Story Line

by Jennifer Grisanti

  It is in these moments that we go through a transformation, a rebirth. We have to “man up” and face our new reality. We have to shed the skin that was and be ready for a new layer to cover the wound. The scar will remain forever, but with time, the pain will lessen, eventually becoming a distant memory.

  I encourage writers to dive into these moments, however painful they may be. Your emotional depth stems from these moments. As you explore them, you’ll realize that your pain exists for a reason. Pain is like a rite of passage. We all encounter it. It can weaken us and deliver us into a state of victimhood, or it can help shed light on our reality, giving us an opportunity to embark upon a new beginning, pursuing a new reality. Moving past your pain makes you stronger and prepares you to pass your story on to others.

  Often times, the rawest moments in movies and television, the ones that really connect with the audience, are those inspired by the writer’s universal life moments. For example, in a key line in the movie Up in the Air (Paramount, 2009), Ryan, the central character played by George Clooney, says, “The slower we move, the faster we die.” This philosophy/theme resonates throughout the entire film. For Ryan, marriage and being “settled” equates to slowing down and thereby having to face his own mortality. This is the foundation that the entire story is built upon and it’s what makes the film so powerful and moving. My guess is that this theme stems from one of the writer’s universal fears birthed from a specific life moment. Yet, it speaks to many of us.

  Similarly, in The Hurt Locker (Voltage Pictures, 2008), written by Mark Boal, there is another key line of dialogue, likely based on a universal life moment, that really resonates with the audience and underscores the entire story. Will James (Jeremy Renner) sits with his son and says, “The older you get, the fewer things you really love. When you get to my age, you only love one or two things.…I think it’s one.” Then the film cuts to Will going to war and starting another year of rotation, risking his life to dismantle improvised explosive devices. He’s not comfortable with the emotional side of life. Instead, he feels most at home doing what he does best, even though it involves risking his life. This is symbolized beautifully in a grocery store scene when Will’s wife asks him to grab a box of cereal and we see him looking up and down the aisle, completely bewildered by the multitude of choices. It is in this moment that we truly feel his isolation and sense of disconnection with this part of his life. How many of us can relate to this? Work actually comes easy. It is relationships and baring all that are truly difficult. I heard the writer, Mark Boal, speak at the Writers Guild Foundation. I asked him about this scene. He said that he drew this from his own life. He said that he is never comfortable in the grocery story. He utilized his own truth and fictionalized it into story.

  Television-wise, there’s a great moment in the fourth season finale of Dexter (Clyde Phillips Productions), written by Melissa Rosenberg and Wendy West, that has real universal relevance. In his voice over, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) asks himself, ”Why is it that with killing, I feel no regret, but disappointing Rita makes me feel like the scum of the earth?” Sometimes we can disassociate from external actions that one would think would be our most terrible regrets, yet disappointing a person who we love is almost always painful.

  In an episode of Mad Men (AMC), written by Matt Weiner and Kater Gordon, there is a great moment when the teacher, Miss Farrell (Abigail Spencer), with whom Don (John Hamm) is having an affair, relays a question that an 8-year-old boy asked her: “How do I know that you see blue like I see blue?” Don replies, “People may see things differently, but they don’t really want to.” This line sets up the entire episode, which explores both Don and his wife’s indiscretions, and is further symbolized with a basket of dirty laundry. Universally, it forces us, as an audience, to explore the difference between how we see things and how we want to see them. That is to say, we each live life in a healthy sense of denial, looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, denying the truth behind our actions. This is something we can all connect with and relate to in one way or another.

  Very often, the most powerful moments in a story reveal a writer’s truth. It is through your truth that you submerge your audience into your vision and make them feel your story. Diving into our personal truth can be terrifying. Yet, often, confronting our truth is what finally releases us from the paralyzing hold it has on us.

  After losing my job in the corporate world after 15 years at the same company, I took a trip to Esalen, a magical place by the Pacific Ocean in Big Sur. After I went through my divorce, I had, in essence, married my job. So, when my job came to an end, it was like I was going through a second divorce. It was a very numbing experience. I’ll never forget the ride up the California coastline. It was like I was seeing the coast for the very first time, finally truly able to see its beauty. I worked in the corporate world since the moment I had graduated from USC. Despite the tremendous fear of the unknown that I was facing, for the first time in my life I was totally free. For the first time since college, I didn’t have a specific reason or purpose to wake up in the morning other than to do things for myself, like workout and plan for the next stage of my life.

  While I was at Esalen, I took a five-day course called “Completions and Transitions” with 13 other people. On the first day, we went around the room and told our stories. Some of the stories were so deep, so painful and so raw. It made me feel like a fool for being there. I had only lost my job and some of these people had lost so much more. It made me feel selfish and egotistical. Who was I to think that my pain compared with theirs? On the first day, I felt like I didn’t belong, but by the fifth day, that feeling had changed completely. Through the tremendous instruction by Mary Goldenson, author of the book It’s Time: No One Is Coming to Save You, I began to see that all of our pain is relevant. If we dig into the backstories of our lives, much like we do with the backstories of our characters’ lives, we find that so many of the themes highlighted by our universal life moments are similar. The actual scenarios may be totally different, but the pain behind them is the same. We all have a right and a need to grieve.

  As a writer, you have the gift of being able to provide a tremendous sense of relief to others, by allowing them to see their pain explored in a fictional way, showing them they are not alone. There is no greater feeling than when a TV show or movie really speaks to you and makes you feel like someone understands. Drawing from your real pain and experience is what will bring your audience to tears and convince them to root for your characters. But to do this, you need to understand your own truth. You have to be willing to look deep inside yourself and extract it, look at it, feel it, expose it, process it, and express it on the page.

  Universal life themes are your gold. If you can learn to tap into and fictionalize these moments, adding the truth of your own emotion, you will find new depth in your writing. You will connect with your audience and discover the sound of your voice. Your script will reach deeply to your audience. The key to your success as a writer lies within. The way you interpret your universal life moments is what will inform your story and link you with your audience.

  EXERCISE

  Write down five of your most memorable universal life moments. Think of the times in your life when your reality shifted and your world turned upside down. Go into these moments.

  After writing down five of your most memorable life moments, identify some of the emotions involved in each of them. Think about some of the current scripts that you’re writing. Are any of the characters going through some of the emotions you experienced in your universal moments? If so, try writing from your experience with these emotions. Your characters will begin to speak from your truth.

  Think about your favorite films, television shows, and books. What were some of the universal themes explored in them that reached your deepest emotions?

  Recall what was going on in your life when some of these stories spoke to you.

  PART ONE

  Set Up


  Chapter Three

  WRITING YOUR LOG LINES AND HOW THEY APPLY TO YOUR STORY LINES

  It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

  ~ Robert Southey

  A log line is a brief description of the plot of your story that often involves an emotional hook and a twist of irony. I like to tell writers to think of the setup of who, dilemma, action and goal. This is a way of organizing their story lines in the briefest form possible to have the strongest emotional effect. You want to really grab your audience. I ask the writers I work with to start the concept phase of their scripts or novels with a log line. Your log line will show you everything that is working or not working in your story. If your log line isn’t working, it’s because something is missing in your story. Why write the script if the story isn’t 100% there? Your log line is your road map. It tells you where you start, what the journey is, and where you’ll wind up. It’ll be much easier to write your log line if you know where you’re going. I’ve found that learning to organize story lines by pulling those from our own lives and forming them into log lines sparks the creative process. Identifying your own log lines will help you find universal moments and themes in your writing. Additionally, knowing your log lines for your life will strengthen your meetings with creative executives because you’ll have a short and organized way to give them a sense of the story in your life and how it informs your creative process.

  To help you understand how to write log lines for your life, let’s dissect that log line I mentioned earlier from the movie Pretty Woman: “A cutthroat businessman who wants to remain detached needs a date for some social engagements, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets…only to fall in love.”

  This log line sets up the dilemma while making us feel empathy for the central character with the words, “A cutthroat businessman who wants to remain detached needs a date for some social engagements….” Then, it gives us the action that he takes, “and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets….” The irony is the goal: “fall in love” is completely the opposite of what he set out to do.

  We’ll discuss strong log lines from other movies and television shows in later chapters, but now, it’s time to start thinking about how to write log lines from your own life. We explored universal life moments in Chapter 2. It’s in these moments that you’ll find fruit for your log lines. You want to dive into the emotional moments in your life when you experienced a transformation. We can all write several log lines for our lives. If we reach back into our story and think about any of the realizations we’ve experienced that panned out differently than we expected them to, we’ll discover that we have so many fertile moments to draw from.

  Earlier I mentioned a log line of mine where the bride living in a fairy tale fantasy falls through a rabbit hole and finds herself President of Cheated On Anonymous. The dilemma is set up with the “bride living in a fairy tale fantasy….” We all know that this can be a recipe for disaster going into a new marriage. The action that is metaphorically taken is, “falls through a rabbit hole,” and the goal is “finds herself President of Cheated On Anonymous.”

  Now, obviously, none of us would go into a marriage with this intention, but it is the twist of irony where fiction is added to truth. I would never set a goal to be President of Cheated On Anonymous. However, this log line was a way to fictionalize what I experienced. Once you experience something, you become the expert. So, I assumed the role of an authority on the matter —“President”—which I felt reflected what I had gone through. When I wrote this log line, I realized that part of my problem with my divorce was my own unrealistic expectations going into it. I had my head in the clouds. I grew up believing that we all get our “happily ever afters.” What I soon realized is that all our fairy tales end at “happily ever after.” None of them tell us what happens after “Happily.” After my divorce, I probably helped 25 men and women go through their own divorce. So the line, “When she awakens, finds herself President of Cheated On Anonymous” refers to the fact that once we experience something and others know about it, it suddenly makes us an expert in this arena.

  Another log line for my life is, “When a work obsessed corporate executive experiences a perceived fall from grace when she is told that her contract is not being renewed, she is forced to turn her plan B into her plan A and discovers that her plan B was her plan A all along.” The setup of the central character is, “When a work obsessed corporate executive….” The dilemma is, “experiences a perceived fall from grace when she is told that her contract is not being renewed….” This is becoming a life experience for millions. The dilemma is prevalent. What do we do when our “moment,” which we’ve worked for all of our life, ends? The action is represented with “She is forced to turn her plan B into her plan A.” Many of us can connect with the idea that life takes a turn and we are forced to design a new plan. After this happens, many of us discover that the universe nudged us because it was our time. The goal is “and discovers that her plan B was her plan A all along.” This is utilizing irony as well. This is universal. We can go back to our core and figure out what made us happy about doing our jobs in the first place. Then, we can design a new plan.

  The gift of writing a log line for your life is that it helps you see that your story happened for a reason. We can start in one state: for me, I was living in the fantasy world of what I thought a relationship should be, but “falling through the rabbit hole,” or learning that my then husband had an affair, led to me “waking up.” When an action happens that is so severe that it challenges our whole belief system and forces us to change, we can find a story that others will connect with. Chances are millions have gone through the same thing and, as a result, are sitting in the same state of isolation waiting for someone like you to write about it and provide them with relief.

  In my second log line, which was drawn from another pivotal life moment, I realize as so many of us have that there is truth behind the phrase, “When one door closes, another opens.” After experiencing this kind of dilemma, we are “forced” to take action in order to create a new expectation. There is a beauty in an ending because it opens up the possibility for a new beginning. By being forced into a situation, we see what we’re really made of. We can open a new door and discover that our Plan B was actually our Plan A. Through experiencing a dilemma, we take action and create a new goal. In story, we see the growth from this formula through the execution of the story.

  One great way to begin thinking of pivotal moments in your life is to go through photo albums. This is an excellent way to extract story. There is often so much emotion behind every picture we take. If you go through your albums, you will be shocked at how many stories you’re reminded of and how they make you feel. We often smile for pictures because we know that our picture is being taken. However, we know the truth behind the mask. It is having the courage to go there and understand it that is the true test.

  Recently, I was asked to compile pictures from the start of my career and moments during my corporate climb. It was a very enlightening experience. As I looked at the pictures, I thought, “Who is that girl?” I wished that I could tell her that with each fall she takes, she will get stronger and will always get back up. I noticed that my body/weight and the condition and length of my hair were indicators of my emotional state. After my divorce, I cut my hair short. It was a way of getting rid of what was dead and starting new. I also realized that during my marriage, I was incredibly thin—I mean too thin. This said a lot to me. It’s like I was trying to disappear because I knew that the relationship was not a smart and healthy choice. It is amazing how much our physical state can reveal about our emotional state. This was also the beginning of my corporate climb. This meant lots of very late nights reading a ton of scripts and reporting back to Aaron Spelling the following day. During my climb, I remember thinking that this is the happiest time of my life. I have to be in it. Now, I look back at some of these pictures and happin
ess is not necessarily what I see. I was disillusioned as to what I thought getting to the vice president position would bring me. It is a fascinating experience when we attach to one idea and think, “When I become this, then I will be happy.” I do take tremendous pride in setting a goal and achieving it, but what I realize in hindsight about my climb in the corporate world is that what I love most are the friends that I made along the way. I realize that although it wasn’t a perfect climb ending with me heading a studio, it was my foundation. Now, it is the time for my true journey and true sense of happiness to begin. I know so much more about happiness and how to authentically be in this emotion versus having to mask it.

  My mother often tells me that I was born in a “joyful” state. She says that I was happy to enter the world, that I loved people and had no problem in any social situation. I would go up to people and befriend them wherever we went. When we begin life in this state, this is where we find the most comfort. Whenever I go through my not-so-happy moments, I am willing to do the work to get back there. I had a brief thought when I was looking at the pictures of my climb. What if I wasn’t this extremely happy person? What if I latched onto a story and made it my reality? Then, I woke up the next day and realized that I do begin every day in a very happy and content state. It is a natural part of my being. Recognizing this as part of my story makes me always want to do the work to stay in this state. So, this story serves a major purpose in my life.