Part of what led me to setting the goal of writing a book was losing my job and considering the worst-case scenario. What if I never got hired again? I was at the senior vice president level. The jobs at this level were few and far between. What if I had to start all over again? What if everything I put my heart and soul into since I graduated from college suddenly did not have any meaning? Losing my job led me to set a whole new set of goals for myself. In setting my goal for this book, I wanted to mix my spiritual and free-thinking side with the logical side of everything I have learned about the craft of structuring and analyzing story. I wanted to inspire others to believe that anything is possible after loss if you are able to get back up and set new goals. I wanted to share my voice because suddenly, I felt I really had something to say.
Goals very often come out of loss. Think about all the times you lost something you really wanted. This could be anything. It could pertain to love, work, finances, a home, a grade, the list goes on. When you didn’t achieve your goal, what did you do? After we take the time to mourn the loss, we begin to wake to the possibility of setting new goals. When we do this, we come alive again. We start to believe in a destination. We begin to build a new purpose. We know that we’ve hit obstacles before and we will hit obstacles again, but this time we have more tools.
While watching the Winter Olympics, I love hearing the stories behind the athletes. I especially love the stories of triumph after tremendous loss. When you hear that someone has committed to a goal, such as the monumental one of reaching the Olympics, you know what goes into achieving this goal. It is a daily commitment to practicing for thousands upon thousands of hours to be the best that you can be and hope that the best you can be is better than anyone else out there. Often, this comes with sacrifice. People give up so much for the attainment of this dream. Then, when we as an audience are watching these athletes and we see them fall or wipe out, we are crushed because this is often just a visual image of what so many of us have gone through in our own lives in a different way, the loss of everything we worked to accomplish. I heard some stories that involved tremendous falls in the past that seemed totally insurmountable, yet the athletes managed to recover. Not only did they learn to get back up, they continued to compete and excel, and many of these athletes went on to win gold medals after devastating crashes that looked like the beginning of the end. It is in these triumphs and these stories that we all root for the accomplishment of the goal. When we see others attain it, it makes us believe that if we put the same commitment and dedication into achieving our goals, we too can make it happen. It is often hitting rock bottom that leads us to the top. Think about how you can make this happen in your own life. You can do it. Then, you can add fiction to it and write about it.
In your scripts, your character’s worst-case scenario is the “all is lost” moment. In this moment your central character is as far away from the goal he set up as possible. However, by reaching a point where they feel destined to lose, or at a point of no return, they are propelled into action to achieve their goal. Go into your own stories and look at these moments in your own life. Then, add fiction to them and bring them alive on the page. If you can find your truth and fictionalize it into these moments, you will find your gold. You will elevate your writing and you will see the results that you are seeking. You can achieve your goals. You just need to create a map to your destination.
EXERCISE
Write down some of the most significant goals in your own life that you have not achieved yet. As a result of not achieving these goals, what has happened? Have you set new goals that brought you to a stronger place? Have you given up on the idea completely? Did you go to the worst-case scenario after the failure and stay there? Or, did you pick yourself up and go in a new direction? These moments are your gold in writing. They are your truth. Also, think about the people whose stories you see on TV or read about. Write up fictionalized accounts of what you think these people’s lives looked like before and after success or failure in achieving their goal. There is so much fruit for story here. We all love a story of triumph over loss.
What are some of your dreams that were left unrealized? What stopped you from going after them? What would your life look like if you could achieve them now?
Chapter Fifteen
WHAT IS EMOTIONALLY AT STAKE IF YOUR CENTRAL CHARACTER DOES NOT SOLVE HIS/HER DILEMMAS AND ACHIEVE HIS/HER GOALS?
Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.
~ Louisa May Alcott
“Why do I care about this story?” Your audience has to know the answer to this question early in your story or you will lose them. The best way to answer this question is to build emotional stakes. Emotional stakes establish what we are rooting for in your story. What is the worst possible thing that could happen if your central character does not achieve his or her goal? The stronger the worst-case scenario is, the higher the emotional stakes are. Setting up the emotional stakes is often tied to the setup of a strong dilemma and establishment of a clear goal. Emotional stakes also give you a chance to go more deeply into your story. Creating emotional stakes is one way to discover the gold in your writing and presents a chance for your voice to really resonate.
In Chapter 14, you were asked to dig into some of your worst-case scenarios. It is in these life moments that you can find your truth and learn to fictionalize it and transfer it into your writing. When your characters emotionally respond to the fear of losing or falling short, you connect with your audience. We all know what it is to lose. We love story lines where a character starts “broken” and in despair and builds himself up again through the journey of the story. These are stories that really get the audience involved in the journey. Everyone wants to believe that after we’ve fallen, we can get back up. It is a universal desire.
Recently, on the reality show High School Reunion, one of the couples that have been married since high school and have three kids decided to renew their vows. This couple was clearly still very much in love despite some rocky times caused by the ill health of one of their children. The husband told his wife that he wanted to give her what he couldn’t when they were children. After getting on one knee and proposing, he took her to a beautiful surprise ceremony on the cliffs in Hawaii where they were all staying. After going through this experience, his wife tells the camera that he gave her her “Pretty Woman” moment. This is one of her favorite movies. What I thought in this moment was, “How great must it be for the writer, J. F. Lawton, of Pretty Woman to know that his words touched millions of people’s lives, not just in the moment of the film, but for a lifetime?” This is a pretty powerful execution of story. I encourage each of you to reach your “Pretty Woman” moments in your writing. Take us into the fantasy and make us believe.
Examples of recent features that have high emotional stakes are The Blind Side, Invictus, Avatar, Star Trek, 500 Days of Summer, Up in the Air and The Hangover. These movies stood out to many because they made us feel. Your audience will forgive you of almost anything if you take them on a journey and you connect your story to their heart. We all love to root for a character. In essence, we are thinking about ourselves achieving the same moment.
In the movie The Blind Side, a lead character journeys from destitution to being a winner. There is something in this journey that we can all identify with, no matter where we come from. Seeing and experiencing how the power of love, security, and belief can affect the life of a child was mesmerizing. What was the worst that could happen if Sandra Bullock did not nurture this child? He could be lost to the system and lead a life that was never fully realized. This is universal. I did find that the structure of this movie could have been stronger and there could have been more conflict in this journey, however, because I was drawn into the emotion and possibility of it all, it still managed to win my heart because of the emotion. The gold in this story was knowing where
the boy started and seeing where the man was at the end. It was about hope and belief that anything is possible. These are ingredients we all want in our own lives.
With Invictus (Warner Bros. Pictures, 2009), screenplay written by Anthony Peckham and the book by John Carlin, I love the simple concept of how do you lead a nation that has been through so much loss? The new president, Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman), is faced with the question, “Can he lead a nation?” In the wake of apartheid, the nation is divided. Mandela’s goal is to figure out how to unify it. He decides to focus on one thing, getting the South African rugby team to win the World Cup. He believes that if he can inspire this team to win, he can win the pride of a nation. He does this by forming a relationship with the coach, played by Matt Damon. What I love about this is that it focuses on one small thing that can have a massive impact and then makes us invest in believing in it and making it happen. This is where the gold is. If you focus on the right thing in your life, the rewards and the impact can be massive. What is the worst that could happen if Mandela did not attain his goal? The nation would remain divided and he would not be able to lead them. These are strong stakes. The emotion in this story line and the brilliance of Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon won me over. There were parts of the structure that could have been stronger, but since the emotion was there, the movie did well.
For the movie 500 Days of Summer, the interesting thing is that the story starts by showing us the lead, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), broken up over the loss of his girl, Summer (Zoey Deschanel), and it’s clear from the day on the title card that the break up occurs in the middle of the story. His younger sister, Rachel (Chloe Moretz), is the voice of reason and a great character because she reflects an old soul at such a young age. There are time cuts. We start in the middle of the story line and then go back to when they first met. Because of the time cuts and it starting in the middle, despite the caveat, “This is not a love story,” you hold on to the idea that maybe there is still a chance between the middle and the end that they can get back together. Since Tom starts broken, you know you are going to see how he rebuilds. You root for him to win Summer back because you know that this is his goal that he clearly states in the beginning. What is at stake if he doesn’t reach his goal? He doesn’t get to experience true love with the woman he feels is the love of his life. Again, we’ve all been there. It is amazing where our hearts can go despite our minds and our instincts trying to steer us away from potential disaster. The gold in this story is in the humor. Despite being at the lowest point in life, there is always humor to be found in what we do in the pursuit of love. Most of us have to go through the disaster to get to the other side of it. This is what happens to Tom. He does lose the girl. However, our hope is that he learned something, which it appears that he did. Then, at the end, after being dumped by Summer, we see him meet a new girl, “Autumn” (Minka Kelly). Of course, our hope is that he, like many of us, will apply the lessons that he learned and make this one work. Despite him not getting Summer, this new relationship does leave us with the hope that Tom will find love. I love the way this movie is structured. I connect with the journey on every level. I would say that most people who see it feel the same way. This is a big accomplishment for the writers and something we can all learn from. They really explored the depth of pain of what it is like for a guy to lose a girl. So many movies deal with the female side of loss. It was nice to see a movie really give some strong insight into what it is for a man to lose what he perceived as “the love of his life.”
In Star Trek, with the birth of James Kirk (Chris Pine), we see the severe dilemma his father was in to lead the fleet and save his wife and son. He sends his wife off the ship in the middle of her delivery. James is born. The ship is hit. His father loses his life while having the courage to stand up for his belief. We see that young James is a rebel. We understand this because we saw the circumstances surrounding his birth. We feel empathy for him and we understand the drive behind his actions. When he meets Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) in a bar fight, he is asked to join the fleet. This is the first major step that shows us what is at stake. He can continue going down his path of destruction, or he can embrace the path that his father was on and learn what it is to someday lead a Starfleet. He meets up with young Spock (Zachary Quinto), who has been an outcast at the Starfleet Academy because of his half-human condition. The two personalities clash. Spock does not believe that Kirk has strong ethics. What is at stake here is Kirk could either repeat the path of his father or change it and make a new path. It takes a meeting with Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy), Spock from the future, to shed light to Kirk on what happened and what he must do. Kirk has to find a way to save the earth. This is a lot at stake on the shoulders of Kirk. Again, we see what is at stake is him losing his life and the lives of millions if he doesn’t do what he needs to do. The great image at the end is seeing Kirk sit in the seat where his father sat. This time, it was after the victory. Spock joins his fleet.
In The Hangover, the stakes are very high from the beginning. Doug (Justin Bartha) and Tracy (Sasha Barrese) are a young couple who are about to get married. Doug goes to a bachelor party with his two friends, Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms), plus Tracy’s somewhat socially awkward brother, Alan (Zach Galifianakis). The guys wake up after a pretty wild night to discover there are new things in the suite, such as a tiger and a baby, and there are things missing: Doug. The groom is gone. They decide to retrace their steps and figure out at what point they lost Doug so they can figure out how to find him. What is at stake if they don’t attain their goal? Doug doesn’t make it back in time for his wedding and Tracy will be without a groom. These are great stakes that drive this hilarious journey.
In television, there have been many new series over the past few years that have had series arcs that really explore high stakes. Some of these shows include, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Big Love, and The Good Wife. From the concepts alone explored in their pilots, we can see that there are very high stakes for the emotional character. This leads to the success of these series. If you draw your audience in and clarify what they are rooting for and have high stakes in place, they will watch.
For Dexter, the idea of a serial killer who kills serial killers is an amazing premise for a show. Since the lead character, Dexter, is so likable, you actually root for him to find his prey. It’s a very interesting psychological journey for the audience. What’s at stake? If he gets caught, he could lose his job, the love of his life, and his freedom. It is because the stakes are clearly established from the beginning and that we know his secret but others do not, that this is a very compelling drama series.
For Big Love, the concept is, a modern polygamist Bill Hendrickson (Bill Paxton) must keep his unconventional lifestyle a secret from his community while attempting to live a normal life with his three wives Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloë Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) and their children. What is clear from this concept is that they are leading a life that adheres to their beliefs in a society that does not embrace this lifestyle. So, they have to keep their lifestyle a secret while leading very full and productive lives. As Bill’s business thrives, we see that there is a lot at stake if they get caught. He has three wives and several children to support. If he gets caught, they all lose everything. The gold in this premise is really seeing the benefits and the disadvantages of what it is to live this type of lifestyle. They do a beautiful job of making this lifestyle appear “normal” because of the love that connects it.
For Mad Men, the concept takes place in the 1960s and centers around a conflicted, high-ranking ad man Don Draper (John Hamm), who has a sordid past that he must protect while staying on top in the boardroom and the bedroom. This show, like the others listed, has a central character with a colored past and a secret. The ad world in the 1960s is a fascinating premise for the pilot. The show is brilliantly written. The stakes are, “What if Donald Draper, who has created the American dream and ri
sen through the ranks as an ad executive, gets caught?” His secret is that he is not really Donald Draper. This was an identity that he took over. The stakes are clear and the show is very well done.
In Breaking Bad, the emotional stakes are very high from the beginning. The concept is that Walt (Bryan Cranston), the lead, discovers that he has terminal lung cancer. He is a chemistry professor. He has very little to leave his wife and their son, who has a disability, if he dies. These are very strong emotional stakes. It is this dilemma that leads him into action. He has to figure out a way to make money so that he has something to leave for the betterment of the family. The irony is that he could use his expertise as a teacher to produce and distribute meth. Backed against a wall, he decides to do this. What is at stake? His family, his job and, his freedom. The drama comes from the dark side of his dilemma and the fear of being found out.
In the series The Good Wife, the premise is about a woman, Alicia (Julianna Marguiles), who has to return to work as an attorney following her husband’s corruption scandal and incarceration. Her dilemma is how is she supposed to move forward with life with her family and her job in the aftermath of her husband’s scandal. What is at stake? Alicia’s well-being and the well-being and security of her family. This is one of the strongest new series. It is extremely well written and executed.
Story Line Page 15
