The Devil’s Guide To Hollywood (38 page)

If you have problems with your plot, you’re not alone
.

O
scar winner Alvin Sargent (
The Way We Were
): “When I die, I’m going to have written on my tombstone, ‘Finally, a plot.’ ”

H
OW TO DEAL WITH WRITER’S BLOCK … THE PAIN IN THE ASS SOLUTION
.

This has always worked for me: Let’s say I’m on page fifty-seven when I’m blocked. I go back to page one and retype the whole thing
.

Through the process of retyping all the scenes, I have always found where I went wrong—and why, feeling that I went wrong, I shut down
.

I have found that actual scene or sequence and, by rewriting it as I retype it, I have unblocked myself
.

I know it’s a terrific pain in the ass to go back to page one and retype the whole damn thing, but it’s always worth it
.

Character is everything
.

N
ovelist/screenwriter Larry McMurtry: “Movies have largely lost interest in character. It is not without significance that two of the most publicized characters in the cinema have been a shark and a mechanical ape.”

Listen to the voices of your characters
.

S
creenwriter William Faulkner: “I listen to the voices, and when I put down what the voices say, it’s right. Sometimes I don’t like what they say, but I don’t change it.”

Let your characters live
.

H
ave a rough idea of where you’re going with your story but not too clear an idea. Let your characters talk to you and determine their own way—within boundaries that are not clearly marked.

You’ll know you’re doing well when your characters start taking over and are nearly giving you dictation, which sometimes comes so quickly that it’s tough to keep up with; when your characters are literally talking to you; when words and images are coursing through your brain (without drugs) at a meth-fueled pace.

Deliver the Moment

Realize your story; empower your characters to live up there on-screen.

Write human beings, not scenes
.

N
ovelist Eudora Welty: “The frame through which I viewed the world changed, too, with time. Greater than scene, I came to see, is situation. Greater than situation is implication. Greater than all of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame.”

Don’t “nice” your script up
.

D
on’t purposely set out to make your characters more likable and sympathetic so your box office will be bigger. Audiences aren’t stupid and will smell the bullshit as it’s being heaped on them from the screen.

Let your characters be themselves; don’t make them share your opinions and convictions
.

S
creenwriter William Faulkner kept using the phrase “A character of mine once said” throughout his life.

Don’t burden your lead character with too much back story
.

T
he only time you need any back story at all is if the back story is relevant to the plot. This usually happens only in a thriller.

Otherwise, the personae of your lead actors is, in a sense, all the back story you’ll need. It is part of what actors are paid for: They superimpose the public’s perception of their personalities onto that of your characters.

The word
perception
is key here. For example, it doesn’t matter if your male romantic lead is gay in real life and favors rough sex … as long as the public perception of him is that of a nice-guy heterosexual Romeo. It is also true that in Hollywood some of the gay romantic leading men who like rough sex are married and have kids (to make sure that the public perception of their images is a positive one).

Take your time revealing your main character
.

M
ystery goes a long way—don’t tell me everything I need to know about him/her in the first ten minutes unless you’re writing some real simpleminded television script.

Keep surprising me with little character twists all the way to the third act; unless you’re going for a great big cathartic twist at the end of the movie, your main character should be completely defined by the beginning of the third act.

A Built-in Sphincter

A character who brings comic relief to a drama. My character Sam Ransom (Robert Loggia) in
Jagged Edge
was a built-in sphincter; he played it well.

A Black Shirt

A major character that you know will die.

Don’t write a “leggy” script
.

E
ven though character-driven scenes will be the first ones to be edited for time and budget reasons, these are the scenes that will give depth to your script. Give it some heart; otherwise, as they say, your script will be “all legs”—all plot, racing from one point to another.

The Meat of the Thing

The climactic moments that lead up to the moment of catharsis.

Don’t show your characters smoking in your script
.

F
or many years, because I smoked four packs of cigarettes a day, because I thought smoking was cool, and because I resented what I deemed to be politically correct assaults on my smoking, I showed my characters smoking in my scripts.