FREE WORKSHOP - 02 Structure

Back again? Really?

Groovy.

Okay then...

STRUCTURE.

This is a lesson I just recently learned.

My brother and I have access to financing to make our own movie -- with our 2 INDESPENSIBLE director/producer best-friends/collaborators -- WHEN we have a finished screenplay worth shooting.

So he's working on a comedy and I'm working on a comedy and a horror, and even though we're helping each other we both keep running into Writer's Block. (The dreaded "What happens next?!!" question.) He knows McKee and he's read Iglesias, plus he's listend to me ramble on about all the shit I're read and heard for 14 years. He's even heard Joss Whedon, William Goldman, Karl Iglesias and David Koep speak IN PERSON, and he STILL bumps into Writer's Block. (If you don't know who ALL those people are, go find out. I'll be here when you get back.)

And then I remembered something I had read from a few different sources: Write what you know.

Now, when Stephen King says it he's talking about jobs and people and situations you're familiar with. (He's a novelist primarily, with decades of experience under his belt, so he doesn't write the same way you and I do.) But if Shane Black or Joss Whedon say it, their talking about Genre.

Joss Whedon says that he doesn't know how to write otuside of a genre -- despite the fact that he's famous for his ability to blend genres in the most impactful ways -- and I believe what he means is this: Genres contain very specific needs and cliches. When audiences go to see, for example, a horror flick there are certain NEEDS you as the writer have to fulfill and certain CLICHES you as a writer MUST avoid (lest you be scorned by any true fan forever).

Now, the camp version of a genre is different in that you WANT TO hit those cliches and really play them up. If you're a writer of camp, go away. Now. I can't talk to you. I'm serious, I may become violent. If you can't emotianlly commit to and revere a genre, then STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THAT GENRE!!! And stop annoying us true fans!!! You bastard!!!

Sorry...

Anyway...

Now, of the movies you watched growing up and watch avidly now, many will fit into a specific genre AND into a specific sub-genre. THAT is the genre you know. No research necessry, you are an expert on the sub-genre.

For instance...

Of the 3 movies Brian (my brother) and I are developing, 2 were comedies and 1 was horror. Those are their genres.

But Brian and I are still trying to work out the sub-genre of his movie. It could be called Sci-Fi Comedy, but that's not nearly specific enough. He still wonders what to do with Act II (which is the meat and potatoes of every movie... That's what the audience goes to see. That's 1 hour out of 2, the second hour being divided between Act I and Act III.) But since he doesn't know his sub-genre, he really doesn't know what to write to fill up 90 minutes-2 hours.

Same with me.

I have an Ensemble Comedy, but I haven't watched enough of them to know their essential necesry story beats or the cliches I have to avoid, or turn on their heads.

And my other script, the one that fits loosely into the Horror catagory, I don't know "What comes next?!!" I have a GREAT beginning, but I don't know specifically how to end it or what the middle hour is.

So then I remembered about Whedon not being able to write outside a genre (and by that I think he really meant a "sub-genre" or even "sub-sub genre") and I decided that Brian and I might do better if we wrote a Slasher Flick.

The Slasher Flick is a 1970s/1980s sub genre of the Horror Flick. It deals with a group of young people trying to escape a vicious killer. THAT'S your Act II. Act I is setup and act III is payoff. But Act II is young people trapped somewhere and a vicious killer is pursuing them.

We know those beats.

We know the cliches.

We GREW UP on Slasher Flicks! I was a Jason Voorhees fan and he was a Freddy Krueger fan. We both watched ALL the movies in our respective series, including the REALLY CRAP ONES and we both know why the bad ones didn't work and -- often by contrast -- what makes the great ones great!

The problem we are bumping into with these other stories is this: We're Creative People. Creative People tend to want to work outside their comfort zone. We want to grow and strecth and do something nobody's ever seen before.

But the problem is that sometimes we stretch too far. And we either bulldoze our way through it, or we get Writer's Block.

If you're reading this, I suspect you're a victim of Writer's Block.

So take it down a notch. Yeah, people might revere you more if you wrote the most original movie EVER CONCEIVED... But be honest with yourself about your abilities. Maybe you're not ready to write that movie. Maybe you have to watch and familiarize yourself with more Most Original Movies Ever Concieved before you can contribute to that sub-sub-sub-sub-sub genre.

What do you KNOW?

Like, BY HEART?

The last time you saw a movie and the audience gasped in shock, but you saw that Move coming, what sub-sub genre was that? THAT'S what you KNOW.

Write THAT.

Look, we want to be spectacular writers, obviously. We want to be the best in our field, natch. We want to be the Rod Serling or Joss Whedon of our generation, of course! But they started somewhere. And they DID NOT start at the top.

Right now, we want to be PROS... We want to get paid for our work. We want to be paid to do what we love to do. (Love it so much we'll spend 14 years and $1,000s studying it.) Turn on your Bullshit Meter now because you won't get there wandering off into territory uncharted by you.

"But what if I get pigeonholed as a Slasher Flick (or whatever genre you know by heart) writer?"

Then you take the money you made writing Slasher Flicks and you start up a small business that allows you do do something else you love. You think KISS always wanted to be KISS? Listen to MUSIC FROM THE ELDER; they wanted to be Pink Floydor The Who for a while. But then they realized what they do WELL and they decided to get back to it. If (dear God PLEASE) you ever find yourself stuck in a rut because you're TOO SUCCESSFUL doing a specific thing, check your gut and make a decision. Switch careers or get abck to it. Life is too short for regret or indecision.

So find your structure -- like being a writer, your sub-sub genre has probably already picked you -- and get comfortable with it. THIS is how you make a great screenplay that people will enjoy reading and will make you your first fat paycheck. (Well... fatter than any paycheck you've seen so far, anyway.)

When you've come to terms with this, join me for Step 3.