Part 2 of 2: Story Construction & Sequence
In three-act structure, Act One introduces the protagonist (hero) and the dilemma. Act Two includes the stuff involved with the growing problem. Act Three is the resolution. Comedies have happy endings. Tragedies do not. Happy endings enthrall me. Tragic ones I abhor. I want the world to be a happy place, with happy people in it. It’s why my favorite stories are multicultural ensembles with happy endings; that’s the way I want the world to be.
Once the story is broken down by act and scene, my energies transition to immersing the characters. They become real to me. We hang out together. They take me where they want to go but not always where I expect. I give my characters wide decision-making latitude throughout creation. If I didn’t, they’d all act like author clones, which bores and cheats the reader. Memorable characters are singular at worst, unique at best. They must be free to do what they want to do.
Characters don’t have to be likeable but they must have substance. Great characters enable a good writer to tell an excellent story. Mediocre characters will never deliver a great story since the delivery vehicle isn’t good enough. Because of this I work tremendously hard on character construction. I work hard on memorable, powerhouse characters to help me maximize the storyline.
Although screenplays are formulaic and must be written in sequence, I never begin a novel on page one. Novels I build by chapter, written as a collection of individual short stories. I start with the pivotal or most interesting chapter, write it, and then bounce forward or backward to write a new chapter (short story) depending on what appeals to me at the time. Afterward I thread the short stories together, eliminate redundancies, tighten the foreshadowing, and script the transitions. Sort of like a human spine with sequential disks, threaded and connected by a spinal column that makes each work independently and collectively.
I began as a joke writer and shifted to rhymes, comedic limericks, standup routines, and short stories before writing novels. Screenplays came last. I had resisted them for a long time due to their bare bones structure. Screenplays are much faster to write than novels; it’s why everyone’s got six in the closet and four more in the trunk. Automated software (like Final Draft) has put the medium within reach of anyone with time on his or her hands, whether they know what they’re doing or not.
Standup routines are the hardest and most gratifying of the comedic arts to construct. It also offers the widest canvas of what’s possible to present. They test your mettle because of what excellence demands, the mastery of all four elements of effective communication: sender, receiver, channel, and message.
Novels I construct with my short story approach provide far more freedom and latitude than scriptwriting. In a novel you explain what’s going on. In a script you don’t explain it–you show it. Each story vehicle presents a different creative challenge. Scriptwriting coach Robert McKee calls that difference art versus craft. The novel is art, the script is craft. The novel has few boundaries. The script has a rigid, formulaic structure.
Regardless what you’re working on, writing is easy but writing well is hard. The trasnformation from good to great is directly proportion to how much blood you’re willing to sweat. And how tough your editor is.
Whether it’s a book or a screenplay, my second draft is fifteen percent shorter than the first. Third drafts are ten percent shorter than the second. Tight is good. Tighter is better. Tightening takes thought, discipline, and hard work. It is never easy but always necessary and worthwhile.
Creating something entertaining from an imaginary world that people purchase, read, enjoy, and recommend to others is an honorable pursuit. In my case, I cannot imagine a life without imaginary friends and the mayhem they create. And since we all live happily ever after, what could possibly be better than that?