Tag: writer

HERE IS A METHOD TO HELP GET A STORY OUT OF YOUR HEAD AND ONTO THE PAGE

by Anthony Ferraro, posted in BLOG

Can everyone write a story? No. Can everyone imagine a story? Yes. We all have a story to tell. We imagine characters & situations pretty easily. The imagination is a beautiful and powerful thing. When we talk about a great story of any medium with someone often times in the excitement of recalling the story, many of us will say… I have an idea for a story! Usually, it is a character & a situation. And that core of an idea is lodged in our minds. As we daydream about our story it seems so powerful & clear even as a basic impression. That idea, that spark is undeniable. But… committing it to the written word is daunting. Even to the practicing writer, that first draft is no easy task. So what can a novice or first-time writer do? Well, you could pitch that idea. But if you’re like me, your next thought is, pitch it to who? Sure I understand the concept but who do I really have access to? And for me, pitching is not being creative. So we must write!

notebook-macbook-writing-hand-typing-working-933296-pxhere.com

“Many first-time writers approach storytelling with the misconception that every pen or keystroke will produce a polished, perfectly formed thought. This is not the case”

I am not a scriptwriter or a novelist. I am a storyteller and my mode of expression was originally theatre and is now film. And by a film I mean video and by a video I mean, shorts, online series & low budget features. When I gather people to realize one of my stories I need a script, no way around that. It is the tentpole of the whole process. Therefore as a filmmaker when I have an idea for a story I approach scriptwriting just like any of the other components I need to gather in order to realize my vision. I ask myself, what is the easiest, most efficient way to get this done without compromising quality? Seven times out of ten? Teach yourself how to do it.

Earlier I mentioned, “The imagination is a beautiful & powerful thing.” And, I just quoted myself, apologies. Your brain does two things equally, one side will dream and imagine a story and characters that have somehow found their way inside your mind’s eye. The other side, when pressed to give up these ideas into the written word, will fight you at every step, with self-doubt as a powerful ally. What is one to do? Well, I’ll share with you what I do.

I feel the biggest burden, hurdle, barrier for most would be storytellers who want to put their idea onto the page is that when they finally sit down to write many first-time writers approach storytelling with the misconception that every pen or keystroke will produce a polished, perfectly formed thought. This is not the case, the imagined idea does not want to be words on a page. And 97% of the time when trying to exercise the story out of our mind the side of our brain resisting will shut the whole process down. And forever you will talk about this idea you have, just words in the air.

This is how I work through this. First, I commit to the idea that the first draft of my story will flow unedited from my imagination and most importantly that I will bring the idea to a conclusion.  That is to say, I will not leave my first try unfinished. What I do is I meditate for about a week on my idea, I make sure before I go to bed at night I’m thinking about it. And if the word “meditate” turns you off just think a lot about the idea, a lot. No writing,  just imagining. I see the story in my mind’s eye, I sleep on it. Then I set aside a day to write, about 8 hours. In that eight hours, I am committed to writing to the whole story. Trust me that’s not as ambitious as it sounds but, it is as powerful as it sounds. Here is the key. You are not writing your story from your imagination you are just transferring your imagination to the written word. What do I mean by that?

Do not think about structure, just think about your character or characters, your situation and imagine you are calm and comfortable setting and someone is asking you to describe what is in your mind or to describe what you see when you close your eyes. Then, just start “transcribing” not writing, writing is active transcribing is passive. By simply transcribing, you do not wake up that part of your brain who will shut you down. Just write down on paper what you see in your mind’s eye. Sometimes it helps to kick things off by literally writing what you are thinking and at some point, the imagination will kick in and take over. Think of the literal transcribing of your thoughts that are not the story as the warm-up, the act of doing that will ease you into it. Do not edit yourself just write what you see, what you imagine.

If that idea is new or strange, I’ll give you a brief example here, I’ll do this myself, now, it goes something like this – [Note: This is warts and all, no grammar, spelling or punctuation corrections ]

*START* Ok so now i just told the reader i’d give an example for this which i dunno how would i do that oh well ah i am pausing don’t pause hmmm well basically what i am saying hmmm well i am saying my reason for writing or wanting to share this article is really based on the idea that the biggest mistake and barrier to storytelling by people who are not practicing writers is this idea that the story just flows onto the pages in a final draft its hard work  man so hard  should i just tell them for most of us your first rough will be terrible of course it will but what is more terrible is no draft right hmm what i am saying that really it is just writing writing writing and more writing but as a non practicing writer to realize your story and to get out that first writing that you will write over and over and over you need a pre-first draft one that just gets out of the head onto to the page taking our internal, external *END*

I’m back, that went on a bit but, I wanted to give you the idea and show you I would never ask you to try something I’ve not done myself. For example in that quick passage, the idea that a “terrible draft is better than no draft” or “taking an internal idea and externalizing it”. It would have never occurred to me to write those ideas here for you had I not just moments ago done the writing exercise. And I would like to add that I do in fact often type “hmmm” while doing this exercise. I find it keeps me locked into the task. 

This first draft of your story no matter how rough, jumbled or confusing is now in a document. This is the important part. Whether you use word-processing software or online documents, put that document in a folder and label it your tile or working title subtitle rough draft. For me this is the “for my eyes only” version, no one will ever see or know of the existence of this draft, it’s a secret. Come back the next day or a few days later duplicate that document and label it version one. Read it, rewrite it, add subtract. Keep doing that. The goal of subsequent versions should be to get the idea to a short story form of roughly 5 to 20 pages that makes some sort of sense. Once you have that idea in a short story form you can get started. I will add here if you choose to do this process in handwritten longhand, its the same process, Put version one in a Folder and as you refine it handwrite each new version as a separate document. I myself have on a few occasions handwritten the first rough idea draft into a notebook and then transcribed that scribbling into my computer as my “version one” That way the rough was truly for my eyes only. Also, there is value in transcribing your own handwritten words, there is a degree of separation to that process which allows you a valuable objective view of your idea. 

From that rough short, if you just decide there is just no way you can write this do not worry about that, the important thing is, at least you tried and that means something. I don’t mean that lightly, so many people simply do not try. What you can do now is take that rough short and turn it into a proper treatment document. I won’t go over that, you can just search online about formatting a treatment. The exciting news is you now have enough material in your short to take your story and turn it into a properly formatted treatment. Then you can share your amazing story with people that are potential collaborators who will take on the writing and producing of your original idea. Congratulations are no longer just another person with a great idea. You are now a storyteller. On the other hand, if you are inspired or better yet, driven to write your story and a feature film is what you imagine, expand that short and root out your core ideas that need further exploration. And now if you need help with the script format, your core idea exists and you will be able to find someone with script writing skills willing to show you how to format your story into a screenplay. No one ever wanted to write your idea for you but you’d be surprised how many people are willing to help you refine your idea and show you how to format it into a script. Why? Because they know how hard it is. Congratulations you’re in the club! Maybe you want to create a series, again take that short and start breaking it up into, segments or beats that could be expanded upon. Perhaps a short film is your goal? Well, you’re 75% there, do some rewrites and put your story into a script format. If you don’t know how to do that? Ask for help, research online, stumble through it. You will get better, but not if you never start.  And if after all you just simply wanted to write a short story, congratulations! You’re done, well almost still you will need to write and rewrite.

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.” -Ernest Hemingway

So what is the catch? The catch is it is still a very hard thing to do. I’ll repeat, be prepared to write and rewrite, throw ideas away and bring some back. It’s not easy, but if you are really committed to telling that story of yours this will get you on your way. I should also say you may re-wright 100% of your first rough draft, you may even do a second, first rough draft but once you set things in motion you’de be surprised of the momentum generated by the simple act of doing. Our intention was always to tell a story not to learn to screenwrite or become a novelist. If you were trying to learn to write a screenplay at the same time as you were trying to write your first draft of your idea most likely you would just spin out and abandon the whole process. Certainly 3% of you out there in the world are capable of doing both but for the other 97% of us its just a matter of hard work and finding a method that works. 

In a nutshell, no one is going to do the work for you and if it means that much to you, roll up your sleeves and get in there. If you at least commit yourself to just exercising that idea out of your head and wrestling it onto the page with no regard for spelling, grammar or structure you will have a lump of clay of your very own imagination to mold into something uniquely your own. That’s a pretty amazing lump of clay. In closing I’ll not leave you will a quote or final thought to drive this all home and inspire you. I will share with you a very special letter. I think if this letter from Martha Graham to Agnes De Mille does not convince you to get started, nothing will.

“A Letter to Agnes De Mille”

There is a vitality,
a life force,
a quickening
that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.

And If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.
The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine
how good it is
nor how valuable it is
nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly
to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.
You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate YOU.

Keep the channel open…
No artist is pleased…

There is no satisfaction whatever at anytime
There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes “us” MORE alive than the others.

Martha Graham
( – a letter to Agnes De Mille-)

 

 

 

 

 

This Plot And Structure Cheat Sheet Will Make You A Better Storyteller & Screenwriter

by Anthony Ferraro, posted in BLOG

You can have an amazing idea for a character and have a firm grasp on the world that character lives in, but without plot and structure, you will not have an audience. A few might find it intriguing but the majority will be lost and bored. With a basic framework that focuses your characters and situations, your story will appeal to a much wider audience. This is a cheat sheet based on some solid fundamentals.

Forster

In 1927 English novelist E. M. Forster was invited to give a series of lectures which were later published as “Aspects of the Novel”. He is speaking about writing a novel but the principles of creating plot and structure are universal. The following are a few quotes for our cheat sheet.

Plot: A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality according to Forster, “The king died and then the queen died,’ is a story. ‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief,’ is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it. Consider the death of the queen. If it is in a story we say ‘and then?’ If it is in a plot we ask ‘why?’”

Structure: Pattern and Rhythm says Forster, “A novel has a pattern when it has a geometric shape, such as the hour-glass shape of one character’s social fall crossing over with another’s social climb, or the circular shape of a character moving from one new acquaintance to the next until they finally return to their starting point. The pattern is an aesthetic aspect of the novel, and though it may be nourished by anything in the novel — any character, scene, word — it draws most of its nourishment from the plot. Whereas the story appeals to our curiosity and the plot to our intelligence, the pattern appeals to our aesthetic sense, it causes us to see the book as a whole.”

Three Act Structure: In visual storytelling, the most useful structure for the plot is the Three Act Structure. This structure is a model used in screenwriting that divides a fictional narrative into three parts (acts), often called the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. Aristotle said that every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

In 1863, Gustav Freytag, a German writer, advocated a model based on Aristotle’s theory of tragedy. This is now called “Freytag’s pyramid,” which divides a drama into five parts, and provides function to each part. These parts are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.  From our frinds at Wikipedia,

Exposition: The first phase in Freytag’s pyramid is the exposition, which introduces the characters, especially the main character, also known as the protagonist. It shows how the characters relate to one another, their goals and motivations, as well as their moral character. During the exposition, the protagonist learns their main goal and what is at stake.

Conflict: Freytag’s definition of conflict refers to the second act in a five-act play, a point of time in which all of the major characters have been introduced, their motives and allegiances have been made clear, and they have begun to struggle against one another.

Rising Action: Rising action is the second phase in Freytag’s five-phase structure. It starts with a conflict, for example, the death of a character. The inciting incident is the point of the plot that begins the conflict. It is the event that catalyzes the protagonist to go into motion and to take action. Rising action involves the buildup of events until the climax.

In this phase, the protagonist understands his or her goal and begins to work toward it. Smaller problems thwart their initial success and their progress is directed primarily against these secondary obstacles. This phase demonstrates how the protagonist overcomes these obstacles.

Climax: The climax is the turning point or highest point of the story. The protagonist makes the single big decision that defines not only the outcome of the story, but also who they are as a person. Freytag defines the climax as the third of the five dramatic phases which occupies the middle of the story.

At the beginning of this phase, the protagonist finally clears away the preliminary barriers and engages with the adversary. Usually, both the protagonist and the antagonist have a plan to win against the other as they enter this phase. For the first time, the audience sees the pair going against one another in direct or nearly direct conflict.

This struggle usually results in neither character completely winning or losing. In most cases, each character’s plan is both partially successful and partially foiled by their adversary. The central struggle between the two characters is unique in that the protagonist makes a decision which shows their moral quality, and ultimately decides their fate. In a tragedy, the protagonist here makes a poor decision or a miscalculation that demonstrates their tragic flaw.

Falling action: According to Freytag, the falling action phase consists of events that lead to the ending. Character’s actions resolve the problem. In the beginning of this phase, the antagonist often has the upper hand. The protagonist has never been further from accomplishing their goal. The outcome depends on which side the protagonist has put themselves on.

Resolution: In this phase the protagonist and antagonist have solved their problems and either the protagonist or antagonist wins the conflict. The conflict officially ends. Some stories show what happens to the characters after the conflict ends and/or they show what happens to the characters in the future.

Freytags_pyramid.svg

Wikipedia contributors. “Plot (narrative).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 24 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sep. 2017

The reason I use these examples as a reference is my tendency early on was to get lost in creating characters and imagining their worlds. The characters and places I created became so real to me that as I filmed my stories they were just a series of scenarios with no framework. In my mind these scenarios were very entertaining and poignant but because an audience did not have the benefit of being in my mind the potential of the stories was lost. Because the audience was lost. Do yourself and your audience a favor and create a basic structure for your story and your audience to follow. Do not lose your audience.

Be sure to subscribe and follow my video channel for more Sci Fi filmmaking How To.

 

“Stop Overthinking Your Sci-Fi Ideas” How I Gave Myself Permission To Explore My Bizzaro Ideas

by Anthony Ferraro, posted in BLOG

“Stop Overthinking Your Sci-Fi” was a tough lesson that I learned the hard way after a very long road of trying to be the next mashup of Jim Jarmusch & David Lynch. I made many a black and white thirty something angst dramas, both long and short form. They are competent and mostly feature a struggling artist character. They are watchable but in the end not my authentic voice. I should have been looking to kevin Smith & Robert Rodriguez but as they say hindsight is 20/20.

AntWrite

My filmmaking tastes were film school high brow but yet my watching habits were anything in space or with a sword slaying Dragons or the occasional western. My top three go to movies to this day are Excalibur (1981) Director John Boorman, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) Director Clint Eastwood and The Three Musketeers (1973) Director Richard Lester. So why was I making art house films? Because I loved fantasy and sci-fi in a child like fashion therefore I overlooked them as a basis for my artistic expression. I ignored my passion, please do not do that. I’ll say it again, I ignored my passion. Thankfully I’m evolving.

When I first considered creating a fantasy  or sci-fi I immediately fell into the same traps of over thinking from my previous endeavors. I went way down the rabbit hole of the Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s journey. I won’t go into detail here but at the time to better grasp it I actually made a video with examples from Star Wars and The Matrix. You can watch that video here.  Admittedly I still follow that formula but not academically and that for me is key. It is more of a basic map when I am developing a story. Simply I list the steps of the monomyth as bullet points or road markers and when outlining a story I loosely follow it. If my characters at point A – he/she must get t to point B, great I need to fill that in luckily its sci-fi so I make something up. Here goes – our hero a humanoid with Blue Skin and Ruby red eyes named Sellanon (A) must leave home, he/she heads to the pink shores of Delnore (B) – At C  a stranger is encountered – boom I invent the stranger Sellanon comes upon and old Warrior tending to his equally old Buk-Buk mount. A smelly but beautiful beast (C). then we need to get to D,  a woman appears, a spark, a sexual tension or if it is a girl a man appears or they are perhaps LGBT, basically a love interest. Sellanon hesitates before the old warrior in the road Sellanon is startled as a woman from behind barks, “ are you going to help him or just stand there looking stupid?”  She is from the Green Skins but she is beautiful, Sellanon says … etc etc. and they have a road block, they deal with it –  It just gives me places to go without thinking too much. Further Dan Harmon made it very accessible and humorous in his post: Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit

To be honest i’m not sure how I did push through at first but I recall sitting in a coffee shop one day to write and I Just started Free Writing a sci-fi story. I gave myself over to the idea I would just have fun, not worry about being amazing out of the gate and to just allow myself to go on a simple journey of creation. And in doing so the world opened up. Rather than talking or thinking about sci fi I was in it, I was the sci-fi guy making sci-fi. That suited me much better then the Art House guy. And people reacted more strongly to my sci fi work because although my stories to date are coded in the shorthand of the past 50 years of sci fi entertainment they are original and unique because they come from my imagination. I am simply asking you to stop overthinking your story and just get it out in the world. Once its out there, once you give birth to it, exercise it from your brain, pull it out onto the paper on the desk or into a computer program you still will have to work it and re work it and tighten it. But once it is out of your head and in the world everything will change for you.  

Just admit to yourself you are just trying something that maybe you don’t quite understand yet. Think of the first day of a job, it’s hard and uncomfortable at first but in a week you’re making coffee chatting at the water cooler. Figuring out ways to get your job done easier, faster. Don’t have unrealistic expectations on your first day of your sci-fi writing job. Lose yourself in creating the world of your story and then take on the production bit by bit. Just keep checking in with me, I’ll get you there one step at a time. it’s a long road but one worth traveling when you are creating the road from your own imagination step by step, stone by stone. Give yourself  permission to be Bizzaro and not feel foolish,  just be uniquely you.

Be sure to watch my video channel for more Sci Fi filmmaking giddy-up.

Your Impossible To Make SciFi Series Idea Will Be A Rewarding Experience. So Start Free Writing it.

by Anthony Ferraro, posted in BLOG

First off your idea is not terrible or crazy, weird maybe, complicated probably, bizarre at best and a rehashing at worst. The most exciting thing about creating science fiction is the fiction part. The science part, fortunately, is made up too. So what’s stopping you from getting started?

Should you take a writing course? No. Should you map out the world and characters? No. Should you download screenwriting software? No. The best and easiest thing to do is to just start writing. Well that’s not easy you are thinking, maybe even said that out loud. Yes, it is if you just write.

I recommend you start bringing your world to life by Free Writing. For those who do not know, what is Free Writing? Free writing is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism. Some writers use the technique to collect initial thoughts and ideas on a topic, often as a preliminary to formal writing. -Wikipedia

I find this particularly useful in sci-fi. For example in my show Galactic Galaxy my main character Fen is a Space Werewolf. I wrote the first draft of my series in a Free Writing session a few years ago. Honestly, I have no idea why I wrote “Space Werewolf”  but, for some reason, Space Werewolf appeared as I was quickly describing the character. Now three years later I can tell you Fen’s estranged father was not a Space Werewolf but was, in fact, the son of a prominent  Space Werewolf family on a Wolf Planet where his father was ostracized because he was not born a wolf. He was teased and bullied and as a result when he was a young man he left home in a rage to conquer the galaxy. When his son Fen was born he abandoned him because he was Space Werewolf, a Luna Lucan. And on and on. If I had spent weeks toiling over the character I would not have come up with something that interesting. I have several more examples but you get the point.

I suggest you start thinking about your world, your story, the characters and just start talking about it. Talking to your friends or people online in sci-fi groups. Start saying I have this idea for a story and describe the characters, talk about what you think happens, tell anyone who will listen. If you do not have friends or are not comfortable with that, start thinking about it.  Do that until you are ready to burst or are just sick of talking and thinking about it. Then pick a time, day or evening what ever works for you. Give yourself at least a 4-hour undisturbed window. Pick your spot, your bedroom, the computer desk, your kitchen, the library. I did mine in a coffee shop because even though its public no one disturbed me there. You should write on a computer in Word, Pages, Google Docs or any free text editor program. The reason is once you are done writing you will mine your gold from the document with some basic copy and pasting.

I simply ask you to get started and let your sci-fi freak flag fly. Sit down and just write your idea – don’t stop. Spelling and grammar be damned, just look at the keys and type as fast as ideas occur to you with no regard to structure or plot just let the ideas rip.

Later you will go back and add structure and context and start to build your script. But first just take a pass and clean it up into a readable short or long story. Still, hold off on the screen format. Just tell your story. In other posts, I will go over with you how to start crafting your series into a workable document.

I’ll leave you with this to think about. J. R. R. Tolkien claims that he started The Hobbit suddenly, without premeditation, in the midst of grading a set of student essay exams, writing on a blank piece of paper: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.

Be sure to watch my video channel for more Sci Fi filmmaking giddy-up.

Your No Budget SCI-FI video project will look like Grozit so it should at least be funny.

by Anthony Ferraro, posted in BLOG

Yes, please make a low budget sci-fi short film or web series. No, please do not take yourself seriously. Seriously… don’t.

Grozit

SCI-FI big budget films in the hundred million range look amazing, truly it is an astonishing thing to behold. SCI-FI Films with five million and less never look so great. However with your micro budget, if the story is humorous or celebrating the genre with homemade sets and props, we are not bothered by the lackluster special effects. In some cases they are charming.  

You don’t have to be hilarious, just have a light touch. Joss Whedon’s, 2002 TV series Firefly is an exceptional example of this. It contains decent TV sci-fi special effects that sometimes are budget restricted but the plots and characters all have a sense of humor.  The special effects are just framing not focus. I am not talking  Spaceballs yuk yuk funny which is something else entirely. That is to say, I am not suggesting parody. What I am suggesting is that with a sly wink to the audience and irreverent characters you can get away with a lot more in a low / no budget production with simple and clearly inexpensive set dressings, effects and costumes.

For example, if you only have $100 dollars and you built your set with Home Depot materials based on a How To Video you found online for making your set out of PVC tubing, floor foam, and toilet bowl parts. When you film a scene on that set and your space captain speaks into a spray painted box with holiday lights and says, “ Ensign, reroute all power to the main Synetic core, the Malodor fleet is gaining on us ” no amount of great acting is going to make that scene believable and suspend our disbelief. However, if your actors are in a heightened reality and the direction is more theatrical than cinematic it works.

Let’s talk about that more. You do not need to write a comedy. That’s a very serious and difficult thing, you just need to have a sense of humor. When we say heightened, it’s a style in sci-fi that is often compared to Shakespeare. Now before you get all riled up, I do not mean the quality of the content, I mean the performance style. In Shakespeare, an actor in earnest must say and believe, ““Round about the cauldron go. In the poisoned entrails throw.” -Macbeth. In sci-fi, it might be something like, “Around the survivors, a perimeter create.” -Yoda        

More James Tiberius Kirk less William Adama. Imagine Kirk & Adama on your $100 set in a $7 thrift store costume, who do you imagine will play better in the final cut. I’m not saying be ridiculous, which could work but again that’s more Spaceballs, we are talking Firefly here. You do not want to send up or mock the genre, you want to celebrate it. When creating your script keep in mind your crew will, in fact, be flying a cardboard ship but still take the work very seriously and simply present the content with a wink and a large portion of the sci-fi community will appreciate it. Some will hate but we cannot concern ourselves with that.

Having said that if you do want to create something more serious in future posts I will talk about daylight exterior shooting in the desert, industrial ruins or a junkyard with minimal pew pew and space ships for a more dramatic type of sci-fi storytelling.

Be sure to watch my video channel for more Sci Fi filmmaking giddy-up.