE KOWN UNKNOWNS

The final victim or victims.

When to reveal the murderer and her motives.

A residual of sheriff discovering he’s a player – which I may have found in my ‘the love of a good woman’ idea.

Regardless of the substantial amount I still don’t have, I can see I have enough of a story to fit into the structure, so I can be confident I could make this work.

But even if I didn’t manage to fit it roughly into the structure at this stage I wouldn’t give up on it. Where it didn’t fit would simply help me to unpick the story at those points and try and find new beats through the logic of the story that did hit the beats I wanted. And slowly, a beat at a time, I would find my inciting incident and transition to act two. I would find my escalating action (pursuit of want) of the first half of act two, my midpoint, change of momentum and my escalating (pursuit or need) action for the second half of act two.

I still don’t have my turning point to throw us towards resolution or what that resolution is. But as I work through each section and add beats, these things may, or may not clear themselves up.

Again assuming my A to Z of my story map was in place …  my initial imagining of this would be complete and I with my beat map from A to Z of the story in place I would start testing the basic story out on friends and family. Don’t editorialize the story at all. What do I mean by this?

“This amazing old town, that feels like a ghost town.”

“This really quirky sheriff.”

“The townsfolk can almost hear that nail scrapping along the inside of the coffin.”

Just pitch the idea and make it as plain as possible. If you have to sell a story at this stage – it’s not ready to present.

DO NOT SELL YOUR IDEA – at this stage. If anything pitch it flat and really pay attention to how people react. If your pitch is clear concise and can be made within a minute or less, you A/ have the pitch where it should be, B/ you won’t risk losing your family and friends. Personally I hate being stuck with someone who wants to explain a story to me that goes on for 30 minutes or even longer. They are clearly invested in it, but I am not and want to get back to the party and other people. So, always remember you cannot get a good read unless your story is tight and easily understood in a very short space of time. In my experience the shorter the pitch the stronger the idea:

“A ground breaking scientist specializing in cloning is brought a relic from a Monastery. The relic has been frozen solid in ice for centuries and is said to have come from the Knights Templar and to contain the blood of Christ.”

That’s a pitch I was lucky enough to hear a few years ago and I can tell you everyone in the room instantly straightened in their chair. Sadly it has not been made into a film, probably because it’s one of those great ideas that falls apart when you really think about it hard.

    

Pitching your idea to family and friends will help in the long run to consolidate the pitch when you have written the script and do need to get people interested. That’s when you can give it the old razzle dazzle and really try to sell it, but for now, let the story do the work. This early pitch is to help you discover if your story is worth telling – it’s not trying to sell it to a producer.

And you have to become really good at gauging the response you get. You only have to have someone like the basic idea of a story once for you to know forever the difference between an idea that excites people and one that’s fallen flat. So don’t push it, just tell it in a light, casual and clear manner and see if you capture people’s interest. You cannot miss genuine interest, just as you cannot miss people’s eyes glazing over.

The next thing I do is to list everything I can think of that is involved in this story; themes and aspects of the story – a jumbled list of anything that may help or be touched on somehow and someway within my story. It's never too much - just keep piling it on.

In this way we find out what we know and what is there that we may not have spotted. Remember the subconscious of the writer will often be at work creating a patchwork of linked ideas, imagery or themes that you may not have been completely aware of.

Here we have: unrequited love, love, small town values, dead people, people re-buried, wrongfully accused, vigilantes, truth, rumor, outsiders, buried alive, sort of aspects of zombies, horror of death, bodies, the flood/god, digging people up/ strangers being murdered, forbidden love, scandal, compromising investigation.

I would continue this list to be as long as possible, but already what jumps out at me is Zombies. They are hot right now! How would it hurt to move this location to a small town in southern USA – New Orleans maybe. True Blood country. Maybe it’s someone who believes in Voodoo and Zombies who whips the other town’s folk up, or adds another dimension to the story – convinced it’s not people being murdered, but zombies trying to break out of coffins once dead. You can see how you can find extra elements just by listing the story map, long before you’ve ever written a line or set your characters.

That’s a good thing because now we can add to our characters and make them far more unique and interesting. For instance, what if my female Sheriff is a black woman from the south and her parents, grandparents or whole family believe in witchcraft, voodoo and Zombies? She doesn’t – she’s about science and logic but she’s always been at war with her family over their beliefs. Now she becomes a far more interesting character.

My favorite example of this character selection comes from the movie – MR HOLLAND’S OPUS.

Mr. Holland is a music teacher who dreams of one day writing a great musical composition. But he is sidetracked into teaching by life as he has to support his wife and child. Mr. Holland’s idol is John Lennon who famously wrote “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy doing other things.” And so it is with Mr. Holland. This is a man whose whole life adds up to one great musical work – composed not on paper, but through the love of music in all the students he changed the lives of and helped to also love music.

But what is the one character that shows how my list and an understanding of the plan highlights how to create, choose and define characters? Mr. Holland is a man whose entire life is about the beauty and passion he finds in music. Music is auditory - over every other creative outlet music is for the hearing – so they give this man a deaf son. A father who cannot convey to his son what his own life is all about, at least not until he recognizes his son is different and simply sees music differently.

That’s poetic and beautiful and so metaphoric of almost every father son relationship I’ve heard or seen examined. What’s most important to the father is seen and appreciated in completely different terms by the son. 

My Sheriff’s Zombie fearing family comes about in exactly the same way that you would isolate and find the supporting character of the son to give Mr. Holland an entirely new and deeper dimension than a simple music teacher passing on a gift to students. It’s the sort of depth and poignancy in the choice and rendering of subsidiary, or even main characters that any good film needs.

So you find extra depth through this process and then work it back into your beat map. And you keep going back and forward until you have a beat map, and a treatment of your idea that is incredibly rich, incredibly detailed and bulletproof. 

The treatment simply being an expanded beat map; a detailed prose rendering of each beat, nuance and important moment within your story from start to finish. Think of it as an extended synopsis, or a blueprint that another writer could follow to write your script the way you wanted it written if you were absent – but more of treatments in another post.

A majority of people today, because of the way we learn structure and how to go about creating stories through the study of that structure, have no idea how to judge a ‘blank page idea’. That is the biggest frustration I have found. Funding bodies, script doctors, teachers and experts can all fall short these days. Not all of them by any means, some are spectacularly good and invaluable to a writer, but some, because of the study of structure and the parrot style learning that is done, can fool you for a long time and cause you a huge amount of angst.

The moment there is an outline or a draft, these people are sure of what works and what doesn’t. It’s almost instant. Something you have struggled with for months or years they analyze in seconds and leave you feeling like a moron. They spark to life with suggestions and alterations to make your story whole.

The trouble is they have transposed what you have onto their learnt model and said this, this and this doesn’t fit. What they should be saying is – “Here are a list of known unknowns I can see in your story that you need to go and find answers to.”

It is not a script analyzer’s job to complete your story with their ideas – that’s simply bad advice. They need to, at very least, make sure they understand what it is you are trying to do with your story.

As an example – the worst advice I ever had was towards a novel I wrote – The Law of Happiness and Divorce – where, through an act of neglect the main character kills his boss. As a result he ends up getting promoted. The story is a satirical look at big business and the addiction of power and success. The advice I received, that cost me over $400, was to strip away all the satire and make it a detective novel about the murder. That analyst owes me $400!

With an outline, a treatment or a first draft, the good analyst is terrific. They can tell you where the story is working, what’s wrong with what’s not working and why and, most, if they can set aside their artistic need to create their story from your story, can give great suggestions about how to achieve the story you are trying to tell or at least what it is you should be looking for to work your way closer to a satisfying end point.

This comes from studying structure in depth and in a variety of forms. This is from analyzing thousands of good and bad films and progressing through the buzz words and in-vogue catch-cries of different script gurus to understand what is being said and what terms correspond to what other terms used by other script gurus.

Those dissimilar terms are a great example of competing analysts all trying to create something new to stand out and make a name. A few have valid reasons to reinvent the wheel with innovative additions or alternative theories, but most are simply saying the same thing and using different terms to make it sound original.

I have taken something from almost every structural analysis I’ve ever read, so I’m a long way from saying the good and even the bad aren’t without merit, but it gets hard as a writer to try and find a really clear set of blue prints when everyone of the experts uses a slightly different set of terms for the same things or breaks the structure up into slightly different beats.

So remember one thing and then let the rest come to help out when needed and not before. Find a great, entertaining story idea and tell that story to yourself until you have it as you want it.

That’s step one and it’s just that simple. Many times your story won’t survive this very simple first step. I am not trying to discourage anyone by saying this – I simply believe it to be true. If you are a story teller and you have a 10% strike rate, from all the ideas that enter your head to the ones that survive the scrutiny and process through development, you are at the very top of the creative heap. So don’t be disheartened as you uncover fatal logic flaws in an idea you really liked – be encouraged you are becoming a more competent story teller and not wasting your time on ideas that, for whatever reason, don’t measure up.

As you become even better you may be able to overcome some of these fatal logic flaws, but I would contend, a patchwork idea will never be as good as an idea that flowed from first conception to final draft – but that’s a call for you to make.

Occasionally, of course you do hit the jackpot and dream up the perfect idea that is great from the very start. It will write itself and when you look towards elements beyond the simple entertainment value of your story they’ll be coming at you thick and fast and you’ll be in the enviable position of being able to choose the elements that make your script even more desirable to producers, directors and an audience and these choices will still fall within and be dictated by story. That’s how great stories get told – they dictate their form and content from story and not from production constraints or desires of external market forces – budget, political correctness, trending content. To force these things unnaturally onto your idea almost invariably turns your galloping horse into a camel.

Good luck to all those on the story journey. 

Still to come – The logline, Synopsis, treatment, pitch and enquiry letter.

Screenwriting # 4 – Finding the story and peer review sites.

Writing a story is a creative endeavor. It is not about analysis. It is not about formulaic guidelines, it is about the story.

Find a great, original story and tell it well and you’ll find support for your screenplay.

I’ve said many times before, I am not against learning everything there is to know about structure – in fact I urge everyone to do so, it will make you a great story editor, a great script editor, a great dramaturge and script doctor – it will also make you a better writer, but it will not help you think up a great story.

It will help you identify if a great story idea can be turned into a great story and it will help you identify if your story idea is fit for film, TV, theatre or a short or long form novel. It will also help you with the sub categories of each – for example, in television - have I written a mini series, a serial or a series? Should the idea be played for laughs as a comedy or better to make it a drama or a cross between the two, the now popular – dramedy, (The Descendants). And there are many more decisions that knowing as much as possible about the analysis of and the structures of story will help you decide.  

But the study of structure and formula, in an academic sense often become a barrier to original ideas.

It’s a little like HR departments in large corporations using complicated and sophisticated psychological tests to identify ‘the best’ candidates to employ – ignoring almost completely if that ‘best’ person, as judged by the company credos, ethics and work culture, is truly the best person for the specific task that needs to be performed.

The same is sometimes the case with analysis and theoretical study. Examples are given and learnt about what to do and what not to do within a well structured story. Many potential storytellers allow these ideas to become arbitrary rules and then let these ‘rules’ deny the exploration of a story from the moment the idea strays from the learnt structural path. If an idea doesn’t meet the model adopted, learnt and embraced by the practitioner, they declare it dead before it’s been properly explored.

 I call it story development myopia - an inability to see beyond the nearest hurdle.

“That’s plot.”

“The set up’s too long.”

“There’s no antagonist.”

“I don’t believe the premise.”

And on and on the problems go that stop an idea from being fully explored and each one is delivered with such finality that no further discussion is had, certainly not by a new writer in the face of someone with experience delivering the fatal problem critique.

If learning about structure and form becomes a self censorship of ideas by a storyteller it limits any idea that isn’t conceived fully formed.

This is certainly the rule of thumb being used by managers, story editors, producers, readers and many others in the industry who are asked to sift through the many submitted ideas. That’s how it should be.

When you send an idea out into the world with the hope of having it produced it needs to be sound and polished, but how, as a writer, do you wade through the often muddy waters of development without adequate feedback from knowledgeable practitioners?

Only knowledgeable practitioners can truly understand the process of development, as opposed to the brutal world of accept or reject that lies at the finished end of a script being submitted.

It is absolutely correct that someone pitching an idea to be read or produced by a professional should have that idea structured to a point where it is bulletproof – but it is creative death for people to dismiss a story because it doesn’t fit a structural model at the earliest draft stage.

For a writer with a project in a development phase it becomes extremely frustrating trying to get support, input and advice to develop an idea without the damning judgment that may be detrimental to your reputation and career as a writer.

Firstly it may literally kill or deaden your creativity as damning critiques zap you of any confidence you may have had. Secondly – at least with the person or company you sent the project to, if they were expecting a polished draft and believe this early draft is the very best you can do, they may list you as a writer never to be read again.

What you need to find is a circle of trusted friends or colleagues who understand a story may be a working idea through the first few drafts. You’ll know when you’ve found these people because they’ll ask questions and make an effort to understand what the story is you’re trying to tell and they will NEVER slam insignificant or easily fixed aspects and label them as reasons you or your idea have little future, either as a project or as a writer.

Avoid these soul killers at all cost – if they are writers they are inexperienced ones. They certainly have yet to understand, or do not share the experience and frustration of development. They are pointing out all the mistakes you have made, in formatting, in text, in font selection and style because it’s what’s most easily learnt in a parrot fashion and many also find it a boost to the ego to be able to show just how much more they know about how to write and present a screenplay.

The truth is, unless you’re a producer, a teacher or some other industry professional looking for a completed polished draft to produce or to be at a producible level, these insignificant, easily fixed issues should be noted as a courtesy, without comment or judgment. Those harsher responses to presentation or structural missteps should be confined to the industry professionals.

As peer reviewers and fellow writers we should be the first to understand that ideas don’t always translate effortlessly into a well structured first draft of a screenplay. We should be commenting on the story, the characters and the logic. Did you believe it, did it entertain you, did it achieve what you gleamed from the writer as the goal of the story? Was it the story promised in the log line and the synopsis? Is there something in the idea that is worth pursuing and may not yet be realized fully – if so, how can you help the writer separate the good from the bad and remain as positive about the work as possible as they take it forward? And how can you help them reach that next, better structured draft?

 A good editor/development colleague/script doctor will do all of this - point silly format, typo, or logic mistakes out to simply bring them to your attention in case they have slipped through. Their main focus will be on helping you take your story to that next level because they understand the development process.

They may point out that your set up is currently 35 pages long and needs to be trimmed by at least 10 to 15 pages, but they should also understand that you, as a writer, may need to have written 35 or 40 or even more setup pages to discover your characters and find out what is needed and what is important for the story to come. You may have needed to over write to discover how and what it is that CAN be cut. These readers need to dig around to understand why it’s currently too long, not label you as an amateur for missing the page 15-17 inciting incident and page 22 transition into the second act. That’s simply not helpful and only proves they’ve tied themselves to the structural paradigms so tightly that their structural understanding is now leading their storytelling and not the other way around.

Cutting is easy. Creating is hard. Once you have a great story that works on every level, it is far easier to then edit it to meet the structure than it is to create a story by following the structure. Make sure you as a writer also understand the development process – which is why I say, never ever send your work out too soon. Accept that the draft you just finished, the one you are excited about and are sure is genius on every page, will be attacked by the night demons who take brilliance and turn it into crap over night. Your genius first draft is colored by your enthusiasm of just completing your story. Let it settle. Let some trusted fellow writers read it and give you feedback and be honest with yourself about what they say. Do not immediately send it out into the world to be produced - trust me, it's not ready.

Send it to the right people first – your circle of colleagues, writing buddies who you can rely on to give the feedback you need to develop your ideas. If you haven’t found these people yet then join one of the very good peer review sites – my personal choice is Talentville

But there are many others....

Zoetrope.com

Triggerstreet.com

Circalit.com

AmazonStudios.com

Once you’re on these sites, take some time to read other people’s reviews of other people’s scripts and you will very quickly see and feel the difference between someone who is concentrating on the development process of the story and someone who is scoring points by making a big song and dance about all the formatting and structural aspects that a screenplay has missed.

Once again – it’s fine to point these things out, but there are bigger issues to look at in a story sense, especially when we are dealing with early drafts on a peer review site, and simply listing as a courtesy, typos, formatting errors or structural beats that miss the ‘generally accepted’ page numbers is all that is ever needed. How a writer then decides to cut 20 pages from an act is up to them and ultimately, this is what will determine whether or not they have managed to do their story idea justice.

So find people who help you define and focus your story. Learn the craft and always get better at it – in fact, as I’ve also said before in earlier posts, learn it so well you don’t have to think about it, but will write your story to those beats automatically. That’s the level you want to finally get to as a screenwriter – then you can concentrate all your energy and talent on the story being told and making it as entertaining s possible and not be restricted or thwarted on any level by the format and structural restraints that need to be met. You will have found a storytelling Zen at this level – where your story meets the structure organically, or so it will seem. In fact, your unconscious mind, so aware and at one with the structural requirements, will order and find a way to allow your new story to develop fairly closely to the desired structures.

But don’t put too much pressure on yourself – getting to that level takes a different amount of time for every writer. Some arrive there early, some take decades. You arrive at that point when you arrive – it’s a how long is a piece of string situation – just don’t give up before you do and remember, in the meantime, the development process, supported by fellow creative’s you have come to trust and who become fans of your work, will and should also be used. As you advance the only difference will be the quality of your first draft that you send out to those people for feedback, but, I believe every script and every writer benefits from good development feedback, no matter how good or accomplished they may be.  

 

When you find your ‘circle’ of development friends/colleagues – never take them for granted, return the favor, always read and return notes for them quickly or as quickly as you’d like them to reply with notes to your manuscript and then guard them with your life, they will be the difference between your success and failure.

As to the process of developing an idea, on rare occasions, that great idea arrives fully formed and simply needs to be skillfully written and tweaked, but most often a good idea grows.

It usually arrives in your mind as a coded mess of ideas. In amongst the roses will be a huge stinking pile of manure and it takes creative minds to put up with the stench and sift through the excrement to get to the idea that’s worth saving.

 That’s a little harsh – but often, to a story generating mind, this is how tabling an idea feels. No-one else wants to touch it. And yet, you are convinced there is something worthwhile in the idea, even when no-one else does.

We persist with the idea. We keep coming back to it until we find what it is that attracts us. We can feel there’s a seed of an idea deep within. And sometimes, that seed needs the fertilizer around it to grow, before it becomes strong enough to stand alone.

People’s minds often get trapped by what they’ve learnt. It becomes like a bad improvisational partner blocking every new path taken.

The problem with today’s sophisticated study of story structure is that it doesn’t encourage or help to build strong creative story minds. The structure details a thousand reasons why an idea shouldn’t be pursued. There are very few tools to help someone with an idea that is structurally flawed but interesting. There is very little study of how you help a writer work that structurally flawed idea into a form where it can be accepted as a sound story.

A great script editor, script doctor or development analyst should be like a detective at this early stage. They should hunt out your story and, if they get the chance, ask pertinent questions to make sure they understand what it is you are trying to achieve within that story – then and only then should they work towards helping you get there with their notes.

Too many times the well schooled analyst jumps in too quickly and rips your idea apart because it has failed to fit the model they work to. Then they re-imagine the project, using your best ideas in a framework that is their story and not yours.

 If you’re still trying to grab the tail of a tale as it flashes by your mind, you shouldn’t have to give it up because some arbitrary rule says that your idea, in its current form, fails to live up to the standard as defined by script guru X in their chapter about Y. And I bet those same script gurus never intended their structural models to be met by an idea in development. Their models relate to ideas that have been through development. They deal with sound stories, debugged of logic flaws and with appropriate character motivation. Only in that state should a story be required to meet the structure – not when it’s in its earliest development stages.

Your idea may not get there. Many ideas won’t. But never dismiss something that interests you without really pushing it around and trying to find a way through. Even then, when it doesn’t work, shove it back into that drawer in your mind and occasionally, when you’re waiting for a bus or walking alone, give it another run. Never say never to an interesting idea. But equally, never be put off by the many people who will hear your initial idea and dismiss it with a seemingly well informed ‘rule’ that they are certain prohibits your idea from ever being sound.

The Story Idea

Very few people can find a story from this.

If you’re one of them don’t take it for granted. To you it seems easy – you’re a story generator. If coming up with ideas hasn’t always been easy, then maybe you’re one of the other personality types who has found a way to become a story generator. There are pros and cons in each.

(See previous post on what type of story mind are you)

As long as you have regular ideas for stories then there are other things you really should come to terms with and consider. This is where you have to be realistic about the world we live in and the mass audience you are hoping to attract with any project. The bottom line is that entertainment is a business and you have to attract a crowd to stay in business.

 You have to allow yourself to stop being politically correct, religious, ethical, moral and all the other aspects that makes us, what we like to think of as, civilized. You have to be hard-nosed and realistic about the rest of the world and take into account where a majority of film and TV viewers come from; where their attitudes sit and what they will tolerate and what they will not.

In short – you have to be able to channel a right wing shock jock and the closeted conservative hockey mom.

Why spend months or years to write up an idea and put in the amount of work needed to get it to a level where a professional reader/producer/director will read it and consider your screenplay – if the story has little or no hope of success because of elements within it that are deemed too risky to offer to a mainstream audience?

I would never say don’t write or don’t shoot for the moon – you should and you must. But if you have even two story ideas, write the most likely to be produced first; the less controversial; the less risky.

For instance – is the world ready for a Gay Rom Com? No. No mass audience will go to see a tender, funny, endearingly romantic story about two guys falling for each other. A section of the filmgoers will, the gay and more liberal minded. Even many gay and liberal minded non film goers will go and see this type of subject matter. It’s a niche film – a smaller but dedicated audience. But the larger mass market is not ready to cheer on two guys getting together.

As much as I hate this aspect of the entertainment industry – think for a moment as if you were Rush Limbaugh. And that means consider every negative, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist, elitist, religious, pro life, sexually restrictive and even racist thought that still exists in the world and ask yourself – does my story need to go there. Do I need to challenge those aspects or even comment on them?

If your story needs it, and you genuinely have something to say and are not just creating controversy for the sake of being bold and getting noticed, then do it well and I wish you all the success in helping to change and heal this world of narrow-mindedness. That’s a really important and valid goal for a creative mind to aim for. BUT – if you gain nothing from the choice except the controversy, take it out. Why alienate anyone if you gain nothing from it.

A character who calls a woman a bitch for no real reason – cut it. A teenage girl who gets pregnant and has an abortion as a subplot, when that subplot if a short film within your main film without any real affect on the main storyline, cut it. This is a risk reward type situation. Why give additional reasons, other than the many already on offer, for someone to pass on your script?  

This is one of the least talked about, but most important aspects of the industry. It is least talked about because it’s shameful. The industry – and indeed all artists, of which film creators on every level are surely included, should be trying to lead society towards greater acceptance and understanding of every aspect of our world through the stories we tell.

In the large part I think we do, but nine times out of ten, without any clout or power, a new film maker or a writer, without considerable credits to their name, will have to change and revise a script in order to get it made in line with the wants and needs of network executives who are desperately trying to ensure as large an audience as possible sees any film that gets produced.

The rock and hard place a writer gets caught between is to stand firm and never have a career, or bend to those requests and be produced. Hopefully you will eventually have enough power and prestige to be able to push ideas through, but, for a long time, at the start of your career and for many – for their entire career, having a career will entail towing the line to some degree.

So although we may all cringe when we’re told that a subsidiary character need not be a down’s syndrome child, as much as we may want to portray this character in film because it’s part of our real world and as much as you may feel it adds to the sibling relationship – unless there is an imperative motivation and significant pay off that makes it necessary to have a character with those characteristics, it is likely to be removed or sores still, be the reason someone passes on your script.

So do go to these places, but be aware it will make it harder for you to make a sale. Just ask yourself right at the beginning if the choice is an imperative or a personal want. If you’re a great writer you can probably make it an imperative – well done you – but if you can’t, and you have other options, even if it means writing another story, with fewer or no controversial issues, first – you should. Why dampen a producer’s enthusiasm in your project or in you if you can avoid it.

That was actually much harder to write than I thought it would be. I really detest this aspect of the industry. It’s why actors remain closeted - because they and studios know they cannot play action heroes or leading romantic men if the general-public become aware of their sexual orientation. It’s why older women stop being sexual beings and why there are so many virginal teens on television and so few in the real world. I could go on with a thousand examples of a world audience that demands certain standards in fictional characters while allowing and overlooking the same things in the real world.

But back to story:

The things you should consider once you have an idea are:

Is it an entertaining story?

Who will it appeal to?

Who will it offend?

What sort of budget is involved?

What sort of production constraints does it have?

Is it a movie that is likely to breakthrough and be produced for a new writer?

Have there been similar movies?

Have there been similar movies recently?

Are there any similar movies in production or about to be released?

Are there any other aspects that make your idea more difficult to produce?

You need to consider all these aspects once you have your good idea. And remember I am not saying these things should stop you writing a story, but some of them should stop you writing it in certain ways, or help you to make changes at this very early stage and save yourself an extraordinary amount or work and emotional angst – and even, on some occasions these questions should dictate that you prioritize the writing of one idea over another, simply because one is easier to produce and more likely to be your breakthrough project because of that.

I cannot tell you how many writers I have come across who are writing their first screenplay and proudly declare it is part of a three or five part trilogy/franchise. There is no real resolution in the first or even the second film because it’s all explained and comes together in the final film.

Even if you are a writer/director with some credibility, have written short films or been an assistant director or other crew member for umpteen films, getting the green light for one film is an incredibly hard task. Why make your breakthrough script an epic that will change cinematic history? The idea would need to be so original and well written that it is undeniable – because the hurdle of being an unproduced writer and getting your script even read, let alone considered by a producer/director/ manager or agent is a large one.

I always ask this question of the stories I think up and work through to a script:

Would I be prepared to sell everything I had, to liquidate everything, in order to finance this idea towards being produced as a film?

That is what you are asking someone else to do; to put their money into your idea. How can you expect them to risk hard earned money if you have any doubts about doing so yourself?

All the questions above need to be considered. If your screenplay is across three continents, has helicopters, crowd scenes, if it attacks religion, focuses on contentious social issues, social issues that are in any way off putting (regardless of how politically correct this may or may not be), if it shows enough violence to get a restricted rating, is derivative of other well known films and any other negative aspect you can possibly think of, many special affects, stunts or CGI, if there are any other production issues that need to be addressed, regardless of how trivial or seemingly baseless – then, if you can adjust or write them out – you should. If you have other simpler ideas you should write the first. If the ideas you have to choose from are relatively equal in entertainment terms, why wouldn’t you prioritize the simplest ahead of the more complicated, especially if you are an unproduced first time writer?

This sounds negative – so I’ll say it again to be absolutely clear – I am not saying ditch the idea, and by all means write it if it’s the only or best idea you have. But if you have any other ideas of equal quality – go with those first?

Personally I encourage everyone to try and change the world through their art – be it writing or any other creative endeavor. But if you are trying to break through then give yourself every opportunity to establish yourself first and change the world next week.

To be cynical and a little depressing – here’s the best formula to go from being an unproduced screenwriter to being a produced screenwriter.

1/ Find a setting where 2 to four people will be confined: In a house, a cabin, a wood at night, a locked warehouse, underground tunnels, an island or desert – just nothing that requires a big build or a high rent to secure the location for production.

2/ Create a terror, the unknown is best, flashes of a thing that may or may not be supernatural or a monster/mutation of something and give it a reason to terrorize, to exact revenge, pick off slowly or try to scare away your cast.

3/ Come up with a clever reason why personal footage would be used – a hand held camera, CCTV footage, a webcam, a live web feed or other and integrate this into your footage.

4/ Create a mystery, one of two cast survived, or none and someone new is trying to uncover what happened. Make it chilling, intense, slow desperate terrorized panic with occasional uncontrolled high energy flights for survival.

5/ Ensure the basic underlying story is good, entertaining and original and have a twist that unravels all we’ve seen and explains it as something intriguing and fascinating in the final scenes.

This gives you a low budget horror film and if you can couple that with an original, entertaining story and some fascinating, thought provoking and unexpected twists, you’re almost guaranteed to get some bites from producers looking for a film to make on a shoestring.

After all, producers and directors face exactly the same problems as writers in their journey to get a produced credit to their name – so offer up something that has a chance of being noticed and is easily and affordably produced and it will be a match made in heaven for all three, producer, director and writer. 

Next: The Beat Map