Let your characters tell you what's happening...
scrappydy said:
Ok, here's my problem...everytime I get an idea for a story, it usually begins in the middle or something. So, I can never come up with a beginning or an end. Also, I can come up with a synopsis of a story but never be able to elaborate on it. Is this a problem that I can develop a solution to on my own with a little tutoring or should I just find a compatible screenwriter who would be willing to take my ideas and develop them for me?
Lots of good advice on this thread... My two cents:
I've been writing screenplays for over 10 years now and I like to let my characters take me through the story... How do I do that?
Pretty simple really...
You GOTTA know your characters...
So once you come up with your idea, it's useful to create backstory/backgrounds on all your main characters. Base them on people you know or make up the background but know your characters. The more you know about your characters, the less writer's block you will have as you complete your screenplay.
I've also helped a lot of others write screenplays and without a doubt, when most of them are stuck at some point in the story or screenplay, I find out that they nothing about their characters... You really should know when they were born... Down to an actual date. How they grew up. What were their parents like. Likes/dislikes. Hobbies, etc. Everything.
Of course know up front that a lot of this information might not make it into your story or screenplay... All this is really for is so that your characters come ALIVE to your brain so that they are constantly reacting to situations the other characters are putting them in...
Does this always work... Not always, but most of the time. The more you know your characters, the more your brain will have them react and lead you through your first draft.
When you really get stuck, another good exercise is to make up even more backstory/background about your character... You can either write it down or think it through... I like to write it down, myself...
But for instance...
You are totally blocked at a point in your story/screenplay. You pull out the character's background file and create a totally new unrelated incident (unrelated to your story/screenplay) that your character went through... Could be divorce. Could have been a cheating incident at college. Could have been an affair... Whatever. Make it as crazy as you want. Maybe the character killed someone when he was a teenager... Whatever... Just create the incident and tell yourself what the character went through... Write as much about it as you can until that entire incident/situation has been EXHAUSTED. What you've done is OPENED your character up even more to your conscious mind... Even though the story is unrelated to your story, you've learned more about your character... Maybe enough more that he or she is now ready to guide you through the rest of the story or at least through to another writer's block.
In other words, each time you get blocked, learn more (make up more thereby learning more) about your character(s). Almost always they will guide you through the first draft.
What's nice about writing this way is often, the more quirky your characters are to your conscious, the more quirky they act in your story/screenplay. Just remember to NOT make them cliche in their background/backstory. Make them totally different from anyone you know but also take personality traits from those that you know and implement these traits into your characters... The wackier the character (from my experience) the better the story/screenplay.
filmy