Stories, at their core, are about relationships. A story needs characters who want something and characters who interact in meaningful ways. The mini-series “Daisy Jones & the Six” lacks both of these critical elements. Based upon the book of the same name, “Daisy Jones & the Six” follows the path of rockers Billy Dunn and Daisy Jones as they’re thrust […]
Not a Star Wars Fan from the Beginning I’m not a fan of the Star Wars movies. The original 1977 Star Wars (now known as Stars Wars: Episode 4 “A New Hope”) was a disappointment for me. Don’t get me wrong – it was a milestone in moviemaking history. The complexity of the film, the special effects, the marketing, Lucas’ […]
I recently read a blogger’s takedown of “Notting Hill.” She had identified the Anna Scott character as being very shallow and self-absorbed. And since she was so flawed, Will Thacker should not have loved her. The author believes no one should watch the movie because it gives a bad example of relationships. https://www.mamamia.com.au/notting-hill-sends-a-bad-message/ My thoughts… If you look at this […]
“A major part of the pleasure of plot twists, too, comes not from the shock of surprise, but from looking back at the early bits of the narrative in light of the twist. The most satisfying surprises get their power from giving us a fresh, better way of making sense of the material that came before. This is another opportunity […]
I am lucky to coach some very talented new writers. They all come to me with an idea for a story and their main question is always the same: “Is this story any good?” The fact is that any story can use improvement. What I offer is structure: both in the form of the story and in getting it done. […]
There are a number of ways to expose information to the reader: dialog, letters, news reports, and flashbacks are just a few. But by far the best way to expose information to the reader is to have someone close to the hero who doesn’t understand what is going on. I call this “the idiot in the room.” When you want […]
Star Wars has been a phenomenally popular movie franchise. The original Star Wars came out in 1977 and was an instant success. But when I first watched it, I was not impressed. My first impression was that it was the King Arthur legend in outer space. Even at the age of 14 I had expectations of my science fiction adventures. […]
At Agile Writers we adhere to The Hero’s Journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell in his seminal work The Hero With a Thousand Faces. We also take lessons from movie plots and combine them into the Agile Writer Method. The Hero’s Journey has a standard pattern. The hero starts out in a familiar world where things are pretty static. Then something […]
What is Conflict? I’m sure we have all heard or read that you cannot have a good story without conflict. But what exactly is conflict? In a word….EVERYTHING! That’s right. No conflict no story. However, if you must have the technical version, the dictionary defines conflict as “a struggle or clash between opposing forces.” Most likely your character have a […]
We entered into a productive discussion last week at Agile Writers. It centered on the problems inherent in writing (or acting, performing, producing) for an audience of peers rather than an audience of. . . people. The topic arose because we are making our way through Lawrence Block’s classic on writerly craft, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit. Block’s chapter, […]