Setup and Payoff
Set ‘em and knock ‘em down. That’s how stories work.
Photo by Sergi Kabrera on Unsplash
Got up ridiculously early because my youngest son literally gets up before the birds. Add to that a healthy mix of work and teaching and helping both boys with school and working on my new pilot…I’m blurry-eyed as I write this post. But, dammit, I’m going to keep writing.
I worked on my character bios tonight for my pilot and there’s one thing that I’m focusing intently on: making decisions/choices payoff at some point in the story.
For example, character details are great - what’s in their pocket, what’s their favorite clothes, what kind of toothpaste do they use - are all well and good. But unless those details have SOME impact on the character’s decision-making skills or can be connected directly with the characters flaws or skills, then it’s a useless detail and dumb use of writing time.
It really comes down to several questions:
How does [BLANK] pay off later?
How does [BLANK] impact the character’s decisions?
How does [BLANK] connect to the character’s skills or flaws?
Too many times in stories - scripts, shorts, novels, etc. - details that are meant to give the reader/viewer a better sense of the character flood the pages. If something’s taking valuable space on the page, then it better take up valuable space in the film/TV show/book/etc.
Characters are defined by their choices. Writers create then intentions that inform those character choices. If it’s not in the script, then it’s decision made by someone else and most likely won’t fulfill the plot of the story. Character, yes. Plot, no.
Everything has meaning unless it doesn’t. Then it’s just something that should be cut from the story.
Today’s Accomplishments
Wrote this blog post.
Worked on the exercises/readings from Week 2 (Story Bullets & Structural Writing) of The Craft Course from ISA/Story Farm.
Worked on a few character bios for my new pilot.
Sent material to writer’s group for Wednesday’s meeting.
Tomorrow’s Tasks/Goals
Write another blog post - let’s make it two days in a row!
Continue to work on character bios for my new pilot. Technically tomorrow is the last day for me to work on character bios, but let’s see how that goes.
Complete the next two exercises/readings from Week 2 (Story Bullets & Structural Writing) of The Craft Course by ISA/Story Farm.
Send material to accountability group in prep for our Thursday meeting.
Today’s Story Worthy Moment
Like I mentioned at the top of this post, my youngest is a ball of energy from the moment he wakes up (before God gets up) until the time he falls asleep (after God falls asleep). And the time in-between is nothing less than a circus of energy and emotions running rampant around the house.
This got me thinking: What if my son was genetically engineered to have ridiculous amounts of energy? Kinds like a superhero story set when the hero was child. Maybe it’s something to the effect of a rogue doctor is secretly implanting genetically-altered eggs into women, and they give birth to a race of super humans.
Sounded good earlier today.
