In this video, I discuss the question of why producers choose some scripts and not others, and an organic approach to writing a script that sells, by following your own creative impulses.

What’s interesting (and horrifying) about this text is that this doesn’t come from the sales side of the website-it comes from a FAQ on the recruitment side, hiring readers to provide these coverage services to writers.

Q: Can I really be successful as a script consultant if I’m not a screenwriter – or not a very good one?

A: Absolutely. Most of the top consultants are not writers. [The person], considered the ‘mother of script consulting’ has never written a script-but has consulted on over 2,000 screenplays and commands several thousand dollars per script. Even if you don’t have a unique background… all certified script consultants, who have fulfilled an internship, are eligible to become part of our paid staff…

Okay, pick your jaw up off the floor. This is important to understand.

What this company is doing is finding inexperienced, non-writers looking to make an easy buck. Selling them 24 hours of “certification” training. Getting them to work for free as interns. And then hiring them to give notes to writers like you.

So how exactly is someone who has never even written a screenplay supposed to help you fix yours?

How is someone with no industry experience supposed to master an art that even the greatest writers and most experienced producers in Hollywood struggle with?

Quite frankly, they’re not.

It would be nice to think that this company was an exception to the rule. But they’re not. Anyone who has worked in the industry knows that “coverage reader” has often  been just another way of saying “intern.”

Now don’t get me wrong, there are great coverage readers out there.  And many of them are real professionals who provide an important service to the industry.  These are people with years of experience, and often extensive writing backgrounds, who have read hundreds, if not thousands of scripts.  But these readers are few and far between, and most of them work exclusively for the biggest agencies and producers in Hollywood.

Unfortunately, many of the “professional” coverage readers touted to young screenwriters– and even those employed by many production companies– do not come with these kinds of credentials.   To understand why, you just have to do some simple math.  The average coverage reader makes about 50 bucks a script. Now that doesn’t mean they’re charging you 50 bucks. But by the time the company takes its cut, that’s about what’s left for the reader. If you do a the math, you can understand what that means.

Nobody can survive on $1.75 an hour.

Start by thinking about how long it would take you to do this job right: Carefully reading a full length screenplay, distilling its essence into a compelling logline, an accurate synopsis that fully captures the essence of the story, and a helpful commentary, that not only analyzes what is working and not working in the script, but also makes all the right suggestions in just the right way, without confusing the writer, undermining his or her voice, or turning the script into a paint-by-numbers formula.

Do the math, and you’ll see that if it took the average coverage reader as long as it takes you, they’d end up making about $1.75 an hour for their work.  Nobody can survive on that kind of money.  Which means, simply to survive, even the best coverage readers in the world have no choice but to skim through your script, and race through their summaries and commentaries… and that’s assuming they even have the knowledge, experience, or insight to do it properly in the first place.

Coverage Was Never Meant To Serve As Development Notes

Coverage came about for a very simple reason. Producers simply couldn’t read all the scripts that landed on their desks. So rather than leaving them in a pile collecting dust, they started passing them on to coverage readers.

They didn’t need these notes to be brilliant.  After all, most of the scripts they were reading weren’t going to be very good anyway (99% of everything producers read is terrible). When a rare script came along that a coverage reader loved, the producer could skim the logline, summary and commentary, see if it sounded like a match for their company, and then take it home to read for themselves.

No producer worth his salt would ever dream of using a coverage reader’s notes to develop a screenplay they were actually interested in.    

Rather, coverage is used to quickly weed out the scripts that producers have no interest in reading. The coverage summary allows the producer to feign enough familiarity with the script to make it seem like they read it. And the commentary, whether it’s right or wrong, allows them to cite “real” problems that make it clear they are passing for a reason, so they can focus their attention on the scripts that really matter to them, without alienating their industry contacts.

Professionals know how incredibly hard it is to develop a movie properly, and how many months, or even years of continuous effort it can take to do it right.  In fact there’s even a famous term, “development hell,” describing the process by which well-meaning professional producers “develop” a script they once liked into a limbo where absolutely nobody wants to make it… all through perfectly well-intentioned notes.

How Should You Know What Notes To Listen To?

First of all, if you’re receiving written notes, even if they come from the site of a famous script guru, you should assume that they were probably written by an intern. Not all gurus do this. But most have no choice. The sheer volume of work, and the time it takes to analyze a whole screenplay and convert your thoughts into written form, means that very few real professionals could ever provide written notes at a price that students could afford.

(I recently interviewed the former intern of one of the big name screenwriting gurus here in New York, who asked me if she’d be able to write notes for my students while working as my assistant. When I told her I felt that was totally immoral, she explained to me that her last boss let her do it all the time, and just put their name on the notes when she was finished.)

That said, even if your notes came from Martin Scorcese himself, and you personally watched him type them, if they’re in written form, they’re probably not going to help you.

Notes Should Be A Dialogue With The Writer

Anybody can tell you the formulaic rules of screenwriting. Hell, you can read a single book on screenwriting, and generate most of the notes a coverage reader is going to give you verbatim, just by going through the ‘common wisdom’ topic by topic. Write the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and an inexperienced coverage reader is going to tell you that you used too much dialogue. Write the opening scene of There Will Be Blood and they’re going to tell you that you didn’t use enough. Write Bridesmaids and they’re going to tell you your jokes are too bawdy. Write Juno and they’re going to complain that your characters all talk alike.

It’s not your conformity that’s going to make your script stand out. It’s your voice as a writer-and that’s all about breaking the rules in ways that work for your screenplay.

The best notes never come in written form, because notes don’t happen in a vacuum.

Now I’m not saying that a good coverage reader isn’t going to recognize great material when they see it.  Of course they are.  But looking at a rough draft of a movie, when everything is still a mess, and identifying the elements that can be built around to make it great, is a rare skill that requires a tremendous amount of experience.

Every change you make to your script affects everything else in it… and no one can predict what those effects will be as you work your way through your rewrite, until you give it a try and see what comes out. That means notes must be fluid: evolving over time, responding to a writer’s intentions, and changing as the script changes, to reflect the hundreds of little choices the writer makes in each page.

Whether you’re receiving notes from a teacher, a fellow writer, a friend, or your mother-in-law, or even a coverage reader, make sure to ignore any note that tells you how to fix your screenplay. These notes are almost always wrong.

Instead, focus on the notes that communicate that person’s experience of your screenplay. (ie “I really thought she loved him”, “this line made me laugh”, “I thought this image was scary” “this section felt boring for me”). These notes are always right, because they reflect the genuine experience of the reader.

Focus on the things that are working in your script… and ask yourself how can you build on those things. Ignore notes that are generally critical (“your main character is too unlikeable”) and focus on the ones that are specific (“when he killed that cat, I just stopped caring for him.”)

Don’t try to fix the problems, instead ask yourself-how close was the reader’s experience to what you were trying to communicate? And what could you do to bring them along with you… without undercutting your voice as a writer, your intentions for the story, or the overall integrity of the piece.

In the meantime, resist that urge to buy the cheapo coverage.  Instead, take a screenwriting class with someone you trust, find a community of writers who can communicate their experience of your script, or sign up for our ongoing one-on-one Personal Training program, and get weekly feedback on your script from a professional writer-who will help you bring the story inside you onto the page.

WRITE YOUR SCREENPLAY

Mondays, 7-10pm
July 23 - Aug 13

4 Week Screenwriting Workshop With Award Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger. 71 W 23rd St, Suite 515, NYC or Online. LEARN MORE

Price: $300.00

PERSONAL TRAINING FOR SCREENWRITERS/PLAYWRIGHTS

One-on-One Personal Training For Writers

Subscribe for weekly one-on-one sessions with your trainer and transform yourself into a lean, mean, writing machine.

For a price list, click HERE

To Schedule Sessions: Click "SCHEDULE" or call 917-464-3594.

As I discussed in part 1 of this article, for a producer, reading a truly great script is like finding a hidden spring in the middle of a vast desert. But industry executives are so used to seeing mirages, that unless you show them in the right way, they may not even recognize real water when they see it.

That’s bad news for a lot of writers. But it’s good news for you. Because if you understand the ways that producers form their first impressions of a script, you can use them to your advantage, to start winning over your readers from the very first page.

Finding Your Way Through The Goldilocks Syndrome

A producer’s desk generally has a stack of unread scripts about ten feet high, all of which they are supposed to read, and most of which they will never even find time to look at. Every night, before they go home, their guilt compels them to pick up a script to read that night, even knowing they most likely will not complete it.

The first step in this process is to find the thinnest script in the pile. Now that doesn’t mean that your 37 page screenplay is going to get read. The thing has to feel like a movie or they know they can’t make it. What it does mean is that unless you’ve got a killer agent calling every day to harass them, your script had better be less than 100 pages, or it’s never going to make it out of the pile.

You can imagine Goldilocks in the home of the three bears… looking for the script that’s not too short… not too long… but just right.

Help Your Screenplay Pass The Flip Test

Once they’ve found a script of the right potential length, a producer’s next defense mechanism is what I call the flip test. A quick flip through the script to see if it looks right. Does it look like a screenplay? Or more like a novel. Is it in the right font, and the right format. Is it too dense, or too sparse? Does it have the right balance of action or dialogue.

Fail the flip test, and you’re back in the limbo of the pile. Pass it, and there’s just one more test to go.

The Importance of the First Page

Before he takes your script home with him, the producer will generally skim the first page. Hook him, and you’re going in the briefcase. Lose him, and he’s lost forever.

What does that mean? It means you have to polish the heck out of that first page. It means you’ve got to captivate him from the first line, and the first image. It means you have to catch every grammar and spelling error. And most importantly, it means you have to establish a language in the way your screenplay delivers information that makes your story easy to read and visualize, and conjures it as a film in the mind of your reader.

Once you’re in the briefcase, it means you’ve done your job. But now it’s time to make sure your script is wearing something appropriate under that jacket.

Remove The Obstacles That Block Your Reader’s Way

With all the emphasis that we put on hook, character, dialogue, and ideas, it’s easy to forget that the most important element in truly hooking your reader, and making sure they see the value in your script, is actually format.

Now don’t get me wrong. If your characters are poorly developed, your hook is weak, your scenes are passive, and your dialogue is boring, it’s not going to matter how perfect your formatting is. But once you’ve got a screenplay that’s actually working, format is the delivery mechanism that allows your story to play visually in the reader’s mind, as if it were a movie.

Format Isn’t Just About Rules

Many writers make the mistake of thinking that all they have to do is look up the proper formatting in The Hollywood Standard in order to make their script perfect. But the truth is actually much more complicated.

Format is a lot like grammar. No one speaks it properly, and if you did, you’d end up like that kid in high school who insisted on the difference between who and whom when addressing his friends… not exactly the most popular guy to talk to.

At the same time, everybody knows bad grammar when they hear it. And if your grammar is bad, that’s even worse than being stilted, because nobody takes you seriously.

No producer has read The Hollywood Standard. And just like with grammar, most producers don’t really know what a script is “supposed” to look like. But what they do know for sure is what it’s not supposed to look like.

So as a writer, you not only need to define clear rules for your script, you have to learn to do so in a way that conforms to producers’ expectations… without compromising the integrity of your storytelling.

Understanding the format of your script is about understanding what rules you need to conform to, and which rules you need to bend in order to make your script readable and compelling. And more importantly, it’s about understanding that just like every region of the country has its own way of speaking, every script has its own dialect.

If you think about it like a Southern drawl, or a New England twang, you’ll realize that the way you handle your screenplay’s format communicates more than just shots of your script. It also communicates the feeling of that script as people read it, the pacing, the rhythm and the emotional world of your story.

An Organic Approach To Format

The good news is, when you’re thinking in format, you’re not just thinking like a writer. You’re thinking like a filmmaker. Telling your movie in the images and the cuts, the pacing and the montage, and creating an experience on the page that not only looks like a screenplay, but also captures the feelings an audience is going to have as they watch the film on screen.

The best screenplay format doesn’t just tell the reader what’s happening. It conjures the experience of the film. So the reader doesn’t just read your script. They actually see it.

When you understand this, you can stop seeing format as an obstacle or as the annoying busywork of your screenwriting, and start seeing it as part of your art as a screenwriter.

Master Screenwriting Format

The best format is not something imposed upon a screenplay. Rather, it grows out of the needs of the individual script. That’s why a Charlie Kaufman script reads so much different than a Coen Brothers script, and even why there can be such strong variations even among scripts by the same writer.

Generating the right format for your script can help you to locate the essential elements of each scene, and bring them to the surface so that everyone can appreciate them. It means delivering information in a way that even a skimming coverage reader can’t miss it. And it means making your writing so compelling that once someone starts reading, there’s no stopping them from finishing.

That’s why we created our new Formatting Boot Camp.

You’ll not only learn the fundamentals of formatting-you’ll learn how to develop them organically as a part of your storytelling, setting the rules you need, in ways that producers will accept them, so that your script won’t just look like a professional screenplay. It will also read like one.

The Passover Question (For Screenwriters)

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

What’s The Number One Reason A Screenplay Gets Rejected?

Imagine you’re about to interview for the job of a lifetime. If you get the job, you’ll potentially make hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, doing what you most love in the world.

How would you dress for that interview?

Would you roll out of bed, show up half an hour late, and trust that your integrity and talent will win them over, despite your bad breath, half-prepared presentation, and that unfortunate hole in your pajamas?

More likely, you’d wake up early, change your clothes ten times searching for the perfect balance of business and personality, put that final touch on your powerpoint, and show up ready to knock their socks off from the moment you stepped through the door.

You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression, And Neither Does Your Script.

As anyone who has ever tried to get an agent or producer to pay attention to their script can tell you, getting through the door is the hardest part of any screenwriter’s career.   It’s going to take everything you’ve got to pry that door open. So when it finally happens, you want to make sure both you and your script are ready to make a grand entrance.

Because if you don’t, it may be years before you get a second chance.

Don’t Rush Through The Door Before You Put On Your Pants

As impressive as your pitch or your concept might be, unless your screenplay delivers what you promise, you’re going to end up with a lot of doors slammed in your face.

It won’t always be this way. There will be a time, after you’ve made somebody a lot of money with your writing, when you can sell out like the other Hollywood writers do, sell scripts off half-baked ideas, and get paid for it.

But as a young writer, unless your best friend is Brad Pitt, that’s probably not going to happen for you. Producers hear 100 great ideas a day, from writers with much more extensive track records than you have.

What they very rarely get to see is a truly great script. And if you have that, you have the one thing that actors, writers, producers, agents, screenwriting contests and even coverage readers all want.

A truly great script is like finding a hidden spring in the middle of a vast desert. But industry executives are so used to seeing mirages, that unless you show them in the right way, they may not even recognize real water when they see it.

What Kind of Clothes Is Your Screenplay Wearing?

Just like a potential employer starts judging you the moment you walk into the room, producers, agents, development executives and coverage readers start judging a script before they even read the first page.

If your script is dressed in the wrong clothes: too long, improperly formatted, or even just too dense to read quickly, the chances are a producer is never going to look at it. And even a coverage reader, who doesn’t have a choice, is going to start skimming before they’ve finished the first page.

This is not because they’re bad people. It’s because they have to read hundreds of scripts, and most of them are terrible. Which means they have to spend their time on the ones that seem to show the most potential, and skim through the ones that don’t.

That’s bad news for a lot of writers. But it’s good news for you. Because if you learn the things that turn readers on, and the things that turn them off from the very first page, it means you can turn them to your advantage, and make it more likely that your script is one that captures their attention.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series, in which I’ll be discussing how can turn your script into producer candy, before a single word is ever read.

In the meantime, check out our upcoming all-day Formatting Boot Camp, and learn how mastering the concepts of screenplay format can not only help you dress your script to impress, but also revolutionize the way you think about your storytelling.

After several months of reading hundreds of scripts, Jacob Krueger Studio is pleased to announce the winner of the 2012 Jacob Krueger Screenwriting Fellowship.

Congratulations to our Fellowship Winner:

DAN GUNDERMAN  
Screenplay:
“Jayhawkers”

Dan has won a Full Scholarship to our Screenwriting Retreat in Costa Rica!    

We still have a few spots left on our retreat, so if 5, 10, 15, or 20 days in writing paradise sounds like fun to you, please give us a call at 917-464-3594 or email Rachel@WriteYourScreenplay.com to sign up.

The retreat runs from June 19 – July 8th and you can choose the dates that work best for you within that time.  Hope to see you there!

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Whether you’re brand new to writing or have been writing for years, there is a common fear you share with all writers: the fear of the blank page.

When we dream about writing, we can imagine the blank page as a place of possibility, excitement and inspiration.  After all, something empty can be filled with anything you choose.  And the desire to express our creativity without limits or barriers is why most of us became writers in the first place.

When we’re at our best as writers, we revel in the freedom of that blank page.  But other times, all that freedom can be crippling. 

Sometimes, the sheer emptiness of all that white space leaves us feeling like we’re lost in a blinding snowstorm.  With no landmarks to guide us, and no sense of direction, we find ourselves racing in frantic circles, until we’re so terrified of taking another step in the wrong direction that we don’t dare take any step at all.

Suddenly, our minds are as blank as that empty piece of paper.  All the ideas we were so desperate to express seem like they’ve suddenly disappeared, and anything we have managed to jot down seems so inadequate, when confronted with that whiteness, that we start to wonder if we have anything to say at all.

So what are you supposed to do in the face of all that fear?  How can you start to see the blank page as a source of inspiration again?  And how can you get yourself writing again when you don’t know where you’re going, or even how to start?

Learning To Think Like a Sculptor

Apologies to any of you visual artists out there, but being a sculptor is so much less confusing than being a writer.

A sculptor begins with a piece of material—a lump of clay, a piece of wood, a chunk of marble.  He doesn’t expect that chunk of marble to look like Michelangelo’s David.  He expects it to look like a chunk of marble.

And that’s why he never makes the mistake that most writers make: expecting our first few words to look like our finished masterpiece.

By accepting his raw material for exactly what it is, the sculptor empowers himself to freely pursue his craft. 

He can stare deeply at that chunk of marble, examining it from all sides until he begins to see the Michelangelo’s David that already exists within.  He can chisel away in broad strokes until the shape of the figure starts to emerge.  And then he can work slowly and carefully to sculpt, sand and polish those perfect details that will translate his vision in all its power to the people who view it.

The sculptor never has to imagine that inspiration lies somewhere outside himself.  Because he knows the inspiration already exists within the material.

This is exactly the same lesson that we need to learn as writers. 

Your perfect screenplay does not exist in your mind.  It does not exist in your outline or your ideas.  And it certainly doesn’t exist somewhere out there in the ether waiting for you to discover it.

Your perfect screenplay exists already, in the raw material of the words you write.

The only problem is, you can’t see that perfect screenplay yet.  Because it’s obscured by the snowy whiteness of the blank page in front of you.

If you’re going to discover the movie you really want to write, you’ve got to begin by filling up that page, and accepting that material for exactly what it is: the chunk of marble of your subconscious mind.

It may not yet resemble the polished words of your perfect screenplay, or the perfect execution of your perfect idea.  But once you’ve found that material, you can start to work with it just like a sculptor does, examining it from every angle, applying the tools of your craft, chiseling away in broad strokes, polishing, sanding, slowly honing in on the details…

…Until the Michelangelo’s David within your own chunk of marble reveals itself to you.

Stay tuned for the next installment of this series “The Importance of the Garbage Draft” in which I’ll be discussing ways to get that raw material onto the page, and how to mine for the most inspiring chunks of marble in your writing.

Learn A New Approach To Confronting The Blank Page

With these new classes at Jacob Krueger Studio.

For Beginning Writers:

Learn to get your writing flowing, and discover the hidden gems within every scene you write.  Whether you have an idea you’re working on, or are confronting the blank page for the first time, this class will revolutionize the way you view screenwriting.

WRITE YOUR SCREENPLAY

Mondays, 7-10pm
July 23 - Aug 13

4 Week Screenwriting Workshop With Award Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger. 71 W 23rd St, Suite 515, NYC or Online. LEARN MORE

Price: $300.00

For All Writers:

Escape to Writers Paradise with a 5, 10, 15 or 20 day Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat with award-winning screenwriter Jacob Krueger.

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Three Act Structure, Hero’s Journey, Plot, Multiplot, Sequences, Formulas, Archetypes, Turns, Twists, Pinches, Plot Points, Act Breaks, Inciting Incidents, Crisis, Climax, Peripeteia, Denoument , Trick Endings, and so on…

Amidst the onslaught of information, young writers find themselves flailing wildly, trying to understand, mimic and reproduce the “proper” elements of structure, without ever asking the most important question:  what is all this structure supposed to be doing for you anyway?

The Audience Doesn’t Care About Your Structure

Nobody who isn’t a screenwriter has ever left a movie raving about the effectiveness of the Inciting Incident or the proper placement of Plot Point Two.

And no producer has ever bought a movie because of its perfect compliance with the principles of The Contour System’s screenwriting paradigm.

If you want to know what people really care about in movies, just go to your local Blockbuster, and watch the couples fight:  one lover clutching The Godfather and the other insisting on the dramatic merits of Tank Girl.

They’re not fighting over the structure.  They’re fighting over the feeling they want to get from the movie.  That feeling is what we call Genre.

If All Movies Were Good, Genre Would Be The Only Thing That Mattered

But most movies are not good.  And most screenplays are not good.

Hollywood has no credibility with its audience.  And screenwriters have no credibility with producers.

You know when you go to a movie that there’s a good chance it’s going to suck.  Which means that if Hollywood wants you to plunk down your 12 bucks, they’ve got to give you some sense of what makes this one special.

Similarly, if you’re going to get a producer to start reading your script, instead of some other from their pile, you’ve got to make them believe, from page 1, that this one might stand out from the pack.

This is what we call Hook: the promise your screenplay makes to its audience, that leads them to take the leap of faith that your movie can deliver the feeling they are so desperately seeking.

So Why Do Most Screenplays Still Suck?

Writing is a lot like dating. You see a beautiful girl or guy of the genre you like, get hooked by some aspect of their super-hot appearance, and start to project all kinds of character qualities on them.  You imagine all the exciting experiences you’re going to have together, the feelings you’re going to have in their presence, the ways they’re going to change your life.  You start to build a story in your mind, a plot full of white picket fences, 2 and ½ kids, and a floppy eared dog.  Everything is going just perfectly in your mind… until the object of your affection decides to open their mouth…

Suddenly they’re not so hot anymore.

This is the same mistake many writers make with their screenplays: searching frantically for the “perfect” hook, building a formulaic structure around it, drafting outlines, treatments, beat sheets and pitches… only to find that once their characters start opening their mouths, the whole thing falls apart.

Producers hear a hundred great ideas a day—a hundred potential lovers each with some quality to make them special.  But once they open the pages, if all that’s there is a hot red dress or some rock hard biceps, they’re not going to make your movie.

Hook is the reason that your audience takes a chance on your script.  But it’s not the reason they fall in love with it.  If you want to make your audience fall in love with your screenplay, you’ve got to make them fall in love with your character.  You’ve got to take them on a journey that surprises their expectations, touches something in them, and gives them the feelings their searching for, in ways that they didn’t even see coming.

And that’s why you need structure.

Structure Is Just a Delivery Mechanism For Your Character’s Journey

Imagining that you can create a great structure by using a mechanical formula is like expecting to buy a Flowbee and get a real haircut.

That’s why my screenwriting classes focus not on loglines, outlines, beat sheets or other formulaic models to be imposed on the outside, but instead on an organic process by which you can naturally discover the structure of your character’s journey.

A great structure evolves organically, just like a great relationship.  And just like a great relationship, it grows out of character, the choices they make, and the experiences they go through.

It starts when a character opens his or her mouth, and says or does something that you connect to.  And it ends when that character has gone through the most profound journey imaginable in relation to where he or she started the story.

If you learn to listen to your character closely, and how to craft scenes that drive the action of their story, your character will begin to reveal themselves to you in ways that surprise and exceed your expectations.

If you test them with the greatest challenges you can create for them, and with scenes that resonate for you emotionally, the shape of that journey will start to evolve organically, even if you never discover what Peripeteia means.

Along the way, you’ll learn that the real hook doesn’t come from an external idea, but from within your character.  Just like the things that truly make you fall in love have nothing to do with the dress or the biceps, and everything to do with the things you could never have seen in your partner until you really got to know each other.

Learn an Organic Approach To Structure

With these great new classes:

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

The scene is so brilliantly written, you probably barely noticed that you didn’t understand half of what these characters were saying to each other!

With characters talking faster than the ear can hear or the mind can process, there’s no way an audience can keep up with Sorkin’s dialogue. Heck, even Erica keeps losing the thread of Mark’s obsessively tortuous conversation, and she’s a smart cookie.

Like Erika, you probably found yourself breathlessly “dating a stairmaster” as you tried to keep up with even half of Mark’s relentless onslaught of words.

But here’s what you probably remember:

• Mark is mind numbingly obsessed with getting into a final club.

• Erica desperately wants to talk about ANYTHING else.

• These characters are both REALLY smart, but even Erika can’t keep up with Mark’s overactive mind.

• Mark pushes things too far and Erica breaks up with him.

• Erica furiously puts Mark in his place with this zinger: “You’re going to go through life thinking girls don’t like you because you’re a tech geek. And I want you to know…that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole”

As writers, we all love words. And nobody loves words more than Aaron Sorkin. But for all the subtle nuances of his language, Sorkin knows a secret that most young writers forget.

The Audience Isn’t Listening To Your Dialogue

It’s nice to think of your enraptured audience, hanging on your every word, lingering on your thematic motifs, and preparing treatises on the finer points of your arguments.

But the truth of the matter is that movie dialogue, just like real life conversation, usually happens way too quickly for that.

Audiences hear dialogue… but they pay attention to action. And that doesn’t just mean car chases and exploding buildings.

It means the things characters are doing with their dialogue: the powerful needs and dramatic conflicts between them that force them to say what they say in the way that only they could say it.

Get these underlying desires right, and you can get away with just about anything in your dialogue.

Why The Social Network Works

Let’s face it, if you heard a someone was planning to start a movie with an eight page conversation full of information about Harvard University final clubs, SAT scores and IQ percentages in China, you probably expected the most boring script in history.

Yet, despite the fact that the rather unlikeable main character spends the whole scene talking about stuff that most people (including his girlfriend) don’t have a shred of interest in, Sorkin’s scene is unmistakably compelling.

It’s Mark’s desperate desire to be appreciated and accepted for his superior intellect that fuels every word he utters. And ironically, it’s that same need that drives Erica away over the course of the scene. That is the drama that we are watching over these eight pages. Not the dialogue itself, but the pressure that dialogue creates between two characters who can’t get what they need from each other.

This allows the audience to connect to the story of the scene, and while we may lose some of the specific words within Sorkin’s complex verbal gymnastics, no one can escape the power of the scene, or the meaning that those words contain.

We learn that meaning not through the words themselves. But through the way those words are spoken, and the powerful needs that drive the characters to say them.

What The Heck is Dialogue Anyway?

Many young writers are terrified of dialogue, thinking of the character’s words as something they add to a script after they’ve figured out the story, and worrying about “getting it right” and making it sound “realistic”.

Others think of dialogue as a way of explaining things to the audience, and spend their time trying to “sneak in” exposition, without ever thinking about what their character wants, or why they are saying it in the first place.

Still, others love writing dialogue, but nevertheless find their scripts filled with “talking heads” scenes of characters sitting in a room, exchanging brilliant ideas without ever getting their stories started.

That’s why it’s so important to understand what dialogue actually is and what it does within a screenplay.

Just Another Way of Getting What You Want

If you want to write great dialogue, the first step is letting go of the conception that dialogue is something characters SAY to one another.

Instead, I want to encourage you to think of dialogue as something characters DO to one another.

Whether your characters are talking about a glass of milk (Quentin Tarantino’s first scene of Inglorious Basterds), or the very nature of dreams and reality (Christopher Nolan’s Inception), whether your dialogue is naturalistic as David Mamet’s (American Buffalo) or as heightened as David Milch’s (Deadwood), if the motivations underneath your dialogue are powerful enough, your audience will connect to them, and to the story of your scene.

A friend of mine recently sent me a chain email.  Normally, I just delete these without reading.  But because of the person who had sent it, I decided to take a look.

The email went something like this:

“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Enligsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.”

Of course the first thing it made me think about was screenwriting

Just like in the scrambled letters of this chain email, when it comes to understanding the scenes of your screenplay, your audience is not hanging on your every word.  Rather, they are processing the scene as a whole. 

That means an audience’s ability to decipher the meaning of your story may depend upon the choices you make at the beginning and ends of each scene.

The power of the first and last images

You can think of the first and last image of each scene as the moments that lock in each step of your character’s journey.

Get these moments right, and you can get away with all kinds of flights of fancy in between.  Get them wrong, and no matter how compelling your writing may be, your script may start to feel like it’s got about as much structure as a bowl of oatmeal.

The difference between “unerdtsnad” and “dnerdtsnau”

If you look closely, you’ll see that the only thing I’ve done is switch the and u the d at the beginning and the end of this word… yet the first translation reads like “understand” while the second is entirely illegible.

Similarly, simply by getting more specific about the images at the beginning and the end of each scene, you can pull an entire story into focus, and begin to capture the change, either literally or metaphorically, that your character has gone through within the scene.

As you start to learn more about Seven Act Screenplay Structure, you’ll discover that these little punctuated moments within your scenes not only make your screenplay more cinematic, but also become the organic building blocks for larger movements within your story, and ultimately for entire structure of your script.

Revolutionize your writing

Next time you sit down at your computer, start taking a closer look at the first image of each scene you write.  Give it a little tweak to make it more compelling, more unusual, more cinematic or more specific to your character.  Think about what your character wants, and what your character is doing when the scene begins.  Then play around until you’ve captured that action in a way that only they would do it.

Now, think about the last image of your scene.  How is it different from the one you began with?  How does it reflect the change your character has gone through in the scene?  Is it literal, or is it metaphorical?  What makes it unique to your character and your story?

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Jacob Krueger Announces the Raffle Winners

Winner: Mary Allen

2 Tickets to Jacob Krueger’s Upcoming
Inception & Hypnotic Structure Seminar

Winner: Dara Schlissel

$100 off ANY Screenwriting Class
at Jacob Krueger Studio

Winner: Harry Husted

2 Tickets to Fuerza Bruta

Winner: Scott Darda

2 Tickets to Venus in Fur on Broadway

Winner: Leonardo Pallenberg

$200 of the 2012 Screenwriting Retreat in Costa Rica

Winner: Inola McGuire

1 Month of Free Personal Training Sessions

Partygoers Indulge in the Tasty Libations at "Culture Fix"

Haven’t picked up the pen yet?  What are you waiting for?  That’s the great thing about the challenge, you can start anytime.

So grab your journal, find a pen, and start writing right now.  Start writing as fast as you can, finish your 3 pages, and you can call yourself a writer today.

Challenge yourself to keep up the rhythm for the next 30 days, and you’ll be shocked at how it changes your writing life.

In the meantime, get ready to party with us!  Because the annual CHALLENGE PARTY is happening on Jan 29th!  It’s free– and includes a free hour of open bar!  See details below.

Finally, for those of you who are applying for the 2012 Screenwriting Fellowship (win a Free Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat), remember the final late application deadline is Jan 31st at 11:59pm Eastern Time.   Help us spread the word.  Like us on Facebook, and invite your friends!

SCREENWRITING CHALLENGE PARTY!
With One Hour of FREE Open Bar (with RSVP)

Sunday, January 29th, 2012, 7-9pm
Culture Fix
9 Clinton Street, NYC
(between E Houston & Stanton)

Celebrate your achievement, enjoy free drinks, win screenwriting prizes, share your experiences, and make some new writer friends!  Free open bar from 7-9pm.  Space is limited.  You must RSVP.

THE JACOB KRUEGER SCREENWRITING FELLOWSHIP
Win A Free Screenwriting Retreat In Costa Rica (including airfare)!
Late Application Deadline: Jan 31st, 2012
Late Application Fee: $10
APPLY HERE

Imagine 10 days where the only thing you had to focus on was your screenwriting.  Imagine 10 days of world class professional mentorship to help you develop your craft and take your writing to the next level.  Imagine a community of writers that shares your goals, and can help you to achieve them.  Imagine it taking place in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Imagine if it were all free…

Prize Details

The Jacob Krueger 2012 Screenwriting Retreat will take place  June 19 – 28th , 2012 in Costa Rica.

Prize includes:

• Round Trip Airfare to Costa Rica.
• 10 days/9 nights in a Private Room.
• Breakfast and Dinner Every Day.
• Daily Yoga Sessions, Special Excursions and Surprises.
• The Retreat’s Full Schedule of Writing Classes, Writing Marathons, Movie Screenings and Seven Act Structure Lectures.
• A One-on-One Script Consultation With Jacob Krueger.

APPLY TODAY

Happy Writing!
Jake

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Was a Great Success!

But the party’s not over…come check out the work of our screenwriters at our Cold Cuts Reading Series on the first Thursday of every month!

But what if you’re struggling? What if your writing schedule is spotty or uneven? What if there were some days when you didn’t write a word.

Even the best writers have days when they feel like they just don’t have it in them. So this article is about understanding where writers block comes from, so you can start turning those tough writing days into days that you can be proud of…

Check out the article below for some great tips about what to do when it’s just not coming…

And mark your calendars for the following exciting events:

WRITE YOUR SCREENPLAY
4 Week Screenwriting Workshop
Starts Monday, Jan 23rd, 2012
In NYC or ONLINE
Only 5 Spots Left!  Learn More.

The 2012 Screenwriting Challenge Party!
(With 1 hour of Free Open Bar!)
Sunday, January 29th, 7pm – 9pm
Culture Fix
9 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002
(between E Houston & Stanton)

Free open bar from 7-8pm when you RSVP by Jan 28th at 1pm.

Celebrate your achievement, drink great wine, win prizes, share your experiences, and make some new writer friends!

Hope to see you all there!

ARTICLE
WHAT TO DO WHEN IT’S JUST NOT COMING
Understanding the Causes of Writers Block

Read The Article

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

I’ve heard from so many of you, expressing the excitement of those who are enjoying the challenge, as well as the questions of those who are struggling with it.

Here are some of the common questions that tend to come up with the challenge and some answers that may help you jump-start your writing.

Also, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce:

The 2012 Screenwriting Challenge Party!
(with 1 hour of Free Open Bar!) 

Sunday, January 29th, 7pm – 9pm
Culture Fix
9 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002
(between E Houston & Stanton)

Free open bar from 7-8pm when you RSVP by Jan 28th at 1pm. 

Come celebrate your achievement with the Jacob Krueger Studio community!  Have a free celebratory drink.  Share your experiences.  Mingle with fabulous writers.  And enter to win exciting screenwriting prizes, including a FREE screenwriting class!

If you missed the first newsletter and you’re not sure what all this Challenge stuff is about, find out more here.

Common Questions About The Challenge:

Question:

I really wanted to participate, but I missed the deadline to get started. Should I just wait until next time?

Answer:

It’s never too late to join the challenge. Go out today, buy yourself a journal, and get started. Give yourself 30 days, and start writing. The important thing is the commitment to writing every day, not the day you start or finish.

As writers, we often feel the urge to put off our writing for the “right” time, when we are less busy, less stressed out, have more time, more money, etc. We imagine some nearby future when we’ll have the time to pursue our passion. But as we all know too well, the “right” time never comes. We are always just a little too busy, too stressed, or too broke. And of course, the fact that we’re not writing makes those negative feelings even worse.

There’s only one guaranteed way to make the “right” time come, by carving out the tiny bit of time you do have right now, and using that to build the future you want.

Question:

I’ve been doing the challenge, but I hate everything I’m writing. And now I feel like I’m starting to lose steam.  

Answer:

As writers we play a strange game with ourselves. Instead of dwelling on our successes, we focus on our failures as evidence that we were not meant to be writers. Usually this has more to do with fear than anything else. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear that we don’t have what it takes.

When your judgment of your writing is based on fear, it has little connection to reality. You may dismiss brilliant writing as terrible simply because you are afraid that others won’t like it. Or you may fall in love with scenes that are not working, simply because they feel safe to you.

There are many ways to overcome these kinds of fears. Many writers find that it helps to join one of my Workshops or Master Classes, where you can receive honest feedback about what is actually working or not working in your writing, rather than playing out your worst fears in your head.

Writers block isn’t just about the actual writing. It’s about the subconscious, underlying emotions that get in the way of writing.

For deep rooted emotional blocks, many students set up private coaching sessions with me. In these sessions, we use cutting-edge hypnotic techniques to get under the surface, uncover the subconscious roots of your creative blocks, and eliminate them at the source.

Here’s something you can do today to put yourself on the path to discovering the writer within you:

Give yourself the permission to write badly.

All writers write badly, all the time. Even the true greats leave hundreds of discarded pages in their hard drives, never to see the light of day. Accepting that this is a natural part of the process allows you to focus your energy where it belongs: not on judging the pages, but on creating them.

When you give yourself permission to write badly, you are actually allowing inspiration in. You will notice that your writing becomes more fun and exciting, freer, and fuller. Writing ceases to be a chore, and begins to feel like an adventure. Before long, you’ll discover that you no longer have to drag yourself to your journal in the morning. You actually want to write!

Of course, there is a time when judging your work is important, when it’s time to invite the editing brain to the table, and give it free reign to pull apart the pages you’ve written. But it is not during the initial creation of your work. Remember, it is only by writing the bad stuff that you discover the good.

Question:

I started strong, but then I missed a day and got totally out of rhythm. Now I’m three days behind and it doesn’t seem worth it anymore. Maybe I’m not really dedicated to this after all.

Answer:

Usually when a writer is thinking about giving up, it’s more about fear than about rhythm. But there are times when we simply get off our game. Here’s the key: don’t let a couple of missed days get between you and your life as a writer.

If a vegetarian accidentally takes a bite of a burger, it doesn’t mean he is no longer a vegetarian. It just means he took a bite of a burger.

But countless writers will interpret a day or two of missed writing as evidence that they are not really dedicated to their craft.

Usually the truth is the opposite. If writing was just a hobby for you, you wouldn’t be agonizing over your missed writing days. You’d just find another hobby.

In fact, it’s probably your fierce dedication to being a writer that’s causing you so much agony. Because you’re not writing and you don’t understand why.

Dwelling in the past is not going to help you overcome this problem. The only way to get back into rhythm is by allowing yourself permission to not be perfect. There are going to be days that you miss. There might even be weeks.

The key is recognizing when you get off rhythm, and picking back up as soon as you do. Grab your journal, hide out for 15 minutes, and write today.

Soon, you’ll discover that you don’t even have to try to find your rhythm. Your rhythm will find you.

2012 SCREENWRITING CHALLENGE

Why The Challenge?

Let’s face it, the holidays are a brutal time for writers.

We all do our best writing when we get into a rhythm. But during the holiday season that rhythm can be impossible to maintain. Schedules get jammed with Christmas parties, gifts to buy, family visits and a little too much vacation time and the next thing you know you haven’t written for a month.

But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is starting up again.

Ideally, writing would be part of your daily routine. As natural as brushing your teeth, getting dressed for work, or drinking your morning coffee.

But for most writers this is rarely the case. Many of us write in fits and starts, waiting desperately for moments of inspiration, and spending most of our time beating ourselves up when that inspiration doesn’t come. And then, just when we get started on a rhythm, something happens to interrupt it.

I’m always amused when I participate in writing panels. Invariably, an eager young student asks a question about building a life as a writer. “What real writers do is write” insists one panel member after another, striving to out do each other as they speak of their unceasing dedication to their craft.

Having worked with writers for most of my professional life, I know the truth. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Academy Award Winner or a first time writer. Most of what writers do is NOT writing.

What writers really do is PROCRASTINATE.

Writers are brilliant at finding “important” tasks to interfere with their writing. Set aside a couple hours to write, and suddenly those dirty dishes start to call to you. The next thing you know you’ve cleaned your whole kitchen, scrubbed your shower tiles to a sparkling shine, reorganized your closet, updated your facebook photos, and still not written a single word.

You’re furious at yourself. But at the same time, a part of you feels like you didn’t have a choice. Time just got away from you. “I’ll write for twice as long tomorrow,” you reassure yourself. But tomorrow comes and four hours seems like an impossible amount of time. Even if you do manage to bang out a few pages, it’s impossible to derive any joy from them. And the next thing you know, you’ve gone a whole week, month, or even year without writing.

Under these circumstances it’s easy to doubt if you’re really a writer at all. You may even be tempted to give up on writing entirely. You feel so blocked that you don’t see any way out. But at the same time you know that giving up on writing would be giving up on the best part of yourself. So what are you supposed to do?

The difference between successful and unsuccessful writers is not that one group never gets blocked. The difference is that successful writers know how to maintain their creative rhythm even when inspiration is not flowing.

Start the New Year right by getting back into the rhythm of writing with this simple challenge:

Jacob Krueger’s
2012 SCREENWRITING CHALLENGE

On January 1st, go out and buy yourself a nice journal. Find something that speaks to your personality, and makes you feel like a writer. It’s okay to spend too much. Think of it as an investment in something you’re going to use every day.

On January 2nd, set your clock to wake you up 15 minutes early, and as soon as you open your eyes, grab your journal and start writing. You have 15 minutes to write three pages. You have no time to edit or even to think. Just go ahead and write whatever comes out as quickly as you possibly can. It may be a scene or parts of a scene. It may be a line of dialogue, or a monologue, or just thoughts about your character. It may flow together, or it may not flow together at all. Don’t even try to make it good. Just allow your first instincts to find their way onto the page.

You’re going to repeat this process every day until January 30th, writing three pages every morning until writing is such a natural part of your daily routine that it occurs without even thinking about it. Don’t read the pages you’ve written in the past. Just wake up, and start writing. You may find yourself continuing one storyline, or writing a new one every morning. If you get stuck, rewrite the scene from the day before from memory. It’s not important what you write. It’s important THAT you write.

It’s this rhythm that is going to make you a writer. So, if you sleep through one day, find 15 minutes to catch up later. Take your journal with you on the subway. Lock yourself in the bathroom at work. Stay up 15 minutes later that night.

On Sunday the 29th we’ll have a party to celebrate the work of everyone who is participating in the challenge, to share our experiences, and to make some new friends. (There will also be a raffle for some super screenwriting prizes!)

Finally, on January 30th, you’ll complete the challenge, and read your pages for the first time. You’ll be amazed at what you see.

Register now by submitting your name and email address below, and you’ll also be entered into a special drawing to win 2 free tickets to our next Seven Act Structure Seminar.

Also make sure to LIKE our new FACEBOOK PAGE where you can connect with our community of writers and share your experiences.

	Join The 2012 Screenwriting Challenge! Email:

Create The Steady Stream of Writing that Changes Your Life

If you wrote three pages a day for a year, at the end of the year, you’d have written (gasp!) three screenplays.

Even writing only one page a day, you’d finish three screenplays a year!

But getting that page written, day after day, can be a real challenge.

Our lives are filled with so many “urgent” demands from so many people, that sometimes the things that are really important end up falling to the wayside, simply because there is no one but ourselves to demand it from us.

If you’re going to succeed as a writer, you need to find a way to make whatever writing time you do have as urgent and non-negotiable as showing up for work in the morning.

You need someone to hold you responsible for hitting your goals, to let you know when you’ve done well, and to demand more out of you when you’ve fallen short.

If you’ve ever gone to the gym with a personal trainer, you know that even 45 minutes working out with a trained professional can do more for your body than 3 hours working out on your own.

That’s why I’m introducing a new service to help you keep your focus on what really matters to you.   It’s called Personal Training for Writers.   And it’s just like working out with a trainer in the gym:

Here’s how it works: 

• Subscribe for 3 months, 6 months, or a full year of weekly training sessions.

• Create Your Gameplan:  Discuss your writing goals with your personal trainer, and create a personalized writing schedule and regimen of exercises, to maximize the time you have, and integrate your creative goals with your daily life.

• Stick To Your Goals:  Halfway through your writing week, your Personal Trainer will call to check in on how you’re proceeding, answer urgent questions, and give you the guidance (or tough love) you need to meet your deadlines.

• Turn in Your Pages: Each week, you’ll submit up to ten pages of writing to your personal trainer, hitting your deadlines, on time, just like professional writers do.

• Get Personalized Feedback:  With weekly one-on-one sessions, during which you and your Personal Trainer will discuss the writing you’ve done, and set new goals to motivate you for the next week.

• Meet with your Trainer: from anywhere in the world: in-person in NYC, or online via video chat.

Students Save 50% or More on Personal Training!

Take any of our NYC Write Your Screenplay classes and save 50% off your first month of Personal Training for Screenwriters.

Don’t live in NYC?  Take a Write Your Screenplay class online, and receive up to a month of Personal Training for FREE.

Happy New Year! And Happy Writing!

Jacob Krueger

100 Rules and How To Break Them

Rule #6: You Need To Make Writing a Full Time Job

If you’re a writer, at some point you’ve probably heard yourself say some version of the following sentence:

“If I could just get (one day/one week/one month/one year) off from my (day job/kids/spouse/everyday life) to focus full time on my writing, then I could actually finish my (screenplay/novel/other creative project) and finally feel like a writer.”

At some point, maybe you even went for it.  Took a leave of absence, called out sick for a week, locked yourself in the library for a weekend and resolved to focus 24/7 on your writing…

…Only to find that your writing life didn’t change in the way you expected.

You imagined yourself writing every minute of every day, but instead found yourself unable to stick to your deadlines, blowing those precious hours on Facebook or solitaire, and creating new and inventive procrastination techniques that robbed you of your precious writing time.

You imagined the words flowing effortlessly onto the page, and instead found yourself staring at a blank screen, lost somewhere in the middle of your screenplay or afraid to even start.

You imagined being at one with your creativity, and instead found yourself alone in a scary place, feeling even more blocked, more overwhelmed, more stuck, and more frustrated.

Perhaps at that moment, you started to ask yourself “do I really want this?”  or “do I even have what it takes to be a writer?”

The Journey and the Destination

Building a healthy relationship with your writing is not about teleporting yourself to an alternate universe where everything changes overnight.

Rather, it’s about embarking on a journey with your creativity, through which writing gradually becomes so naturally integrated with your daily life that when you finally reach your destination, you may even find yourself wondering exactly how you got there.

Understanding The Power of a Single Drop of Water

Dump 100,000 gallons of water onto an arid desert, and you don’t get a river.  You get a terrifying flash flood that overwhelms everything in its path and then disappears just as quickly into the sand.

Let that same stream of water trickle slowly and steadily over time, and gradually a channel will start to form, getting deeper and wider until it becomes a mighty river, which can carry that water all the way to the sea.

This is how you build a writing life.  Not with a 100,000 gallon flash flood.  But with a small, steady trickle that gradually grows stronger and more powerful.  For most of us, the time to create that trickle already exists in our lives.  It’s just about making it a priority, and getting the support you need to make the most of the time you have.

How Much Time You Really Need To Write?

One of my most prolific students writes for 90 minutes a day. 45 minutes on the train ride to work.  And 45 minutes on the train ride back.

One of my good friends, Christine Boylan, a highly successful TV writer, writes in chunks of 48 minutes on and 12 minutes off-and forces herself to stop writing after 48 minutes no matter what in order to train her subconscious mind to follow her impulses and make decisions quickly.

The truth is that it doesn’t matter whether you have 5 minutes or 5 hours to write.  If you train yourself to set achievable goals, and then force yourself to stick to them, you will notice that your writing time, and the ease with which you generate material, starts to expand naturally.

5 minutes of writing in the morning gives rise to a whole day of thought about your screenplay.  During your coffee break, you jot down a couple of notes.  Instead of updating your Facebook status, you suddenly find yourself pounding out a scene.

That night, you don’t go home and turn on the TV.  You find yourself back at your computer, putting on the finishing touches on the work you’ve done.  You go to bed dreaming about your script, and you wake up the next morning racing to get everything out on the page before you leave for work.

You’re no longer writing because you have to write.  You’re writing because you want to write, because you already feel successful as a writer.  Not because of the huge goals you dreamed of, but because of the 5 minute goal you stuck to.

Create The Steady Stream of Writing that Changes Your Life

If you wrote one page a day for a year, at the end of the year, you’d have written three screenplays.  But getting that page written, day after day, can be a real challenge.

Our lives are filled with so many “urgent” demands from so many people, that sometimes the things that are really important end up falling to the wayside, simply because there is no one but ourselves to demand it from us.

If you’re going to succeed as a writer, you need to find a way to make whatever writing time you do have as urgent and non-negotiable as showing up for work in the morning.

You need someone to hold you responsible for hitting your goals, to let you know when you’ve done well, and to demand more out of you when you’ve fallen short.

If you’ve ever gone to the gym with a personal trainer, you know that even 45 minutes working out with a personal trainer can give you ten times the workout of hours spent working out on your own.

That’s why I’m introducing a new service to help you keep your focus on what really matters to you.   It’s called Personal Training for Writers.   And it’s just like working out with a trainer in the gym.

Here’s how it works:

• Subscribe: For 3 months, 6 months, or a full year of weekly training sessions.

• Create Your Gameplan:  Discuss your writing goals with your personal trainer, and create a personalized writing schedule and regimen of exercises, to maximize the time you have to write, and integrate your creative goals with your daily life.

• Stick To Your Goals: Halfway through your writing week, your Personal Trainer will call to check in on how you’re proceeding, answer urgent questions, and give you the guidance (or tough love) you need to meet your deadlines.

• Turn in Your Pages: Each week, you’ll submit up to ten pages of writing to your Personal Trainer, hitting your deadlines just like professional writers do.

• Get Personalized Feedback:  With weekly one-on-one sessions with your personal trainer.  Get in depth feedback on the pages you’ve  written, and the guidance you need to keep moving forward, so you can stay on track and growing as a writer.

• In Person or Online: Meet with your trainer from anywhere in the world: in-person in NYC, or online via video chat.

Students Save 50% or More on Personal Training!

Take any of our NYC Write Your Screenplay classes and save 50% off your first month of Personal Training for Screenwriters.

Don’t live in NYC?  Take a Write Your Screenplay class online, and receive up to a month of Personal Training for FREE.

April 23rd: 4 Week Screenwriting Workshop

WRITE YOUR SCREENPLAY

Mondays, 7-10pm
July 23 - Aug 13

4 Week Screenwriting Workshop With Award Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger. 71 W 23rd St, Suite 515, NYC or Online. LEARN MORE

Price: $300.00

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

What do most of Robert Altman’s films, and screenplays like Crash and The Tree of Life have in common?

They’re all ensemble pieces.

So why do so many screenwriting teachers warn against writing for ensembles? And should you dare to write an ensemble piece yourself?

Check out this new video for Scriptmag, in which I answer a student’s question about writing ensemble pieces, and give you some guidance about approaching ensembles in your own work.

If you’d like to learn more about The Tree of Life, don’t miss my upcoming Seven Act Structure seminar The Tree of Life & Hegelian Dialectical Structure.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Is your fear of cliche killing your writing?

In this video I recently recorded for Scriptmag, I discuss the screenplay for Crazy Stupid Love and how you can engage with your cliches in a healthy way, in order to set your creativity free and and create the kinds of fresh and exciting scenes you dream of writing.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

The Jacob Krueger Studio Screenwriting Fellowship

• No Entry Fee when you submit your screenplay by Jan 1, 2012

• Winner attends the 2012 Screenwriting Retreat FREE (expected destination: Costa Rica).

• Even your airfare is included!

For more information and to apply, check out our Fellowship Page.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

What are you thankful for in your writing?

So often, we spend our time criticizing ourselves, searching for what is wrong, and what can be improved in the words we write.  And certainly there is value in that part of the process.

But it’s important to remember that the real key to becoming the writers we want to be lies in identifying what we love.

When you identify on the things you love about your writing, you shift your focus away from the things you lack, and onto the wonderful gifts you already have.

In this way, you give yourself a foundation upon which to build, open yourself up to the opportunities in your writing, and invest yourself with the hope and excitement that will carry you through to the end.

So take a moment today, think about your writing, and write down the things you most love about it.

Think about your process.  What about it makes you happy?

Look at a scene you’ve written or a character you’ve created.  What do you most connect to?

What’s a line of dialogue you’re thankful to have discovered? A theme you’re thankful to have explored? A character you’re glad to have taken on a journey? Or an obstacle you’re grateful to have wrestled with and overcome?

Get specific about all the things you’re thankful for.  And then,  if you’d like, share some of them with us and with your friends by posting what you love about your writing to our new Facebook Page!

We’ll be thankful that you did!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jake

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Rule #5:  Show Don’t Tell

That you should “show” instead of “telling” is perhaps the most sound advice any screenwriter can follow.

After all, movies are visual, and it’s almost always more interesting to see someone do something right now in the present than to hear them talk about doing something, explain about feeling something, or worst of all reminisce about having done something in the past.

In general, telling leads to boring exposition that slows down your story, undermines your visual storytelling, and turns your characters into talking heads.

Showing, on the other hand, forces you to make exciting choices for your character, leading you naturally to the compelling images that drive your character’s journey forward and help your audience to connect to your story.

For all these reasons “Show Don’t Tell” is a mantra drilled into the mind of almost any student at almost any writing program in almost any genre anywhere in the world.

It’s just a good thing no one told Nora Ephron, or she could never have written When Harry Met Sally.

Here’s an Academy Award nominated script that somehow manages to break nearly every fundamental principle of screenwriting: monologues that run on for pages, characters that recount entire phases of their histories, and a multitude of scenes where characters do nothing but tell.

Had Nora Ephron taken the final draft of When Harry Met Sally to the average screenwriting teacher, she probably would have gotten a kind and supportive lecture about easy ways to “fix” her script simply by using “show don’t tell.”

You can probably imagine it now:

“Why don’t we just SEE Harry’s relationship with his ex-wife, rather than hear him talk about it during a baseball game?”

Yup, there goes the famous “doing the wave” scene at Yankee Stadium.

When Harry Met Sally works BECAUSE of it’s “telling” scenes, not in spite of them.

That’s because When Harry Met Sally is a movie about storytelling.

It begins with a story told by an elderly couple directly to the camera. And it ends with similar story told by the elderly Harry and Sally.

The movie is about the stories people tell themselves and each other about their relationships. These stories provide the fundamental structure of the screenplay; to tell the story in any other way would undermine the very instincts that made it worth telling in the first place.

Furthermore, by allowing the characters to tell their stories to each other, Ephron is able to keep her focus on the characters that matter, even as she covers large periods of time when they are apart.

We’re watching the story of Harry and Sally and Jess and Marie, not the story of Harry and his ex-wife or Sally and her ex-boyfriend.   These are the hot relationships in the movie, and the only characters we care about.

So, though these characters may spend half the movie “telling” their stories to each other, by allowing them to spend all their screen-time together, Ephron is actually showing us the story that matters.

When to follow the rules? And when to break them?

Make no mistake, it takes a heck of a lot of skill to write a story like When Harry Met Sally and make all that “telling” work for you. Ephron uses all sorts of advanced screenwriting techniques to keep her story moving, her drama building, and her characters growing, even as she breaks all the rules of this traditional principle of screenwriting.

In most cases, if you find yourself “telling” in your script, it’s worth at least asking the question of whether or not you’d be better off “showing” the scene dramatically. And if you’re not sure, it’s probably worth at least scribbling out a scene or two to find out.

But the most important thing to remember when it comes to “Show Don’t Tell” or any of the other so-called rules of screenwriting, is quite simply this:

The only rules that matter are the ones that serve your script and your intentions.

No matter how many screenwriting books you read, or how well meaning your teachers may be, when you start to listen to other people’s rules, rather than listening to your own voice as a writer, your writing is going to suffer.

So learn the rules. And then forget them. Listen to your script. Listen to your characters. And listen to the mentors who guide you toward your own rules.

That way, the rules you really can reveal themselves to you.

April 23rd: 4 Week Screenwriting Workshop

WRITE YOUR SCREENPLAY

Mondays, 7-10pm
July 23 - Aug 13

4 Week Screenwriting Workshop With Award Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger. 71 W 23rd St, Suite 515, NYC or Online. LEARN MORE

Price: $300.00

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Check out this new video I recently recorded for Scriptmag.com and learn how to discover a great ending for your screenplay.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Rule #4 THE INCITING INCIDENT

This installment of the 100 Rules series grows directly out of a question from a former student:

I have a question and thought I needed a fresh perspective from someone outside UCLA… I’m sort of getting in a fight with the teacher of my workshop about my inciting event. In my naturally rebellious style, I don’t think there is a rule that the inciting event has to nail us early in the script. I think it can actually be before anything is ever done on screen.  I’m being told that [an event that happens before the movie starts] can’t be my inciting incident... I’m just wondering your opinion.  – Dom C.

Opening The Door To Change

The inciting incident is just a fancy name writing teachers like to give to the moment that opens the door for change for a character.  And you’re absolutely right.  It’s often the case in movies that inciting incidents happen before the movie starts.

For example, in Thelma and Louise, the main characters have already decided to go on their road trip before the movie begins (though Thelma still hasn’t told her hubby).  Or, in Little Miss Sunshine, Uncle Frank has already decided to kill himself before the movie starts.

Getting Your Movie Moving

Having an inciting incident happen before your movie begins can often be a good thing, because it keeps the “normal world” of your script from becoming a “boring world” by starting the movie moving and your characters changing from page 1.

When this happens though, there’s usually a second inciting incident on page 10 – 12, that shocks us out of the “new normal” world set up by that original inciting incident, and opens the door to change.

For Thelma and Louise, it’s the moment Thelma flirts with the creepy guy at the truck stop who will later try to rape her.  In Little Miss Sunshine it’s the moment Olive hears the voicemail saying that she’s going to get to compete in the beauty pageant.

Is This A Rule You Can Break?

You are absolutely right that there are no rules in screenwriting.  God did not come down and proclaim that the inciting incident must happen by page 12 (that was Syd Field).

Many screenplays have pushed the inciting incident pretty deep down into the story and still worked brilliantly.  But if you have commercial aspirations for your script, it’s also worth noting that having a strong inciting incident early in your script will help lock an audience into your story, and help get you past the coverage readers that guard the kingdom.

Besides, if you don’t have an inciting incident where producers are expecting it, almost certainly at some point, some producer is going to create one for you.

You’re not going to like what they create.  So usually you’re better off giving them one yourself.

No Rigid Formulas

If your professor doesn’t believe an inciting incident can happen late in a movie, tell him to watch There Will Be Blood.  PT Anderson starts the movie with about 20 minutes of silent filmmaking before we ever get to the inciting incident.

However, when you read the script for There Will Be Blood, there’s the inciting incident, right where it’s supposed to be.  By page 6, Daniel’s friend has died, and Daniel is already stuck with the boy.  And just in case anyone was concerned that this was too early, there’s another inciting incident right where Syd Field says it should appear: on page 12, when Paul Sunday shows up to tell Daniel about the oil.

Anderson knows he’s not going to shoot it that way.  But he also knows if he doesn’t write it that way, executives are going to get nervous.

Similarly, Michael Clayton moves the end of the movie to the beginning, to create the sense of an exciting inciting incident before one has actually occurred.

Great writers know that that inciting incident is not a rule to which we must conform.  It’s a game we play in later drafts, in order to help us capture the attention of our audiences.

Discovering Your Inciting Incident

There are very few things more damaging to a young writer than obsessing over page count.  Great scripts come from stepping into a character, and taking them on a profound journey.  And it’s impossible to do this if you’re looking in on your script from the outside, and editing every word before your story even makes it onto the page.

The page 12 inciting incident is not where you start as a writer.  It’s where you end up.

It might take you 50 pages of writing to discover the amazing moment that ultimately becomes your inciting incident.  And if you’re so worried about hitting some magic number that you don’t allow yourself those 50 pages, you’re never going to discover the good stuff.

In which case, it’s not going to matter where your inciting incident happens, because nobody’s going to want to watch your movie.

Almost every scene has an inciting incident.

Though inciting incident is usually used as structural concept to discuss the moment that starts the engine on the entire film, the truth of the matter is that almost every scene in your movie is going to contain an inciting incident.

Another way to think of inciting incident is simply as the moment where things shift for your character:  the event that happens– within the scene, the act, or the entire movie– that interrupts whatever has become the normal world for the character, and changes your character or the world around him so that things can no longer be exactly the same as they were before.

This is why it’s often the little inciting incidents within each scene that are actually most important for you as a writer.  It’s these moments that keep your movie moving, and propel the force of your character’s journey.

If you are driving your story forward and forcing your character to change in little ways in each scene that you write, it’s inevitable that your character is going to go on a profound journey, and you’re going to discover those big turning points that producers are always so worried about.

Once you’ve allowed your character’s journey to play out to the greatest extent of your imagination and discovered those powerful scenes around which your movie turns, you can slice, dice, compress, revise or (if you’re like PT Anderson) downright cheat to make that moment feel producer friendly.

But until then, keep your focus where it belongs.  On your character.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

Rule #3: Be Careful Who You Pitch To

It’s a constant fear among young writers: finally coming up with that million dollar idea, only to have it stolen by some mustache twirling producer, some back-stabbing friend, or even worse, some untalented hack of a writer.

For this reason, scores of writers hide away their best ideas, terrified to share them with anyone for fear of losing them.

So, let me reassure you.

You don’t have to worry about anybody stealing your idea. Because somewhere out there in the wild world of screenwriting, somebody already has.

No, they didn’t sneak into your laptop while you were away and spirit off your precious Final Draft files. In fact, most likely, they’ve never even met you, or talked about your idea with you or anyone you know.

But if you’ve got an idea, there’s a good chance that there are at least 50 scripts with the same idea already circulating around Hollywood.

Who Invented Darwinism?

You probably haven’t heard of him, but during the same 20 years that Darwin was scribbling away on his revolutionary (and as-yet unpublished) Origin of Species, a guy named Alfred Russell Wallace was coming to the exact same conclusion.

Never imagining that he and the great Charles Darwin could be working on the exact same project, Wallace sent his short paper on the subject to Darwin, whom he’d never met, begging the famous scientist for some feedback before he sent it to the publisher!

Imagine Darwin’s horror at receiving Wallace’s paper—and you’ll understand why producers ask you to sign such insane legal contracts before they agree to read your work. There’s a good chance that somewhere out there, somebody else is already working on exactly the same project you are.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. But a great script is not.

When Darwin rushed his Origin of Species to the presses after reading Wallace’s paper, Wallace could easily have imagined that Darwin had stolen his idea. But Wallace had the exact opposite reaction. He and Darwin became good friends, and ultimately, Wallace would claim that his greatest scientific achievement had been prompting Darwin to finally publish his groundbreaking manuscript.

Wallace understood that it wasn’t the idea of Origin of Species that changed the course of science forever. It was the execution of that idea in a way that captured the attention of everyone who read it.

Similarly, it’s not the idea of your screenplay that’s going to make it sell. It’s the execution of that idea in a way that captures the essence of that idea, and translates it in a way that captures the audience’s attention.

All Writers Steal. And You Should Too.

Darwin and Wallace were not the first scientists to muse about evolution, nor was Shakespeare the completely original inventor of all his plays.

Romeo and Juliet was stolen from the Roman myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. Hamlet is just an update of an older play called The Ur-Hamlet.

The Big Lebowski steals unabashedly from The Big Sleep. And its main characters are not so loosely based on a couple of real life guys who were friends with the Coen Brothers.

And remember that great truck chase scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark? It’s stolen from an old movie called Stagecoach.

Great writers steal liberally from everyone and everything around them: people, places, history, events, novels, plays, poems, songs, art, and yes, even other screenplays.

They take these elements, draw upon them for inspiration, change, adapt, and repurpose them for their own writing, and in this way build upon the work of all the great writers who have gone before them.

Though they may have been inspired by the same sources, Romeo and Juliet is not Pyramus and Thisbe. Hamlet is not The Ur-Hamlet. The Big Lebowski is nothing like The Big Sleep. And Raiders of the Lost Ark could never be confused for Stagecoach.

That’s because no matter how similar the ideas they start with may be, it’s almost impossible for two writers to write the exact same script.

No One Can Write Your Script But You.

Translating an idea into screenplay form is intensely personal work, requiring thousands of intuitive creative decisions at every turn. And no two writers will ever make those decisions in the same way.

Even if another writer were to steal, stumble upon, or be gifted by the screenwriting gods with the exact same “million-dollar idea” that you are currently working on, the chances of them writing a script that’s anything like the one you’ve created are extraordinarily slim.

So stop protecting your writing. If someone thinks they can write your movie better than you can, tell them to go for it! And then go out and steal some good inspiration for yourself.

Why Darwin Almost Got Scooped.

Despite his 20 years of work on the subject, his fame and his reputation in the industry, Darwin was so afraid to go out and pitch his revolutionary idea that he almost got beaten to the punch.

This is the same mistake that so many young writers make, clinging so tenaciously to their ideas that they never have a chance to share them with anyone.

If you’re going to sell your idea, you’re going to have to pitch it. And if you want to figure out your script, you’re going to have to share your writing and see how other people respond.  Take a class.  Talk to your friends.  Share your writing.  Get the feedback you need.

My father used to tell me, you can’t catch a fish if your hook isn’t in the water. And the same thing is true for pitching. If you’ve got a great idea, then write the script, and start shouting about it to the world. Because that’s the only way you’re going to sell it.

The Difference Between Stealing and Stealing.

There’s a big difference between “stealing” someone’s idea and repurposing it for your own writing, and literally stealing somebody else’s script.

It’s rare that an experienced producer will actually steal a script from a writer. Anyone who’s ever produced a movie knows it’s much cheaper and easier to pay you for your screenplay than to defend a plagiarism lawsuit.

Nevertheless, the bad kind of stealing does happen occasionally, so there are steps you should take to protect yourself.

(please note that I am not a lawyer and the following does not constitute legal advice).

1. Always register your script with the US Copyright Office before you send it to anyone.
2. There is no such thing as a poor man’s copyright. You spent months or maybe years of your life writing the script. It’s worth paying the fee.
3. Keep clear records of everyone you send your script to, so you can prove they had access. Email is great, because it provides an automatic record.
4. Don’t send your script to the shady guy you met on Craigslist. Send it to real producers with established credits who know better than to rip you off.
5. Remember that WGA registration does not protect your copyright. It only helps in case of a credit arbitration.
6. Write the darn script!  You can’t copyright your idea, but you can copyright the execution.  So go out there and execute it in the way only you can.  Start today!

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

But this series is called 100 Rules and How To Break Them for a reason. So get ready to learn how to make flashbacks work for you by looking at three great movies that broke all the rules with flashbacks, and succeeded because of it!

100 RULES AND HOW TO BREAK THEM:

FLASHBACKS PART 3:  Making The Past Present

What do Blue Valentine, Memento, and Sophie’s Choice have in common?

They’re all chock full of flashbacks.  Yet not one of them suffers from the problems we’re supposed to be so worried about when using flashbacks.

Somehow, the writers of these films have managed to keep their stories driving forward, despite having a vast amount of the plot take place in the past.

And as a result they not only succeed in spite of flashbacks, they’re better movies because of them.

So how did these movies succeed when so many others failed?

Making The Past Present

Flashbacks get in the way of your storytelling when they start to drive the action of your story backward.  That means if you’re going to succeed with flashbacks you’re going to have to find a way to make the past feel present.

In their own ways, Blue Valentine, Memento, and Sophie’s Choice all manage to do the same thing: take the information contained in the past, and translate it into a form that feels like it’s happening in the present.

Flashback Your Character, Not Your Audience

The first key to making the past present is making sure your flashback is happening for your character, and not just for your audience.

Flashbacks that exist only to give the audience information by their very nature undercut the structure of your movie, by taking both your and your audience’s eyes off the primary element of structure: your main character’s present day journey.

On the other hand, by forcing your character to a point where they have no choice to flash back at this moment, you cause your character to deal with the flashback in the present—driving the action of your present story forward even as you flash back to the past.

Past Becomes Present In Sophie’s Choice, Blue Valentine and Memento

Think about Sophie’s Choice.  A long time ago, while a prisoner in a concentration camp, Sophie was forced to choose between her two children: which would live, and which would die.

But it’s not until the action of the present day story forces Sophie to once again to make an impossible choice (this time between two men who love her)– that Sophie finds herself revisiting the memory she’s been running from.  We flash back at the same moment Sophie does.  And for this reason, the past feels present.

In Blue Valentine the same effect is achieved through echoed images and parallel moments, which force the main characters to remember the birth of their relationship, even as its falling apart.

And in Memento it’s the journey of reconstructing his past that leads the character to remember those past events—right now, in the present day story.

Earn Your Flashbacks 

One of the keys to making sure your flashbacks exist for your characters and not just for your audience is to ask yourself the following question:

Could your character have flashed back to this memory a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later in the story?

If your character could have flashed back at any time other than this moment, there’s a good chance that you are that you’re yet earning your flashbacks.

And most likely those unearned flashbacks are just sitting there like the unneeded information they are, interrupting the flow of your story.

That doesn’t mean you have to kill your flashback.  It just means you have to push your character harder—until they have no choice but confront the memory, whether they want to or not

Just The Beginning

Of course, there are many other ways you can make flashbacks work in your screenplay.  As in Blue Valentine, you can build two linear stories, and use the tension between them to create a sense of drama.

As in Memento, you can build your flashbacks as a mystery, and slowly reveal the information in a way that affects your character’s present day journey.

And as many writers in my classes have learned, you can play around with flashbacks during the early stages of writing your screenplay, even if you don’t know if or how they’re going to fit into your final draft.

When a Flashback Comes To You, Write It

Even if it never makes it into the final draft of your screenplay, following your instincts with flashbacks can help you get in touch with your characters, understand their desires, flush out their secrets, and identify their weaknesses.

Sometimes, you’ll find that following your instincts leads to a flashback that fits perfectly into your movie.  And other times, you’ll have to work to make it feel present, either by earning the flashback, or translating its most exciting elements into the present day journey of your character.

As with all writing, when dealing with flashbacks the important thing to remember is not to play by the rules—not mine or anyone else’s—but to listen to your characters, follow your instincts, and take the gifts your writing gives you.

Ready To Take The Next Step?

Inspire your writing.  Hone your craft.  Take a class.

Come check out my new seminar:

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Seven Act Structure

Wednesday, Nov 2^nd, 2011

7 – 9 pm

71 W. 23^rd Street, Suite 515, NYC
In Person or Online

Only $35 Bucks When You Buy In Advance!  ($45 at the door)

SIGN UP NOW

Flashbacks, Part 2:  Dancing With The Devil

As I discussed in Part 1 of the flashbacks series, flashbacks can be extraordinarily powerful storytelling devices.  But they’re also dangerous territory for young writers.  For this reason, many screenwriting gurus insist on rigid rules that scare young writers away from using flashbacks at all.   

While that will definitely keep you out of trouble, it probably won’t bring out your best writing either.

So if flashbacks are calling you, there’s nothing wrong with dancing with the devil in your writing.  Just make sure you understand him first.

Here are the top three reasons why flashbacks can be dangerous for young writers:

Reason #1: Movies move!  And a lot faster than you think.

Generally, when movies are working, they’re hurtling forward at a breakneck pace, propelling your character on the most powerful journey of his or her life in a mere 100 pages.

Flashbacks can stop this forward motion and reverse the momentum of your story, driving your character’s journey backwards when you want it to be moving forwards.

Imagine if you were driving your car at 100 miles per hour, and suddenly slammed it into reverse. That’s exactly the effect that a poorly executed flashback has on a screenplay—killing the transmission just when things were finally starting to get moving.

Reason #2:  Exposition Is Boring

Nine times out of ten, flashbacks exist in a movie purely to explain stuff to the audience.  We call this stuff exposition, and it absolutely kills drama.

No matter how exciting the content of your flashback may seem, if it exists only to explain stuff to the audience, it’s probably not going to have the effect you intended.

Audiences come to movies to watch drama—a character pursuing something they desperately want in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles—not to find out information about stuff that happened a long time ago.

Watching a movie filled with expository flashbacks is the equivalent of having an annoying friend whispering in your ear the whole time, explaining why things are happening, instead of just letting you experience the character’s journey.

Reason #3:  If You’re Focused On The Audience, You’re Not Focused On The Character.

Even more dangerous than the problems flashbacks can pose for your audience is the confusion they can create for you as a writer.

Whether you’re working on your first script or your hundredth, the biggest challenge of every screenplay is the same—creating the most powerful journey you can for your character.

This means stepping into your character’s world, and seeing the story through your character’s eyes.   Which is impossible to do if you’re spending all your time thinking about the audience.

Most likely, your character is well aware of his or her past.  And if he or she spends all her time moping about it, the chances are they’re not going to go on much of a journey.

Unless your character is a time traveller, his or her journey can only happen in the present—since it’s only in the present that your character can make choices that matter.  In the words of Shakespeare, “what’s past is prologue.”  The past is inherently undramatic, because there is nothing the character can do to change it.

By depending on flashbacks young writers often unwittingly rob themselves of the opportunity to dramatize the character’s journey in the present.

Because flashbacks by their very nature interrupt the flow of your story, they can trick you into thinking your character is changing, when they are actually treading water.  It seems like so much dramatic action is happening—but actually what the audience is experiencing is a bunch of smoke and mirrors.  The movie isn’t happening.  It’s already happened.

By abstaining from flashbacks, you force yourself to make the past present—to keep your eye on the journey of your main character, and to dramatize the action of his or her journey in the present day story, rather than relying on flashbacks to create the feeling of drama for you.

Flashbacks Are Dangerous.  But That Doesn’t Mean You Should Fear Them.

It’s true that flashbacks can be hostile territory for young writers.  But there’s no doubt that some of the greatest movies ever could never have been written without them.  The best writers know they don’t have to fear flashbacks.  They simply need to find ways to use them that enhance their character’s present day journeys.

Stay tuned for the final installment of the flashbacks series, in which I’ll be discussing three ways you can make your flashbacks work for you, and looking at the creative and effective use of flashbacks in Memento, Blue Valentine and Sophie’s Choice. 

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

As part of this new series, I’ll be exploring one of the so-called “rules of screenwriting” and showing both why they exist, and how to break them in exciting ways that expand and deepen your writing.

Rule #2:  ”Don’t Use Flashbacks”

As any screenwriting teacher will tell you, flashbacks almost always mean big trouble for young writers.

No matter how exciting their content may seem to be, by their very nature flashbacks almost always kill the drama of a story, distracting both writer and audiences from what is most important in a script: the main character’s present day journey.

For this reason, it’s become dogma among screenwriting gurus, enlightened producers, and film professors that flashbacks should be avoided at all costs.

Good advice.  Except for the fact that sometimes flashbacks just plain work.  

Can you imagine what would happen if the writers of great films like Memento, Sophie’s Choice, or Blue Valentine had clung to the rules about avoiding flashbacks?

Their films would have lost some of their most powerful elements– and possibly never even been written in the first place.

While avoiding flashbacks may be a good rule of thumb for keeping you out of trouble, the real question is not whether or not you should use flashbacks, but how they are affecting the drama of your story.


Deciding whether or not flashbacks are working in your screenplay is not about simply following a rule. 

It’s about developing a nuanced approach, based on your intentions for your project, the visual language of your writing, and the shape of your story.

That means understanding the problems flashbacks pose, so you can make sure the flashbacks in your story are propelling things forward, rather than stopping your movie in its tracks.

Stay tuned for the next installment in which I’ll be exploring the top three reasons why flashbacks can be so dangerous, as well as an approach to dealing with flashbacks that can help you break the rules, and make them work for you, rather than against you.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

The first five days have been full of excitement.

We’ve had two writing marathons, watched and dissected the Seven Act Structure of Lars and the Real Girl,  There Will Be Blood, Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, and Blue Valentine, and explored the rice fields and the sacred temples of Ubud.

One student, Maria Cruz, has even completed the first draft of her screenplay!

Here are some photos from our adventures:

GRAND FlAGallery WordPress plugin

Introducing my new series “100 Rules and How To Break Them!”  Each post, I’ll be analyzing one of the so called “rules” of screenwriting, and exploring both why they exist, and how to break them in interesting ways that make your writing better and your stories more powerful.

RULE #1 – WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

One of the most misleading ideas in screenwriting is that as a writer you should “write what you know.”

On its surface, this is a brilliant idea.  After all, writing what you know means you’re a whole lot less likely to get into trouble in your writing—and even your fiction is a whole lot more likely to be rooted in truth.

As anyone who’s ever told a lie can tell you, building on pure fiction is like building on quicksand.

Things might look so much easier for awhile, but pretty soon one fabrication piles upon another until you’re spending all your time trying to keep your story from from collapsing on itself.

Writing what you know makes things so much easier.  Rather than reinventing the wheel, you get to focus on something you know profoundly well, conjure it for your audience, help them to connect with it, and take them on a journey in relation to it.

But of course, if great writers truly only wrote what they knew, some of the greatest works of fiction would never have existed.

I think it’s safe to say George Lucas never spent much real time “a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away”.  Nor were JRR Tolkien or Peter Jackson ever abducted by Gandalf.

You don’t have to be a serial killer or an FBI agent to write “The Silence of The Lambs”.  You don’t have to be a mobster to write “Goodfellas”.  And you don’t have to be a pet detective to write “Ace Ventura.”

As writers, we know on some level that our job is to invent.  We are creators of fiction…  So how are you supposed to write what you know, when you’re conjuring a world you never lived in, or a character whose life you’ve never experienced?

The trick with writing what you know is not to write what you know literally—it’s to write what you know emotionally.

George Lucas may not have known Darth Vadar—but he was deeply connected to the idea of the Force.  That’s what makes the early movies so powerful—and its absence is what makes the later movies so easily forgettable.

JRR Tolkein may not have dwelled in Middle Earth, but he clearly understood the nature of addiction:  the irresistible urge to put on the precious ring of power—even knowing that it draws the dark lord closer.  And the way the end of that addiction—with the destruction of the ring by the ultimate addict, Gollum, also means the end of the age of magic, and the beginning of the age of man.

What a great writer does is not simply to write the literal truth of what he or she knows.  What a great writer does is to translate what she knows into a fiction that tells the truth even more powerfully than the literal truth ever could.

Check back for the next article in the “100 Rules and How To Break Them” series.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Ever pour your heart into a scene and still feel like there was something understated or lackluster?

Learn to turn every screenwriter’s worst enemy into an ally by asking one simple question:

Want to know what that question is?

Learn all about it by watching my new video blog:  THE PASSOVER QUESTION

Syd took the world’s greatest screenplays, and broke them down into his now famous three-act structure, identifying the elements that made them work, and showing aspiring screenwriters a simple way to emulate those elements in their own scripts.

Hollywood was never the same.

Suddenly, every production executive, aspiring screenwriter, script consultant and screenwriting teacher had a magic formula for success. All they had to do was copy Syd Field’s magical three act formula and surely their movie would be as successful as the films that inspired it.

Three act structure broke screenwriting into three simple acts of creation:

ACT ONE: the beginning.

ACT TWO: the middle.

ACT THREE: the end.

And then, Syd rested. And said it was good. 

There was only one problem. It didn’t actually work.

As brilliant as three-act structure was for describing finished drafts, and as much valuable information as Screenplay contained, as a tool for developing new material, it was often disastrous. 

Writers using three-act structure tended to find themselves “lost in the second act,” wandering in a 60 page wasteland of plot, without the slightest sense of how it all related to their character’s journey.

Producers imposing three-act structure in script development often landed their most promising material in “development hell“– the dreaded place where screenplays go to die once they’ve been “perfected” to a point where absolutely no one wants to make them.

How is it possible that a structure based upon the most successful screenplays in history could prove so completely counterintuitive when it came to creating new work?

Simple. Syd Field’s approach to writing doesn’t work because nobody actually writes that way.

Writing is a messy, complex, and intuitive process. A fascinating dance between the editing and creative parts of the writer’s mind. It doesn’t work in a straight line. It works in ever expanding circles.

It’s one thing to look at a screenwriting masterpiece, identify the beginning, middle and end, and reverse engineer the structure that holds it all together.

It’s quite another to start with the blank page, a rough draft, a great idea, or a compelling character and organically discover the great story that lies within.

That’s why I developed Seven Act Structure.

Seven Act Structure takes your focus off of rigid formulas and critical ideas, and puts it back where it belongs: on creating the most compelling journey for your main character.

It breaks down the movement of your story into manageable chunks, so that you can wrap your head around the complexities of your character, and their journey, without feeling overwhelmed by all you’re trying to accomplish.

And most importantly, Seven Act Structure honors the intuitive and mysterious nature of the writers craft, allowing you to develop your story organically, one step at a time, even when you don’t know exactly where it’s leading.

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the series

If screenwriting was just about playing happily and freely, if you could simply free your creative child to play, your job would be done, and you and your inner artist could now dance off into the sunset.

But just like any child, if your inner artist is going to give you the kind of writing you can use to build your writing career, it’s going to need some guidance.

Different children need different kinds of parenting. And the same is true for different kinds of inner artists.

When I was growing up, my mom used to laugh that she could let me play out on the front lawn for hours with barely an eye on me, and never have to worry for a moment.

The same is true for my inner artist. When I write the first draft of a screenplay, I barely have to worry consciously about structure, outlining, hook, or any of the stuff they teach in screenwriting books. For the most part, I just need to allow my inner artist to play, and I’ll know he’ll get there.

This is true for many different reasons.

The first is that my inner artist is super-educated. From a lifetime of reading, writing, watching movies, breaking down scripts, learning from great writers, trying new approaches and reading just about every book on writing he’s become an “old soul” who just knows how to do it.

But he’s also just “that type of kid”– just like I was growing up. Give him too much structure, and he feels trapped. Give him freedom, and a little gentle guidance here and there, and he’s blissfully happy.

My sister, on the other hand, was an entirely different kind of kid. Crack the door an inch, and Carina would be off dashing happily into traffic with my mom chasing frantically after her.

If your inner artist is built more like Carina– you can’t just leave her unattended in the front yard to follow her impulses.

Because as brilliant and talented as she may be (Carina grew up to be a Harvard educated doctor) she also needs some structure to keep her safe.

At the same time, if you’ve got an inner artist like Carina, you’ve got to resist the urge to put her in a cage. Because she may be “safe” in there, she’s not going to be happy, and she’s going to fight you like crazy to escape.

This is where so many screenwriting gurus, screenwriting books and programs go wrong.

They put so much focus on “adult” stuff: outlines, image systems, rules and principles of “good writing” that your inner artist doesn’t get to have any fun at all. And soon, no matter how nice you treat her, she still doesn’t want to play.

To understand this, all you have to do is take a kid like Carina to a playground. Insist that she has to play on the swings, and she will kick and scream and cry and fight. But put her in a nice safe area with lots of great stuff to play with, let her run around madly for awhile from the swings to the slide to the sandbox to the jungle gym, and eventually you’ll be surprised to find her settling down into one area where she really wants to play.

It may be the swing set you intended for her. Or it may be something else that’s even cooler. But at that point, you’ll be amazed at the endless creativity she’ll show you. The hardest part will be getting her to leave!

Become the perfect parent for your unique inner artist.

As writers, when we become obsessed with forcing our inner artists to perform the way we want them to, we cut ourselves off from our best writing and the endless source of creativity within us.

But when we create just enough structure to keep our inner artists safe, our characters moving forward and our stories developing, and free our inner artist to play and explore within that fabulous playground, writers block becomes a thing of the past.

It’s impossible to be blocked when you’re having fun.

If you enjoyed this series of articles, and want help striking the balance with your own inner artist, I invite you to check out my Summer Screenwriting Classes starting July 25^th and my upcoming 10 Day Screenwriting Retreat Oct 1-10 in Bali, Indonesia.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

Click here to read Part 1 & Part 2 of the series.

Here’s a great exercise that can get you started changing the way you relate to your inner artist. Next time you find yourself feeling blocked, listen for the words you’re saying to your inner artist. It might be hard to hear them at first. You may just feel a general sense of anger, frustration, or despair. But if you listen carefully, you’ll find that there are words underneath. Go ahead and write them down.

Now, in a second column, replace each of these negative comments with two positive comments.

Sound easy? Here’s the trick.

Your positive comments must be true. And you have to believe them.

Like all children, your inner artist can detect false praise from 200 miles away. You’ll feel silly saying it. And they won’t believe you anyway.

For example, if you heard yourself saying “this dialogue sucks” your first instinct might be to replace it with “This dialogue is awesome!” and “I love this dialogue!”

But the truth is, if you were already in the place where you could believe that, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.

So instead, you’ve got to work hard to find something that you can believe. For example, “this dialogue sucks” might transform into a statement of curiosity like “I wonder how this character talks?” And while you might not be able to say “I love this dialogue” you might be able to say “I like the idea of this line”.

When you switch abusive statements into positive ones that you can truly believe, you allow your inner artist to stop cowering in the corner, and start to get curious and creative.

You give them a foundation upon which to build, by honoring the work they’ve already done, and pointing them in the right direction.

Invite your inner artist to start trusting you again.

If you’ve ever worked with an abused child, you know that establishing this trust may take time. And it may even take counseling. But if you keep on using this exercise, you’ll be shocked one day when your inner artist suddenly shows up at the computer, and you start to feel the excitement with writing you once felt as a child.

Check out the final installment of this series, in which I’ll be discussing how to take these concepts to the next level, and get your creative child to play ways that serve your grown up creative goals.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Click here to read Part 1 of the series

Have you ever felt cut off from your inner artist?

Do you feel like there was once a childlike spirit of creativity inside you, that now no longer wants to come out and play?

Do you find yourself dragging yourself reluctantly to your keyboard… or even worse not dragging yourself there at all?

Do you feel like you’ve lost your creative inner-child?

We say things to our little inner artist that we would never say to any other human being, let alone a child. In fact, in the real world, if anyone saw you treating a child the way you treat your inner artist, they’d be rushing off to call social services.

When we abuse the creative child inside us, it starts to behave like most abused children: becoming glum, rebellious, fearful, and depressed.

What used to feel like play now feels like being force fed celery and chopped liver. And before long, your inner artist doesn’t want to play with you anymore, no matter how good your intentions for it may be.

Breaking The Cycle of Abuse

This isn’t your fault. Since you were in kindergarten, and the first well meaning adult told you to “think before you speak” or made you feel ashamed for acting on your impulses, you’ve been taught to censor your inner artist. This works great for preparing you for your place on the Henry Ford assembly-line of life. But it’s deadly for writers. And until you become aware of the way this innate self-censorship is affecting you, it’s like having a wall between you and your creative brain.

In my screenwriting classes here in New York and Online, I teach a unique feedback style designed to reframe the way you communicate with your inner artist and with your fellow writers. The result is a unique community that understands what it’s like to be an artist, and can help you nurture your creative child, while still building toward your creative goals.

A Reframing Technique You Can Use Now

If you have trouble breaking the abusive cycle with your inner artist, resist the urge to beat yourself up about it. This will only add to the cycle of self abuse. Instead, focus on becoming aware of your patterns, and seeking out the support you need to help you build a positive relationship with your creativity: a good screenwriting class, a hypnosis session for writer’s block, or a one on one script consultation to get you back on the right track with your writing.

Check out next week’s article, in which I’ll be sharing a reframing technique you can use right now to break the cycle of abuse with your inner artist.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Imagine 10 days of world class professional mentorship to help you develop your craft and take your writing to the next level.

Imagine a community of writers that shares your goals, and can help you to achieve them.

Imagine it taking place in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Imagine if it were all free…

THE JACOB KRUEGER SCREENWRITING FELLOWSHIP

The 2012 Jacob Krueger Screenwriting Fellowship is a free screenwriting competition which awards one early career screenwriter a full scholarship to Jacob Krueger’s 2012 Screenwriting Retreat in Costa Rica.  Even your airfare is covered!

There are no entry fees of any kind for screenplays submitted by the event deadline.

Simply submit a full screenplay in appropriate format and answer the questions on the submission form.

Screenplays will be judged by an independent panel of industry professionals.

Click here for more information and complete rules.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

A child doesn’t wonder if she’s playing with her My Little Pony correctly, if her action figure has an appropriate story arc, or if an audience will connect with her main character.  A child doesn’t watch the clock, wonder if she has anything valuable to say or put off playing for another time so that she can wash the dishes.

A child simply plays, naturally connected to the limitless source of creativity within.

It was this feeling of creative connection that most likely lead you to become a writer in the first place.  But if you’re like most writers, you’ve probably found that as you’ve grown up, your relationship with that childlike inner artist has changed.  Sometimes your writing is flowing, and other times it feels like you’re in a barren desert without a spark of creative life.

There are so many things that come between us and our writing as we get older. Professional aspirations, fear of being judged, misguided teachers, confusing or contradictory feedback, deep rooted emotional blocks, writing for others instead of yourself, and the tremendous pressure we put on ourselves to succeed.

Every writer struggles with writers block at some point in their career.

And sometimes when things get bad enough, we can start to wonder if that creative child is still there at all, or if we’ve somehow lost it along the way.

Learn to play again.

Check out one of my workshops, and learn how to get your creativity flowing freely again. Discover the tools you need to recapture the joy of writing, and shape the playful creativity of your inner artist into the kind of screenplay you have always dreamed of writing.

Stay tuned for next week’s article, in which I’ll be describing some of the road blocks that stand between writers and their inner artists, and ways you can begin to overcome them.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

In Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this series I discussed the Hegelian dialectic between Nature and Grace represented by Jack’s father and mother, and the way that dialectic is used to give structure to the film.

The Dialectic Within Jack

Just as Thesis and Antithesis are embodied within the characters of father and mother, so too are they embodied within Jack. And it’s through Jack’s wrestling with both sides of the dialectic that we experience his journey, in relation to his mother, his father, his community, his God, and most importantly, his brother.

Jack’s journey is an evolutionary one. The first phase takes him away from the Grace of his mother, and toward the violent Nature of his father—a nature Jack pushes even further than his father would dream, by letting go of love almost entirely and succumbing to hatred, jealousy, and betrayal in their rawest forms. He rages against the mother who loves him, contemplates killing his father while he works under the car, and betrays the trust of his adoring brother when he shoots him with the bb gun.

The second phase of his journey takes him back toward his mother’s Grace, as he makes peace with his brother, and tries to once again be deserving of his brother’s trust and love.

But just as Nature failed to protect him, so too does Grace.

Despite Jack’s love, his brother is taken from him, leaving him completely alone in the world, isolated from his family, his work, and from God.

Eden is lost, and to find his way back, Jack must somehow find a new Synthesis that reconciles the dialectical opposites of Grace and Nature in his world and in himself.

The Dialectic of Images

This is what it means to truly wrestle with a question—to push both sides of a dialectic to their extremes of success and failure, and expose how they both work and don’t work in the universe.

But Malick pushes his dialectic to a cosmic level, which transcends time, space and even character relationships. In almost every image of the film, he captures the omnipresence of death within beauty, and beauty within death. Nature within Grace, and Grace within Nature.

In the big picture, his opposing styles of storytelling for an even bigger Hegelian dialectic, between the vastness of the earth, time, universe and God captured in the meditative sequences, and the small, family drama of earthly realities, pain, and beauty that seem so important in the family story, and so small when juxtaposed against the scope of the universe—building toward a profound synthesis, which doesn’t try to answer the question, but instead to surrender to it.

And in that surrender, to finally find catharsis.

The Dialectic of The Film Itself

Like movies such as Memento and 500 Days of Summer, The Tree of Life tells its story in a non-linear way in order to capture the essence of its main character’s experience.
Rather than unfolding linearly, the story unfolds dialectically, stepping into the swirl of memories in Jack’s mind, and juxtaposing moments of Grace and Nature from his past and his present.

But it’s actually the strong linear journey, and the character driven dialectic underneath all these flash forwards, flashbacks, and meditative sequences that allow the film to jump around in time so effectively.

Once you’ve created a strong linear journey for your character, you can slice it up, flash it back, take it out of order or toss it like a salad. You can play around like an experimental jazz artist, departing from the beat and then finding it again. And if you do it right, your audience will delight in putting together the pieces, and figuring out how they are connected.

But if you start tossing before you know the real structure of your film, you’ll be left with the kind of cooking no one wants to eat.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

As discussed in Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, The Tree of Life is built around a dialectic between Nature, as represented by Jack’s father, and Grace, as represented by his mother.

When using a Hegelian Dialectic to structure your screenplay, it’s important to remember that your characters are more than just the ideas they represent.

They are also people, complete with complexities, contradictions, and competing motivations that have nothing to do with your dialectical structure.

In The Big Lebowski, The Dude may represent the hippy thesis, but he’s also a character who loves White Russians and bowling, and spends most of his time pursuing one of these things.

In There Will Be Blood, Daniel may represent capitalism, but he also is a character desperate for a family connection and someone he can confide in.

Even Darth Vadar loves his son, and secretly wants to overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy with him.

Character and Dialectic

Rather than fixating on the structural role your character plays in your dialectical structure, you can think of the ideas your characters represent as a kind of North Star—something to navigate by as you construct their choices.

If you spend every moment with staring up at the sky, you’re going to spend most of your time crashing into trees. But if you keep your eyes on the instinctual path of your character, and allow yourself to remember that North Star is there to guide you when you need it, that dialectical idea will help you discover the most profound structure possible for your character’s journey.

Grace and Nature

What makes both the father and mother function so well as characters in the The Tree of Life is that in addition to representing dialectical opposites of Grace and Nature, they both love their children more than anything in the world, and want to protect them from suffering.

The problem is that they have opposing views of how to do this—and in good Hegelian fashion, neither of their views work in the universe.

The Thesis of Nature

The father believes that the Nature of the world is violent and destructive, and he’s right. And that’s why he wants to make his sons tough, so that other people don’t walk all over them, so that they can express themselves as artists, control their own destinies, and not have to compromise the way that he did.

We’ve seen this type of character before in movies like Billy Elliot, The Return and A Prophet— in fact there’s even an archetypal name for him: the terrible father.

But Brad Pitt’s character is more than just an archetype or an intellectual thesis. And that’s what makes him care about him, and keeps him from being a cliché. Unlike the terrible fathers we’ve seen in the past, who want to quell the artistic expression of their children, Brad Pitt’s character wants only to foster it. He loves his children, hugs his children. He is loyal to his wife, and makes sacrifices for his family. His tough Nature is the North Star by which he navigates. But its not his sole reason for existence.

The problem with the father’s Thesis is that it doesn’t ultimately protect him, his family or his children. Rather than earning him his son’s love, his lessons in Nature only destroy the beauty in his family and in Jack, turn his sons against him, tear apart his marriage, and pit brother against brother.

For all his toughness, he can’t protect his patents from the courts, himself from a lost job, or his children from suffering. And his rage at his failures only manifests in more violence against the people he most loves.

The Antithesis of Grace

In dialectical opposition to the beliefs of the father, the mother inherently believes that the world is beautiful. And she’s right too. That’s why she wants to play happily with her sons at every moment, love everyone and everything. That’s why she infuses their life with joy and bliss and their genuine love for one another.

But her Grace doesn’t ultimately protect anyone either. Because she can’t stand up to her husband, or defend her children from his violence. As Young Jack accuses her in a moment of rage, she lets her husband walk all over her—and all over them. Her love cannot protect her children from suffering or from death. And for that failure rather than earning her love from Jack, it only earns her his anger.

Stay tuned for the final article in the series, in which I’ll discuss the way dialectical structure creates a drum beat for Malick’s fragmented narrative, and the ways you can apply these lessons to the structure of your own screenplays.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I discussed how Terence Malick gives shape to central the question of The Tree of Life through the choices of his main character, Jack. The structure through which Malick gives shape to those choices is known as a Hegelian Dialectic: one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal as a writer.

Who is this Hegel guy anyway?

An 18th century German Philosopher, Hegel certainly wasn’t a screenwriter. However our craft, and many of the best movies ever written, owe him a debt of gratitude.

Hegel believed that if you took a thesis (something you believed strongly) and forced it to do battle with an equally powerful and irreconcilable antithesis (a belief that runs deeply counter to the original thesis), you would end up with a synthesis which would somehow bring unity to the dialectical opposites of thesis and antithesis, and in this way lead you closer to the truth.

In dialectical screenplay structure, thesis and antithesis stop merely being philosophical ideas, and take human form, in our characters and the belief systems they represent. As those belief systems come into conflict, our characters are forced to change, driving to a synthesis that transcends their original belief systems, and leads them closer to the truth in relation to the question of the film: the question the with which the writer is wrestling in him or herself.

In many Hollywood movies, the thesis and antithesis of the Hegelian dialectic is boiled down to a “good” protagonist and an “evil” antagonist.

But while good vs. evil might be the oldest Hegelian dialectic out there, in the best movies, protagonist and antagonist transcend simple good and evil, and come to represent powerful ideas with which the writer is truly wrestling: ideas which the writer is questioning in him or herself.

Just like great philosophers, great writers don’t stack the deck for one side of their argument.

No matter what you believe as a writer, to truly make the most of a dialectical structure, you must step into the world view not only of the protagonist, but the antagonist, crashing their ideas against each other as if both were true, and pealing back the layers of their true and false assumptions as you search for a synthesis that somehow reconciles their irreconcilable differences.

This isn’t just true for art films like The Tree of Life.

In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vadar represents the Dark Side of the Force and Luke Skywalker represents the Light Side. But their dialectic transcends simple good and evil, because Luke doesn’t know that Darth Vadar is his father, and doesn’t realize that he also has the Dark Side in him. In the Synthesis, good does defeat evil, but at a cost that changes Luke forever, and costs him both his hand and his black and white view of the world.

In The Big Lebowski (which I’ll be discussing in detail in my upcoming seminar The Big Lebowski: Seven Act Structure) The Dude represents the non-violent hippy thesis “the dude abides” and John Goodman represents the antithesis of “this will not stand”, tempting The Dude away from his values and into a “war” for his stolen Persian carpet. (A satirical examination of the way the grown up hippy generation was seduced into The First Gulf war.)

In There Will Be Blood, the thesis of Capitalism in the character of Daniel and the antithesis of Church in the character of Eli do battle literally to the death, forcing both thesis and antithesis come to grips with their failures and hypocrisies, driving to a synthesis in which “Church” is left dead in the bowling alley, and “Capitalism” has destroyed everything he has built.

The Tree of Life is built around a dialectic between Nature, as represented by Jack’s father and Grace, as represented by his mother.

Stay tuned for the next article in the series, in which I’ll be discussing both the content structure of that dialectic in The Tree of Life, and how you can use the lessons of the film to inform your own writing.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the question around which Jack’s journey in The Tree of Life is built:

“Why Should I be Good If You’re Not?”

Struggling in a world in which both God and Father can act in such contradictions of beauty and violence, Jack the son is left with a profound question: will he build his life in their image, or in another.

Structurally, this question is raised in both the present and the past story with two powerful inciting incidents, both involving the death of a child.

You Let A Boy Die

No one could forget the moment early in The Tree of Life, when Jack’s mother receives the letter, and with it, news of her son’s death.

Thinking in traditional screenplay structure, this moment provides a powerful inciting incident for the film as a whole, ripping a hole not only the family’s universe, but the universe of the film itself. We slip from a character driven drama into an epic sea of juxtaposing images, dinosaurs, births, and big bang cosmology that at once seems to dwarf and echo the problems of the family:

How can the world possess such beauty and such violence at the same time? How can a woman whose only philosophy is “love everyone and everything” be punished in this way? Where is God?

Two Levels of Structure

In creating the structure of a screenplay, it’s important to think about the moment that incites the film as a whole—that opens the door to change, introduces the central question of the film, and locks the audience into the journey of the movie. And whether you’re writing an art film like The Tree of Life or a Hollywood blockbuster, it’s vital that you get to this moment as quickly as possible, to create the feeling that your movie is moving, and to create the lens through which the audience can interpret the events of your story.

When you’re building a movie that jumps around in time, you actually have two different layers of this structure: the primary linear structure of the main character’s journey, and the secondary structure of the way that information is revealed the audience.

For the audience, the journey begins when Jack’s mother receives the letter. But for the main character, Jack, the journey begins much earlier, when a boy dies right in the middle of a “perfect” day at the local swimming hole, and Young Jack is forced to confront the fact that neither life, nor God, is what he thought it was.

Young Jack whispers his dismay to God.

“Where were you? You let a boy die. You’ll let anything happen.”

For Jack, as for his mother and father, the fruit of knowledge of good and evil leads to a fall from the Eden of his childhood.

Two Inciting Incidents For Two Linear Structures

These two moments of unexpected death provide the two inciting incidents that get the structure of The Tree of Life moving forward, propelling both threads of The Tree of Life’s narrative structure:

The Fall From Eden: The story of young Jack’s fall—from an idyllic childhood where death was present but not perceived—to his gradual disillusionment, with God, his father, his mother and himself, leading up to the moment where his brother dies and all hope of Eden is lost.

The Return to Eden: The story of grown Jack’s (Sean Penn) surrender—through which he finally comes to terms death of his brother, the opposing philosophies of his parents, the beauty and ugliness of the universe, and the inexplicable nature of God.

For the audience, these two threads are chopped up and juxtaposed one against another in a way that transcends time and captures the emotional feeling of Jack’s experience.

But on the primary structural level, these two threads comprise a single linear journey for the main character, as he first loses and then seeks to return to Eden.

Finding The Drum Beat of Your Movie

Every movie needs a drum beat—a clear structure that lets us know where we are and helps us imagine the road ahead, so that we can hope for, be disappointed by, or pleasantly surprised by the turns that the story takes.

And this is doubly true when you are building around a structure as complex as that of The Tree of Life.

Commercial movies tend to have more of a rock and roll drum beat—while The Tree of Life is more like experimental jazz—leaving the beat behind for extended sequences of improvisation—and then returning to the beat to get the story flowing again.

We first see this jazz-like improvisation in an extended way with the epic montage of big-bang images early in the film. But just when it seems like we’re just going to drift in an endless meditation, we find the beat again with a much smaller big bang: Jack’s birth, and the idyllic memories of his early childhood-a childhood filled with beautiful moments where death is present, but not perceived.

Each of these moments foreshadows the road ahead, preparing us for the inciting incident in Jack’s journey, when the boy dies at the swimming hole, the question of the film arises and his fall from Eden begins.

Hegelian Dialectic and the Drum Beat of Life

The Tree of Life is quite obviously a film about ideas—about characters grappling with profound questions (and even narrating those questions aloud in the voiceover soundtrack which punctuates the piece—as if the audience were listening through God’s ears).

But for all its poetry, The Tree of Life is also a film. And as a character in a film, Jack cannot simply ask his questions with words; he must grapple with them through action.

As the writer, this means Malick must take the profound ideas he wants to explore, and bring them into active conflict through the characters of the film, the actions they take, the choices they make, and Jack’s journey in relation to those choices.

The structure through which Malick gives shape to this journey is known as a Hegelian dialectic.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series, in which I’ll be breaking down the Hegelian dialectical structure in relation to The Tree of Life, The Empire Strikes Back, The Big Lebowski, and There Will Be Blood.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

SPOILER ALERT: You may want to come back to this article after you have seen

Often as writers we get so hung up on linear, narrative structure that we forget that there are completely different forms of screenplay structure that can be equally moving and powerful.

What makes Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life so extraordinary is the effortless way it weaves traditional linear storytelling—the story of the family– with long meditative sequences of breathtaking images of the vast beauty and wanton destructiveness of the universe.

But don’t let Malick fool you, underneath the melodic rambling of The Tree of Life is a rock solid structure, which provides the drum beat for the entire film.

The Fundamental Question

Despite all its jumping back and forth in time, its shifting perspectives, its God’s eye view of the universe, its whispering voiceovers, its dinosaur sequences and its meditative imagery washing over us like ocean waves, at the fundamental structural level, The Tree of Life follows the story of Sean Penn’s character, Jack, as he searches both past and present for the answer an unanswerable question:

“Why should I be good, if you’re not?”

On the spiritual level, Jack is asking this question of God, as he tries to reconcile the vastness, wonder, and beauty of the universe with the senseless death of his brother: the problem of a world where death is always present, even in the most idyllic memories of his early childhood.

On the physical level, Jack is asking the same question of his loving but abusive father, played by Brad Pitt, whose often misguided love both protects Jack and is slowly destroying him. As young Jack’s adoration for his father and desire to “be good” devolves into disappointment and hatred, he is forced to reconcile not only the dual sides of his father’s nature, but also the dual sides of his own– wrestling with a profound and unanswerable question of how to be good in a world where the love of both God and father seem to shift inexplicably from beauty to violence.

Great Movies Are Built Around Big Questions

What’s wonderful about building a movie around a question to which you truly don’t know the answer, is that it forces you, as a writer, to take a journey as profound as that of your characters.

Searching for a deeper understanding of the world is what writing is all about. And that’s not limited to experimental films like The Tree of Life. Even Woody Allen’s new comedy Midnight in Paris is built around a profound question “would my life have been better if I lived in another era?”

Think about movies like Michael Clayton, A Few Good Men, The Social Network, or Solitary Man and you will see the fundamental questions at the center of these other commercially successful movies.

What Questions Are You Asking in Your Writing?

Think about your own writing. What are the questions that haunt you? What are the questions your screenplays are asking? Are they questions you care about? And are you truly wrestling with them through your character’s journey, or trying to tie them up with a neat little bow?

Stay tuned for the next article in the series: “The Tree of Life: From Question To Structure”, in which I’ll be exploring Inciting Incidents of The Tree of Life—and the ways Malick uses an idea from philosophy in order to give shape to his character’s journey.

April 21st: Formatting Bootcamp

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Grab this month’s issue of Creative Screenwriting Magazine to read my article “Breaking The Chain of Writer’s Block.”  Learn not only what causes writer’s block, but also helpful exercises you can use right now to re-frame the way you view your writing and recapture the excitement and desire that drew you to writing in the first place.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

The Rules of the Genre

Rules In Comedy

I’ve explored these concepts in terms of “serious” movies  because these are the films where writers most often feel constrained in creating the rules of their world.  But of course in comedies, the rules also matter, and you still have to sell them. You just have zanier ways of doing so.

For example, in Superbad, we all know the rules of how cops behave.  And we know that a kid with a fake ID that says McLovin isn’t going to fool anyone.

So when McLovin gets caught by the cops, the writers, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, get to have their cake and eat it too!  They not only make him (and the audience) squirm about what’s going to happen to him.  They also get to surprise everyone’s expectations when the cops seem to accept the ID as real, and sweep McLovin off for the joy ride of his life.

This sequence with McLovin not only sets up the rules for the cops– it sets up the comic rules for the whole movie– a world where absolutely anything can happen:  where Jonah Hill can get run over five times without getting hurt, where women don’t know basic feminine hygiene, and where cops can end up setting their own car on fire.

As in other comedies like The Proposal, What Happens in Vegas, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, writers create the rules that serve their movies, not by ignoring the “laws” of the real world, but by selling their own rules dramatically in relation to those laws.

Give yourself permission to do the same in your own writing.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

But what about when you feel like you need to completely make up a rule to make your story work?  Or when the real world rule you are working with seems like it might unbelievable to an audience?

When you need to invent a “rule” in order to make your script work or convince your audience to accept a real life rule which flies in the face of their expectations or beliefs, the question to ask yourself is not “is it true?”

The question to ask yourself is “how do I sell this to an audience?”

Movies Don’t Come With Footnotes

The good news is,  nobody’s going to be whispering in your audience’s ear when you fudge the details or make up a rule that isn’t technically correct.  Unfortunately, nobody’s going to be there to tell them “no, this really happened, in real life!” either.

As writers, we often want to believe that just because something happened, the audience will accept it as true.  But often, audiences are much more happy to accept fiction that seems believable than reality that doesn’t– especially if it makes things hard for your main character.

The good news is, you can shape what your audience believes, by setting up the rules (real or imagined) in ways that are viscerally and dramatically powerful for your main character.

Selling The Rules of Away From Her

In Away From Her, the main character drops his Alzheimer’s suffering wife off at a nursing home, only to be informed that he has to leave her for a full month so that she can “adjust”.  

Now, perhaps somewhere in America there truly is a nursing home with such a rule.

But more likely the rule exists because the writer, Sarah Polley, needs that separation (spoiler alert:) so that when the husband finally returns for his “joyful reunion” with the woman he loves, he can be shocked to discover a totally different person the woman he left– a woman who has forgotten him completely and fallen in love with another man.

That’s the movie.  And if Sarah Polley doesn’t sell the rule, whether it exists or not, that movie doesn’t happen.

In the real world, you might spend time with your wife every day, and then one day realize you’re with a totally different person.  But in a movie, with characters we are just getting to know, it takes a strong juxtaposition to create that feeling.

Polley uses the rule to create that juxtaposition.  And she sells it by allowing the nursing home to have a reasonable rationale, and allowing the husband to fight against that rule with everything he’s got- a fight that only further dramatizes his connection to his wife when she finally asks him to go and he reluctantly gives in to her request.

Create The Rules That Amplify The Truth

In this way, writing a script about law is a lot like writing a fantasy.  People know that there is no such thing as goblins and that little boys don’t get to be king by pulling a sword out of a stone.  But if you create the rules of the world properly and in a dramatic way, the audience will be happy to go along for the ride, because it gives them access to the story they want to experience.  And more importantly, closer to the essence of that emotional truth the writer is communicating.

Stay tuned for the final installment of this series:  What Are The Rules of Your Script: Part 4: Superbad and the Rules of Genre

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

If you read Joe Tiboni’s blog, you may be surprised to discover that the real-life lawyer who inspired Paul Giamatti’s character in Win Win never assumed guardianship of a client (for money or otherwise), never committed a client to a nursing home against his will, and never was on the brink of losing his law practice.

What you will learn is that Joe Tiboni is a good guy, who used to wrestle with screenwriter Tom McCarthy, who did once have a water heater blow up in his office, and who does have a true passion for representing the elderly and bringing attention to unfair elements in the law that cause them suffering.

Write a movie in which the “real” Joe Tiboni waxes poetic about the ins and out of the laws of elderly care, and you may feel like you’ve done a great deal to awareness about some very important issues.

But you probably won’t have an audience that’s listening.

Even “issue” movies are never about the issues.  At least not for most of your audience.  

To make an audience care about the finer points of elder-care law, you’ve got to make it personal.  And that means it has to deeply affect the life of your main character, and force that character to undergo a life-changing journey.

As discussed in Part 2 of this series, The Lincoln Lawyer accomplishes this by forcing its character to personally deal with the horrifying complications that result from an “unfair” law.

Win Win takes the opposite approach.

Rather than making Paul Giamatti’s character the victim of an unfair law, Win Win makes the law matter dramatically by (spoiler alert): allowing the main character to exploit it for his own gain– by taking guardianship of a mentally disabled elderly client for money, and then committing him against his will to a nursing home.

Every main character needs to have a problem.

Even if your character is based on someone as wonderful as Joe Tiboni, unless they have some kind of unresolved problem they need to deal with, there’s no reason for them to have to go through the experience of the movie.

(As you know if you’ve ever written a main character, movie life tends to treat them pretty harshly).

Now that doesn’t mean you have to turn your main character into a bad guy at the beginning of the movie.  Do that, and you’re going to lose the thing that made you want to write about a person like Joe in the first place.

We’re not talking about completely fictionalizing a character.  We’re talking about looking more closely at a real life guy like Joe, and asking yourself “under what circumstances would a guy like this make a mistake?”

Make The Truth Work For You

Using the real world stuff that connected him to Joe Tiboni:  the broken water heater, the high school wrestling they were never any good at, and the genuine dedication to the elderly and his family that makes Joe worth writing about, Tom McCarthy simply sets up the rules of the world to create circumstances in which it would be believable that a guy as good as Joe do something as wrong as exploit his own client.

To do this, he must change some of the facts:  transforming Joe from a successful lawyer into a struggling one, putting him into a crisis where he truly needs the cash to survive, and then creating the moral dilemma of the law in a way that a good guy like Joe could reasonably convince himself he wasn’t hurting anyone.

Once he’s done that, he really gets to have his fun, by making the character deal with the ramifications of his mistake when he finds himself first saddled with his client’s troubled grandson, and later unable to protect the boy he’s come to love without risking his own legal career and his last chance of providing for his family.

By allowing his main character to make and struggle with a mistake, Tom McCarthy takes the law out of the intellectual realm and makes it visceral for the audience– forcing us to wrestle with the law as powerfully as his main character does.

Stay tuned for Part 3 in the series:
Away From Her: Create The Rules That Amplify The Truth.

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

Question:

I’m working on a [comedy] script right now about [premise deleted]… and I’m doing a little bit of research on the laws surrounding International Marriage Brokers and Immigration.

What’s your opinion on how to handle the laws, and how strictly to adhere to them?  I’m thinking of movies like The Proposal, What Happens in Vegas, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry as examples… I’m guessing the accuracy in the way they address the laws is less than 100%?  — Josh B.

Answer:

Unless you’re writing for lawyers, what matters most when it comes to laws in a movie is not what the actual law is, but what the audience believes the law is.

In the real world, all kinds of unbelievable laws exist, and all kinds of laws that everyone believes exist actually don’t exist at all.

But for audiences, the only laws that exist are the ones they believe.

That doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the notions your audience enters believing.  And similarly it doesn’t mean that you are held to the strict reality of those laws as they exist in the universe.

What’s more important is that you set up the rules and the laws of your character’s world clearly, and then force your character to play by those rules.

Does this mean you should just ignore the laws of the real world?

Absolutely not.  Often there’s more fun to be had by exploring the truth than simply making up a law that’s convenient for your script.  But that doesn’t change the fact that your audience isn’t coming to learn about the finer points of legal theory.  They’re coming to watch a movie.

Dramatically, the law only matters in relation to the pressure it’s putting on your main character– so as with most things in a movie, if it makes your character’s life harder, most likely your audience will accept it.  And if it makes your character’s life easier, most likely they will start to doubt it, whether it is true or not.

As a writer, your job is to sell the audience on the laws of your script

People always talk about “willing suspension of disbelief” when people watch movies.  But I don’t think that’s what happens at all.  I think that subconsciously people come to identify with your main character.  And when he or she reacts believably to the “realities” of their world, the audiences comes to believe in those realities as well.

For laws that audiences generally are aware of and believe in, “you have the right to remain silent” for example, that’s a pretty easy job.

The law is already active in your audience’s consciousness, so even if your version is missing some of the finer nuances, as long as you gently remind them, in a dramatic way, that the law exists and that your character has to deal with it, most likely your audience will happily accept it easily as the reality of the script, even if your interpretation of that law glosses over some of the details.

The Lincoln Lawyer and the Law

For example John Romano’s script, The Lincoln Lawyer, does this with Attorney-Client privilege– the idea that a lawyer cannot under any circumstances, disclose anything a client has said to him in confidence, and that even if he did, such evidence would automatically be inadmissible in court.

Now I don’t know for sure whether Attorney-Client privilege extends to cases where the client is (spoiler alert:) killing the lawyer’s friends and threatening the lawyer’s kids, and attempting to frame the lawyer for murder.

I’m no lawyer, but I’d guess that in the real world, there’s a loophole for that.

But the important thing is, within the world of The Lincoln Lawyer, there is no loophole.  And we can experience that viscerally, because of the way the “law” of Attorney-Client privilege is established dramatically early in the script, and the way the main character is forced to grapple of not being able to simply say the truth throughout the story.

There may be a couple of lawyers in the audience hemming and hawing.  But for the majority of the audience, that law becomes the law, and they get to enjoy the movie by accepting its rules.

What Are The Rules Of Your Script?

Want to know more about how to set up the rules of your script so that audiences will believe them?

Over the next week, I’ll be exploring the way rules are established in three great scripts of completely different genres:  Win Win, Away From Her and Superbad.

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

Price: $150.00

It’s also a profound look at what it means to find and follow your voice as a writer, the inexplicable questions of identity and the challenge of telling a true story in a truthful way.

Theatre’s Answer To ADAPTATION

The process of adapting a true story into a form that really captures its essence is one of the most challenging tasks of any writer.

In AGENT G, playwright Qui Nguyen wrestles for the third time with a reinterpretation of his first play, TRIAL BY WATER, the critically reviled “true-life” melodrama of his 9 year old cousin’s journey from Vietnam to America– during which their boat was lost at sea, and the passengers, including Qui’s young cousin, resorted to cannibalism to survive

Feeling that he has failed to capture the essence of the story in his earlier attempts at the play, Qui (who is also a character in AGENT G) attempts to reinterpret the story Vampire Cowboys style– complete with the theatre company’s requisite kick ass stage combat, ninja chases, hilarious genre shifts, and a musical showdown with Qui’s hero, the legendary playwright David Henry Hwang.

In wonderful and surprising ways, this comic reinterpretation leads Qui closer to the “true truth” of the story than any of Qui’s more serious early attempts.

What Does It Mean To Tell The Truth?

At each step of the way toward this “truthful” telling of the story, Qui finds himself confronted by his characters, his fans, his mentors and even his wife– each of whom have their own ideas of what the play should be, and each of whom he desperately wants to please.

As Qui strips away the layers of smoke, mirrors and self deception to find his real story, he’s forced to confront what it really means to be a writer, and what it takes to look honestly, and fiercely, at one’s own writing.

In his attempts to write a “commercial” piece, build the story around his hook,  please his teachers, emulate his heros, impress his audience, honor his cousin and to answer the well-meaning, but misguided notes of people who didn’t really understand his writing, Qui comes to realize that he abandoned the essential truth that brought him to the story in the first place– not just in this amped up, tongue in cheek, action hero reinterpretation of the story– but also in the “true story” melodrama he was once so proud of.

Following The Truth Of Your Own Story

As Qui strips away the layers of art and artifice that obscure him from the story he truly wants to tell, he reminds us that writing is not a paint by numbers process of “filling in the beats” of your outline, but a mystical and complex journey through countless rewrites, reimaginings, and reinterpretations of what the real story might actually be.

He reminds us of the dangers of the wrong way turns of misguided feedback and the challenges we go in getting to truly know our characters, our stories, and ourselves each time we approach the blank page.

And most of all, he reminds us the mysterious and inevitable process which with each draft slowly draws us closer to the truth of our own story, our own voices, and our own inexplicable redemptions.

February 7 – March 4, 2012

At THE BECKETT THEATRE
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd St (Btw 9th & 10th)

June 19th: Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

2012 Costa Rica Screenwriting Retreat

Retreat Options: 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or 20 days

Dates: June 19 - July 8 (choose your start date)

Ever longed to escape to a place where the only thing that mattered was your writing? Ever imagined yourself in a writer's paradise where creativity flowed naturally and beauty was all around you?

Then come join Jacob Krueger for a life changing retreat of writing, creative exploration and meditation in tranquil Costa Rica.

I-N-G.

No, I’m not talking about the internet bank. I’m talking about the three letters at the ends of words that turn verbs into nouns (gerunds for you English teachers).

It’s not that gerunds are bad in themselves. If you tried to cut every gerund out of your script you’d probably go crazy, and your script might not be any better for your troubles.

At the same time, gerunds can often be red-flags for missed opportunities in your writing. So if you’re using a ton of gerunds in your action, you may want to take a closer look, and make sure you’re getting everything you can out of them.

The Difference Between Verbs and Gerunds

Movies are active, and they’re told through exciting images of exciting characters doing exciting things in exciting ways. And because movies are told in the cuts between scenes, they work best when we’re cutting from one big moment to another– big changes, big decisions, big choices your characters make.

Unlike the active verbs that capture the unique ways your characters pursue their objectives and react to problems in their world, gerunds suggest states of being, continuing action and static images– the opposite of the specific moments that truly capture your character and make your movie feel like it’s happening NOW.

Is all this really so important?

In a word, yes.

At first look, there might not seem to be a big difference between phrases like:

Elizabeth is standing/Elizabeth stands
Mary is running/Mary runs
John is dancing/John dances

But the big problem with gerunds is not just that they can often feel static. It’s that their very nature can make it difficult to isolate the specific moments that capture your character’s journey. You may feel like you’re writing actions, but oftentimes you’re not. You’re writing states of being.

And that means you’re not thinking in movie time.

“Elizabeth is standing” tells us Elizabeth’s placement– as if she was a static figure in a picture. As a writer, your job is not to be a set decorator. And let’s face it– it’s hard to visualize placement of stuff in a room you’re not even seeing.

“Elizabeth stands” doesn’t exactly capture the Academy Award for excitement. But at least it can suggest that a choice is being made– that she stood up for a reason. That she is no longer seated. That something is happening.

“Mary is running” suggests that Mary is in the process of running. But this isn’t what your director is going to shoot. What she is actually going to shoot is a bunch of cool moments and specific actions that when strung together capture the feeling of Mary’s run.

When you write “Mary is running” you’re not thinking like a filmmaker. You’re once again thinking like a set decorator– setting the scene, rather than capturing the moments.

If instead you forced yourself to capture the moments that say “Mary is running” and the actions she takes as she runs, you would learn all kinds of important stuff about your character.

Mary is doing more than just running.

You might visualize the awkward way her arms flop as she runs. You might imagine the slap of a flip flop against the pavement. You might see her stumble over her paisley skirt and tumble into the mud.

Or, you might imagine the rhythmic thump of Mary’s 300 dollar running shoes. Feel her rock hard biceps strain against her moisture-wicking running shirt, hear her heart rate monitor sound an alarm, and see her ignore it and quicken her pace.

These visual moments would not only be a lot more fun to watch than “Mary is running”, they would also reveal so much more about who Mary is, what she wants, and the unique way she pursues those desires.

Revolutionize your writing

Each specific moment you create in your action becomes something you can riff on later in your script, to capture your character’s journey in powerful ways.

The moment when the first Mary struggles to get the stain out of her paisley skirt, or trades it for a pair of running shorts, or jumps effortlessly over the mud puddle she once dreaded.

The moment when the second Mary hears the heart rate alarm sound and stops running, or when her bicep strains against a hospital blood pressure cuff rather than her running shirt.

In this way, you can transform missed opportunities into transformative moments that create a visual language for your movie, capture the unique spirit of your character, and drive the action of your story forward in exciting ways.

Keep a lookout for those three little letters.  And notice what it does for your writing.

FORMATTING BOOTCAMP

With Formatting Guru Jessica Hinds

Whether you’re still figuring out the difference between INT. and EXT. or trying to properly capture the most complex visual sequence, this recording of our full day formatting bootcamp will forever change the way you view formatting. Also included: our 42 page packet on common formatting mistakes and how to correct them.

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