Writing + Directing Flashcards

Question

David Sedaris on Writing

Answer 1

Exaggerate Stretching a scenario into the most ridiculous version you can imagine can be another way to get a laugh. APRIL 28, 2019, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA At last night’s signing I met an emergency room doctor. We got to talking and she told me about a patient she’d seen earlier in the week who had shoved a dildo too far up his ass. The door shut behind it, so he tried fishing it out with a coat hanger. When that proved the wrong tool for the job, he snipped it with wire cutters, then went after both the dildo and the cut-off hanger with a sturdier fresh hanger. You hear this from doctors all the time: their patients shove lightbulbs up inside of themselves; shampoo bottles; votive candles and they always concoct some incredible story to explain their predicament. “I tripped,” is a big one. And OK, I’m pretty clumsy. I trip all the time, but have never wound up with a pepper grinder up my ass, not even a little bit. I’m pretty sure I could tumble down all the stairs in the Empire State Building, naked, with a greased up pepper grinder in each hand, and a box of candles around my neck, and still end up in the lobby with an empty rectum.

Answer 2

According to Spike, film is all about movement. Telling a story isn’t just about recording the action, but how the images are captured. So much can be conveyed through basic camera angle. You can shoot a weak character from above so that they appear smaller. Conversely, you can shoot a strong or heroic character from below to make them appear larger than life. A volleying camera suggests rising tension. A character facing the camera suggests intimacy with the audience.

Answer 3

Go back to your compost heap and look for things that inspire you. Sometimes a single word or object can trigger a whole scene or setting in your world.

Answer 4

Opening your scenes in the middle of the action draws your reader into the story right away. You can then weave in description throughout the scene

Answer 5

This is the opposite type of suspense and is known as “dramatic irony.” When your reader knows that the bus roaring down the highway is headed for an elevated freeway junction that hasn’t been completed yet, it fills the audience with anticipation and dread for what they know is coming: the passengers’ horror and shock.

Answer 6

Every world has rules, and ideally your characters will discover those rules the hard way. Come up with a quick list of rules that might exist in your world, and remember that you’ll probably discover more as you go along.

Answer 7

1. You have to write. 2. You have to finish what you write. 3. You have to send it out to someone who could publish it. 4. Refrain from rewriting—except to editorial request. 5. When it comes back, send it out again. 6. Neil’s rule: Then start the next thing

Answer 8

One of the big questions Neil raises in this chapter is the origin of ideas and inspiration. Neil posits that ideas come from confluence, or the peculiar combinations of thoughts and experiences that are unique to you. Many writers would agree. Others have found ideas in dreams (Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer), in sudden flashes of inspiration (J.K. Rowling), in a casual joke (Kazuo Ishiguro), while doing a mundane task like visiting a yard sale (Donna Tartt) or while grading papers (J.R.R. Tolkien). Still others find inspiration in the people they know (P.G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, and Ian McEwan). Roald Dahl kept an Ideas Book (his own compost heap) and found an idea for a novel from an old comment he’d written many years before. In her book Big Magic (2015), Elizabeth Gilbert goes so far as to say that ideas are a “disembodied, energetic life form” and that creativity “is a force of enchantment…like in the Hogwarts sense.” In order to collaborate with these life forms, you must simply engage in “unglamorous, disciplined labor” and write.

Answer 9

A pioneer of the concise, “masculine” style which came about because of his background in journalism and his general disillusionment about war.

Answer 10

In classical terms, an epic story was an adventure, often written in poetic form, like Homer’s Odyssey. Today, epic stories tend to be referred to as “hero’s journeys,” and often include works of fantasy or historical fiction. Joseph’s Campbell’s influential work, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949), analyzes the monomyth behind this genre.

Answer 11

You’re not just describing a tree, you’re moving the story forward by creating a sense of foreboding or developing the character who is looking at the tree.

Answer 12

As a writer-director, it’s important to have your own voice. This means having a distinct approach, whether it’s via a favored camera angle, lighting, or the city or culture your stories explore. Voice is what gives your work style. One way to have a unique voice is to tell unique stories, and no better way than to mine your own life for material. Many of Spike’s earliest films were inspired by his personal experience. She’s Gotta Have It originated from conversations he and his friends had about women. School Daze was reminiscent of his college days at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta, both HBCUs (Historically Black College and University). In Do The Right Thing, Spike recalled a time in New York City when race relations were at a fever pitch, particular between African Americans and Italian Americans. He knew versions of those characters growing up in Brooklyn—how they spoke, their mannerisms—and recognized the growing cultural tension. The result was a powerful story that not only resonates, but is sadly reflected in real life to this day. Stories which originate from your own life will often be the ones about which you’re most passionate and know intimately. Let this passion carry you through the tough but rewarding task of taking your film from conception through to completion. Trust your instincts when writing your screenplays. Don’t be afraid to break the rules. For example, when Spike writes, he doesn’t think about his work fitting into a three act structure. Some may consider this blasphemy, but Spike believes it’s important to question the norm. It also takes courage to create characters whose thoughts and opinions may be wildly different from your own—unsavory even. But if you can write two characters who are at odds and yet they are both somehow right, you’ve hit the drama jackpot.

Answer 13

F or a nonfiction writer, connecting to your reader hinges on your ability to be honest with them. Emotional honesty, embracing who you are, and admitting what you don’t always want to admit are a few things that distinguish a great essay from a good one. A reader knows when a writer is being fake or dishonest. It takes practice to let go of the urge to paint yourself in a good light.

Answer 14

``` “I hope you understand that this is some hard sh*t to do. It takes dedication, it takes love, it takes compassion... It’s a continuing process of educating yourself, getting experience, and being the best you can be.” —SPIKE LEE ```

Answer 15

Readers are always looking for something fresh, so you must sail against the expected, but at the same time, readers expect certain things. To navigate these tricky waters, you’ll need to understand reader expectations, which means having a grasp of the genre your story belongs to. Only once you’ve mastered the promises you make will you be able to subvert your audience’s expectations and provide the kind of surprises that readers adore. Any genre—or category of story—is made up of conventions. These are specific characters, events, settings, or outcomes that define the type of story you’re telling—and that the reader will be expecting. For example, a romance is generally made up of two people who fall in love and who cannot express or fulfill that love until the end of the story. You must assume that your audience understands genre thoroughly, and therefore you must understand it more. In every scene you write, you are raising a question or making a promise to your reader. Most people know instinctively what promises are being made. If you’ve got a dead body in chapter one, and an investigator comes to look at the scene, you’re making an implicit promise to the reader that they’re going to find out how that person died. You must be able to anticipate the audience’s reactions and expectations—only then can you keep their interest and deliver surprise.

Answer 16

Description can be dry, but if it carries emotional weight for you or your characters, be sure to include that to engage the reader

Answer 17

Once you’re ready to share your work, it can be a challenge to find the right reader. If you haven’t got one, consider joining Writer’s Café online. It’s a resource that will help you connect with other writers who are willing to review and edit your work. Usually you’ll read their work in exchange. The site also provides writing groups and courses in the craft.

Answer 18

EXCERPTS FROM “THE SPIRIT WORLD” •“Unlike Lisa and Paul, who are on the west side of the house and could probably sleep on burlap without noticing it, Amy likes nice sheets.” •“Amy sat up and moved closer, so that her head was between my seat and Gretchen’s.” •“If I’m right about the sister as well, the person I’m talking to will become like a cat released into a new setting, very low to the ground and suspicious.” •“We were returning from a walk and came upon our father in the middle of the street a quarter mile from the house. He was dressed in jeans and had a flat-topped cap on his head. His flannel shirt was untucked, and the tail of it dropped from beneath the hem of his Windbreaker.” •“Her shoes looked like she’d found them in a trash can.” 24 EXCERPTS FROM “UNDERSTANDING UNDERSTANDING OWLS” •“The man who owned the shop was so much taller than me that, in order to look him in the eye, I had to throw my head all the way back, like I do at the dentist’s office.” • “‘Me?’ For some reason I looked at my hands. ‘Oh, goodness no.’” • “The taxidermist invited me to guess again, but before I could, he blurted, ‘It’s a Pygmy!’” •“The three of us can walk into a crowded party and all zoom in on the person who’s missing a finger, or who has one regular-sized ear and one significantly smaller one, while my sister Lisa will pick up something else entirely.”

Answer 19

One of the most common pieces of writing advice—“show, don’t tell”—is a good rule to keep in mind when introducing characters. You have a choice between direct characterization, which is a simple description that tells your reader what a person is like—“Jane was a horrible girlfriend”—and indirect characterization, which creates a scene that shows exactly what makes Jane such a horrible partner. The second method is usually more powerful when introducing characters because it allows the reader to experience them firsthand. It requires more of the reader, asking them to the do the work of visualizing the scene and forcing them to ask questions about the character. Neil’s jinni coming out of the lamp is indirect characterization: “I stretched my neck to get out the last of the cramp. It didn’t just feel good. It felt great actually. I’d been squashed up inside that lamp for so long.” It gives a sense of the jinni’s relief at being free, and at his previous isolation and loneliness. It wouldn’t have been as compelling if Neil had written, “The jinni was relieved to be free.”

Answer 20

There are a multitude of ways to approach finding the capital you need to make your film. Here are a few points of entry: — Sundance offers a variety of funding opportunities and creative labs for directors, screenwriters, producers, and independent storytellers of all genres. Review their opportunities here. — Similarly, Tribeca All Access offers funding and support services for independent filmmakers. — Creative Capital provides artist grants to fiction and nonfiction filmmakers. — IFP is a non-profit that offers grants, fiscal sponsorship, community, and resources to filmmakers of all genres. — Cinereach is a nonprofit that offers developmental funding and filmmaker support to fiction and nonfiction filmmakers. — PBS offers a comprehensive grants database for documentary filmmakers. Dive into it here. — Documentary filmmakers can consider partnering with a fiscal sponsor like IDA. Review their funding opportunities for nonfiction filmmakers here. — Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the go-to crowdfunding platforms for creatives. Crowdfunding is not only a revenue source, but it also puts your film on the radar of sales agents and investors, and serves as a proof of concept to potential buyers. — Spike references a “bond company” in regards to Malcolm X. In independent film, a producer can work with a bond company to get upfront financing for the a film. It works like this: the producer gets a distribution contract that promises a minimum distribution guarantee payment upon completion, but needs that money up front to fund production. So, they use their distribution contract as collateral to get a production loan from a bond company. The loan is essentially an advance on their minimum distribution guarantee. The producer—along with the distributor and the bond company—all sign a completion bond agreement (also known as a completion guarantee), which is a promise to complete the film as per their contract and deliver it to the distributor. The bond company then takes the minimum distribution guarantee as repayment of the loan. Under this kind of agreement, the bond company has the right to take over the film if it is going over budget—such is the situation Spike faced with Malcolm X

Answer 21

The beginning of your story often isn’t the result of something that came before it. The complexities of character (see below) can surely point to previous moments in that character’s life not shown, but the beginning of the story is where the actions first begin to take place. You show the character’s world and then confront them with some form of conflict that they must take action on.

Answer 22

“The expression of the meaning in words; and its essence is the same in both verse and prose.” Dialogue is an important element that can not be taken lightly. Too many scripts suffer from on-the-nose dialogue — words that are more interested in relaying information and exposition, as opposed to displaying the emotions, fears, struggles, and intentions of the character. The verse is the chunk of dialogue and the prose is the way it is written. We’ve said before that there is no secret answer to great writing dialogue — but that doesn’t mean there is no place to find it. And the way you find great dialogue is by living through the characters that you write. What would they say? What would they not say? How would they say it? What would they gain from saying it? What would they gain from not saying it? On a secondary note, verse and prose can be a vital part in scene description within a screenplay — or novel for you authors out there. The diction of your scene description can play a vital role in how the read of your material is experienced by the powers that be. In both cases, pay particular attention to each and every line of dialogue or scene description. Ask yourself, “Does this need to be there? Am I saying the same thing twice or more? What repercussions are there for my character saying that line and am I ready to go down that road with them? Does the reader need this much detail or can I say more with less and let them fill in the rest?”

Answer 23

Once you’re in the habit of writing everything down, you might be tempted to whip out your notebook in the middle of a particularly juicy conversation. But resist the urge. “You don’t want to end it,” David says (of “the moment” in question). “I was in London and I was in a taxidermy shop. And the owner of the shop showed me these owls that he had for sale. And then he showed me a pygmy skeleton. And then he showed me an amputated arm. And then he showed me a girl’s head. So he had some human things that were for sale. And by that time my life really felt like a story. But I knew that if I pulled out my notebook, everything would have ended.” Instead of ending the moment, let a situation play out naturally instead of drawing attention to it by taking notes as it’s happening. People might feel self-conscious if they see your notebook, or, even worse, they’ll become aware of the way they’re being observed by you. That will alter or shut down what might have happened without the notebook. You can always jot down notes once the moment is over

Answer 24

Traditionally, a book’s ending delivers on the promises you’ve made to the reader throughout the story. When Neil suggests thinking of a short story as the ending of a novel, he means that much of what you’re creating in terms of your characters and world will not make it into the final story. Instead, you want to hit the most important moment—the story’s climax. At the same time, you need to convey enough information that your reader is not lost. In order to do this, consider in medias res—a writerly practice that means opening the story in the middle of the action and filling in details later. This takes you straight to your important scene.

Answer 25

Choosing the right cast for your film is critical and should not be rushed or taken lightly. Taking time on the front end to audition actors can save precious time and money on the back end, as it can be difficult and costly to fire an actor or edit out a bad performance. Do not be afraid to ask an actor to audition more than once. It is through this process you can witness the actor’s approach over time and ultimately trust them with the role. Don’t be afraid to cast people who might not look the part, as Spike learned with Halle Berry in Jungle Fever. Spike initially believed Berry, a former pageant contestant, was too attractive to convincingly play the role of a crack addict. He and his casting director, Robin Reed, called the actress back to read five or six times. On one of these auditions, Berry dressed the part to convince them she had the acting chops, which won her the role. When casting two leads, Spike believes it’s integral for the actors to read together before they get the role to ensure there is chemistry. He asks these fundamental questions: Do they get along? Do they interact? Is it believable that these people

Answer 26

A n allusion is a short reference to another story, usually through the use of well-known elements. For example, you can quickly reference Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by mentioning a white rabbit. Allusions generate interest because they set a context for the story you’re reading while hinting at the similarities or differences in the two works. Neil uses allusions often, and they are just as wide-ranging as his storytelling interests, referencing Egyptian and Greek mythology, Victorian fairy tales, Beowulf and Norse mythology, Shakespeare, Tolkien, and modern cinema, to name a few

Answer 27

When rejection begins to weigh you down, the simplest things can keep you going. One of those is ritual. Murakami said, “The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” If you’re feeling deflated, set up a routine for yourself and stick to it. These tools can help you organize and stay on track: • The online Writing Schedule Calculator can give you an estimate of how long it will take you to write your novel. Answer a few basic questions, and you’ll have an idea of what to plan for. • The Marinara Timer from 352 Inc. is an online, customizable productivity timer that you can use to create sessions for your writing. • Streaks is an app that allows you to create daily goals for yourself and them gamify those goals by winning credits when you reach certain milestones. • SquareSpaceNote is another useful app. It will sync all of your electronic information and writing so that you can have everything in one place for when you sit down to write. For help on building positive routines, check out Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones (2018) by James Clear. This book is full of practical advice based on the idea that making large-scale changes will happen through small, manageable steps.

Answer 28

The story that you keep thinking about over time is the story you’ve got to write. Spike begins his writing process by jotting down ideas about the story in a notebook—character names, dialogue, plot points, et cetera. Once he feels like he has everything down, he transfers his notes onto index cards. He then begins the process of ordering. Using cards allows him to order and reorder until he feels that he’s gotten it right. This work—plus research—gives him an abundance of material, which he eventually transforms into a script.

Answer 29

``` “People ask me, “How do you cope with rejection?”…And there are only two ways to do it—one of which is you go down. You get sad. You put the thing away. You stop writing. You go and get a real job, go and do something else. And the other is a kind of crazed attitude that actually the most important thing now is to write something so brilliant, so powerful, so good nobody could ever reject it.” ```

Answer 30

Aristotle lists spectacle as the least important element of storytelling. “Spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.” That is an amazing line to read considering the text was written thousands of years ago — but it rings true today, doesn’t it? How many special effects-driven studio tent poles have failed at the box office — and why did they fail?” Because they are void of the principles listed above. The spectacle can be intriguing and certainly does draw in a certain audience, but it should never prioritized above any of the other principles. It doesn’t matter what great action, horror, or comedic sequences you can conjure. If the story is void of plot, character, thought, diction, and yes, even some music — wink wink — the spectacle doesn’t matter.

Answer 31

Think of genre as a set of expectations that your reader already has, based on the type of story you’re telling. In a murder mystery, for example, the reader expects a murder, an investigation, and a resolution of the crime. It doesn’t mean you have to provide all of those things; you only have to be aware that your reader will be expecting them, and that if you don’t provide them, you risk disappointing your audience. While there are hundreds of genres, it’s important to start by understanding the three primary ones: epic, tragic, and comic.

Answer 32

Use the strongest description sense for the scene. If your character is in a gutter, smell may be more provocative than sight

Answer 33

E very story has a big idea, the thing that you would say your story is about. Deciding on your story’s big idea is generally straightforward—it is the thing that prompts you to start writing in the first place. However, this will evolve over time. For Neil, Neverwhere came from a desire to write about a world beneath London. He soon realized that the story was about homelessness and the people who are overlooked in big cities. It can be challenging to come up with a fresh big idea that is meaningful to you. Often, it will come about through the merging of disparate topics that you weave together because of your particular obsessions or interests. Keep going back to your compost heap to find those things, and begin to draw threads between your various interests.

Answer 34

To practice honesty in your writing, choose one of the following moments and write a few paragraphs in your journal about it. As you write, pay attention to your inner register about what you’re writing, noting the particular things that make you uneasy. Try to be a little “more honest than you’re comfortable with.” Remember that being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared; it means you do it anyway. • A time when you were deeply embarrassed. • When you regret something you did. • The saddest moment of your life. • A secret you are afraid to talk about. Take the work you wrote above and either read it aloud to someone you trust, or read it alone and pretend that you have an audience. Listen to the way you sound and pay attention to the sensations in your body as you’re reading the difficult moment. Consider what you’re afraid of being judged for, or afraid of saying out loud. Write those things down.

Answer 35

Even if the world you’re building is exactly like our world, it’s going to have rules. In the real world, those rules are built-in, since most readers already know what they are. In a fantasy world, the rules may be different—and part of what makes your setting interesting. Maybe magic works differently in your world, or your characters must obey certain laws. Because your reader doesn’t know those laws already, you’ll have to make them clear. (Ideally, only the important ones.) It’s good not to spell them out directly to your reader, rather let your characters grapple with them. In the best cases, rules create drama and character conflict, so let the rules become apparent from your characters’ experiences. If you’re going to have magic in your world, know that a lot of writers argue that magic has to make sense or have some sort of internal logic, even cause-and-effect behaviors (all of which undermine very old notions of magic). For those who argue this, placing pseudo-natural restrictions on magic is practically a requirement. You don’t have to create a super-system that can stand up to scientific scrutiny, but it’s good to remember that there are different types of magic. To create any system, consider these laws of magic for crafting a story with this trope.

Answer 36

When David started writing, he wanted to make his reader laugh. He learned how to do that well. Then he wanted to do more—he wanted to suffuse comedy with tragedy. When sorrow is attached to humor, an essay has more gravitas and is more memorable. The sadness can’t be forced or formulaic, but it’s important to always look for a way to move people, to add meaning, with more than laughter. David found inspiration for this in his own work by watching Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway (1985). Goldberg created monologues and stories that made the audience laugh before turning to something surprisingly painful or startling or tragic. You’ll notice that David has become a master of this as well: He can make you laugh and cry all within the confines of the same 12 pages (consider essays like “Now We Are Five,” about his sister Tiffany’s suicide, or “Why Aren’t You Laughing,” about his mother’s alcoholism)

Answer 37

Don’t get lazy After many years of reading on a stage, David has a sense of who his audience is, which makes it easier for him to connect with them. But he never goes for the low-hanging fruit by making a joke that appeals to a particular audience’s sensibility. Sacrificing cleverness for something people will applaud and agree with will never be the most satisfying laugh.

Answer 38

Make a list of your favorite childhood books and authors and try to recall what you loved most about them. Write all those things down, and then brainstorm ways to use that inspiration while avoiding any clichés.

Answer 39

A diary can be a recording of details that make up your days. It can be simple events or facts, especially when you begin. In fact, let yourself start with those things. A diary can train you to write every day and to notice the world around you. Don’t judge what you are putting down or worry about whether it’s good or clever or funny. Recording anything in your diary is enough. Let your diary be the beginning of writing every day—of developing habits that will sustain the compulsion to write. But don’t read what you’ve written at first. Don’t review it. David sees his diary as a warm-up exercise in the same way a musician might play simple scales ahead of a more complex piece.

Answer 40

• Say yes to every invitation to read. • Always read something new—don’t hop from open mic to open mic with the same piece. (Chances are some of the same audience members will be there, and you don’t want to bore them.) • Don’t let the audience see how many pages you have, and don’t announce how many poems or essays you’re about to read. • Don’t go over your allotted time. • Dress up for the occasion

Answer 41

Every story decision you make puts you on a path, and the choices for your characters will narrow as the story draws to its conclusion. Let’s say you begin a novel with Richard hoping to go to outer space. At this point, your novel could be about a number of things. Perhaps Richard falls in love and discovers that marriage is more important to him. Maybe he gets injured and puts his dreams of space exploration away. Maybe he joins the air force and goes to war instead. In the beginning there are a vast number of forking paths. But as the novel progresses, it should become clearer in the reader’s mind not only what climax your protagonist must reach but how that climax will probably occur. If you spend 200 pages following Richard through training to become an astronaut, then the reader will be expecting him to get on a rocket—or tragically fail at his quest. Crucially, this resolution is the only climax that will satisfy the audience. The climax does not have to mean fireworks, but it does have to mean a profound change, either for your protagonist or for their world. Whatever that change is, you’ve been building the whole story toward this moment. You’ve been making a promise to the reader that this conflict would eventually occur—and get resolved—and good storytelling will deliver on its promises. In his book, How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Stepby-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling (1987), James Frey describes the crucible effect, which is when an environment or situation becomes inescapable for your characters and forces them toward a story’s climax. This crucible usually comes about as a result of a character’s decisions, which is a result of the pressures put upon them. Not every story will have a crucible, but most of them do. For example, in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954), what if Frodo had decided not to bring the ring to Mordor? Tolkien spends a great deal of time showing that Frodo is the only one who can carry the ring, and suggesting what might happen if he fails. All of this work creates the crucible effect for Frodo, making him (and the reader) feel that he has no choice but to reach Mordor, no matter what it might cost him.

Answer 42

This is the most common way to raise interest. When your character is driving frantically down a dirt road in a Winnebago wearing nothing but his underwear and a gas mask, your audience is going to have questions.

Answer 43

No matter what type of story you’re telling, suspense is a valuable tool for keeping a reader’s attention and interest. Suspense involves raising a major dramatic question that the reader wants answered. It is usually based on a character’s desire, and if it is not answered by the end of the book, the story will not feel complete for the reader. For example, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954) is driven by the reader wanting to know: Will Frodo be able to return the ring to Mordor and defeat Sauron? Multiple subplots engage the reader throughout the book, but this is the central storyline that touches all the others. This “What’s Going to Happen?” game drives any story forward. There is an implicit promise that you will answer the questions (at varying paces), but in order to sustain interest, you must continue to raise questions.

Answer 44

As you saw in Chapter 10: Character Case Study, painting pictures in light brushstrokes can be evocative because you’re asking the reader to do the work of imagining.

Answer 45

Write Everyday ``` David wrote every day for 15 years before his first book was published. You don’t need to have a particular story to tell. You don’t have to be special or important. Your experience doesn’t have to be unique. You just have to be compelled to write, and you have to write every day. If David wasn’t published and selling books, he would still be putting pen to paper every day because he is obsessed with the act of writing itself. You have to write because you can’t not write. ```

Answer 46

“Each story has its own voice. But the attitude, the soul, the thing you take away from it, hopefully that’s all me. And that can be all you.”

Answer 47

As an independent filmmaker, be open to working with new acting talent. If you’re able to hire a casting director, utilize their resources to help suss out new talent. Good casting directors often have connections to agents and talent, as well as a sharpened eye for choosing the right actors for your project. Several famous folks got their first movie credits with Spike, including Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, Rosie Perez, and Queen Latifah. Spike found Rosie Perez at a dance club in LA. She was dancing on top of a speaker, and when the bouncer told her to get down, she cursed him out— in a Puerto Rican-Brooklyn accent that captivated Spike. He cast her as Mookie’s girlfriend in Do the Right Thing, and made the character Puerto Rican for her.

Answer 48

Forcing yourself to rely on other people is one way to create built-in encounters with strangers. David, for example, has never learned to drive a car. As such, public buses, Ubers, planes, and trains are all opportunities for meetings that can lead to diary entries and essays. These are situations that you don’t choose or orchestrate, but they can lead to a chance connection that you might end up writing about. These fortuitous interactions are part of what makes life worth living for David.

Answer 49

If you’ve reached that chapter where you’re not sure what happens next, take Neil’s advice and write the next thing you know. It may be a scene from six chapters in the future. It may even be the ending, but go ahead and write it. Try writing it in your notebook by hand. Sometimes the physical act of writing can stimulate new thinking. When you’re stuck on a scene, try listing all the characters who are not “onstage” at the moment. Describe briefly what each of those characters is doing offstage. Sometimes brainstorming what the novel’s other characters are up to can trigger fresh ideas for how to proceed.

Answer 50

It’s important to keep a balance between two types of narration: dialogue and exposition. Dialogue refers to the things that characters say, while exposition refers to descriptive narration. If you have a very long section of dialogue, it’s good to insert brief sections of exposition to keep your reader grounded in time and place—and the reverse is true as well, so break up passages of exposition with brief dialogues. Generally, dialogue tends to speed up the pacing of your story, while exposition will slow things down. Pacing means how fast or slow the story is moving for the reader. This is determined by the length of a scene and the speed at which you distribute information to your reader. To prevent the pacing of your story from becoming monotonous, strive for a balance between dialogue and exposition.

Answer 51

Read Chapter 1 of American Gods, and identify the suspense questions being raised. What are you wondering about? What makes you curious to see what happens next? What things are left unsaid? Finally, take a guess at the book’s major dramatic question.

Answer 52

traditionally shows someone’s downfall and is supposed to provoke pity and fear. For much of Western history, this type of story was restricted to powerful and wealthy characters only, but in modern times, tragedy occurs with all sorts of protagonists.

Answer 53

Recognition is a “change from ignorance to knowledge.” This change takes place within the character(s) of the story and can either lead to positive or negative results after the knowledge is attained. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo and his fellow hobbits have never stepped out of the Shire. When they do, they are confronted by darkness and evil. They are forced to gain knowledge from those around them in order to survive. Frodo in particular is taken on the greatest journey as he experiences the worst conditions and the worst evil while tasking himself to destroy the ring once and for all

Answer 54

Two basic types of narration make up exposition. In a scene, you show the characters in action or having a conversation. For the reader, it’s like being in the action. In dramatic narration (or “summary”), you simply describe what the characters did, while the events you’re describing seem to occur offstage. You can think of this as the difference between “showing” and “telling,” and as you saw in Chapter 10: Character Case Study, you should find a balance to both types of prose—one that is suited to you. To keep a balanced pace, it’s good to switch between scene and dramatic narration. Use scenes to speed up the pacing, and be sure to choose the ones that are interesting or necessary. Use dramatic narration when you want to describe things or to move over the less exciting bits.

Answer 55

Make a list of the top ten places you’ve visited and loved. It doesn’t matter what they are, as long as you loved them. Next, make a list of the places you’d like to visit. Then come up with ways to inc

Answer 56

To successfully end an essay with weight or substance, you have to understand the difference between sentimentality and truth. Sentimentality is manipulative and unsurprising. It’s the Hallmark card, the easy words that have always been used to signify certain emotions without actually moving someone into feeling them. Oscar Wilde said, “A sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of emotion without paying for it.” In a similar vein, James Joyce said, “Sentimentality is unearned emotion.” Truth, on the other hand, convicts you to your core.

Answer 57

Quote funny people When the people around you are funny, you can bring them into your work. They know they are being witty, and you are taking them with you into the essay as part of the humor. OCTOBER 18, 2019, GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA The doctor who performed my colonoscopy a few years back came to last night’s show and stood in line to have a book signed. “Do you have to get up early tomorrow morning?” I asked. “At the crack,” he said, which I guess is a common joke among gastroenterologists. MAY 21, 2016, EMERALD ISLE, NORTH CAROLINA Over dinner last night, Amy recalled her sixth grade health teacher, who separated the girls in class one day and asked, “If you were naked and had only a washcloth, which would you cover, your top or your bottom?” Amy’s answer: “I’d cover my face,” is, I think, the best possible response. But still, what a question.

Answer 58

Sometimes the first step in writing a novel is developing your world. This is not just the actual landscape that your characters will inhabit, but the tone of your story, its major preoccupations and themes, as well as the nature of its morality. You will probably not know all of this up front, but setting down the basics will help you start writing. Research plays a vital role in this development, but you’ll also refer to your compost heap and sources of inspiration. Don’t be afraid to borrow details from your own life. Leaning on your personal experience and knowledge of things is one of the keys to crafting believable places. Even the smallest moments can help you visualize a world more clearly, and you may find yourself answering odd questions, like where do your fantasy characters go to the bathroom? Along the way, you and your characters will learn the rules and nature of your world. One part of worldbuilding happens with characters and actions, but a critical part also happens with description. When you’re starting out, don’t limit yourself. Explore your world to its furthest reaches. Only later will you need to edit. Along the way, focus on the memorable details, and keep them grounded in a character’s sensory experience. Everyone probably knows what a tree looks like, so if you’re describing one, tell the reader what makes it different or why it’s important for your characters.

Answer 59

The best directors don’t just tell people what to do. Quite the opposite. This is a job where spontaneity and intuition are just as important as following the script. A good director both commands and surrenders to the moment. Sometimes surrender means trusting the actor and allowing them to lead. For example, in He Got Game, the culminating scene is a high-stakes game of oneon-one between father Jake (Denzel Washington) and son Jesus (Ray Allen). Per Spike’s screenplay, Jesus is supposed to beat Jake single-handedly, 10-0. Unbeknownst to Spike, Washington– a former athlete—decided his character should not and would not lose by so wide a margin. When the cameras started rolling, the Academy Awardwinning actor immediately scored four points on Allen. The son eventually wins the game 10-4, but the father made him work for every point. Spike kept the camera rolling because although Denzel was going off-script, the actor’s instincts were right. The drama was heightened by the close game, which made for a better film. It is important to remember, however, that not all actors are great at improvisation. Spike advises you find out in the rehearsal process who can do what. The artfulness of a director also comes in how you pull a performance out of your actors. In School Daze, which deals with classism and colorism in the Black community, Spike wanted to avoid the camaraderie that often happens with young actors working on location films. To create the tension Spike felt he needed between the movie’s two opposing groups—the Jigaboos and the Wannabees— he housed the actors in different hotels. The fairskinned, weave-wearing Wannabees were put up in a nice hotel; the darker-skinned, natural-haired Jigaboos’ lodgings were not as nice. This roll of the

Answer 60

is often built of the same materials as tragedy but ends on a positive note (usually with a wedding). The genre’s primary interests are to amuse and entertain, but there is a strong tradition of mocking social conventions, institutions, or beliefs in the popular subcategories of parody, satire, and farce.

Answer 61

Don’t build an essay around a laugh All writers become intimately familiar with the phrase “kill your darlings” sooner or later. The idea is that we all have to sacrifice particularly self-indulgent lines or passages for the greater good of the piece. For a humorist, this means that you’ll inevitably have to let a laugh go. You might have crafted a really good line that makes people laugh, but that line alone isn’t enough to carry an entire essay. If you try to work around that one laugh, you will lose the audience before you even get to that line.

Answer 62

``` Let go of perfection Don’t compare yourself to other writers—comparison is the thief of joy. Instead, find a way to be you. You may not write like David or any other writer whose work you admire, but you can find your way to your own best work. Perfection is not the goal. Wanting to be perfect won’t make you perfect, but it could stop you from trying. ```

Answer 63

. Flexibility and preparation are crucial to independent filmmaking. Losing locations is inevitable, so be prepared with a cover set, which is essentially an alternate location. Extra places to film in case of unforeseen circumstances can save your day and keep your shooting schedule and your budget on track.

Answer 64

Humor is another crucial tool in setting the tone. It often involves subverting reader expectations, and so leans heavily on surprise and the unexpected. This requires a basic understanding of cliché and how to twist it around, essentially allowing you to generate a reader expectation and then undermine it. Sometimes words themselves are funny, and just as often, their placement in a sentence can make a difference. While clichés are something most writers try to avoid, it’s important to recognize them. Humor relies in part on twisting a cliché—transforming or undermining it. You do this by setting up an expectation based on the cliché and then providing a surprise outcome. For example: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.” In humor writing, this process is called reforming. You can also reform with structural elements. The whole idea of genre is based on a series of expectations in a story. Genre stories hit those expectations, but attempt to do so in a way that feels fresh—usually with new characters, new settings, or new twists. Sometimes these novel features have a humorous effect. For example, Guy Ritchie’s 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie took a staid, nineteenth-century character and added CGI to make him a Matrix-style fighter, which many audiences found amusing.

Answer 65

Read the ending to David’s essay “The Spirit World.” He achieves a weighted end beautifully by revealing a story about something that happened with his sister Tiffany, the last time he saw her before she committed suicide. He stopped worrying about what people might think of him for writing this and stayed vulnerable and honest, even when it seemed risky. This is gut-wrenching truthfulness, not sentimentality, and it is what you must be brave enough to strive for in your own work. It seems there was a perfectly good explanation for all the butterflies in our Sussex House the previous winter. From what I’d read since Amy brought it up, they flew in through our windows in early autumn. Then passed into a kind of hibernation. Hugh and I were away until right before Christmas and when we returned and cranked up the heat the butterflies, mainly tortoise shells, dozens and dozens of them awoke, wrongly believing that spring had arrived. They were on all the second floor windows, batting against the panes, desperate to get out. As symbols go, they’re a bit too sweet. Right for Lisa, but all wrong for Tiffany, who’d have been better represented by something more dynamic. Crows, maybe. Two big ones flew down the chimney of my office that winter and tore the place apart, systematically overturning and then shitting on everything I cared about. What, I wondered, placing the cucumbers back over my eyes, would my symbol be? The last time I saw my sister Tiffany was at the stage door at Symphony Hall in Boston. I had just finished a show and was getting ready to sign books when I heard her say, “David. David. It’s me.” We hadn’t spoken in four years at that point and I was shocked by her appearance. Tiffany always looked like my mother when she was young; now she looked like my mother when she was old. Though at the time, she couldn’t have been more than 45. “It’s me, Tiffany.” She held up a paper bag with the Starbucks logo on it. Her shoes looked like she’d found them in a trash can. “I have something for you.” There was a security guard holding the stage door open and I said to him, “Will you close that, please?” I had filled the house that night. I was in charge—Mr. Sedaris. “The door,” I repeated. “I’d like for you to close it now.” And so the man did. He shut the door in my sister’s face and I never saw her or spoke to her again. Not when she was evicted from her apartment, not when she was raped, not when she was hospitalized after her first suicide attempt. She was, I told myself, someone else’s problem. I couldn’t deal with her anymore. “Well,” the rest of my family said, “it was Tiffany. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We all know how she can be.” Perhaps like the psychic, they were just telling me what I needed to hear, something to ease my conscience, and make me feel that underneath it all, I

Answer 66

Tell us what your characters look like with just a single unusual detail. The color of a character’s eyes or hair are facts that won’t necessarily define a character memorably. Look for the unique details about that person. Are their nails bitten? Do they cut their own hair (and badly)? Are their teeth perfect? Are their eyebrows over-tweezed?

Answer 67

While building your story, you want to encourage confluence. Go back to your compost heap and read over your entries. See if anything you wrote there makes you think of something else. Perhaps an entry will stir an old memory, or make you think of something that happened to you recently. The connections don’t have to be logical—trust your instincts.

Answer 68

``` “The first place that I start is just with the idea that instead of being paid by the word, I am paying by the word, that the fewer words I can use to tell my story, the better, that compression, that economy, all of these things are good.” ```

Answer 69

Jane Austen: Master of irony and dialogue, Austen’s preoccupation with social divisions, and the witty and insightful tone with which she reveals hypocrisy and parodies people contributed heavily to her voice.

Answer 70

If you’re writing about the real world, get the facts straight. If you’re writing a magical world, stay consistent with the laws of your creation.

Answer 71

“You need to be in the world and you need to be engaged with the world. It’s my job to collect jokes. It’s my job to collect startling images. And so when I’m out in the world, I’m at work. And I’m a professional.”

Answer 72

Keeping the reader grounded in things they recognize is just as important as introducing new and interesting elements.

Answer 73

The end of your story is “that which itself naturally follows some other thing, either by necessity or as a rule, but has nothing following it.” A simple and obvious definition. But he goes on to say that the ending is everything — the most important element of the plot. Without a satisfying ending to your story, the audience that has invested their time and emotions will be left unsatisfied. And offering no closure to the characters and their arcs will leave them wanting more. While that notion is good for cliffhanger films that are building to a potential sequel, there still has to be some form of closure that defines the end. Where audiences can stop, knowing that the end presented “has nothing following it.”

Answer 74

Select a chapter from your work—ideally, your opening chapter—and write down a list of the key questions your reader will have after they’ve read it. What questions have you raised? What will they want to know soon? What are the bigger questions you’re undertaking? These are promises you’re making to a reader. Come back to the these promises at a later time and make sure they’re fulfilled. If you don’t already know your major dramatic question, title a page in your journal “Major Dramatic Question” and answer the following questions: What is your big idea? What social messages lie beneath your topic? What are the highest stakes for the protagonist of your story? What is the primary question you are raising for the reader (i.e. What issue do you promise the reader you’ll resolve by the end of the novel?) You are aiming to find a question that will sum up the main storyline of your novel and will include your main character and their goal. (If you’re writing The Odyssey, that storyline will be: “Will Odysseus ever make it home?”) Once you’ve found this question, write it on a slip of paper and post it near your workspace. You will probably need to refer back to it along the way.

Answer 75

Diary Entry #1: OCTOBER 21, 2019, COLUMBUS, OHIO At last night’s signing I met a woman who’d just taken her family to a haunted house. “A ghost came up from behind us and said to my twelve-year-old-daughter, ‘You smell different when you’re sleeping,’ ” she told me. That is so perfectly creepy. I think that ghost deserves a raise. This diary entry is often part of David’s live shows, where he reads a few pages from his diary on stage. It’s possible it could be linked to something bigger and be part of a full essay at some point in the future, but for now, it stands alone. Diary Entry #2: NOVEMBER 26, 2013, EMERALD ISLE, NORTH CAROLINA Because I’ve accumulated so many miles, they bumped me up on the flight from Atlanta to Raleigh. I thought our plane would be on the small side, but instead, perhaps owing to Thanksgiving and the great number of travelers, it was huge. Usually, first class and coach are separated by only a curtain. But here, there was an entire galley between them. I was seated on the very first row in front of a woman who looked to be in her early sixties and was letting her hair go from dyed red to gray. Shortly after settling in, she started a conversation with the fellow seated beside her. That’s how I learned that she lived in Costa Rica. “It’s on account of my husband,” she said. “He’s military. Well, retired military. Though you never really leave the Marine Corps, do you?” She started explaining how she went from North Carolina to Central America. But then the flight attendant came to take a drink order from the guy beside me and I missed it. Just as I was tuning back in, a man across the aisle tried to open his overhead bin. It was stuck for some reason. And he pounded on it, saying to whoever would listen, “This is like Obamacare. Broken.” Several of the passengers around me laughed. And I noted their faces. Vowing that in the event of a crisis, I would not help lead them to an emergency exit. You people are on your own, I thought. Knowing that if we did go down, it would probably be one of them who’d save me. Not that Republicans are braver or more clear-headed in times of crisis than Democrats. Rather, it’s just my luck. After taking off from Atlanta, I pulled out my Japanese notebook. Pretending to study, but actually listening to the woman behind me who continued to talk throughout the entire flight. “And of course the cost of living is practically nothing compared to what it is here in the States—not that I don’t miss anything.” I guess she was drinking just as steadily as she was talking. Or maybe she’d gotten a head start during her layover. She didn’t sound drunk exactly, but just shy of it. Loud and adamant. As if the person she was talking to wasn’t listening correctly. “I’m not saying I’ll spend the rest of my life there. That’s not what I meant at all. Well, what’s the rush as long as we’re having fun, right?” It was dark by the time we landed in Raleigh. And as we taxied to the gate, one of the flight attendants made an announcement. The remain-seated-until-the-fasten-seatbelt-sign-has-been-turned-off part was to be expected. But then she added that we had some very special passengers on board. Oh no, I thought. Please don’t embarrass me. I was just wondering who the other important person might be when she said, “With us today is the outstanding soccer team from Green Hope High School in Cary, North Carolina.” The woman behind me applauded loudly. Cheering as she did. And when no one joined her, she raised her voice, shouting, “You people are assholes. I mean, what the hell? You can’t even clap for a bunch of teenagers.” 19 I meant to applaud, but figured the team was back in coach. They wouldn’t have heard me one way or the other, so what difference did it make? “Pathetic,” the woman spat, sounding a little crazy now. “Too wrapped up in your smartphones and iPads to congratulate a team of high school athletes.” And you couldn’t say she hadn’t nailed us. Still, I had to bite my hand to keep from laughing. It’s so funny to be called an asshole by someone who doesn’t know you, but then again, knows you so perfectly. This entry from David’s diary is also something he’s read on stage. He considered fleshing out the details to make it into a longer piece, but it isn’t details alone that build an essay. Once he began turning the piece into an essay, he found that the story moved away from the plane incident and toward meeting his family at their beach house after landing. As David wrote, he ended up surprising himself by finding that the essay veered toward the toxicology report that the family had recently received about his sister’s suicide. The vignette became an essay called “A House Divided,” which you can read in Calypso. If you allow yourself to sit with and reflect on the things you write in your diary, you’ll start to see ways that isolated moments might add up to something larger and fuller and more suitable for the foundation of an essay.

Answer 76

Her highly descriptive style is inspired by her love for poetry, myth, folklore, and the fantastic, and she weaves these elements into greater themes of power, feminism, and technology to produce a distinctly trenchant voice.

Answer 77

One of the voices most writers try to avoid is “writerly” voice, which is an attempt to sound literary that can come off as overwritten. This voice involves unnaturally complex sentence structures, too many adjectives or rare words, and lengthy, unnecessary descriptions. Unless a specific character is in fact pompous and views the world that way, work instead to develop your own voice. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, no matter how quirky you are. Writing is one of the places where your weirdness is welcome.

Answer 78

Once you’re happy with your draft, do a line edit. This is not as deep as a regular edit. Here you’ll just be looking at language, formatting, and style. One good technique is to identify problem areas that you’d like to improve, then mark all of those areas with a colored highlighter. Set a goal for yourself to get the entire manuscript back to colorless. Look especially for sections where the writing seems different—maybe it’s too sloppy, or something is overwritten—or sequences where someone acted out of character. Search for sections that are too heavy on dialogue, or too dense with exposition, and try to balance them out. Let your

Answer 79

Dedicate a notebook to your film. Jot down all the ideas that come to your mind— characters, dialogue, plot twists, backstory, and the like. Continue to keep your notebook, jotting down ideas as they come to mind. • When your notebook is full, transfer the information onto index cards. • Then organize the index cards in the order that you can visualize your story unfolding. • Begin writing your script with these index cards as a roadmap. • Create a realistic writing schedule for your film, setting aside a certain number of hours per day or week to write. During that time, eliminate distractions—especially your cell phone.

Answer 80

“Everything that happens in the living is going to wind up in the fiction….You are going to need every human being you ever meet.”

Answer 81

An essay or a story is more and does more than a short slice of life. A story includes a struggle that the listener relates to and becomes invested in. A story creates deeper involvement and engages multiple emotions. And a story includes closure for the reader.

Answer 82

In any story, something of consequence is at stake for your main character. It could be as large as saving the universe, or as small as keeping your family together. Make sure that you give a clear picture of this to your reader. It doesn’t matter what the stakes are, as long as they’re high for your characters.

Answer 83

Create a lookbook for your film. If you want to be analogue, go through magazines and books and tear out photos of what you’re drawn to and how you want your film to feel. To go digital, consider using Google Slides, Evernote, or Pinterest. These visual references will greatly inform what you want your story to look like and be of tremendous help in describing the vision to a prospective DP.

Answer 84

Portray yourself with honesty When you’re writing a scene in which you’re a main character, deploy one of David’s most trusty humor tools: being harder on yourself than any other character in the story. When you make yourself a relatable character, your reader will feel connected to you. Let go of thinking about how you come across and just try to be honest—learning how to laugh at yourself is crucial.

Answer 85

— Be prepared to pitch your film to actors. Are you able to tell them what your film is about in two minutes? Rehearse your pitch over and over, so that when opportunity knocks, you’ll be ready. — As an independent filmmaker, there may be times in which you can’t afford to hold a rehearsal for your actors, but you need to build relationships and shared history between characters. Once you’ve cast your actors, you can ask them to write letters to each other in character. You can leave this open-ended or give them prompts to inform their letter writing.

Answer 86

Step away from the work and do something else for a while. • Return to your project and give it a fresh read. Pretend you’ve never read it before. Start at the beginning and read it through. This can make it obvious where you’ve gone off track. • Remember that your problem usually starts earlier than the place where you’re stuck. Backtrack from that place to find a scene or a story decision that feels off. • Listen to your characters. Don’t impose your previous plans on them. It’s a good idea to free-write a conversation with your character. Ask them what they need and listen to what they say. • It can be helpful to create a deadline for yourself. Time pressure can create focus and can force you to make decisions that you may be avoiding. • If you still can’t get past your block, write the next thing you know in your story. It may happen five chapters ahead of where you are, but you can bridge that distance later. Just write.

Answer 87

Most genres will have a “stock” lead character. A crime drama has an investigator, usually someone gritty, flawed, but eager to see justice done. The type of protagonist: Most genres will have a “stock” lead character. A crime drama has an investigator, usually someone gritty, flawed, but eager to see justice done. Your antagonist: Genre will often determine how badly your bad guy acts. A mystery villain may want to murder a single person, but a thriller antagonist is usually plotting to wipe out the human race. Secondary characters: This category includes anything from prominent sidekicks to unnamed minor characters. In high fantasy, for example, readers will be expecting elderly, magical helpers, while in crime dramas, a sidekick is often a flat character. Tone: Readers associate certain moods with certain types of stories. Thrillers tend to be dark and engrossing, they very seldom include comedic elements. The set-up: Most genres begin with expected set-up scenes. In romance, you meet the two lovers, often separately. In action adventure, you meet a hero in the midst of doing something physically demanding or heroic. The catalyst: Early in most stories, a powerful change will initiate the main conflict for your protagonist. In horror, an innocent family might move into a haunted house. The resolution: The details of your story’s climax will depend on your story elements, but genre will often determine whether that climax turns out well for your characters.

Answer 88

Famous for simplicity of language and a dry wit, his voice has intelligence and a strong sense of decency that comes from his concerns with social equality. (His essay "How to Write With Style" offers sound advice for any writer.)

Answer 89

In “October Tale”, Neil began with the conventions of a fairy tale, the jinni in a lamp. Readers expect a few things from this type of story: that the jinni will grant a wish, and that whatever a person wishes for will turn out badly for them or teach them a valuable moral lesson. Instead, he undermined that expectation when Hazel chooses not to wish for anything.Another thing readers expect from the jinni-in-the-lamp tale is that the jinni, who has been cooped up for thousands of years, wants freedom. At the beginning of the story, Neil’s jinni gets free from the dusty confines of the lamp, but his future is in question: will he remain free from the curse that put him in the lamp in the first place? The readers want to know what becomes of this enslaved being, but instead of having him break free of his magical chains, he finds love with Hazel. This love is unexpected but manages to satisfy the reader’s concerns about the jinni’s happiness.

Answer 90

The middle of your story is “that which follows something as some other thing follows it.” That passage is a brilliant simplification of the second act. Some stories have a call to adventure while others merely present conflicts that characters must either act on or suffer the consequences. Regardless, the second act showcases the character following — or retreating from — whatever is presented at the end of the first act

Answer 91

Your hero might be fighting an impossible beast, but | everyone will be able to relate to their fear.

Answer 92

Before Spike writes a word of his script, he takes into consideration how much money he can raise to make the movie. He writes his scripts with that in mind. If you write a script that you can’t realistically shoot at this moment, shelve it until you can raise the money needed to make it. Or, be ready to make compromises that will allow you to make the film for a realistic amount of money. As an independent filmmaker, you’ll probably have to make your budget yourself. To figure out how to best spend the money that you have, seek out copies of budgets from other directors who have made movies for an amount of money similar to what you can raise.

Answer 93

Lyrical, spoken style of voice, borrowing heavily from the dialects of her life and experiences. Read Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and you can hear the church hymns she grew up with in the rhythms of her sentences.

Answer 94

``` Big mistake when you choose your DP based on a reel. Anybody can put together a one minute sizzle reel. Look at something they shot that has length to it ```

Answer 95

If writing is rewriting, then editing is surely a crucial component in shaping the story of a film. Think of it like putting together the pieces of a puzzle or chipping away at a sculpture until the true shape of the work emerges. Spike’s movies are layered and never about one single thing, what he calls a “mixtape.” A good editor can ensure your main story remains the main story and doesn’t get too overwhelmed by subplots. The edit room is also where you can uncover improvised moments that were not scripted or planned, but prove to be hidden gems. Be resourceful in the edit to incorporate these surprises. Spike works closely with his editors throughout the production process, in particular his longtime collaborator Barry Alexander Brown a.k.a. “The Cut Creator.” For Spike, the editing process doesn’t begin after he wraps the film. The process is happening simultaneously. Spike shows his editor the dailies (raw footage shot daily) and gives him notes on what works and does not. The editor then begins cutting the film, showing Spike completed scenes while the film is still in production. This process can be essential when preparing for an early screening. Seeing an early version of your film on the big screen can also help you better see what’s missing or where to trim the fat. Hire an experienced editor, someone

Answer 96

Change point of view: Choose an alternate character to retell a familiar story. In the novel Foe (1986), J.M. Coetzee narrates the tale of Robinson Crusoe from the point of view of Susan Barton, a castaway who washed up on the island in the middle of Crusoe’s adventures. Modernize themes: A lot of classic tales get a gender-based upgrade, where an author will delve into a female character’s head from a more modern perspective. Margaret Atwood’s novella The Penelopiad (2005) revisits Homer's Odyssey through the eyes of Penelope and her chorus of twelve maids. Switch a story element: This could mean taking a story to a new location—Cinder (2012) by Marissa Meyer re-imagines Cinderella as a cyborg in Beijing— or changing the type of story—In The Snow Queen (1980), Joan D. Vinge turns Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale into a space opera. Make it yours: Take a familiar story and add in a bit of your own background or experience. Mario Puzo did this with panache in The Godfather (1969), bringing elements of Shakespeare’s Henry IV to the world he knew well: Italian immigrants in post-war America.

Answer 97

Surprise the reader. Twist a cliché or undermine any expectation you’ve set up. • Put your funny expressions at the end of a sentence. Humor is often a release of tension, so the sentence builds that tension, and the pay-off happens most naturally at the end. • Use contrast. Are your characters in a terrifying situation? Add something light, like a man obsessing about his briefcase instead of the T-Rex looming behind him. • Find funny words. Some words are just funnier than others, so make a list of those that amuse you the most. • Figgin—a story element that promises to be something horrible or disgusting but which turns out to be humorous, and yet later has a pay-off, or a moment where the item becomes important to the plot. • Sherbet lemon—minor details you put in a text to make the reader smile. These small pulses are in the text just for humor; they don’t necessarily have a pay-off later

Answer 98

• Describe your characters through their actions. How do they move in the world? If they’re running, how do they run? How do they stand? Where do they go in a crowded room at a party? Are they messy eaters? How do they speak to children? Would they ever pet a strange dog? What would they order in a restaurant? Do they cross their legs every time they sit down? Use an old glove to pump gas into their car because of a fear of germs? Do they knock on wood?

Answer 99

Being stuck is the perfect time to dive deep into story structure. Learning about the basic structures that underlie most stories will often give you the tools you need to carry on, and they will most likely save you from numerous rewrites later. Common wisdom holds that there are two types of writers. Plotters are those who meticulously outline every book before they write it, and pantsers are those who fly by the seat of their pants, setting off into a novel without a clear map. There are benefits to both styles, and both types can get stuck at any point in their writing. For plotters, problems arise when their characters decide to do something they weren’t expecting. It can be difficult to accept that your story isn’t what you thought it would be, and there’s often a tendency to force your way forward. Pantsers incline toward a different problem: they get lost, usually in the middle section of their work, because they haven’t got a clear enough idea of where they’re going. Plotters will benefit from a re-thinking of their story structure, and pantsers will often benefit by building some of the architecture their story needs.

Answer 100

Maybe back in college you had to write an essay and identify your controlling idea, the main argument you were making. The same phrase is used in storytelling to describe the message that resonates with readers at the climax of your novel. It can be positive or negative or even ironic, and it will come from you and your beliefs about the world. For a full discussion of controlling ideas see Robert McKee’s chapter “Structure and Meaning” in Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (1997). McKee argues that endings come in three forms: “up” endings express optimism, “down” endings are pessimistic, and ironic endings express “life at its most complete and realistic.” Like Neil, he believes you have one responsibility with your controlling idea, and that is to tell the truth. Once you find out what your controlling idea is (see the writing exercise for your novel below) and you find you don’t agree with it, toss it out and start again with something honest

Answer 101

When you’re finally ready to go back to your manuscript, there are certain things you can do to maximize your editing strength. Pretend to be a reader. Be someone else entirely— your best friend, your ideal audience member—but read your book trying to imagine how they will see it. Take notes on your re-read. It’s good practice to print out a hard copy of your manuscript and read it on paper (as most readers eventually will). This not only gives you space to take notes on problem areas, it makes a mysterious difference in how you read stories. Ask what your story is about. In Chapter 5: Developing the Story, you saw that the major dramatic question usually involved the main character’s primary desire. This will often be the driving force in your story. For help determining what your story is about, go to the Writing Assignments below to create a logline for your novel.

Answer 102

Finding other writers and writing events in your community can make the writer’s life feel a lot less lonely. If you’re not sure where to start with public readings, try looking up your favorite writers and seeing if they’ll be doing a reading at a bookstore near you anytime soon. Local bookstores, and particularly independent bookstores, have a calendar of events each month, from author readings and signings to open mics and panels. If you live near a college or university, check their events page to see if any writers will be swinging through.

Answer 103

I n fiction there are two types of characters—flat and round. A flat character is easy to spot. They only have one or two characteristics that are relevant to the story. A round character has more complexity. The biggest difference between these two types of characters is how much the reader understands of their motivations. Round characters are simply those whose motivations you choose to develop more lavishly in your writing. While developing a round character’s desires, keep the following points in mind

Answer 104

Choose a folk tale or fairy tale that you know well. Select one of the characters from the story for the following exercise and write a few pages about them, using one of the following prompts: • Pretend you’re a therapist treating the character. Write a scene in which you discuss the character’s life and problems, then arrive at a diagnosis. • Write a newspaper article describing the events of the story. For example, Snow White—Woman Hiding in Woods for Ten Years Found by Wealthy Hiker. Then write a story for that headline using journalistic objectivity. • Have your character explain their actions to a jury.

Answer 105

. No matter what kind of artistic skills you have, actually drawing your own world can make it more familiar and trigger fresh insights and ideas

Answer 106

While each writer has their own voice, sometimes a story demands a voice of its own, called a persona, which is different from the writer’s voice. The persona is the voice that tells the story and can be any narrative point of view from an omniscient, third person to a close first person. You will generally find the persona for a story in the same way you develop a setting or characters. Neil gives three examples of persona in his works: • The “American transparent” in American Gods— common among many authors, this style is so basic that the author seems invisible. If style is made up of “the things you get wrong,” then this style is technically perfect, clean, and conservative. It serves the purpose of keeping the focus on the story so that you might even forget that someone is telling a story. • The old-fashioned “formal” voice in Stardust—any writing style with syntax or vocabulary borrowed from an earlier time period. Very often, premodern ways of speaking or writing feel stilted to a modern ear, and this style uses that quality, often to take you back to a historical moment or to a different world. • The cicerone in The Ocean at the End of the Lane— this persona is informal, close, and often not very literary. This style can mimic the feeling of being with an actual person who is explaining their story to you.

Answer 107

Attack wordiness: see how much you can cut and still retain the original meaning and tone. • Fine-tune your language by using select sentence fragments—“Sounds great” is more natural than “That sounds great.” • Use contractions when possible—“we’ll go together” is more comfortable than “we will go together.” • Trim excess filler words, like “uh” and “well.” • Remember it’s unusual for people to call each other by name, so police those areas where your characters call each other by name. • Also, not everything has to be verbal—body language is a real-life communication tool. Instead of having your character shout “I hate you!”, show them kick a chair. • If your dialogue starts to feel repetitive, put your characters in motion—walking, driving, or distracted by their environment.

Answer 108

Choose a page or scene from your work-in-progress and analyze it for verisimilitude by answering the following questions: Are your descriptive details specific? Can you make them sensory? Is your character’s behavior in line with their personality? Do their responses make sense for them? Can you fact-check anything? If so, do it now

Answer 109

In your journal, begin creating a compost heap. Title a page “Compost Heap” and write down the things that have captured your attention in the past week or month. These may become the source motivators of your writing, maybe of your career. Any writing project is an undertaking, and novels in particular, because they take so long to write, will require a sustained interest, so be sure to fill this page with your truth: What interests you? This can be anything: a word, a movie, a person, an event, so long as it inspired you. It can be subjects (cactus species, muscle cars, a voyage to Mars) or people/types of people (therapists, spies, your Aunt Germaine). Try to include things from other arts—for example, foods, music, or movies. In the beginning, make a practice of sitting down at least once a day to note things that interest you.

Answer 110

Our writing will develop its own style and personality, or your writer’s voice. It is the sum of all the elements of your work that would make it possible for someone to pick up a page of text and recognize that you wrote it. It is not necessarily your speaking voice, rather it’s the voice that comes through on the page. On a technical level, it is composed of the choices you make regarding emotional tone, characters, settings, and the textual rhythms of your language like diction, sentence structure, and even punctuation. The sum effect of these things will be unique to you and will reveal your personality and attitude to your audience.

Answer 111

Aristotle listed character as secondary to plot because “character determines man’s qualities, but it is by their action that they are happy or the reverse.” Thus, character comes in as subsidiary to the actions or plot. Without a compelling plot, there is no action or reaction that will create a compelling character. “Character is that which reveals moral purpose showing what kinds of things a man chooses or avoids.” Despite being listed as secondary to plot, characters are crucial to the development of the story. If readers and audiences aren’t compassionate for the main characters, the plot won’t matter. And if they’re not meant to be compassionate for them — which can be the case for biopics and anti-hero stories — they must still be engaged by the character. Either by intrigue, curiosity, or the pure entertainment of seeing a character do what normal humans can’t, won’t, or shouldn’t. He also lists four things that should be aimed at in regards to character. Mind you, upon review of his text, he does list some dated concepts which point to the inferiority of women and how female characters should be void of valor as it is “inappropriate.” Even the greatest minds have their own flaws — even if it was a sign of the times and culture. Two words — Wonder Woman.

Answer 112

Using the “lie” of a made-up story to reach a human truth is one of the central tools of literature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge explained that in order to sink into and enjoy a story, an audience must have “poetic faith”—meaning that they must be willing to accept that the story they are hearing is a facsimile of reality. In order to encourage a reader’s “willing suspension of disbelief,” writers strive for verisimilitude. (Today, Stephen Colbert would call this “truthiness.”) The goal is to be credible and convincing. This can be of a cultural type—a book that portrays the real world is said to have cultural verisimilitude—or of the genre type—a fantasy that portrays an imaginary world with enough internal consistency that it feels real is said to have generic verisimilitude. It doesn’t matter how outlandish the world of your story is, it should feel real to the reader.

Answer 113

When making Malcolm X, Spike knew it would take more than two hours to tell the epic life story of the assassinated Muslim leader and human rights activist. He also knew he wasn’t going to have the money to finish the film. When the crew inevitably ran out of funds and the studio stopped production, Spike asked prominent, wealthy members of the Black community for donations to help him get the film made. Early screenings of the film, combined with the heavily publicized financial support, convinced Warner Brothers to restart production. Spike even put his fee for making the film back into the budget. Spike’s story is a reminder that no matter how established you are, or how big of a studio is funding your film, you may still have to pound the pavement to raise more money.

Answer 114

Aristotle defines Thought as “the faculty of saying what is possible or pertinent in given circumstances.” This is perhaps the most difficult element to interpret. Some point to it as theme. He goes on to say that “thought is found where something is proven to be or not to be.” One could argue that Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan questioned the theme of the glory of war that had been showcased in most World War II movies before it. His film clearly proved that no, there is no glory in war — just horror. However, immense bravery and greatness can be found within the confines of that horror

Answer 115

• Motivation is revealed in the choices someone makes. The harder the choices, the more possibility you have to reveal the character’s deepest nature. • In choosing between good and evil, people will always choose what they perceive to be good. You must know your character’s mind in order to understand their beliefs and how they will justify their actions—even the cruel ones. • Conflict is essential for developing character. If nothing is at stake, then a person’s choices don’t matter very much, and the audience will begin to lose interest. • Ideally, your story should increase the conflict for your character, so that their choices and responses evolve throughout.

Answer 116

A popular adage for research is that worldbuilding should be like an iceberg—90 percent of what you learn or know will remain beneath the surface, only 10 percent should make it onto the page. Often, it will only take a few small details to convince your reader of the credibility of your world. For example, in The Martian Chronicles (1950), Ray Bradbury introduces a quiet night in a colony on Mars, where “here or there a late supper was prepared in tables where lava bubbled silvery and hushed.” Bradbury doesn’t explain why lava is silver on Mars, or why it bubbles near tables, but his confidence with this intriguing detail suggests to readers that he knows his world extremely well.

Answer 117

: If something isn’t right in your world, let your characters notice that it isn’t right for them either. Most of the time, truthiness is not something to strive for, but in fiction it serves a higher purpose of conveying emotional truths to your reader in a way that will entertain them, help them through difficult times, make them think differently about the world, or even change their lives. To understand more about verisimilitude, study the counterfactual genre. These books tackle “what if” questions, such as “What if Hitler had won the war?” They set their stories in a familiar reality that is twisted in some meaningful way, coupling the familiar and unfamiliar. The following books provide examples of how writers can finely balance reality and imagination, and transport their readers to amazingly believable worlds

Answer 118

Put yourself down Be harder on yourself than you are on anyone else in a story. NOVEMBER 13, 2015, SPOKANE, WASHINGTON I was in a murderous temper yesterday. Part of it was lack of sleep, part was general tour fatigue, and part was left over from the night before, when the producers in Olympia stuck me in a sweltering black box for my book signing. Adam was supposed to collect me in Spokane at around noon but his flight from O’Hare to Denver was cancelled, so instead he sent a car service to pick me up. The driver, a plump woman in her early thirties, met me at the baggage claim, and when she asked how my flight was, I knew it was going to be a long ride. It’s not her fault, but I’ve had it with small talk. The same lines day after day. I just can’t do it anymore. I never caught her name, this woman. She wore a flat topped cap, and a hideous tan colored dress that looked like she’d made it herself in the dark. On her left shin was a tattoo that was maybe four inches tall and looked freshly done. “What is it, exactly?” I asked. “Well, an anchor, obviously, surrounded by some scripture.” “Hmmm,” I said. She smiled. “I see you didn’t bring the sunshine with you!” I gritted my teeth and was quiet until we got into her car, a big S.U.V that smelled like a Yankee Candle shop. “Do you sew?” I asked as we headed into town. “Me? Gosh no,” she said. “But that’s a funny question.” I stayed at The Davenport. “How’s your day going?” the check-in clerk said. “I’ve been here before,” was how I answered. “Well welcome back. I wish you’d brought us some sunshine!” I moaned. This morning at breakfast I was escorted to a table by a beautiful young hostess. “How are you?” she asked. I said nothing. “How are you?” The third time she asked, I told her that I was no longer answering that question. “It’s just not important,” I said. She gave me the look a person does when they work in the service industry and need to tell someone, as subtly as possible, that he or she is being an asshole. I returned her look with one of my own that said, “Actually, you’re the asshole.” She walked away and as I lowered my napkin to my lap I noticed that my fly was down. Of course, I thought. Adam was originally going to drive me to the airport at 8:20 this morning, but instead he changed his flight, so I took a car driven by the same woman I had yesterday. “How was your stay?” she asked. “Okay.” “How was the show?” “Fine.” We were silent for a few minutes, and then I apologized for being in a bad mood. “I think I’ve been on tour too long,” I told her. “I just can’t take the small talk anymore. Here it is, not even eight thirty and I’ve already been asked how I am six times.” She nodded. “It’s just a lazy question,” I said. “Why not ask, I don’t know, ‘Have you ever donated bone marrow?’ or ‘What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a pair of shoes?’ If the person you ask is in a bad mood it’ll still come back to bite you I suppose. I guess there’s just no way to win.” “I see your point,” the young woman said. “I’m not intellectual like you, so maybe I wouldn’t put it that way, but I understand what you mean.” 8 “I’m not an intellectual,” I said. “Far from it.” We were quiet again, and then I asked what she planned to do for Thanksgiving. “I’m thinking I’ll get one of those kits,” she said. “The kind that has everything in them: the turkey and stuffing and so forth, and then in the day I’ll maybe play football.” “You play football?” I asked. “Just tag,” she said. “Our family does it every year and I got boys.” She seemed so young then. “How many?” “Two,” she said. “One seven and the other eight.” I asked their names and after she told me, and after I had winced, she turned onto the road that led to the Alaska Air terminal. “My husband died nine months ago, so the holidays, they’re hard. I’m not sure if I should do the same things we did last year or try something different, you know?” If she was savvy, she’d say this every time she dropped someone off at the airport. It’s what I’d do—claim my husband just died and rake in the tips— but she wasn’t like me. She wasn’t a snob or a grump, just a young widow in an ugly dress who has two children and is trying to put one foot in front of the other. God, do I feel like an asshole.

Answer 119

Writer’s block is often an overwhelming feeling of being stuck. You’ve written part of a novel, maybe you’ve even finished an outline, but you just can’t move forward. Every time you sit down at your desk, your mind goes blank, or you can’t decide what to do next. This experience is common among writers, and there are ample tools for working through it. First, take a break from the work. Do something else for a while, and return a few days (or week, or months) later to view your draft with a fresh eye. Usually, your problems come from an earlier decision you made in the manuscript, so backtrack and look for any part that feels off.

Answer 120

You’ll probably recognize most clichéd phrases—by definition, they’re overused and easy to spot. Story clichés are a little less obvious. These involve stock characters, plot tools, and story structures that readers have overdosed on. All clichés are dependent on your age, background, and cultural context. Maybe comic books are remarkably fresh to you the first time you read one, but people who’ve read lots of them will spot clichés more quickly. A trope is a story element that any audience will easily recognize. As Robert McKee points out in Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (1997), “After thousands of years of storytelling, no story is so different that it has no similarity to anything else ever written.” While a trope is an element of storytelling, a cliché is when that element has become overdone. Your storyline may have been done before, but that shouldn’t stop you from doing it. It simply means you’ll have to work harder to make the story feel fresh.

Answer 121

Aristotle points out bad plotting as being “episodic” where episodes or acts succeed one another, but without probable or necessary sequence. He says that bad writers stretch the plot or story beyond capacity, breaking the natural continuity. In short, plots shouldn’t be overly complicated. They can be complex in their themes, but not at the expense of the core plot and characters. As a bonus, Aristotle offered three parts of possible plots that writers can either choose from when plotting out a story or combine them to create an even better one.

Answer 122

Writing ceaselessly is the only way to improve your craft. Everything you write, even if it never leaves the confines of your hard drive or your notebook, is an opportunity to learn more. Each page presents a new opportunity to try something new or to try something you haven’t mastered yet again. Eventually you will build a body of work. Then, stay open, say yes to opportunities, and imagine every one of these opportunities leading you farther down the path.

Answer 123

A large part of real-life dialogue is non-verbal, and these cues make their way into fiction through the use of stage direction, which is any textual reference to the physical movement of the speakers. The term is borrowed from theater, where such directions are necessary tools to help actors and directors envision the physical set-up of a play. In fiction, stage directions can often do just as much as dialogue to convey a character’s mood, frame of mind, or responses. They are highlighted in the sample below. Scott came into the room and glanced at the paper. “They misspelled ‘corpse’,” he said, grabbing an English muffin and shoving half of it into his mouth. “It’s not corpse,” Leah said. “C-O-R-P is short for ‘corporal.’” She was only eleven, and for that Scott gave her a smack on the back of the head. “Hey!” she cried. Dad lowered the paper and gave Scott a warning look.

Answer 124

In your journal, write a list of the main character’s most important desires. Beside each item, write down the things that stand in the way of your character attaining their desire. Consider especially how other people stand in their way. Repeat this exercise for all of your protagonists, if you have more than one. Once you’ve decided on your character’s main desires, begin to create an outline of those desires through your story. This is called a throughline. Find each instance in your story (or make them up now) when your character either reveals their desire, gets thwarted in attaining it, or changes their desire. Write each scene on a separate index card or slip of paper and arrange the cards in order. Look over the structure and ask yourself: Is this progression working? Where does it get stuck or seem to lag? Is there anything I can do to make it have more impact? Rearrange the cards and experiment with new scene ideas until you are satisfied.

Answer 125

In “The Perfect Fit,” an essay he wrote for a 2016 issue of The New Yorker, David gives you an inside look at his shopping sensibilities: Normally in Tokyo we rent an apartment and stay for a week. This time, though, we got a whole house. The neighborhood it was in—Ebisu—is home to one of our favorite shops, Kapital. The clothes they sell are new but appear to have been previously worn, perhaps by someone who was shot or stabbed and then thrown off a boat. Everything looks as if it had been pulled from the evidence rack at a murder trial. I don’t know how they do it. Most distressed clothing looks fake, but not theirs, for some reason. Do they put it in a dryer with broken glass and rusty steak knives? Do they drag it behind a tank over a still-smoldering battlefield? How do they get the cuts and stains so . . . right? If I had to use one word to describe Kapital’s clothing, I’d be torn between “wrong” and “tragic.” A shirt might look normal enough until you try it on, and discover that the armholes have been moved, and are no longer level with your shoulders, like a capital “T,” but farther down your torso, like a lowercase one. Jackets with patches on them might senselessly bunch at your left hip, or maybe they poof out at the small of your back, where for no good reason there’s a pocket. I’ve yet to see a pair of Kapital trousers with a single leg hole, but that doesn’t mean the designers haven’t already done it. Their motto seems to be “Why not?” And later in the essay, after a week of shopping, David describes his family at lunch: One afternoon toward the end of our vacation, settling into our seats at a tempura restaurant in Shibuya, I looked across the table at Amy, who was wearing a varsity sweater from Kapital that looked to have bloodstains and bits of brain on it, and at Gretchen, with her toilet-brush hat on. I was debuting a shirt that fell three inches below my knees. It was black and made me look like a hand puppet. We don’t have the same eyes or noses, my sisters and I. Our hairlines are different, and so are the shapes of our faces, but on this particular afternoon the family resemblance was striking. Anyone could tell that we were related, even someone from another planet who believed that humans were as indistinguishable from one another as acorns. At this particular moment in our lives, no one belonged together more than us.

Answer 126

In terms of developing characters, Neil practices a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, you should listen to and trust your characters. You’ll need to know what they want, and be flexible enough to accept that their wants might change, and that your novel may take on new dimensions or move in directions that you weren’t expecting. On the other hand, you should also research characters. Go out and meet people to feed the compost heap that helps develop your cast. Being a good writer is knowing the times when you are being called upon to imagine, and when you need to immerse yourself in new things.

Answer 127

Writing is often described as a solitary pursuit—but it doesn’t have to be. Going to author readings as well as finding places to read your own work is an extremely important part of the writing process. If reading your work in front of strangers sounds too intimidating for the time being, consider joining a writing group or starting one yourself with a few writerly friends. Use the group as a space to read aloud, give (and receive) critical feedback, and expand your craft.

Answer 128

You can make up an underground tunnel that doesn’t exist, but if you describe the smell of sewage and the persistent dripping of water, you draw your reader into a concrete experience that contributes to the sense of reality.

Answer 129

While it’s true that having the right actor attached to your film can help get the project financed, as an upstart director, you may not have the connections to get a script into the right hands. In the event you meet an actor on the fly, have a 30 second pitch for your film already prepared. “You really can’t be shy,” Spike says. On the flipside, if you don’t get your first choice actor for a role—especially if it’s a big star—don’t despair. Oftentimes a lesser-known actor will surprise you—and it will work out for the better. Spike cast Topher Grace in BlacKkKlansman at the urging of his longtime agent. Even though Spike was skeptical at first, Grace proved himself to be a great fit for the role. Spike encourages you to be open to letting the actors make what you wrote better—take your ego out of it and give them at least one take to try it their way. Finally, when you have a strong instinct about someone being right for the role—like Spike did with John David Washington—follow your gut. Even if it’s risky.

Answer 130

Ideally, your characters will be distinct enough to be memorable, but for all those minor characters who are emerging in your novel, it’s good practice to provide hints that will help the reader distinguish who each character is, so they can remember their various story arcs. Neil often gives his secondary characters a quirk to make them unique and memorable—and thus easily recognizable. He calls these traits funny hats and they include: Physical quirks: In Neverwhere, Old Bailey wears a coat of feathers. Verbal style: Mr. Croup is characterized by his loquaciousness. A memorable name: If it feels right, move your character out of “Jill” territory and into something different: Lady Door Portico. Extended metaphor: Richard Mayhew thinks Mr. Croup is fox-like, and this imagery recurs throughout the novel. Past event: Sometimes a minor character is bestknown by a single life event, such as “the girl whose family died” or “the widower.”

Answer 131

When he’s developing characters, Neil doesn’t make lists of personality traits. He approaches character by listening to the way people speak and to what they say, and his characters emerge from the content of their speech. Dialogue serves the triple purpose of revealing character, advancing plot lines, and providing entertainment. Neil’s years as a journalist gave him experience listening to people talk. In transcribing quotes, he learned both to be attentive to the styles and rhythms of individual speakers as well as the skill of rendering natural speech into its more formal, written counterpart: textual dialogue. People don’t speak in real life like they do on the page, so there’s an art to writing speech to make it feel real. One of its important tools is compression. By trimming down your characters’ speech (unless they’re loquacious, like Mr. Croup), you can convey realistic sounds without dulling the reader. Take a section of your own dialogue and experiment with cutting it using any of these tools.

Answer 132

• Show us who a character is through the use of dialogue. Dialogue can reveal so much about a character. Do they ask a lot of questions? Do they complain about everything? Use too many adjectives? Ramble? Cut other characters off when they speak? Use demanding phrases? Say as little as possible? Repeat themselves?

Answer 133

As you saw in Chapter 5: Developing the Story, one of the keys to keeping a reader’s interest is to get them to ask questions about your characters and the situations they face. A common technique for doing this is withholding information, giving the reader just enough to help them understand what’s going on, to hint at dangers or a possible situation, but not giving the full story. By painting your story elements in “light brushstrokes,” you give the reader a clear picture but withhold just enough to keep them guessing at what will happen next. In her book Word Painting (1999), Rebecca McClanahan calls this the “striptease” method of drawing out information. Give the reader one detail at a time, luring them toward a greater picture.

Answer 134

By revealing | details slowly over the course of a scene, you can generate curiosity and interest in your reader

Answer 135

You may absolutely love Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but it’s been re-hashed shamelessly for decades, enough to have become a cliché of its own.

Answer 136

M Make no mistake: There is an art to running a smooth set. Doing so requires a combination of professionalism, leadership, good humor, and respect for the crew on the part of the director. This sets the tone for the entire production and crew. At the beginning of each shoot day, Spike gathers his crew—the camera person, the first AD, the key grip, gaffer, and script supervisor—to discuss the day’s schedule. This way, everyone is on the same page about what needs to happen and the team can better transition from shot to shot. Lay down the ground rules early on. For example, Spike insists upon a respectful silence during takes and even set ups, as the actors could be rehearsing. Lastly, surround yourself with a diverse crew. An inclusive set not only ensures there will be a variety of cultures and opinions, it also means pushing the needle of progress forward in Hollywood.

Answer 137

Because Aristotle’s text was written in reference to plays, the music played a key part in the storytelling. For screenwriters, you never want to dictate particular song choices — or more specific, you never want to build your entire story around a specific set of songs. Why? Because if you put so much story stock into certain songs, what happens when it goes to a studio that doesn’t have the rights to those songs? It’s okay to mention a song in passing and it’s certainly okay to listen to songs for inspiration, but as soon as you incorporate them into your work, it’s a battle not worth embarking on if you luck out and your script garners attention. That said, music itself can play a vital part of your conceptual process as you begin your visualization of the story. Listening to and creating temp soundtracks taken from the musical scores of other films can give writers emotional context and atmosphere while writing. Much like the music from a play or silent film. So consider incorporating musical scores into your process. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

Answer 138

Spike’s philosophy about film as movement makes sense considering some of the camera techniques he and DP Ernest Dickerson employed have become signature. When Spike was shooting Malcolm X, the slain leader’s widow revealed her husband had a hunch there would be an attempt on his life during his speech at the Audubon Ballroom. To convey the emotion Malcolm may have felt in that moment, Dickerson suggested a double dolly shot, in which Denzel sits on a dolly and is being pulled, giving the illusion that Malcolm is in deep thought, moving through space and time as the world—and possibly his mortality—passes him by. It’s risk-taking techniques like these that give a director style and distinction. Spike is known to try different techniques in his work. For example, sometimes it’s quicker and more interesting to shoot a scene with multiple actors in one take, such as what he did in Mo’ Betta Blues, as opposed to setting up individual shots with each actor which can take the lion’s share of your day. In 25th Hour, Ed Norton’s character talks to himself in the mirror, however when the camera faces him, the actor appears to be speaking directly to the audience. This is a cinematic technique called breaking the fourth wall.

Answer 139

A cinematographer—also known as a Director of Photography (DP)—is the person responsible for creating the look of your film. When you find a DP who understands and can capture your vision, it is a relationship worth keeping. A good DP will elevate your vision, and introduce ideas and concepts you as the director may not have considered. It’s no coincidence many directors and cinematographers work together repeatedly, such as Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski or Spike and his NYU classmate Ernest Dickerson, who shot six of his films. Make sure you do your homework before you hire your DP. While their resume is important, audition them the same way you would an actor. Do not be afraid to ask questions such as how do they envision your project, do they have thoughts about color, lighting, and camera movement? Do they work quickly? All of these queries are pertinent to finding the right person for your project. When you have made the hire, communication with your cinematographer is key. Before you start shooting, go through the script scene by scene and create a plan of action. Get the most fundamental shots before pursuing the more ambitious ones, yet be flexible and to allow your DP room for improvisation and inspiration.

Answer 140

``` Be a beginner Even the most seasoned and successful writers doubt themselves at times. Learning to trust yourself and your writerly instincts comes with time. You will feel lost, and that’s normal. You have to write through it. There is no reason to expect to be published right away or to expect to see improvement right away—let yourself be new at it, and commit to growth over time. If you started playing the piano, you wouldn’t expect to perform at a concert in two weeks or two months. It takes time to write well. ```

Answer 141

It [the character] must be good. You could argue that not all main characters can be defined as good, but they must at least have some good traits for the audience to latch on to. He further states that “the character will be good if the purpose is good.” This notion is an excellent way for writers to find the center of their protagonists. If they are trying to do something good, that can and should reflect on their actions and reactions. You can also reverse that for antagonists and villains. If they are trying to do something bad, that can and should reflect their actions and reactions as well. Propriety. Again, his dated feelings towards slaves and women should be discluded in the context of contemporary times, but the details or rules of behavior conventionally considered to be correct should reflect on whatever character that you choose to write. A police officer should do all he can to abide by the law. A lawyer should do all she can to adhere to the law and seek out justice. While this element can be bent and played with, the contemporary point is that writers should be true to the types of characters they choose to feature. True to life. Similar to propriety, characters should be written in a realistic fashion that audiences can relate to. How many times have you watched a movie or television show and reacted to a character moment by saying or thinking, “Come on, no one would do that.” Exceptions to this rule would clearly be found in the horror genre where victims make questionable choices as far as where they go and what they do. Don’t answer the door! Consistency. He muses that some characters should be consistently inconsistent, meaning that if you, the writer, commits to character flaws, those character flaws must be consistent throughout the story. Unless, of course, the character eventually gains knowledge to rectify those flaws. Regardless, characters must be consistent in their personalities, actions, and reactions in order to create a reliable vessel for the plot.

Answer 142

Most people take in their surroundings with a traveling gaze, so imagine where their attention will rove. Looking at the world through their eyes in a plausible way will add a subtle effect of believability.

Answer 143

Famously wry, full of wisecracks, and partial to pithy similes, Chandler’s voice grew tougher over time, thanks to his increasing disillusionment and social criticism. His alienation and bleakness came to epitomize the noir genre. Read The Long Goodbye (1953) for the richest of his work.

Answer 144

Judd suggests that you watch stand-up if you want to perform it. Learn by observing, then develop your own angle. Judd believes that stand-up gets better as it becomes more personal—that comics who lay themselves bare to the audience are often the strongest performers. The same is true of comedic writers. He sees Knocked Up (2007) as the first time he became comfortable with drawing upon his own life for material. Judd contends that when you are being personal as a comedian, you are actually expressing your opinion about something or highlighting an absurdity in your own life. He gives the following example: One of his two children has gone to college. His remaining daughter is unhappy that she is the only one left in the house with Judd and his wife, because four people is a family, but three people is a child observing a weird couple. Judd calls this a short observational joke. Judd has learned that the audience will cue a comedian as to which part of a joke is relatable, understandable, and meaningful. You get the most laughs when the audience recognizes themselves in your story or joke. Your job as a stand-up comedian is as much writing as it is performing. You need to be disciplined in your writing, dedicating a few hours each day to sitting at a desk and writing jokes. To kickstart your joke-writing process, come up with a topic and write down as many jokes about it as you can think of. You’ll likely use only one or two of them, but you need to write a lot in order to find the true comedic gold. You can turn one joke into many by building a story around a basic punch line. Once you know the core of the story, you can illuminate different parts of it. For example, in his Netflix special, Judd tells a story-form joke about throwing the first pitch at a Mets game. He identifies his punch line: he threw the baseball very badly. To build a story around that punch line, Judd describes every moment leading up to the pitch, relating to the audience his nervousness and confusion prior to the throw. Judd also brings in a visual—an utterly ridiculous photo of himself throwing the ball— which he analyzes in depth. All of these different components added up to a 10-minute story-form joke. Acts are built incrementally, and Judd sees many similarities between writing a screenplay and developing an act. Both require first drafts, rewrites, and rounds of edits. Judd thinks of a stand-up act as a speech that is written line by line over a number of years, to which you methodically add and subtract jokes.

Answer 145

When Judd decided to perform stand-up comedy after a long hiatus, he watched Patton Oswalt’s acts to jog his memory for writing jokes. Watch Oswalt’s stand-up and see what you think. • Watch or listen to some of your favorite comedians’ stand-up and pay attention to the anatomy of their jokes. How do they set up ideas, and how are those ideas transformed into punch lines? Record your observations in your comedy journal. • Watch Judd’s special Judd Apatow: The Return on Netflix. Pay special attention to how he opens his act, how he transitions from joke to joke, and how he closes his special. • Judd discussed the essence of the story-based joke with comedian Mike Birbiglia. Watch Birbiglia’s stand-up, keeping an eye out for how he tells his own comedic stories. • Judd cites Sarah Silverman as an example of a comedian who has become more personal in her jokes over time, and as a result, her stand-up act has grown stronger. Watch one of the earliest of Silverman’s stand-up acts that you can find, then watch one of her most recent acts. How has she grown? In what ways have her jokes become more focused on her personal life? Take notes in your comedy journal.

Answer 146

Write an observational joke, similar to the one in the chapter review. Analyze one of the primary relationships in your life—with a partner, child, boss, employee, or friend—searching for humor in a basic observation about it. Make sure your observation is not dependent on context or knowledge the audience won’t have—for example, it shouldn’t be an inside joke that only people in your line of work will understand. Once you have written your short observational joke, share it with your classmates in The Hub. • Begin to build a story around a punch line. Think about the funniest thing that has ever happened to you, and identify the core of that story. Then illuminate different parts of the story by describing the situation and your feelings in detail. What were all of the events that led to that moment? Write down ideas in your comedy journal. You’ll continue to build around the punch line in the assignment for Chapter 4: Performing Stand-Up Comedy. • Continue to build around the punch line you came up with in the assignment for Chapter 3: Writing Stand-Up Comedy. Now think of five more ways to approach the story. Examine everything about the situation. Read all of your jokes (each of which should illuminate a different part of the story and support the basic punch line) aloud. Time yourself. How long is this story? Keep writing new jokes from different angles to stretch out the length of your story-form joke.

Answer 147

Becoming a good stand-up comedian means spending a significant amount of time on stage. Early on in his career, Judd realized how important it is to take advantage of every opportunity to be on stage, even if it’s merely to keep the audience’s attention for the 20 seconds in between acts. He used these moments to try out new material. Judd suggests dealing with stage nerves by talking to the audience as if you’re just having a conversation with them, instead of focusing on getting laughs—this will likely be more enjoyable for everyone, including you. Make it your goal to simply be worth hearing. Performing on stage is about more than telling jokes—it’s about creating a persona. You want the audience to connect to your character, not just to what you’re saying. If your act is not going as planned, embrace it. Learn to look at your nerves from a different perspective and lean into the bomb. Keep in mind that as a comedian, you don’t have to be funny atcevery moment. You can work your relationship with the audience in many ways. Judd says that you might want to make the audience unhappy or deeply uncomfortable, then pivot back to comedy. It’s a viable technique, and you’d be in the company of Andy Kaufman and Norm Macdonald in trying it. When Judd was young, he was told by veteran comedians that it would take seven years to shape his comedic persona, so get comfortable with the fact that for a long time, you’re probably going to suck. Be patient and keep working.

Answer 148

It’s hard to believe, but early in his career it never occurred to Judd to mine his personal life for material. Now excavating his own neuroses has become a hallmark of Judd’s films and television shows. Think about personal moments in your own life and see if you can apply them to your comedic characters or plotlines. The moment can be as mundane as eating a grilled cheese sandwich and chocolate cake while watching television, something Judd did consistently in his youth and which he and creator Paul Feig wrote into Bill Haverchuck’s character on Freaks and Geeks. Judd likens taking movie-worthy moments in his life and reworking them for the screen to making cinematic “soup”; everything you remember, all the things you’ve heard, and the moments you’ve observed are the ingredients. Combine them, and make adjustments to help spark ideas for a film or a television show Judd’s approach to developing a story based on real life—either his or someone else’s—is simple: start with the truth. When developing the protagonist’s journey and plot for the first season of Crashing, Judd sat down with creator and star Pete Holmes to discuss the details of his personal life and why he wanted to become a comedian, in order to suss out the essence of the protagonist, who was based on Holmes. Then, Judd and Holmes tried to figure out what would get people invested in watching the show. They realized that viewers would watch to see if the protagonist could find a way to succeed, and that helped them write multiple plotlines that fueled the television show across several seasons. Judd advises you not to get too attached to your episode ideas, as some of the plotlines you come up with might be thrown out the window in service of the larger thematic story goals. But so be it—it’s just part of the development process. Another tactic for developing story ideas that draw upon your life experience is to start with the kernel of an idea from a situation in your own life, and tailor it to fit the personalities of your characters (and actors if you have them already). For example, Seth Rogen once pitched a complex idea for a comedy to Judd, who in turn told Rogen that he didn’t need such an intricate story to be funny—he was hilarious all by himself. In fact, Judd told Rogen, it’d be funny to see you do something as simple as accidentally getting a woman pregnant and watching you deal with the aftermath. Thus, the idea for Knocked Up was born (pun intended).

Answer 149

• Identify a particularly challenging, amusing, or humorous story from your life (or pick one from your friends’ questionnaires from Chapter 5: Developing Life Into Story). Imagine who would be the worst possible person for it to happen to. How would that person handle it? What about his/her personality would exacerbate the situation? How can you design the situation to deliver maximum conflict and, consequently, comedy? Take notes in your comedy journal and use what you’ve come up with as additional material for your class project. • Television and film provide writers with the unique opportunity to show the mundane, strange, and inherently hilarious actions we all perform on a daily basis, often times in private. Think about a habit—like Judd’s eating grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate cake at the same time—that is natural to you but might be completely ridiculous to an outside observer. Come up with five of these kinds of behaviors in your own life, write them on index cards, and file them away for use in a later assignment. • Write a 30-second bit for your stand-up act. Analyze one of your odd behaviors or habits, or one of your most embarrassing moments. Then try performing it, imagining you are the emcee at a comedy night and this 30-second spot is meant to be a segue and introduction to the next comedian. Record your performance and upload it in The Hub for peer review. If you feel inclined, offer your classmates constructive feedback on their acts as well.

Answer 150

When you’re writing a comedy, Judd recommends approaching it as a drama. Your story should be strong enough to stand alone, sans jokes. Judd feels that love and the obstacles those in love encounter are at the root of every story, comedic or not. Keeping this in mind as you write will help you develop your plot and characters. Everyone is stumbling blindly through life, trying to figure out how to live, find love, and work through their problems while being forced to learn along the way. This happens to the characters in Knocked Up, and it should happen to your characters, too. The stakes in comedy need to be high, otherwise the audience simply won’t care about the characters. Stakes consist of what your protagonist is worried about, what he or she is trying to attain, or what he or she stands to lose. Comedy is the result of the mishaps and misadventures along the way. Your characters must learn a lesson, otherwise there is no story. A good story is reinforced by rich supporting characters. As a comedic writer, specificity is your best friend. The details are what make a story funny and unique. In The 40-Year-Old Virgin, much of the comedy is in the distinctive setting and character quirks. Everyone has a boss, but the 40-year-old virgin’s boss is inappropriately sex obsessed. Most stereo stores have something displayed on the televisions at all times, but only in Judd’s film does an incessantly played Michael McDonald DVD drive Paul Rudd’s character crazy. The best way for a film or show to be original is to be specific. Try to tack onto your stories what Judd calls a grace note, a moment or line of dialogue that expresses a human truth which touches the heart of the viewer, but stays true to the sense of humor and personality of the character(s) involved.

Answer 151

Look back at your first assignment from Chapter 6, Case Studies: Developing Life Into Story. You should have paired a challenging, amusing, or humorous situation with a person who is perfectly unsuited to deal with it. We’ll call this your comedic “premise.” Now, ask yourself—What are the dramatic underpinnings of this premise? What is at stake for the person involved? What do they want and/or what are they trying to accomplish? What are the obstacles they face? How do their flaws exacerbate the situation? If stakes do not exist, how can you introduce them? If dramatic elements are not present, how can you incorporate them? If the person in question is not flawed, what flaws can you give them? The incorporation of these additional elements will help transform the situation from a comedic premise into a story that “has a reason to exist.” To use Judd’s example as a point of reference, the premise for The 40-Year-Old Virgin is just what the title implies; a man who has not had sex by the time most people have. But Judd and his writing partner, Steve Carell, approached it as a story about shame, embarrassment, and the human desire for fulfillment and connection. Take notes in your comedy journal and use what you’ve come up with as additional material for your class project.

Answer 152

Once you know who your characters are at their core, it’s much easier to write what they’ll say on screen. Each character in a scene wants something. Oftentimes the wants and needs of one character will conflict with those of another. Judd suggests you think of dialogue as a mask that your characters wear to conceal their genuine feelings. Why might a character act cocky? Because on the inside, he’s terrified. Why does Steve Carell’s character lie in the poker scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin? Because he wants his co-workers to think he’s cool and to keep his secret from them. Your characters’ jokes should be rooted in their personality and demeanor. Moreover, the uniqueness of a character should drive the jokes he or she tells. If you don’t know in your gut that your character would make a particular joke, then it’s not going to ring true. If you’re at a loss for how a character would respond to something, start by asking yourself what you would say in that situation. Then refine it so that it fits with the voice of your character. Jokes are powered by the distinct qualities and temperament of a character. When you approach dialogue through this lens, the character’s lines will always be original and fresh. Read your dialogue aloud as much as you can so you get a sense of how the scenes will work when brought to life.

Answer 153

The structure of The 40-Year-Old Virgin maps very closely to Syd Field’s model. The first act is 30 pages and serves as the “Setup” in which Steve Carell’s character, Andy, is introduced. There are strong visual cues—a bachelor pad full of action figures, breakfast for one, his reticence around colleagues—all of which signal exactly who the character is. Toward the end of the first act, the inciting incident takes place, or as Judd says, “a problem lands” when all of Andy’s coworkers discover that he is a virgin. The second act, or “Confrontation,” spans from pages 30 through 90 and consists of two separate sections. The first section, pages 30 through 60, revolves around Andy’s coworkers’ quest to help him lose his virginity. By the midpoint of the movie that has failed and Andy takes things into his own hands by pursuing a relationship with Catherine Keener’s character, Trish. The second section of the Confrontation, pages 60 through 90, follows the unfolding of their relationship. The third act, or “Resolution,” occurs between pages 90 to 120. This part of the screenplay focuses on the meltdown Andy has when he realizes that he actually has to sleep with his girlfriend, and the arguments that follow. In the end, he reveals that he is a virgin and Trish decides that’s something she can handle. They have sex, and this is followed by a big musical dance number to “Let the Sunshine In” from Hair. The ending is just as important as the beginning, and every scene in between should serve a purpose in the story. Judd recommends identifying all possible endings to your film and choosing the one closest to your heart that also leaves the audience with the message you hope to impart.

Answer 154

If you’re attempting to crack problems with story or character arcs, think about where your “set pieces”—energetic, extended sequences that contain the film’s biggest laughs—should be placed. A set piece in Knocked Up, for example, is Seth Rogen’s and Paul Rudd’s characters taking magic mushrooms before a Cirque du Soleil show. Judd has found that about every 10 to 15 minutes in a film, he wants something “special and hysterical” to happen—a “tear down the house” moment. This helps him figure out the pacing and placement of his set pieces. There’s one rule you should follow regarding set pieces: you need one in the last 10 minutes of the film. A film’s resolution needs to be as funny as its best scenes. Sometimes a comedy’s structure can be unconventional, like that of Funny People, which takes an unexpected turn halfway through the movie in order to reveal a more complete picture of Adam Sandler’s character, George. Instead of adhering to a traditional structure in which George would get sick and then get better, thereby resolving the conflict and ending the movie, Judd wrote a narrative in which George’s character is even more messed up after he recovers his health. Right when a conventionally structured movie with this story would end, Judd has George pursue an ex-girlfriend on whom he cheated. Seth Rogen’s character, Ira, comes with George on his journey, which of course blows up. At that point, Funny People becomes about whether or not George and Ira will salvage their friendship. The film’s structure doesn’t really set the audience up to root for George. Rather, it paints a picture of the human condition

Answer 155

• Workshop your five-minute act with an audience of friends to test out your material. Also feel free to pitch them jokes you’ve been mulling over for a while but haven’t quite perfected. Listen to their ideas and feedback—but remember, you are the ultimate decider about what goes in your act. • Record yourself performing your five-minute act and share the video in The Hub for peer review. Learn what’s working and what isn’t, then change or add material accordingly. After you’ve tweaked the act based on your fellow classmates’ notes and your friends’ feedback, practice, practice, practice, then take it to an open mic night.

Answer 156

Actors have the difficult job of being emotionally vulnerable on camera, and as a director you have to show them great respect. On set, Judd tries to maintain a pace at which no one feels rushed. When actors feel rushed, bad acting happens. Setting expectations up front helps build confidence, so Judd lets the actors know before the camera is rolling that they will begin with a couple of takes to find the scene. When they know how to prepare and that they have a few chances, an energy comes to the scene that brings about great performances. Judd learned from David Mamet’s book on directing that giving actors detailed prescriptive direction doesn’t work. You have to be subtle. Respect your actors and their ideas, and be truthful with them. They want to be able to trust your judgment. Take the time to build rapport before the shoot. Don’t force actors to work in a style that doesn’t allow them to deliver their best performances. Respect their individual processes and adapt your directing style to accommodate them.

Answer 157

Writing habits are completely personal—some people thrive in a group setting like a writers’ room, while others need solitude. Judd likes both, for different reasons. What’s essential is that you force yourself to actually write. Don’t just sit there and think about writing. Habits such as writing at the same time every day can support your workflow and create an ideal environment for you to have that lighting-bolt moment of creative inspiration. Also know that part of the writing process is giving your brain time to work. Even if you’re not working, your brain is working on your story. Trust it and allow it to do so. Once he has a draft, Judd likes to read his script aloud in order to spot what is and isn’t working.

Answer 158

Judd recommends that you begin establishing the tone of your film in preproduction. Sometimes it’s helpful to compare your film to existing ones so the people working on it understand the world in which it exists. Is it straight realism or is it something more conceptual? Setting the tone early on in the process will help everyone working on the project, from the actors to the costume designer. Tone might continue to develop throughout production, all the way through shooting. Part of the director’s process is deciding whether a scene adheres to that tone. If it doesn’t, cut it or adjust accordingly.

Answer 159

• Write detailed backstories for all the major characters in your story. Really take the time to flesh out who they are by asking yourself: What are their psychological underpinnings? Where do they come from? Why do they conduct themselves the way that they do? What do they want? The more details you have the better. Now look back at what you’ve written in your first draft and see how these details can be incorporated into the characters’ interactions. • Pick three characters from the first draft of your screenplay and analyze how you introduce them. Are these the strongest possible introductions that these characters can have? Challenge yourself to rewrite these scenes in a way that highlights the characters’ distinct personalities and senses of humor in the most impactful way possible.

Answer 160

For the stand-up comedian: • Develop a character that you can perform on stage in your act. Consult this list to learn about four up-and-coming stand-ups who portray characters in their acts, then seek out videos of their acts online (or in person, if you’re able). Then use Judd’s tip on writing characters to develop your own character in your stand-up act. Who is this person? How can you give him or her a strong introduction on stage? What aspects of their personality will people relate to? Write down ideas for your character in your comedy journal. As you progress through Judd’s class, you might find that inhabiting a character in your stand-up act doesn’t work for your brand of comedy, and that’s okay. But don’t limit yourself in the beginning. Try it out and see if the character is a fit

Answer 161

• Using the shooting schedule you created in Chapter 23, Directing: Production, identify a scene from your short that will involve a lot of improvisation. Hold a rehearsal in which you ask your actors to improvise, maintaining the spirit and narrative goal of the scene but changing the dialogue, making it up or transforming it on the spot. Record the rehearsal, and then review the video and transcribe the improvised jokes and good dialogue that are born from this rehearsal in your mega document. • It’s time to shoot your short. The night before you shoot, refresh your memory by looking through your comedy journal. What new jokes were improvised during rehearsal that you might like to try out on set? When you begin shooting, tell the actors to perform the scene as scripted, then open it up to improvisation. Allow the actors to play around. Try yelling out lines to your actors if they come to you, and pull from your running list of alternate jokes. After the shoot, you’ll be left with a wealth of directorial options and variations of performance, which will work in your favor in the editing room

Answer 162

Judd has his editors start cutting the movie while he’s still shooting, so that he can review and give them notes on a weekly— or even daily—basis. Reviewing cuts in addition to dailies allows Judd to get a feel for what the movie is becoming. It also allows him to give feedback to the editors early, so that the first full cut of the film is already more in step with Judd’s vision. Even still, the first time Judd sees a film is a painful experience. The movie inevitably needs a lot of work, so Judd first concentrates on the scenes that are in the worst shape. Then, he addresses the ending. Judd likes to cut the ending early in the process so that he can determine if he needs to reshoot. Sometimes a scene that he was banking on for big laughs simply doesn’t produce them. In that case, Judd has to do some thinking to figure out if the scene can be transformed. When testing a comedy film, you’re always looking for laughs. If the audience isn’t laughing, Judd knows there’s a problem. A smaller focus group will reveal more in-depth insights about how the audience is relating to the film’s characters. Do audience members hate a character they’re supposed to like? Judd uses that information from testing to rework the character, often cutting jokes or swapping takes to make the character more relatable. Testing also allows you to see how far you can push the envelope with controversial material. One of Judd’s testing strategies is to create two cuts of a film: the A cut, which is the one that he’s working to polish and tighten, and the B cut, also known as the “Frankenstein Monster.” Judd uses the Frankenstein Monster to take big swings—which could be misses, or could get even bigger laughs than anything in the A cut. Throughout testing, Judd keeps an eye out for dead spots, pacing, and momentum. If a scene needs saving, Judd uses voice-over to replace or add jokes.

Answer 163

read carefully, and be aware that a miscast reader can affect how you interpret a character or dialogue. If one of your readers isn’t working in a part, have them switch with someone else. At the end, have a discussion about the jokes and the story. Is every scene as funny as it can be? Is the story working? Why is the big scene at the end falling flat? Ask everyone to be brutally honest. You want your script to be the best it can possibly be.

Answer 164

• Workshop your five-minute act with an audience of friends to test out your material. Also feel free to pitch them jokes you’ve been mulling over for a while but haven’t quite perfected. Listen to their ideas and feedback—but remember, you are the ultimate decider about what goes in your act. • Record yourself performing your five-minute act and share the video in The Hub for peer review. Learn what’s working and what isn’t, then change or add material accordingly. After you’ve tweaked the act based on your fellow classmates’ notes and your friends’ feedback, practice, practice, practice, then take it to an open mic night.

Answer 165

When Judd was young, he was the only person he knew who was interested in comedy. He became obsessed, devouring all comedic material he could lay his hands on—from watching every comedy show on television to looking up Lenny Bruce’s obituary on microfiche at the public library. Judd’s lesson from this period in his life? Pour all of your energy into your passion. Judd learned that developing multiple skills in the business —writing, directing, producing—allowed him to keep working where someone with only one skill might have had a dry spell. Judd recommends that you have multiple projects going at once. Write a pilot for a television show while you’re working on your film script, and write stand-up comedy jokes on the side. If you’re just starting out, get a job that will teach you about your craft and about the business. When you’re interviewing for a job—especially one in which you’ll be working in a group setting—you’re being interviewed not only for the work, but for the dynamic you’ll have with everyone else in the room. Nobody likes a room killer, so make sure your potential future colleagues see you won’t drag everyone down with complaints or weird habits. Make yourself indispensable to the people who hire you. Go the extra mile for them. Strive to be helpful. Even if they don’t use everything you write, they’ll appreciate and depend on your effort. How you handle notes is one of the greatest challenges of creative work. It’s a bit of a catch-22—if you take a bad note, your project will be bad and no one will pick it up; but if you reject a note, you may take on the wrath of executives. You have to learn how to manage your relationships with note-givers while also protecting the integrity of your project. When Judd was a kid, he’d go home and watch The Mike Douglas Show, The Dinah Shore Show, and The Merv Griffin Show. Track down episodes of these shows and watch them. Why do you think Judd was so drawn to the kind of comedy in these television shows? Do you find them funny? How have stand-up comedy and late night television changed since these comedians were on the scene? • Now think about the comedy shows that originally sparked your own interest in comedy. Put together a list and share it with your classmates in The Hub. Seek out episodes of shows they suggest that you’ve never heard of

Answer 166

The impulse toward comedy is a complex one—it perhaps stems from a need to be seen, but it also involves the risk of humiliation. Like every art form, comedy is a way for people to work through what’s bothering them. Through comedy, people can find a supportive, creative community. You have to be ready to get your heart broken, though. You’ll have plenty of great ideas that never get picked up. You’ll get the plug pulled on what you’re doing halfway through. If you’re good and you’re determined, Judd urges you to stick with it. The world needs more good comedy.