The Writer's Advantage
Page 7
Kree sang well, but her interpretation of the song’s text did not captivate and connect. Harry’s mentoring advice was excellent. Sure, this is just an interpretation of a song, however, it is an excellent example of moving forward with your creativity without knowing anything about what has gone on before within your genre. Don’t do this. Don’t look like an idiot when delivering your interpretation of a genre. Know what has happened previously, otherwise your material, your presentation, and your pitch will be a “Stormy Weather Pitch,” and those in the know, will know.
TOOLKIT SANDBOX
Oh!, To Be Like Your Idol, Some Questions, and Rebooting The Remake?
CASE STUDY: Lynchian, Spielberg-like,
and Tarantino-esque
The term “lynchian” has come to be known as having the same balance between the macabre and the mundane, a path that is often found in the works of filmmaker David Lynch. David Lynch’s body of work, from Eraserhead (1977) to Blue Velvet (1986) to Mulholland Drive (2001) (among many others) illustrates the filmmaker’s view of the world that most would say is surrealistic. However, it is very much grounded in the everyday scenarios that we all live in. Within the opening moments of Blue Velvet, small town, Main Street U.S.A. is alive in all of its rich Technicolor glory, until the camera pans to the grass, and then lower within the grass to find a severed bloody ear. This is to say that not everything is as perfect as it seems and if we look below the surface, we’ll find some horrific truths. Lynch likes to play with that fine line between mundane and macabre, knowing that the macabre wins out many more times than none. Lynch states that foreign film directors were his greatest influences, such as Stanley Kubrick, Werner Herzog, and Jacques Tati. It is a well known fact that 20th century foreign film directors were known for their gritty scenes of reality and that war-torn European scenarios and backdrops were more in-your-face than in the work of most American film directors. Lynch’s subject matter, scene set-ups, use of black & white and color along with murky realness are clearly just extensions of these master filmmakers’ brilliant visions.
Spielberg’s influences include Brits Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean, but they also include very American directors such as John Ford, Frank Capra, and Howard Hawks. Spielberg’s stories reflect American values, even when the subject matter isn’t strictly “American.” They are linear in execution, have morals, and illustrate what is right and wrong. His movies explore questions that Americans have faced throughout history and he attempts to answer those questions through his masterful storytelling, cinematic direction, and solid character development. Spielberg has proven to be a follower in the great American directors’ footsteps, carrying the torch of American filmmaking onward into the 21st century. The difference between Lynch’s movies and Spielberg’s movies are obvious, yet they were born in the same year and were exposed to the same media and popular culture during their formative years. Spielberg was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and spent time in New Jersey and Arizona. Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, and his family traveled around a great deal. Their lives make up their art and this is clearly seen through their movies. Lynch takes his European influences and weaves them into his work while Spielberg stays closer to home within his work.
Now, as far as Quentin Tarantino’s influences are concerned, his love of cinema begins at a very early age and includes many different types of genres and directors, from American film noir and “Grindhouse” to Asian action films. To get a full idea of the multitude of influences at work on Tarantino, visit What Culture!’s “Quentin Tarantino’s Definitive Guide To Homages, Influences and References” at whatculture.com.
The main idea of this case study is to become aware of how artists influence artists and how those artists then carve and craft their own unique mark on their work. Do you see your work becoming influential to the point that there will be an “-ian” or “-like” or “-esque” after your name having an effect on future generations?
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
Why make (publish, produce) your idea?
Why make (publish, produce) your idea now? (Focus on trends, audiences, fragmentation of audiences, etc., within your answers.)
Who is going to care about your idea? (Your answer will assist you with audience target marketing.)
Identify a moment or thread of wonderment in one of your favorite texts.
Do you have wonderment in your idea? (In other words, is the consumer going to get something from experiencing your work that they cannot get otherwise?)
Do you see your work becoming influential to the point that there will be an “-ian” or “-like” or “-esque” after your name having an effect on future generations?
What would Harry Connick Jr. (or any mentor in your field) say to you about your proposed idea? (WWHCJD?)
EXERCISE
Reboot a remake
Take a recent remake or reboot of a movie and compare and contrast the different versions of the material. How does each version relate to its audience and how does each version hold up as we move further into the 21st century? (Hint: Extra credit for examining major remake train wrecks such as Gus Van Sant’s 1998 Psycho vs. Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece.)
Section 2
Arming
Yourself
Chapter 5
The Genre
Toolkit
List
It’s now time to get to know and utilize the elements of The Writer’s Advantage Genre Toolkit. The elements of the Genre Toolkit List are discussed in detail in the next few chapters.
The Genre Toolkit List’s 10 Steps are:
Identify your genre’s quintessential text.
Identify the traits of your genre.
Identify the mass production history of your genre.
Analyze audience reaction of your genre — mass or cult?
Trends and patterns of your genre.
Make your checklist of traits you’ll use.
What would an authentic text look like using all of your research? (The answer is your work.)
Defend your work.
What mastering your genre can do for you.
Learning how to answer the question “What else have you got?”Utilizing and mastering this path assists you in getting your work out into the world.
This is the fun part. This is the time where you get to return to the days of your youth to recapture how it felt when you watched your first Twilight Zone (1959–1964) episode or read your first Superman comic (1938–present), or when you saw Star Wars (1977) or read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) for the first time. Writing should be an exhilarating experience, and the passion you had for a specific type of book or television series or comic, etc., is often one of the building blocks upon which you form your own writing style. Being aware of these roots will help you be a better writer and in constructing an authentic text.
So call upon all of those childhood and adolescent influences. Consciously or unconsciously they influence you and your writing for the rest of your life. (Hopefully some of the Toolkit Sandbox exercises have been helping you tap into this energy also.)
What’s Your Genre?
I’d like to explain why you need to locate and select your genre type — at least for your first few projects. Essentially, it’s because the rest of the entertainment industry — publishing, visual, and digital alike — needs to know your genre in order to position and promote your work. The marketplace — both the buyers who will be evaluating your work, and the eventual consumers — will look to a certain genre and familiarities that they recognize. They will compare those elements with other projects and align them with others’ work in your chosen genre. If you don’t appear on the scene in a specific genre, the promotion-making machinery, along with the general public, will not know how to frame your work. They won’t know what to do with it.
You’ll have assi
stance from other writers and projects within your genre when you position yourself with those who have gone before you. Just visualize your novel, film, or web series under the “Also Suggested” list via Amazon or Netflix. And while you may have an aversion to having to use labels for your work, it is highly recommended that you go this route rather than to shrink behind the spotlight never to be heard from again if you insist that your work cannot be categorized. Identify your genre before going out to shop your idea.
Here is a list of main genres. They can be used in combination with one another as hybrids also.
Genres
Action-adventure
Animation
Anthology
Biography
Buddy Picture
Comedy
Coming of Age
Crime Drama
Docudrama
Documentary
Erotic Drama
Family
Fantasy
Horror
Historical
Love Story/Romance
Martial Arts
Musical
Mystery
Political Drama
Psychodrama
Religious Drama
Road Picture
Romantic Comedy
Satire
Science Fiction
Slasher
Soap Opera
Sports
Sword & Sorcery
Supernatural
Suspense Thriller
True Story
War
Western
Youth
More About Development Departments
In the previous chapter I mentioned the three questions potential buyers ask. Actually, the people who evaluate your work when you submit to an agency, producer, publisher, production company, web site, or financier — just about anyone who may be a potential buyer of the material — work within development departments of those companies. After you submit your work, someone is going to be evaluating your material beyond those three questions. They will be producing a document known as coverage. Coverage is a report, usually three to five pages in length. It is written as a record that that particular agency or production company, etc., has viewed and evaluated your work, and as a document that can be read by everyone in the company. In other words, the folks who are higher up on the food chain do not read every piece of material that is submitted. Readers (full-time and freelance), Script and Manuscript Analysts, Editors, and sometimes Interns are the folks who do the reading — the sifting and winnowing of all submitted material.
One of the first items they identify within your work is your genre. From there they evaluate your work as a piece within that genre. In other words, if you are writing a romantic comedy, they are familiar with the elements that make up a romantic comedy and are looking for those traits (we’ll spend time with traits in Chapter 7), not the traits that are inherent to a western or comedy, etc. They will also often refer to other properties — mostly produced and well-known properties — that are within your genre to compare and contrast your work as a potential buy. If you do not know your genre, or you have written a piece that is not entirely sure what genre it falls into, then these analysts are going to have difficulty in identifying and discussing your work.
The analysts will continue to evaluate story elements such as character arcs, dialogue, structure, tone, writing quality, and some setting and production values, however they are mostly looking for commercial material. The bottom line is that they need to find lucrative product for their publishing company or network, etc., so they will be comparing and contrasting your work with the material previously and currently being produced within your genre. It is important that your good writing is on display. If a manuscript or script shows great potential to be commercially popular, you have an advantage. If your writing is strong and your idea is different, that too will attract positive accolades and that coverage will be circulated through the company and on to editors and producers and beyond. It is often at this stage in the process of submitting your work that potential buyers can already see why your material is authentic. You’ll be combining all of the research you’ll do within these chapters along with your own writing talent to produce material that reflects The Writer’s Advantage.
The Cream Rises to the Top
I have spent many years as a reader/story analyst and I can tell you that the percentage of material that stands out beyond the reader’s stack is minimal. Know that the amount of average, mediocre material that is received by any media-related production entity is nearly 80–85% of their intake. It is rare that something new shows up and shines through, however it is always the case that the cream rises to the top. Your unique take on an already established genre will shine brilliantly — and you’ll be able to defend it at every step along the way. Know this. Know that what you have to submit is probably as good — and definitely better when you follow the Genre Toolkit List’s 10 steps — than a large percentage of what is being currently submitted.
Why You?
When your material has moved up the ranks within the company, you’ll eventually find yourself in the unique position of defending your work, and we’ll discuss this process at length in Chapter 12. For now, however, this is where your thought process for defending your work begins.
First, continue to hold on to the reasons why you were originally attracted to your genre. Admiration is good. Admiration for a specific writer, book, TV series, or film, only fuels your own determination to produce material that is as good — or better. Nonetheless, your own understanding and admiration of your genre translates into your owning of that said genre. In other words, you know everything there is to know about romantic comedies. Those facts can only help you when you compose your own romantic comedy.
Lack Of Confidence
And so you say to yourself “Does the world really need another romantic comedy?” and you sabotage yourself because you tell yourself that you can’t write a script like When Harry Met Sally... (1989) or (500) Days of Summer (2009), or a manuscript like The Notebook (2004). You become overwhelmed with a genre you know you love and you talk yourself out of it and you attempt to write something and then give up.
Writers are their own worse enemies. This method of sabotaging comes into play even before anything is written! And to this I say that I am so glad that Diablo Cody didn’t talk herself out of writing Juno (2007). She herself refers to the piece as a “twisted love story” and at its base, it is a romantic comedy. She didn’t lack the confidence to write this piece and she added her own unique style of dialogue and energy throughout. There are hundreds of examples like this. Think of one of your favorite books or movies. Imagine if the writer decided to give up because they thought no one would care or that there were enough of that type of book or film in the world.
Believe in your story. Build your confidence by doing the research. With each level and each chapter in this book, you’ll gather information to support your work. You’ll turn that information into knowledge for your idea and knowledge is power.
Know It, Own It, Make the Genre Better
As you do this work, you’ll not only build your confidence, you’ll be able to fill in any loopholes when you do eventually defend your work. Because not only are you building upon your own pure and innocent enthusiasm, you are adding facts to your work. When a project comes across my desk, as I’m certain it is with most potential buyers, they want to work with the creator who is the most enthusiastic. Additionally, as you do this work, you’ll be enriching your knowledge of the genre so you can intelligently make some changes within the genre. You will offer something new, or offer a game-changing element to the genre for your generation and for the future.
Toolkit Sandbox
Some Questions and Your Fave Writer
Questioning with the Writer’s Advantage
Who are your all-time favorite authors, showrunners, directors, writers fr
om your youth?
What are your favorite books, TV shows, films from your youth?
What is your genre? Will you be working with a hybrid genre?
What will you bring to the genre that will be unique?
What is your special take on the genre? What do you bring to the table?
Why are you the one who should be writing this project?
Why should I buy your script or manuscript and not the next writer’s who has written about the same subject matter?
Exercise
My favorite writer
Identify a favorite writer from your childhood/young adult history. Seek out information about their background and their influences. Chances are that you’ll see a bit of the influencer’s energy within their work. List five to ten elements that emerge from the work of the mentor into the mentee’s work and describe why the protégé successfully took the mentor’s work and made it their own.
CHAPTER 6
IDENTIFY YOUR GENRE’S QUINTESSENTIAL TEXT
You have identified your genre. Now dig in and continue with your research.
36 PLOTS
When writers say they have something new to pitch, something that has never been seen before, I’m always curious because that’s a tall order to deliver. I find those writers are usually not aware of the 36 dramatic situations. According to most scholarly and literary sources, there are only 36 plots known to writers, so every genre you’re working within has some prototypical text that is usually known universally as the exemplary classic text within the genre. Georges Polti, a French writer (1867–1946) is credited with identifying 36 dramatic situations within the writing universe. Some of these situations are: Madness, Disaster, Self-Sacrificing For An Ideal, Obstacles To Love, Ambition, Revolt, Pursuit, etc., and every storyline can be traced back to one of these — or a combination of these, depending on the complexity of the storyline in question — basic dramatic situations. Later, within the Questioning section of this chapter you’ll be asked to locate the dramatic situation that best describes your project. This is fairly simple to identify. For instance, if you’re writing a romantic comedy, most romantic comedies include the Obstacles To Love situation, or if you’re writing a crime drama, you’ll find Crime Punished By Vengeance or Crimes Of Love as the dramatic situations to choose from. Locate the dramatic situation that best describes your basic plot and by doing this exercise you’ll further solidify your work within your chosen genre.