Fallacy: Being difficult to attain makes a thing worth having. Fix: The action must prove why the unattainable thing is necessary for the protagonist’s well-being. Example: A protagonist’s goal is to be a size 0 for the reunion. The assumptions: A dress size of 0 will provoke the desired reaction from former classmates, which is…
Read moreCLONE SCRIPTS: THE W.E.S.
I love men. I love their gorgeous big hands and their strong shoulders and their smoldery smiles. I love it when they fight over me and offer me the moon on a string and rescue me and helplessly adore me… Oh, wait. Just up to the smoldery smiles. After that it’s a romance novel, which…
Read moreTHE GUY THINGS HAPPEN TO
I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s a clone trait in a bad script, so be vigilant in your art. This person, ostensibly the center of the script, whose story it is, is no one special, has a job, some friends, family, things they like to do. And then something happens, and the…
Read moreTHE NICK CARRAWAY PROBLEM
I just read the Hannibal pilot, available here, and then watched it (streaming on Amazon). It was written by Bryan Fuller, based on characters created by Thomas Harris, and it reminded me of The Nick Carraway problem, because Fuller and Harris don’t have it. Psychopaths are interesting, in a clinical way, because they look like…
Read moreTHE OTHER KIND OF PROTAG
Sorry. Every gif is Tom Hiddleston for some reason. Not every single story is driven by overcoming the protag’s serious personality problem to effect/fail to effect a change. Those are mostly about Indiana Jones, though. So. Yes. It is true. Don’t kill yourself trying to drive your swashbuckler with a flaw. But give that protag…
Read moreTHE PROTAG’S FLAW IS…NARCISSISM
Don’t paste on flaws to satisfy conditions of the plot. If the flaw is narcissism or untrustworthiness or cowardice, then that is what the story is about. All of the elements in the story treat the question of the flaw, which is the writer’s angle on the theme. It’s not something you tack on.
Read moreYOUR PROTAGONIST
REALLY HAVE YOUR PROTAG MAKE SOME NOISE
Honestly, if your character can accomplish everything they set out to do without leaving any sign of a struggle…it really wasn’t that important.
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