Being God in our screenwriting universe

So it came up in our writing group last night about the fact that we put our characters into jeopardy, whether serious or comedic, and we're the ones that shake up their world. So that pretty much makes us the "God" of their universe. The talk in our group focused upon, "Why now?" What about our stories is making this moment so important for our characters. It can't just be any moment of their life, otherwise the story would just ramble. But the moment we write about has a purpose to it. There will be on the end, some sort of character growth. So what exactly is the purpose of this story for our characters? Why do we stick them in this jeopardy here and now? And how will they grow and what will they learn? If we don't have answers to any of these questions, then we do not have a story, just yet. But the journey for our characters is going to take them from who they've been maybe their whole life, to a new and better person once the journey is over. When we think of it this way, it kind of makes it pretty easy to figure out what the story is, don't you think? Because the first act is the way they've always been. It sets up how they live, who they live with, it lets us see them before that "thing" happens that shakes up their world. Then comes act two and they are now on the journey of their world being messed with. This is where we see, how they will react to it, most likely not so well at first. Then we'll see what they do when they accept it, but still of course, not doing so well with it. And by Act 3 we will see them finally learn what they were supposed to learn all along, coming out of it, better than ever before. It was really helpful talking about this in my group, and I'm sure you can all relate to those moments in your life when something really bad or tragic happened. And at the time, there was nothing good about it. But now, of course years later, you can see how you grew from that emotional moment and journey. So if you can look at your own stories this way and your character being on this same kind of journey, I'm sure you'll see exactly what you need to do to your stories to make them better and have your character grow to become a better and more evolved person in the end.

where do you get your characters?

Do you get yours straight from your own imagination? Or do you take them from people you know? Do you blend people? Taking the best of all your friends and family? The problem with using people we know though, is they could recognize themselves and not be so happy about it. Do you worry about that? Or is that just what writers do? I forget which Woody Allen movie it was, but in it, all the characters were so mad that he had written about them and put them in his stories. But as writers is it our job to worry about how people will feel? Or does the art always come first. I know in one of my first scripts, I had a character that seemed similar to my mom. When my mom read it, mind you I was an adult, she said she was grounding me. LOL Now, obviously she couldn't, but she did see that she was in my story. I did the best I could to blend who this person was to not make it so obvious. But apparently it didn't work! And sometimes we find these gems of characters in the people we love most, so what's a writer to do? In fact, one of the sitcoms I pitched to ABC was ALL my mom. I didn't hold back on this at all. I mean, there's so much food for fodder in her that I really wanted someone to put this woman in my story. But I also think finding characters in our minds based around what the story needs is just as good too. Sometimes we might not know of the crazy, eccentric characters we actually put in our stories. And thank god right? But that's why it's great to get out and be in the world, find new places, people watch to your heart's content! We never know where our characters will come from. But the more we can be inspired and colorful, the better our stories can be because of it.

I'm an introverted writer who likes being social

What to do when you have the need to hide away to write, yet have friends you'd like to see at the same time? How does a writer juggle it all?! We writers are stereotyped as the person who hides in their room, sits at their computer, smoking, drinking, hiding. But are we all like that? Maybe that's way too much like JD Salinger who supposedly spent the last 40 years of his life in almost total seclusion. But the writers I know, don't seem to be such social pariahs. Alas, we do need to find time to write and put our writing first. So it's the subtle dance of finding time to write along with finding time to socialize and come out into the world. I know for me, I think I used to think I owed friends and family my time. Like if I wasn't spending time with them or making the rounds, they'd think I didn't care. But more recently I realized that being true to myself and my passion and art was actually more important than worrying about everyone else's needs. So even though I have found myself being less social and writing a lot more, which makes me happy, I do find that I miss making time for the other things I enjoyed, like friends. So what's a writer to do? Well, for me, I just remind myself that yes, I might not be seeing friends as much, but my writing career is benefiting from being more recluse. Plus, I do have a husband and child, so it's not like I don't have any social contact. I am also a gym rat and visit the gym five days a week. So I do get to chat with my other gym rat friends at least almost every morning. On occasion, that doesn't seem to be enough and I find myself getting cranky around the hubby and my son and that's when I know I've been holed up too much and it's time for some girlfriend time. It's a hard balance fitting it all in. Being a writer can be a lonely job. I've had people who don't really get what it means to be a writer and they'll say, "That's so exciting!" And since I've yet to work on a set yet, I say, "No, not so much. But it makes me happy." And that's what matters. So, alas, I'll be home writing tonight, being anti-social but happy at the same time. And summer is fast approaching so I'll be very social with my son out of school and making plans with his friends and other moms. And as social as I will be, I'm sure I'll be longing from my solitude when I can hole myself up and join my other friends we like to call, "characters" in screenplays.

Can a little multi-racial surrounding help my writing?

So since last week I've been freelance writing at an ad agency that's considered multi-cultural. That means it's 98% African American. I'm half hispanic. If you count my last name. But pretty much all caucasian upbringing. My one hispanic friend used to call me a coconut -- brown on the outside, all white on the inside. But being in this kind of situation has been really interesting. It's been fun to hear them quip back and forth and be surrounded by hip hop music as they concept. Their dialogue is mostly about African American musicians and comedians, which I must say I don't even know by name. It's really opened my eyes to how much I must not know about that kind of culture and it reminds me to open up my world more. Because we just never know where our next story will come from or what will inspire us. That's what I love so much about freelancing is I'm always in a new surrounding with new people and adventures. But we shouldn't always wait for that. So if you're not as fortunate to be bouncing around from job to job, force yourself to take new routes, visit new museums, go to new neighborhoods for lunch. You just never know what will open your mind to the next story that's waiting for you to write. I'm not sure I've found my next story since I've been here. But I can say that I've had a hell of a time laughing at the things they find funny. And if making me smile counts for something, then I think it's been a good experience.

what's in a name?

When we choose character names for our scripts/films, we think about what name would best suit our stories. But did we ever realize that it's possibly because those names really connotate a certain image even in real life? That it's not as random as we first perhaps thought. I listen to these podcosts almost daily on spirituality and positive thinking, and today the guest was a woman by the name of Sharon Lynn Wyeth. She wrote a book called Neimology, the study of what names really mean. It was so interesting! It got me to thinking that when we choose characters, that maybe we always knew there was meaning behind them, without even realizing it. Sharon, (pronouned Sha-rone, not Sharon), did a study on names and letters for fifteen years and visited 60 countries collecting data, before publishing her book. She found that all the rules she writes about with names and their meanings holds true as long as they're written with the same characters. If you think about it, we know that a Jennifer means one type of person, whereas a Norma would be a completely other type of person. Even recently a writer friend on Facebook asked for people to chime in on character names for a guy that's annoying, boisterous, obnoxious. People quickly wrote, "Clifton, Chad, Lewis," on and on and on. Sure some names seemed to fit that type of character more than others. But right away I got images of who those characters fit and what type of person I'd expect to see. There really did seem to be some truth to what she wrote and talked about. And perhaps if we writers get this book, we'd be able to come up with the perfect character names without just reaching randomly into thin air or googling, "baby names" in search of the perfect name. I for one am curious and might have to get the book. Even if I don't use it for screenwriting, I could always find out what my name means. I hope it's all positive! Plus knowing names could help us understand our day-to-day as we interact with people. I mean, I might like to know which producers are easier to work with someday, right? Here's her website for anyone that's interested in reading more about it. http://knowthename.com/about/