Three Ways to Tell if the Screenplay You’re Writing is Actually Two!
Last night was pretty much like any other night – I left the office, stopped by the house for my things, went out to dinner, and ended up at my daily writing spot, Barnes & Noble, – yet there was something different. It wasn’t my vanilla latte with super-foam; it wasn’t the music; it wasn’t the books …
I realized the screenplay I’m writing might actually be two separate stories.
At first, this thought was a bit scary. When you realize you might be working on two different stories at the same time, you lose a sense of control … a sense of understanding even. Why am I telling two? Do they have to be two? Why can’t it all fit in one screenplay? The questions flooded my mind and I pondered more possibilities than Campbell’s soup could dish (always wanted to say that!).
I took a deep breath and told myself it’s not my job to be in control – if I was telling two stories then I’d have to deal with it.
While this is true, I was still jarred by the situation and wanted to evaluate it a bit closer; here’s what I asked myself:
1. Are there two protagonists here? - This is mainly what caused the realization in the first place. Because I’m still early in the process of writing the screenplay, I’m unsure of what the main character’s like. For example, is she the Indiana Jones / 007 archetypal character, or is she the Luke Skywalker / Harry Potter type of character? The difference is character arc – read more about Character Arc 101. Evaluate whether you’d like to tell a story from the eyes of both characters, or if you’re simply undecided regarding the type of character is sucked into your world of story – if you like both points of view, you’re probably telling two different stories
2. Are there two worlds of story here? - Another major reason why I questioned my screenplay in the first place. While brainstorming ideas, jotting down scenes, characters, and details, ask yourself if they all fit into one story, or if they venture beyond the borders of your world of story and into another but you find them exciting and fun, you’re probably two different stories.
3. Are there two themes here? - While it’s perfectly acceptable to explore more than one theme with your screenplay, you should consider whether or not the themes involved with your brainstorming and current direction coincide. Ask yourself whether your world of story and character can sustain both themes. If you feel both are somewhat related and it wouldn’t be a stretch to ask your audience to explore the themes during the story, have at it. If you feel the themes are drastically diverse and it would be a stretch to try to explore both within the same screenplay, you’re probably telling two different stories.
That’s pretty much it. I realized shortly after thinking about it for a while that I was indeed telling one story. What caused the thought was the fact that I liked two different types of characters and my world of story was growing incredibly fast and in unseen, exciting directions.
Has anyone had a similar experience? If so, share it with those reading by posting it below in the comments section.
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Hi, my name is Christopher and I'm a professional script reader in Los Angeles and the founder of scriptxray.com.
It’s scary man…I couldn’t say its the exact same experience as you, but that is what I’m going through now. Basically I have many characters that I want to write about and now I’m mainly focused on two, the protagonist and the antagonist. Now the basic theme of this story is about getting out, or trying to change one’s destiny. In other words, finding some other ways to change your path of your current life, and what’s happening now is that these characters both are experiencing the same need, but it’s just that they have different conflicts and obstacles standing in their way.
Example: Protagonist wasn’t thinking of going to university to complete his education since his family’s living under difficult financial circumstances. He has his own thinking and ways of trying to find another way, which of course is going to make his parents extremely resentful to his decisions.
Whereas for the antagonist, his childhood friend becomes a drug addict due to his different life comparing to the protagonist, and there was really nobody that could help him other than the protagonist himself. But because of being a drug addict, there was already great friction between them both. He was thinking to quit, but it ain’t easy since he’s involved with the gangs.
So there you have it, as I was writing this story, I became very intrigued with these characters because they seem to be heading in the same direction, but their pulling at each other. They have their own life, different from one another, and how the world changes them in different ways. So I was pretty much writing about different biographies of different characters. Sometimes I get too much in depth with the drug addict part that I start to become more concerned with the protagonist. I had troubles trying to focus who I want to concentrate on, so now I’m getting scared of the fact that this might turn out to be focused on drug addiction rather than the heroic? story of my protagonist, that’s finally discovering his hidden passion to be a fighter, which was opposed by his family, but manages to prove himself at the end. You see? there appears to be two kinds of endings for the two characters now.
But of course, I want this to be one story with different, if possible, fascinating characters as well that they each have an impossible task to accomplish. It’s very hectic, because its almost as if I have to write background stories for each character just so that I would know what role they would be playing in my story. I guess maybe if I were to focus in on one character too much, it could change the whole focus of my story since there’s not just one character I’m focusing on.
I think there might be different themes, but they all fall under the category of what I said before about “People who want to get out of the kind of life their living now.” So there are different stories to show their changes and outcome. All the characters have their own stories, but I wanted to make them come together, or meet together within the story so that they could interact with one another and see if their able to share something in common.
Drug addict manages to cure his problem, alcoholic who finally regains his long lost honor in society, a workaholic who reawakens to take up his passion once more, and an underdog who struggles to prove himself to his parents that with his dream and passion is able to find another path for himself in life. Something like that…and all these characters have a relation to one another in some ways. So this is what I have in mind.
….Um..I hope this is related to what you were looking for…I know it’s crazy, but I guess I do understood what you mean. I’m having a hard time now because I’m focusing on one character now, but at the same time, I get voices from all the other characters trying to tell me something about themselves…..
So there you have it. I hope this helps.^^
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