Check the Undertow

There is an old screenwriter adage that says “every writer has ‘30 act one’s’ in their desk drawer”.

True. It’s easier to start than to finish. When you find yourself speeding through an opening that’s full of tension, drama, a real page turner, you may suddenly find yourself stuck at the start of act 2, unable to find the edge of the pool, treading water, directionless - and it all comes to a stop. Above all, it’s confusing. There was so much energy at the start! And…it goes into your act I drawer.

I’ve found myself there. I now call this checking the undertow. It means I missed something in orchestrating my structure. There isn't enough opposing force from my villain: (man, woman, force of nature), there isn't a sufficient clock working against my hero (death threat of someone, hero’s own impending death, a city's death - bomb, a terminal loved one, a loved on leaving town, etc). There must be forces pulling/pushing the hero to an inevitable end that is destructive and when the hero and their opponent collide - only one will survive. (This works in romance too, as the collision is betrayal, a secret agenda discovered invalidating love, a bet discovered starting the romance, etc. The confession or discovery is an ‘ego death’ and the question becomes - does love remain?)

Every story needs the undertow -

it’s that that force in a story pulling your hero through a series of events unseen, a primal, unbeatable and titanic force. It will force events beyond the hero’s control so that there is no other choice but confrontation at the ending. Just as an undertow pulls you out to sea regardless of how hard you swim, the hero will be pulled towards a nightmare showdown. They can’t beat it, can’t avoid it, and we will be on the edge of our seats anticipating it.

Your hero may think they’re in charge of swimming on the surface, but the undertow is the Jovian force that works on a cosmic scale - pulling them like a crashing tide that envelopes them - and it should delight you.

As much as the hero will try to toss, turn, run or bargain, Poseidon will make sure the hero will face his worst most crushing test.

Delight in orchestrating it.

And as you cross over into the rest of the story to the finale, you will have delight if you’ve checked the undertow.

Don’t Talk an Idea to Death

The Trouble With Ideas

The trouble with ideas is that they are ephemeral. Energy that lands magically and can fly away just as easily. Formulating them in your mind creates a sort of "creative tension” until you do something with them. Sharing them, telling them, repeating them over and over again to others dissipates the tension. Suddenly your new idea has lost its energy. You get bored with it, you’ve lost your excitement. It took me a while to figure out it wasn’t the idea that I’d lost interest in, but rather some aspect of the energy had been diminished by my repeated telling.

The trick is to bottle the lightning. Some writers throw first thoughts down on paper, others dictate audio notes and transcribe later, others will write out a few finished pages. But the common denominator here is that they are written down, not spoken, not shared. They’re still ‘alive’, waiting to be completed. Writing does not dissipate the energy. It bottles it.

Discover what works for you so you can keep the energy to yourself. Create the structure that "holds" the energy. You want to be able to return to it time and again until you complete it. That is the proper way to dissipate the energy, finish the story.

Create a system to hold your ideas and don’t share them until you’ve bottled the lightning.

Secrets

Why does a character have secrets?

And why when secrets surface in a story is it so satisfying?

We love the reveal of evidence in a crime story, a lost touch in romantic betrayal, memories of stern parenting that stifle motivation in an adventure. What sparks a character’s memory can be unexpected; a song, a taste, an image, but secrets are a deep part of their reality and drives their story. Their secret helps define who they are. And if a character doesn’t have a secret, they may feel somewhat flat.

Secrets play particularly well when opposed to the action a hero has to undertake, and sometimes a secret is the driver of the action a hero has to undertake.

There are reasons we are delighted by secrets in storytelling. The revelation of someone’s hidden history makes us understand them better. As we watch the eureka moment of a hero knowing themselves, parts of their story click into place. The new truths revealed may be so profound that we may understand their story in an entirely new way.

This dovetails to our own experiences. We know the significant impact secrets can have in our own lives, and how they affect personal motivations. Personal reflection and self awareness can be life changing. Personal history makes us who we are, including our secrets.

A character’s journey needs to reflect our own journey so that we can relate to them.

And that is why a character has secrets.

Cultivate Success

How do you start a new project?

What if the project you envision is large and you feel overwhelmed? How do you keep the motivation going in the afternoon after being excited in the morning?

Social media is of little help with posts shouting how to write bigger, better, faster! “Don’t delay, you’re already behind, here’s five ways to work three times faster!” Over-promised promotions popping up on you phone are designed to make you feel ill equipped to succeed on your own. It can be paralyzing. But they all leave out the one crucial detail required for success.

Cultivation.

Real success is cultivated by many small steps in the same direction.

And each small step needs to be acknowledged as work completed, hours logged, a goal achieved. Forgive me for reworking an old expression, but the journey to the top of mount Everest isn’t completed in a single giant leap, it’s a slow walk up the trail with many thousands of steps, plus the camping out over several days, bringing oxygen and supplies, a sandwich or two, likely a guide and the belief in your own journey, while everyone else thinks you’re nuts.

I recently created a garden at my home. It took a year. The parallels to building a long form story process were amazing to me. You start with nothing, you shape odd empty parts together, and they all are separate and feel disconnected.

After all the difficult groundwork you look back at your work with disappointment; it looks very unimpressive. It actually looks somewhat like you’ve wasted your time. But you believe in the process, you believe in your design, you give it daily attention. Trim growths, guide shoots, daily cultivation lays the groundwork for creative growth and expansion.

You find that putting in many small attentive steps every day six months go by and you’ve transformed the world around you.

The blank page starts with emptiness. Emptiness is the unknown, a social gathering with strangers, a new workplace with new rules. Even as you work to create your design the early stages feel separate, disconnected and often looks unimpressive. That happens to me every time, by the way, with every new project.

But you believe in the process. You’re a mountain climber and you’re going to reach the peak.

Keep small goals to be achievable every day. Every writer is different, some are page counters, some are clock timers, others are vibing adventurists who focus on characters or sequences. Every step forward is a step closer to the summit.

Put in the time every day, acknowledge the work completed, hours logged, a goal achieved, you are cultivating. Sometimes the worse thing you can do is to wait to start until you feel you have all the answers because that space may not exist. Some answers are only revealed on the journey. The path to the top of your mountain is one that you may find on your own. No other guide could have shown you you’re exact ascent. Don’t get overwhelmed, focus on the path, not on the mountain.

Watch the trail and go step by step.

Cultivate that journey. And transformation of the world around you awaits.

The Big Idea

It’s the idea that delights you, makes you giggle or despair. It's the idea within your story that gives you glee. The bright jewel, the sun in the sky of your mind that makes you smile every time you think of it. As the surrounding structure of story starts to emerge and build your narrative and bookend your big idea - you must keep direct contact with it. Because the Big Idea is the vital wave of energy that supports you through an entire project. The self arising fountain of excitement reminding you about it every day as you write. It was Dorothy going to OZ. That was it. Not the bullet points, or structure, or any details of Oz. But this impossible idea that she would be propelled across the rainbow to a magic world by a tornado. Pretty big idea.

The Big Idea is pure energy and joy. It’s what thrills and excites you, unlocks your heart, engages your mind. So. How do you identify it?

Notice what the Big Idea does NOT have:

It does not have a story.
It does not have structure.
It does not have details.

What it does have:

It is simple.
It should feel as radiant as a little sun.
It will be unexpected.
It will feel like lightning, it will have energy.

Story structure and details come later.

The mechanics of how you take the lightning of a Big Idea and put it into a bottle are out there in so many books, blogs and online bulletin boards it’s overwhelming. It’s been written about all over the internet. Everyone has some point of view on it. So find the one you resonate with the most, while feeling the most professional.

But as you expand your idea into storytelling - never lose touch with that bolt of lightning you fell in love with in the first place.

Breaking Story

I have a writer friend who shared how he could spend six months "breaking story" and still not necessarily have it.

Normal. I said. I spent years breaking story on an original script which I finally wrote three years after I thought of it. There is no time limit to the process, no sundial to track the brightness of the imagination. Every story is unique, and has unique demands. Some will come quickly and form completely, some won't ever form at all. Why?

I suspect it has to do with some things I've learned along the way.

And what I have learned is this:

To break story completely you need three things. But to summarize, you need your:

1) Big Idea
2) Bottle to catch that lighting
3) The Weather

all that means is

1) The Premise
2) The story framework
3) The character who journeys through your story

And by weather I mean the inner landscape of your hero. Are there storms? Blue skies? Rain and thunderclouds in your hero’s mind? What is their emotional reality? Outgoing? Timid? Courageous? Cowardly? Whipsmart? Convinced they’re stupid? Over Confident? Self hating? This defines how they will approach any action in your story. And as you can imagine, every one of the adjectives above will approach a problem differently.
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All three of these things can be charted out in various ways to help give you clarity, I won’t put all the boring details here.

In fact if you sign up for my newsletter I’ll send you a free eBook with these three in detail.

But all three are crucial and can’t be shrugged off. Assuming you have the first two under control, the third is the most important. The old adage in screenwriting in Hollywood is ‘It’s not the what, it’s the who.” That still holds true today.

We care about the people in the story, not just the clever dilemma you’ve hammered them into. Who is trying to move forwards? What change do they have to make to do so? What situation forces them against their better nature? That is the heart of good storytelling.

Why? Because it mirrors our own lives.

At every step of our lives we’ve had to engage in the world and enter situations we were uncomfortable with. We were forced to learn as we go. We’ve done it so many times we don’t think about it anymore.

It starts in grade school through the shift to middle and high school. The shift from high school to college or the work place. Then first job, first date, each social gathering of new people. You get used to a situation, make friends, learn the authority then - bam - new rules - new friends - different authority. It continues through your twenties until new complexities arise; families, children’s schools, workplace challenges and advancements or loss. It’s always new, and you’re always unprepared.

Speaking to 1000 people professionally or just filling the car up at a deserted gas station at night can fill people with anxiety equally, if you know their characters. And both are legitimate.

As we learn how a character experiences difficulties - we learn know who they are. And then we’re with them.

Show the audience an emotional place we have all touched. That’s how you connect a character with your reader/viewer. Once you’ve done that - we are on the journey with you.

Just Pick One

A great piece of advice.

Story writing is a big endeavor, a long form process. Not for the faint of heart. It is a long journey and requires determination. And no proper guide would be suggesting otherwise if you were about to climb a mountain. But there are also tools and tricks of the trade that can support you and make your trip successful. I want to give you one.

It came from a friend who was a TV director at a high level and worked on award winning shows. He was faced with something regularly that any story writer is faced with and I want to share his insight.

He was frequently bombarded on the set with producer/writers who would stop production with multiple new ideas, variations on a scene, changes in dialogue all as shoots were underway. And as every minute not shooting on set costs money, he needed to find positive creative outcomes. He would listen attentively to all of the ideas, pause and lead with this single piece of advice.

“There are a thousand ways to do something right here. Let’s just pick one.”

This positive approach made me re-think my own process. Rather than look at multiple ideas as obstacles, or becoming paralyzed with attempts to create a hierarchy of better to best ideas, I reassessed the process entirely. Many ideas are a bounty. Many of them are good. Picking one should not be paralyzing. You need to allow forward movement that builds momentum so that creation continues.

I’m not suggesting careless abandon in selection, one always uses discernment. But if you have five good ideas for a sequence or character, scene, know that they could all work well. Just pick one. And continue forward.

I found the framing of this unusually positive approach a welcome change to a process where I often found I was fighting myself. That ended with this piece of advice and allowed me not only a continuation of my process, but also helped me reach my endpoint.