This usually comes AFTER I’ve written and I’m reviewing the script.
Name some things you’ve observed about your own writing that you’d like to improve on! I’ve noticed that I am not great at writing dialogue that is about one thing but means another. It’s something I want to practice and get better at.
What about you? What’s a tendency you have that you do or do not like?
Posted Jul 9, 2021, 8:40 PM UTC
I find I’m such a direct person that it comes across in my writing and then I get told I lack nuance. As a human though I always say what I feel. And I don’t leave anything unsaid. Yet drama scripts love simmering tension.
My friends find it hilarious because they know me. A competition judge finds it lazy af. So after I write my first version I have to go back and change all of my dialogue. I have to hold back.
I have a tendency to try and nail way too much emotional impact into each individual scene rather than let the characters live and breath somewhat organically. Working on this as we speak..
It’s hard, a lot of writers define “organic” as doing these slowed down scenes that don’t advance the story. Why do you feel they aren’t organic? You don’t think it’s just quick pace?
I feel like the great revelation that your character has near the end should be an event that’s almost inadvertent. Like they were unconsciously building toward it the entire time and we (the audience) see that but of course they’re not supposed to. My characters can be too self aware for their own good, they assign value and hang onto things that has great value to the story but not to them as a character in that time and place.
I love watching Clint Eastwood movies and seeing how cold he is with his revelations. There’s no movie-like brooding. He gets it over with so fast that he appears almost indifferent, and yet somehow it lands with more punch than any soap opera I’ve seen. Definitely a lesson to be learned there.
What’re your favorite Eastwood movies, or which ones display this the most?
Unforgiven. Bill Munny goes through an entire arc that’s so powerful and yet never explicitly displayed. There’s no scene where he’s all “I’m so sorry for the things I’ve done”. He lacks that self awareness to a very large extent, but it’s there if you really look for it. I just love how Clint was so comfortable with barely scratching the surface of Munny’s inner turmoil.
I love over describing stuff, and I always feel like my stories have pacing issues.
How long are your scripts coming in? And how big are your action description paragraphs? I’ve definitely seen this in other writers, people get very excited to dig into their world
I once finished a 30 minute pilot that had almost 70 pages lol. But rewrites really help me reign everything in.
Formatting and typos. Even after proofreading several times I still miss stuff that others subsequently pick up on.
Do you have someone who can proofread for you?
I kill people. I always choose the nuclear option. Not a new revelation. But something I can’t change. And I do like writing a twist.
I’d rather too many people be killed than too few. It’s always an eye roll when a story is super insane, intense and high stakes but one person dies via sacrifice at the end.
Now, I won't know how much producers like that...
I like putting a person on a path towards doom. I give them plenty of options to save themselves. But they refuse. So they die. At the end I always make sure that they see the error of their ways.
We the audience are screaming at them to stop. But they don’t. The moth heads towards the flame even as they feel the heat.
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I write many films using the same characters at different ages so together it's a long epic spanning a lifetime. Sometimes I am writing a later film and since I know ALL of each character's backstory (I am GOD in that sense, haha) I'll be writing a new scene and the character will say something and BLAMMO, strands are connected and the character is telling me something I never thought of and suddenly it all makes sense and everything suddenly fits right into place perfectly. I am stunned when these revelations come out because the characters reveal it to me. Here is an example.
In one of my films, two sisters move to LA and one pursues Modeling and the other pursues Acting but it was clear to me the older sister looking for acting gigs was really there to act as the babysitter/chaperone for her 18 year old sister seeking Modeling work. The older sister has put off a wedding engagement because she felt duty bound to be with her sister for her sister's dreams. The older sister pines for her fiance and also waits by phones that never ring (for acting jobs).
One day as I was going over the film, the older sister character suddenly revealed to me what made her tick, and all of a sudden everything made sense. I didn't plan it. it was a revelation to me and to the character in Act 2. She has a natural Mother's instinct. She doesn't want to be an actress in LA. She wants to be a MOTHER. She is with her sister acting as a surrogate mother. Both the character and I as the writer, realized this and it propelled the story with energy into Act 3. Then I understood who she was even in earlier films. The entire strand of her life suddenly became clear. She showed ME who she really is. I was dumbstruck. I didn't know. I didn't really know her till that day. Now I understand her and every scene she is in.
In earlier films she is 16, and 24 in the scene I mentioned about her maternal instincts, I have later films where she is 30 and I am now writing the final film where she is 59. From 10 in the first movie to 59 in the final film and I know WHO she is. She told me. She revealed it to me. and I see the same person from 16 to 59. Sure, she's a grandmother at 59 but I know who she is and what makes her tick. She gave me a window to her soul and I didn't have that insight until I had written her in several films.
It will happen for you too. You'll be writing an action or dialogue and it will come out of nowhere. Suddenly, the character trusts you enough to show you WHO THEY REALLY ARE.
It's amazing.
I’ve noticed that my characters’ dialogue sound the same. Even when I’m writing subtext, they usually talk around their desires and fears the same way. Next time, I have to make sure that each line comes from that character, not from me.
At the same time, I also have a tendency to start finding character nuance in the first draft. Okay, this kid is a leader and protector, but how does he protect others? Does he make sure that they’re protected by the person better suited to protecting them, or does he want to be their protector? That’s usually how I think of characters.
Remember that characters have different roles. A sidekick doesn't necessarily have their own fears and desires -- as the sidekick, they support and cheer on the main character (or whomever). Figure out their roles and they'll start to sound different. When the roof is caving in, the protagonist tries to find a way to fix it, but there's always the character that just panics—even though they both want the same thing (to survive the roof caving in). [This also provides room for more drama, because now someone has to take care of the person who is just panicking.]
Yeah, I will remember their roles in the story. I remember this one post that said each character should have a strong opinion in the story, and I assume that meant: what is their role/purpose? Thanks for the tip and example!
These can definitely overlap. The Antagonist's opinion and the Protagonist's opinion about [some evil plan] will be different. But a sidekick (to use that again) can have the same opinion [evil plan is good!... if it's the Antagonist's sidekick] but a different role, "let me make you tea while you plan to destroy the world."
Like all characters speak the same way like Sorkin? Or their dialogue always revolves around the same stuff?
They speak the same way, I mean. I’m not considering how their age, education, their relationship with whoever they speaking (etc.) will affect how they talk.
What are ways you can remedy this? Tried exercises like writing some example scenes or shorts solely focused on working on this?
Well, I am writing a short that is dialogue-heavy, so I have to make sure that the character voices are on point or else the short fails.
I don’t have any exercise to practice character voice, but I guess I can write a conversation scene as an exercise. Write on-the-nose and expository dialogue, rewrite it on a separate doc with subtext and characterization, and compare the two drafts to see how different they are. Something like that.