Monday, January 29, 2007

Secrets of Writing: Introducing Characters

When your mother told you that first impressions go a long way, she was right. The first impression is what forms the Audience’s opinion of a character. They will determine the character’s alignment fairly quickly, based on their actions. You can use this to your advantage. But whatever you do, don’t take first impressions for granted.

Characters need to be memorable. A story is always going to be about A>B

We discussed some of the things that make a character interesting. We discussed the different personality archetypes that people recognize. We discussed alignment. Now you have to put all of these things into practice.

When a character appears in the story, they have to do or say something that fixes in our mind who they are, what they’re doing there, and what side of the conflict do they fall on. 
Their position in the story change sides at any time. They can be protagonists who end up as antagonists. But we should have a good idea where they stand when they appear. Neutral characters are the story equivalent of fence sitters. The Audience isn’t interested in them.

Characters need to be clear right away, because it tells us whether or not we should care about them when something happens.  If you introduce a character, and they come off as neutral, or we’re uncertain whether they are positive or negative in the story, and they get killed...we have no reason to care. And if we don’t care, you’ve just set the mood for the story. Nothing matters.

The secret is finding the right balance of action and dialog that defines the character in a way that suits the scene and the plot at this point in the story. Characters change in a story, so it’s okay to put across a different persona than what you intend later. All we need to know is should we like this character or not. And who are they and what are they doing here.

Character names should be given in a manner that is completely natural sounding. Too often, we see characters talking like this in a super hero comic: “Well, Z-Man, I think it’s time we showed the Splat a thing or two, don’t you agree?” “Yes, Betamax. I concur!”

People do use another’s name in a conversation. But it never sounds forced.

It’s also important to show the face of the person being introduced clearly. We need to put the face to the name. And the name and face should be reintroduced a couple more times in the story so we don’t forget it. Therefore, you need to find fresh ways of getting their name to the Audience. Either by having them introduce themselves, or have them pointed out in some way, like in the news or by a person who recognizes them.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Secrets of Writing: Progressive Complications

This is the meat of the story. This is where a large part of your creativity comes into play because here is where you heat up the conflict and keep the flames stoked high. Without conflict, you have a cold story. A dull story. A story people are not going to care about.

In life, the things that are worth having are the things we have to struggle for. Nothing that comes easy is precious to us. But when we fight for something, it’s like gold. This is a truism every member of your audience can relate to, which is why the conflict is one of the most important components of the story.

When we go about our day-to-day affairs we take the path of least resistance. When we walk to the store, we almost always take the same route. This is the way human beings function. But it’s all pretty boring. It’s not the stuff of fiction.

In a story you have to make your hero’s journey as interesting and exciting as possible.  The greater the conflict, the greater the hero, the greater the audience’s interest level. Progressive complication deals with putting pressure on your character in a way the Audience can relate to. This is done by playing with the technique known as Reversal. Reversals are the walls that spring up between expectation and result.

When you take that walk to the store, something could happen along the way unlike anything that has ever happened all the millions of times you took that same walk. And it could prevent you from getting to the store by taking the path of least resistance. In other words, you have hit a wall. A complication. Now you have to find a way around that wall.

Your Hero is going after the Grail of the story. They need to go after it in a relentless way. They will scale any wall, climb any mountain to get there. And you need to demonstrate that. The value of the Grail is measured by the risk the Hero takes to reach it.

So back to our analogy about walking to the store. Let’s say a carton of milk in the store is the Grail. The Hero’s name is Kyle. Kyle is having a major jones for some Capt. Crunch cereal. He goes to the fridge and finds he’s out of milk. So he heads out and walks down Sycamore street toward the convenience store two blocks away. Suddenly, there’s a terrible earthquake and a huge flaming crevice opens between Kyle and the distant store. He can’t go down Sycamore, which is the route he always takes. So he turns down Willow, a side street that connects to Maple Blvd, which’ll take him south, the direction of the store.

But, because of the quake, police and fire trucks have shown up and are blocking off Maple Blvd. So now Kyle has no choice. He must try another route. He turns and walks down Willow in the opposite direction until he gets to Pine Street. He takes Pine to Oak street and cuts back up Sycamore, on the other side of the crevice. He sees the store in the distance.  But as he walks down the street he sees a mob of looters running amok ahead. Kyle’s on the only street he can take now.  So he decides to go ahead and take his chances. He’s gotta have that milk! As he walks toward the store, a band of thugs come up and try to rob him.

Kyle rushes them like a running back, breaking through their line. He knocks them aside. But one of them has a gun and starts shooting. Kyle dives behind a parked car. The gunman shoots at the car. The gas tank blows. Kyle rolls away as flames and shrapnel go flying. A jagged chunk of hot metal skewers the ground where he just was half a second ago. 

The gunman comes after him, taking aim. Kyle grabs the shrapnel and throws it.  It slices into the looter’s chest, stabbing him in the right lung. He goes down, gurgling blood. His gun falls to the grass. His friends see this and come after Kyle, screaming with rage. Kyle grabs the fallen man’s gun and makes a run for it. They start shooting at him.

Kyle spins, fires, and the looters go down one by one.  Kyle is now only 10 yards from the store. But the police heard the shooting and pull into the parking lot, sirens blaring. They see Kyle has a gun and jump out of their cars, ready to shoot, ordering him to stop.

Kyle ignores them, runs into the store. The cops start firing. Bullets shatter the store windows, hitting product on the shelves. Soda bottles explode. Cartons of cereal go flying, spritzing Cherrios. Kyle rushes to the back, but a Pakistani clerk tries to block his way, jabbering in some foreign tongue.

Kyle throws a punch, it connects with the man’s nose. The clerk goes flying back into the slurpee machine. He hits his head, bounces forward, falling unconscious to the floor. Cherry slurpee slush dribbles onto his back.

Kyle spots the milk just behind the glass door in the refrigerated section. He makes for it. Just then, police enter the store, firing away. Bullets shatter the glass and milk cartons spray their contents. White fountains of the stuff splatters on the floor. Kyle tries to avoid the bullets, slips and falls on his back. Glass shards from the case slice into his flesh and he screams as--

What you just read is a series of progressive complications. If Kyle had just turned around and walked to a different store in the opposite direction, it would’ve been boring. But instead he walked in the direction of the conflict and here is where our story was born. Of course, you have to make sure it was a logical thing for Kyle to do. Otherwise the audience is going to say, “Why didn’t he just go to another store?” So maybe we could add a line that this particular store has a special brand of milk he can’t buy anywhere else. The only brand he finds acceptable.

Notice how each progressive complication was a logical extension of the last one. That’s how they need to work.

When Kyle went around the crevice, he encountered a road block set up because of the crevice caused by the earthquake. And as a result of this earthquake, people started looting. Kyle had to deal with the looters in order to go in the only direction left to take. And because he fought the looters he drew the attention of the police. And because the police fired at him, the milk was shot up, sprayed on the floor, and he slipped on it, falling on the glass. Now he’s lying on a slippery floor, with glass stuck in his back, and a bunch of cops are coming for him.

Every time Kyle went to take an action, something else came up to make his life more difficult. Each time, the stakes were raised. This makes the story more exciting as we read along. It also makes the Grail seem like an object of great value, even though in this case it was only a carton of milk.

Each time Kyle has a choice. He can stop, give up, or he can press on. His determination is what inspires our empathy. We can relate to life throwing road blocks in our path. It happens to us all the time, even if it isn’t as dramatic as the story you just read. Empathy makes us become involved with Kyle’s struggle. We live along side him every step of the way. We feel it when he falls to the floor and glass cuts him. 

Every time Kyle choose to press on, he’s passed a point of no return. Especially as we get closer to the grail. Once he started fighting with those looters, he couldn’t turn around and go home. Now the police are after him. Now he’s in serious trouble. How you solve this crisis is the climax of the story, which we will deal with shortly. 

The Trigger Event in this story was Kyle going to the fridge and finding he was out of milk. The Turning Point was the earthquake. What followed then was a series of progressive complications. This formed the bulk of the action. In a bigger story we would have scenes of dialog, perhaps internal monologues where Kyle debated what he should do. There might be details of the scene described. All of this would flesh out the world and the characters. But when you boil things down to the conflict, this is what you see. One progressive complication after the other. Each slowing down the Hero as he tries to reach the Grail. Each raising the stakes so it gets harder and more frenzied every step of the way. And finally you reach a crisis situation where it’s do or die. This is the point of no return. Either the hero wins the Grail or he loses big time. It should never be easy at the end. The end should be the toughest part of the story.

When creating Progressive Complications think about all the possible outcomes that could happen when the hero takes an action. Then separate the most surprising and believable outcomes and choose one.

This outcome will always force the hero to make a choice. How clever your hero is in dealing with that choice defines his cool factor. When he deals with the reversal and moves on, there should be repercussions that follow. And those repercussions will create a new surprise for him to deal with.

And each complication should make the stakes higher and higher until your hero is facing the ultimate challenge. This ultimate challenge is called the Crisis. And it will decide how good the ending of your story is going to be. You need to build toward a real crisis.

Whatever you do, don’t have the Hero retry the same tactics after they failed. When a hero attempts to repeat previous actions which have proven to be fruitless, it makes the Audience feel the hero is treading water and the story is going nowhere.

You start encountering the laws of diminishing returns when you repeat experiences in a story. And these don’t have to be literally the same. If they even smack of being similar you run the risk of boring the Audience. So be careful.

It’s also important to try to hit the first three levels of conflict if possible. Internal, Personal, and Societal. This makes the intensity of the story all that much greater.  When you have a character with inner conflicts who is also having problems at home and with his boss, it creates a more complex story.

The example of progressive complications we used was the kind found in an action story. But if you want to see progressive complications in a suspense film, I highly recommend DEATH AND THE MAIDEN. If you want to see progressive complications in a comedy, try RUTHLESS PEOPLE. Progressive complications will work in any genre. That’s the beauty of it.

When you get to the end of the second act, or the final scene of the progressive complication stage, this scene must end down. It will, of course, be a Turning Point scene. This scene propels the story into the Crisis. You can’t enter a Crisis on an up note. You have to end down. And the harder, the better. 

REMEMBER: Each progressive complication raises the stakes. Build toward the crisis.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Casino Royale II

Very nice editing. 

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Star Wars in Engrish

A Pirate Chinese video of Revenge of the Sith has some interesting subtitles. Some of the dialog is better than Lucas’.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Why the UN is Useless

Most of the world’s worst tyrants died peacefully at old age. For example.

Lenin - Dead of the complications of a stroke, perhaps assisted by poisoning, January 21, 1924.

Stalin - Dead of stroke aided by medical neglect at age 74 at his dacha outside Moscow, March 5, 1953.

Ho Chi Minh - Dead of heart failure at age 79 at his home in Hanoi, September 2, 1969.

Francisco Franco - Dead of old age at 82 on November 20, 1975.

Mao Tse Tung - Dead of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 82, on September 9, 1976.

Saddam Hussein is one of those extremely rare examples of a tyrant being brought to justice. And the UN tried to do everything they could to prevent us from toppling him. Those who look to the UN as some kind of answer to world peace need to rethink it. All those African wars, some of which have gone on for decades, were not effected one whit by the UN. Mass murdering leaders get away with it most of the time. Our intervention in Iraq gained us a lot of scorn. Look around on the web and you see lefties calling for the hanging of the President whil chiding the hanging of Saddam.

Obviously, their priorities are screwed up. Kind of like their worship of the UN. 

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Iran and the Iraq Mess

Iran is a major instigator in the problems in Iraq. This has been well documented. One of the motivations may be they want to increase Shia dominance in the region. But there is another reason even more obvious. It’s all about oil.

Iran’s oil exports are plummeting at 10pc a year on lack of investment and could be exhausted within a decade, depriving the world economy of its second-biggest source of crude supplies.

A report by the US National Academy of Sciences said rickety infrastructure dating back to the era of the Shah had crippled output, while local fuel use was rising at 6pc a year.

“Their domestic demand is growing at the highest rate of any country in the world,” said Prof Roger Stern, an Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

When Saddam was overthrown it created a power vacuum. And those nations who were held at bay by Saddam figured they could pull a guerrilla war, which we would inevitably bow out of, thanks to the Democrats propensity for bailing at the sign of trouble. Of course, this war is costing us insane amounts of money. And we’re forced to try to get the Iraqs to defend their own country. Which they supposedly wanted. I mean, wasn’t that the big leftie story? That the Iraqis want us out and that’s why we’re fighting us?

Wrong. Ba’athist holdouts may have been motivated that way. But al-Qaeda wants to kill Shiites and non-Muslims. Iranians want to kill Sunnis and take over. It’s greedy relatives trying to carve up a rich man’s estate. We’re in the middle.

The biggest problem we have is Iran. But what to do? We can’t invade. We have enough trouble holding on to Iraq and Afghanistan. If the western nations were smart they would help us solve the problem, but many are too busy looking the other way or selling Iran nuclear power technology.

Arab countries who have a lot to lose by a powerful Iran need to step in to help. Chide the French all you want, but it’s the Arabs who really are in bigger peril. The Taliban want to overthrow the Arab monarchies and the Iranians have dreams of their former empire. Neither of which is good for world peace, And none of this is our fault.

Saddam would have fallen sooner or later. Those countries who don’t help us are in for a world of hurt.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Open Culture

Audio Book Podcasts of classic literature.

RIP: Gerry Ford

In the 1970s he lost to Jimmy Carter and inflation. Former Warren Commission member Gerald Ford is gone.

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th president and the only one never elected to nationwide office, has died. He was 93.

“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” former first lady Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”

He wasn’t a great president. Many of his economic policies made it possible for Jimmy Carter to defeat him. But unlike Carter, he was smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut.

Back when he was president, the press and comics called him stupid. He banged his head a few times getting in and out of the president’s copter. But Ford wasn’t a dummy. He was a well connected politician who got into power by showing certain people behind the scenes he knew how to get things done. Conspiracy theorists of the day said he got6 the vice president’s job under Nixon has a favor for his work on the Warren Commission. But ford was a moderate Republican like Nixon and well placed. He was also easy to work with.

I was in high school when he was president. So I remember his short term well. It’s said people voted for Carter as payback for Ford pardoning Nixon. That may be true in part, but he was also not a very inspiring leader and his economic policies continued the economic decline America saw in the 70s. But there’s something to be said about the fact that after the animosity people had for Nixon, he was generally liked as being a easy going, Charlie Brown type character.

Hopefully, the next president, whoever that may be, will help end, or at least lower the level of acrimony we’re seeing these days. Like Gerry Ford.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Question of the Day

The MSM likes to claim they’re not biased. So why don’t they explain this?

Sandy Berger deliberately pilfered and hid classified documents. So why is Scooter Libby the one facing prison time? And why aren’t these docs on the front page of the New York Times?

The media was all over the Joe Wilson claims, which he now refuses to say in court now that he’s under oath. But when someone in a presidential administration is charged with stealing sensitive national archive and destroying them, the media barely notices.

Let’s not even get into Iraq.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Pelosi vs Free Speech

First you have John McCain trying to shut down bloggers using a “child porn” scare tactic. Now you have Nancy Pelosi going after “grass roots” movements. How liberal of her. Isn’t it nice to know the Dems care so much about the people?

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.

The report would include identifying the organization’s expenditures, the issues focused on and the members of Congress and other federal officials who are the subject of the advocacy efforts. A separate report would be required for each policy issue the group is active on.

“Right now, grassroots groups don’t have to report at all if they are communicating with the public,” said Dick Dingman of the Free Speech Coalition, Inc. “This is an effort that would become a major attack on the 1st Amendment.”

The Democrats are no more the friends of free speech than the Republicans, but they are in some ways worse. And here’s a classic example. For all the screeching and hollering about Bush trying to take away our rights, the very people Democrats and lefties turned to may turn out to be much worse.