Thursday, April 04, 2013

This thing I'm doing to stay focused

On my last script, I added a new thing to keep me on track. I always print out my outline and set it next to my desk on one of those paper holder thingees, but this time I tried something else and I liked it, so I thought I'd share it.

I typed up brief character bios with every character's motivation clearly stated. I printed the bios out, then taped them to the shelf above my computer, so as I wrote I could look up at every moment and remember why each person was there. It seems so simple, but it helped me out a lot. I'd been having trouble in the development stage of this script in figuring out exactly what my arcs were, but being able to see it clearly articulated exactly what everybody wanted - that helped me stay on target during the writing phase.

My story was about soldiers in combat situations, so I was reading this book about Blackwater as part of my research, and I came upon a story about a battle on a rooftop in Iraq. One of the soldiers said that after the battle they felt "Terrified but victorious," which is just a fantastic way to describe all the emotions a soldier must be feeling after a tense combat situation. I wrote that in big permanent marker at the bottom of my bio sheet: TERRIFIED BUT VICTORIOUS. So every time I had a fight scene, I remembered: terrified but victorious. It was right there on the sheet above my head.

As I wrote, I found myself not going back to my outline so much since I remembered my plot well, but instead, going back to that bio page over and over. I kept looking at it to remind me about what's going on in everybody's head.

So as I began to embark on my new script this morning, I printed out my outline and put it on my little paper holder thingee, and then I typed up my character bios and taped them to the shelf above my head. It's my new thing. I highly recommend it.

7 comments:

  1. Emily, I love this. I did something similar on a script I wrote last summer and I think it was my best work. Am currently in the middle of a rewrite that I have been struggling with so am gonna try it again. Thanks for the reminder!

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  2. TERRIFIED BUT VICTORIOUS. SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE!

    Thanks, Emily! :)

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  3. How long are the character bios and how many of them are hanging up, in general?

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    1. On this last project I had 4 bios, this time five - not very detailed, mostly just about what they want and why they're here. I don't go all the way back to childhood or anything. They're maybe 4-8 sentences each.

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  4. What i like about this is that 'fearful but victorious' could be a mantra for the leader, or one of the guys. That's what he says to one of the soldiers as he lifts him off the ground.

    He can see the fear etched in the guys face as the battle winds down, as he pulls him up he whispers... be fearful... but victorious...

    He pulls his soldier up, and it can really be a defining moment.

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    1. Uhh -- no. That's subtext. You never want to say subtext aloud. The actions of the characters can illustrate that, but you never want to state it baldly. Also, I doubt a squad leader would tell his men to be fearful, careful yes, but not fearful, that's a given.

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  5. Yes, characters bios are invaluable, especially for faceless-type characters like soldiers who look physically alike. I like the idea of taping them up.

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