Readers want a surprising, unusual opening image that presents information about the story in a visual way.
HOW DO I DO THAT? Look at opening images from movies you’re enthusiastic about. What invites you in? What makes you curious about the people and the place? What do you notice about the beginning now that you’ve seen the end?
Readers want scripts that move with purpose.
HOW DO I DO THAT? Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite. Every scene that remains in your script must accomplish something new. A new problem, a new insight, a new piece of the puzzle.
Readers want scripts that accomplish something novel.
HOW DO I DO THAT? Work on your idea until it is not the same as the film you are emulating. Find a different way to tackle your material.
YEAH, BUT HOW DO I DO THAT? Change an important element. Your story is going to be about a major emotion, usually love or fear or greed or wrath, and you want to look at that emotion with your own eye. What interests you? Race cars? Gourmet cooking? Rock climbing? Pick a “What if?” that incorporates your passion to move your idea out of the pack.
PRO TIP: The more honest you are when you consider what makes you passionate, the more compelling your story will be.
Readers want the protagonist to earn their interest.
HOW DO I DO THAT? Show that the protag’s struggle is real, and that it is relatable.
YEAH, BUT HOW DO I DO THAT? Consider what holds your protag back. It should be a roadblock that keeps a lot of people stuck in place. Denial, self-disgust, pride, stubbornness, fear of looking foolish. It can be a physical or mental disability, an old trauma, an emotional or physical injury they haven’t come to terms with yet. Then pit that against the mountain they have to climb in the second act.
Readers want a well-defined final challenge.
HOW DO I DO THAT? Be specific in your idea. Make the goal concrete and difficult to attain. Winning a race, blowing up the enemy tank in time to save the troops, rescuing the child from the well, getting back together after the divorce. It should be a final challenge that will help heal the protag’s flaw, and it should be important enough that failing will have terrible consequences.
Readers want an ending.
HOW DO I DO THAT? Make a decision, and end it. Hanging on for another ten pages to wrap up is an easy edit. The ending can certainly be ambiguous, in a certain kind of script, but it can’t be ambiguous just because you can’t make a decision about it. Birdman ends ambiguously, but it is allowed to because all of the protag’s goals were addressed and settled.
Why do I spend so much time on pointless details? Someone better comment on how delicious Martin’s fuckin fish dish sounds in this fic. I want twenty comments saying “black miso cod sounds amazing.” Jeez.
But I liiiiiiike the first scene so fuckin much. How do I kill my darling?
Thing is the part about the teaser that I like the most is the one scene that writers and non-writers(prose and TV) have all commented on. Everyone likes it.
Just like does it serve my story? Ehhhhhhh just a bit. It sets tone a bit, gives a wee glimpse. Buuuuuut does it advance plot n shizzle? Ehhhh.
George R.R. Martin is currently writing an absolutely phenomenal series of posts about the Sad Puppy dickwagons who have utterly destroyed the Hugo Awards (at least for this year, and possibly forever) because they are self-appointed right wing culture warriors.
It is very much worth reading, especially as a part of the history of the culture wars being forcibly injected into literally everything in the world by time-rich and determined assholes who just can’t handle the reality that the world is changing to be more diverse and inclusive.
But even if you don’t read it (and you really should), look at this from a post on his Livejournal (it is a testament to how much I like and respect George that I am not making a single Livejournal joke right now). That’s George R.R. Martin using the Greyjoy icon in his post. He’s using it the same way any of us would use it, except that he’s George R.R. Motherfucking Martin and he invented it.
I just think that’s awesome, and it’s one of the reasons I feel such a kinship with SF writers like George and Scalzi and Cherie Priest and Elizabeth Bear: they are part of our tribe.
Happy Birthday PETER Dougan CAPALDI ♥♥ (14th April 1958) ▬ “I’m not a creature of the 21st century” Yes sir, you are not a creature of the 21st century… You’re not even “of” this world. You’re from somewhere very far away, because everything you do, everything you say proves that you’re definitely too good for this world. What a great time to be alive and to live in the same era with you. It is an honour my dear…
i honestly get 100% that hilary clinton is far from perfect and she’s white libfem fav and all but currently, with the 2k16 election in the horizon and the possibility of having a republican president AND a republican congress you all just need to step back and reassess why having her as president would be better than having a repub who doesn’t even remotely care about poor people, brown people, black people, college students, women, government benefits, health care, etc. etc. you all know where I’m going with this
because this bandwagon thing is going to deter people from voting or get people who could have voted Dem to vote independent
like when i see these “hilary clinton is an imperialist and i rather wouldn’t vote than vote for her” posts with tens of thousands of notes I see tens of thousands of nods to the GOP and that’s terrifying
person: I hope you're happy.
me:
me:
me:
me: I HOPE YOURE HAPPY TOO
person: ....
me: I HOPE YOURE PROUD HOW YOU WOULD GROVEL IN SUBMISSION TO FEED YOUR OWN AMBITION
