Everybody Gets Stuck

Well, Wavers, as things return to normal in my life post-mysterious-tragic-circumstances (a mystery even to me, believe me) The Script Department is bursting with scripts - literally every surface if my office is covered with incoming material. It's competition season, that's clear. We are inundated lately which is a wonderful thing but I took some time this weekend to begin a new script myself. And you'd think - you'd THINK - with the resources at my disposal, with the fact that I read and analyze stories daily for a living, that it would be a breeze. But no. When it's your work - it's different.

I began with a great premise. And I knew it was great. Yes, I do have an advantage there because of the experience that I have and the discipline I have acquired over time, when it comes to testing my premise for seaworthiness. And this is a one killer premise. So yesterday I began outlining. I use the sequential method, as I have explained before. I title and describe every ten pages. I will use a classic, Rouge Wave lame/funny example, of course, so none of you rabid writers swipes my idea:

Bakery Disaster (this is the title of this SEQUENCE, not the script, fyi)
Stephanie Strumpet (40) a controlling perfectionist, Martha Stewart wannabe is about to be a star. She won the Regional Cake Decorating Decorator of the Year last year. She gets an order for the largest cake she's ever decorated. But things go wrong when, on the eve of delivering the cake de resistance, Stephanie finds her policeman boyfriend cheating on her with the frosting girl and in the ensuing melee, the cake gets destroyed and Stephanie is fired!

Success is the Best Revenge
Unemployed and pissed off, Stephanie can't pay her rent. She is determined to make her ex boy friend pay for what he's done and when she finds a vacant storefront on the first floor of his apartment building, she sets a plan in motion to open her own bakery right under his nose and make success the best revenge.

The Frosting Thickens
When the boyfriend gets wind, he sics the city on Stephanie and she is beset with permit issues until she borrows money from her crazy Uncle Max to pay off the inspector and open the bakery anyway. But when Stephanie discovers that Uncle Max got the instructions wrong and the inspector's body is in the freezer with the buttercream frosting, she has a new problem on her hands

Okay it has taken a tremendous amount of wasted creative energy to make that crap up, but this is how I outline. I decribe every ten pages, knowing that those ten pages need a beginning, a middle and an end. Or, a set-up (and any sequence past page one derives it's set up from the ending of the last sequence, yes?) a complication and a resulting complication. Nothing conclusive will end a sequence, see? Because we need to drive the story forward to the NEXT page, sequence and ultimately act.

So if I were to number these sequences, along with their dvd chapter titles (which is how I view those goofy titles) I know that Sequences 3, 6 and 9 must hold the most pivotal events of the script, yes? The major reversals and complications.

So - where was I - oh, yes, getting stuck. So I tested a great premise. I outlined about half using the method above. Then I got stuck. Why? Because any number of events could take place that would be a reversal or a reveal in this tense psychological thriller. But how do I choose? Of the many directions I could go - which is best? And so, like all good writers, I would up staring at a blank page yesterday. Oh, I have all the books, I have all the experts, I have all the inspiration in the world. And yet - the blank page mocked me. If this is such a good premise, why don't I know what happens in sequence five? HUH?

So I did what any good writer would do and went to Margaux's house. Where we talked about story. Hers, mine, the script she read the day before. And we realized together that when you're stuck, there's a powerful crowbar - character. Go back to character.

List your main character and his/her flaws, wants and needs. Write a paragraph about that character's arc across this story. Do you know the ending? Does the main character triumph? Then go back to that arc and that flaw. You might wind up thinking of your script in chunks, like sequences one through three - then you might come up with a great midpoint reversal and say you happen to feel pretty jazzed about sequences nine and ten - okay, so what will bridge the gap? Go back to that arc. Always the arc.

And what about the antagonist? What are his/her goals? What is his or her unique methods out of which events will arise? What does the antagonist want from the main character? To play with her like a mouse? To ruin her cake decorating life? To bring her down a few notches? What is driving that antagonist and how does that ping off of the main character's flaws?

And don't forget - when stuck, to make sure you have fleshed out your main character's life. Have you forgotten that the main character has pets, family, a backstory? We all have a multitude of things going on in the background of our lives, yes? The upcoming birthday, the new health insurance, the annoying guy at work who keeps copping a feel with his eyes every time you get your Earl Grey tea. Stop and think. What else makes up the fabric of your character's life that will flesh out and complicate the events of the main plotline?

And so, Wavers, I became unstuck and finished my outline. And for a short while, I bathed in the glow of that accomplishment. Now I just have to write pages. And that's easy, right?!

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