by Will Dunne
io. The Pianist dramatizes an important historical event from World War II-the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and the extermination of Jews who lived there-and is based on a true story originally written by Szpilman as a book. This makes the main event "big" in every way. It is far removed in size, scope, and significance from the trivialities of the everyday world and offers many lessons and insights about the best and worst of humanity.
Your story does not have to be historical to have importance. It does not have to be based on true events. Nor does it have to be a serious drama. Even if you are writing a comedy that you make up as you go along, you can find big material in your character and story choices. Look for issues, truths, and themes that matter to you and reflect your life experience. Chances are, these things will matter to us, too, or at least provoke us into seeing them in new ways, even if we are laughing in the process.
Think about how big your story is-or isn't. If it feels like big material, what makes it so? If it doesn't feel big enough yet, how can you increase its importance while staying true to yourself as a writer? Regardless of how you feel about your material now, trust your first instinct. There was something about your story important enough to draw you in and make you commit to writing it. Try to explore what may still be in your subconscious waiting to be discovered under the character and story choices you have made so far. Then answer the question: What makes your story big? Or, if it doesn't seem big, how might you make your story more important?
i I. You have now answered ten questions about your story. Hopefully, these responses have helped clarify your understanding of the main event. As a final step, revisit your answer to the second question: "In one sentence, what is the main event of your story?" If you have learned anything new about this event and want to revise your answer, do so now. This can serve as an important guide for you during the revision process.
WRAP-UP
A dramatic story is about one thing: a big, observable action shaped by positive and negative forces. Know what the main event of your story is and keep this focus in mind as you make decisions at the scenic level and work through story details.
THE QUICK VERSION
Learn more about your story by translating it into other forms
BEST TIME FOR THIS
After the first draft or any time you need a clearer vision of your story
FINDING THE ESSENCE OF THE STORY
During the process of script development, from fleshing out characters to seeing the big picture of the story, you are making decisions that bring to your work a certain kind of life. If your work is successful, this life will find a form and meaning that transcend the words of the script and encompass the whole work-characters, structure, subject, and theme-both on and off the page. To experience this life is to know, at some level, the essence of the story.
Though intangible and immeasurable, the essence of the story is what matters most in the end. In many ways, its power will determine how your work is received and understood by others. What is the essence of the story you are developing now? How would you distill this essence? What are its core truths?
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
This is a fun exercise with a serous goal: to learn something new about the essence of your story. Use the following steps to simplify and prioritize story ideas so that you can shake up your material in unexpected ways and see what falls out.
In each round, you will be asked to translate your story into a different form of writing. No matter what you do with the new form or how much fun you have with it, stay true to the story as you know it now. Do each round as quickly as possible and remember that you may learn the most by making bold choices.
YOUR STORY AS A LIBRARY CATALOG LISTING
You can locate books in the library by going to an electronic catalog which lists titles, authors, genres, and synopses among other publication information. These entries are purely functional devices with no bells or whistles, since nobody is trying to sell anything. After identifying the genre-for example, mystery, comedy, suspense, drama, farce, science fiction, or horrorthe synopsis of the plot is short and simple, usually just a sentence, and may be on the dry side. It's designed for efficiency and economy. For example:
• How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel. Drama. A woman looks back in forgiveness on a seven-year relationship with her uncle.
• Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Thriller. A washed-up playwright tries to trick one of his ex-students out of a brilliant play, and turns to murder when his efforts fail.
• Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley. Comedy. Three Mississippi sisters try to escape the past and face the future.
Think about your subject and theme, and main story event. What genre does your story fall into? How would you sum up the story in an efficient and functional way that does not exceed one sentence? What is your story as a library catalog listing?
YOUR STORY AS A MESSAGE IN A FORTUNE COOKIE
Think about your whole story-its subject, theme, and main event-and how you might translate this into the type of message found in fortune cookies. Written for a tiny scroll, the message is usually only one sentence long. It has the style and tone of a psychic prediction or a statement of profound wisdom from the mysterious and great beyond. For example, a Chinese fortune cookie might contain any of the following:
• A message of enlightenment, perhaps for George and Lennie in of Mice and Men: "There is a true and sincere friendship between you both."
• A foretelling of the future, perhaps for Joe and Harper in Angels in America: "If you travel, you will lose your true love."
• Advice for success, perhaps for the real estate agents in Glengarry Glen Ross: "You will never find true wealth if it is only money you seek."
• A warning, perhaps for Macbeth: "You walk under a cloud. Beware the storm."
• An encouragement, perhaps for star-crossed pairs of lovers like Rosalind and Orlando in As You Like It: "You will yet live to splendor and plenty."
Your fortune cookie message may deliver good news or bad news. It may be about the present or future. It may be directed to your leading character or characters, or perhaps even to your audience. What's important is that it expresses a high-level truth. What is your story as a message in a Chinese fortune cookie?
YOUR STORY AS A LETTER TO AN ADVICE COLUMNIST
Advice column letters often suggest story. They tend to be emotional in nature and have a way of getting to the heart of dramatic situations and the people who populate them. They are dramatic in the sense that the writer often has a strong objective, stakes high enough to motivate the writing of the letter, and conflict that cannot be easily resolved. Listen to the drama in this letter to columnist Amy Love:
Dear Amy,
My boyfriend "Joe" and I have been together for three years, but things haven't been so hot. One day he's here waiting to be fed and have his clothes washed and other needs tended to. Next day, he's gone and so is all of the liquor in the apartment and most of the money in my checking account. He also steals my cigarettes if he can find them. Then one day he's here again acting real lovey-dovey. Now after almost two weeks he came back with a black eye and bruises all over, but he won't tell me what happened. But he does say he's changed and wants to get married. He acts like he means it this time. What do you think?
Wedding Bells
Think about the big picture of your story. How might you translate it into an advice column letter? And how will the letter be signed? You can imagine the letter being written by your main character, another character, or whomever you wish. What is your story as a letter addressed to Dear Amy, ending with the writer's moniker?
YOUR STORY AS ADVICE FROM A COLUMNIST
This is the flip side of the advice column letter: the expert advice that addresses the question and offers some kind of solution. Here is Amy Love's reply to the question of whether or not Wedding Bells should marry her boyfriend:
Dear Wedding Bells:
What do I think? I th
ink you have a very unusual way of seeing reality. I also think you should stop smoking. Next time he's gone, change the locks, get a new checking account, and find somebody else to marry.
Amy
Think about the question you posed in the first round, and now write the reply in the style and tone of an advice columnist. As before, try to keep your subject, theme, and plot in mind and translate these into a different form that distills their essence.
YOUR STORY AS A HEADLINE IN THE NEWSPAPER
Think about who your main character is and what happens overall as a result of his or her quest. Translate this main event into an informative, newsworthy, and attention-grabbing newspaper headline that reflects an interesting angle on your story. It's the kind of news headline you might see on the front page of your morning newspaper-for example, "DNA Testing Leads to justice after a Decade behind Bars." Think about the main event of your story. Translate it into the style, tone, and length of a hard news headline.
YOUR STORY AS A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Now start to imagine the news article for the headline you just wrote. It's a more elaborate reporting of the main event. To be written in the style and tone of hard news, it needs a strong factual lead: an opening paragraph that tells what happened and highlights what's newsworthy. The article then gives supporting facts about the who, what, where, when, and why of the event. For the headline "DNA Testing Leads to justice after a Decade behind Bars," for example, the article begins:
After serving more than io years in prison for a murder he did not commit, a Los Angeles man on Friday was cleared of all charges and immediately released from the Pacific Bay Correctional Center, thanks to DNA tests which confirmed his innocence.
"I never thought this day would come," said Jacob Moore, 38, as he emerged from the prison Friday afternoon with his attorney Maria Wills.
"I used to have a girlfriend. I used to have my own apartment and a good job. Now all that's gone," Moore said. "I've got nothing but freedom and a chance to start over."
During a brief hearing at the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building, prosecutors dismissed all charges against Moore, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a coworker found strangled near Moore's home. The dismissal came after a two-year reinvestigation of a case built on forensic evidence that prosecutors now say was flawed from the start.
The case began when .. .
In a hard news story, the opening paragraph objectively sums it all up. The article then moves from what's most newsworthy to what's most newsworthy after that, to what's most newsworthy after that, and so on. Few details are given this early in the article. Think about the main event of your story. How would you report it as hard news for the front page? Write the opening paragraph or two of the story.
YOUR STORY AS A TABLOID HEADLINE
Think again about who your main character is and what happens overall as a result of the quest. What is most unusual or emotionally appealing about your story? How would you translate this into the style and tone of a front-page tabloid headline? Your focus now will be more on the personal and sensational aspects of your material rather than a factual recap. For example, here is a front-page headline from a weekly tabloid: "His Ex Returned from the Grave to Wreck My Dream Wedding." What is your story as a tabloid front-page headline?
YOUR STORY AS A TABLOID ARTICLE
This is the article for the headline you just wrote and it sums up your story in the style and tone of a tabloid. As with the hard news article, you need to start with a strong lead, but the approach is more emotional than factual, and imagination and embellishment are not discouraged. Here is the opening of the article "His Ex Returned from the Grave to Wreck My Dream Wedding":
A wedding ceremony at Reno's White Venus Chapel came to a literally screeching halt on Saturday when the ghost of the groom's deceased ex-wife suddenly appeared at the altar and began wailing loudly.
"This was supposed to be my dream wedding," said almost-bride Cathy Taylor, 25, still in her elegant silver satin wedding gown with a deep V halter neckline, dramatic low back, and miniature pearl bead accents. "I guess I should feel lucky that no one got hurt," Taylor said, as she recounted the horror of seeing her groom, wedding party, and chapel full of guests all screaming and fleeing in panic.
The uninvited ghost was described as ...
Notice how the opening does still recap what the article is about. However, the angle is more subjective and relies on big adjectives and emotional hot buttons. Think about the main event of your story and what's most sensational about it. Write the opening paragraph or two of your story as a frontpage article in a tabloid.
YOUR STORY AS THE TITLE OF A TOP-TEN LIST
David Letterman's comedic top-ten lists have now worked their way into the fabric of American culture. In reverse order of importance, from ten to one, they give the top ten ways to do something, or the top ten warning signs of trouble, or the top ten signs or clues that something is true-all for the purpose of satire and getting a few laughs. Here are a few examples of titles from the 2001 Late Show Top Ten Archive:
• Top Ten Signs Your Radio Shack Manager Has Gone Nuts
• Top Ten Signs You're Talking to a Bad Phone Psychic
• Top Ten Things You Don't Want to Hear from a Gas Station Attendant
Think about your whole story. What's it about? What theme are you exploring? What happens in the story overall? If you were using this exercise to explore the big picture of A Streetcar Named Desire, for example, you might write "Top Ten Ways to End Up in a Mental Asylum." What is your story as a top-ten list title?
YOUR STORY AS A TOP TEN LIST
Imagine the actual list for the top-ten list title you just wrote. In reverse order of importance, from ten to one, it will list the "top ten" signs, ways, questions, clues, reasons, or whatever you called for in your title. However silly or serious your choices may be, sum up your subject, theme, and story line as faithfully as possible. If the story were Streetcar and the title were "Top Ten Ways to End Up in a Mental Asylum," for example, the list might read like this:
ro. Marry a guy who is not sexually attracted to you.
9. Get a teaching job and have sex with your students.
8. Get fired from teaching and become a prostitute.
7. Move into a small, one-room apartment with your sister and her husband.
6. Make enemies with your sister's husband as soon as possible by calling him a Neanderthal.
5. Drink like a sailor but only in secret.
4. Try to land a husband by lying about your background and age, and keeping the lights as dim as possible.
3. Try to break up your sister's marriage so she can be completely available to take care of your every need.
2. Deny everything, especially to yourself, while wearing a boa.
i. Have sex with your sister's husband while she's out having a baby.
What is your story as a top-ten list?
YOUR STORY AS A POEM
Think about how you might capture your whole story in a poem that accomplishes a lot with relatively few words. For example, it might create a word picture or appeal to the reader's senses in other ways in order to stir emotions and reveal some kind of truth. Your poem might be written in free verse or stanzas that rhyme. It might take the form of a sonnet, limerick, or haiku. Think about the essence of your story. How would you translate it into a poem?
WRAP-UP
No matter what you are writing about or how serious your topic may be, exercises like this can help you find a clearer vision of your story. By distilling the essence of your material and translating it into a different structure, such as a tabloid headline, you can see what rises to the surface of your thinking. Some of this process may feel silly, but it can often lead to surprising new insights. It's the creative equivalent of suddenly finding yourself in a burning building and wanting to save what matters most. With such little time to act, what will you reach for?
THE QUICK VERSION
Write a series of synopses to clarify the big picture of your story
BEST TIME FOR THIS
After you have a completed draft
SYNOPSIS: A FOCUSING TOOL
When the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center accepts your play for the U.S. National Playwrights Conference, one of the first tasks is to write a synopsis of the story in advance for Playbill. The purpose of the synopsis is to highlight what the story is about and attract an audience in about a hundred words. For example, here is the synopsis that appeared in Playbill for my play Hotel Desperado:
There are old blood stains in the carpet, scratching sounds inside the walls, and stranglers on the second floor. The sign outside says Dorado, but those who live here know better. James Maxwell Dean just checked in without realizing it and now he can't check out. He's shacking up with Gil, a.k.a. Gila Monster, and trying to make the past as distant as the dunes he left behind. But doors here don't always open to what they once shut off. The view is unpredictable. And anything can happen when someone knocks. Welcome to the Hotel Desperado.
Whether or not your work is selected by the O'Neill, it's a good idea to have a synopsis of your story ready when you begin to submit it to producers, agents, and competitions. The process of developing a synopsis is an enlightening one because it forces you to prioritize your story ideas, focus on what's most important about your plot and theme, and highlight your story's potential appeal to an audience.
To generate interest, the Hotel Desperado synopsis highlights a few concrete details (blood stains in the carpet, scratching sounds inside the walls, stranglers on the second floor) and includes the names of the main character (James Maxwell Dean) and a secondary character (Gil, a.k.a. Gila Monster). It also suggests a sense of mystery and surrealism: "The sign outside says Dorado but those who live here know better ... the doors don't always open to what they once shut off. The view is unpredictable ... anything can happen when someone knocks."