Some self-reflective stuff on how to create a story.
Stage One
Interesting. I always thought that I would function best in the early morning hours — definitely before noon! But in the course of this project I have to discover that the most productive phase of the day is at night — provided I can resist all distractions, and there are potentially many. What seems to work is to get to a point when I have pushed things way too long. I feel uncomfortable. Disgusted how I could give in to so many distractions. I haven't touched computer games for years - not for a seriously longer period of time, hours on hours. Why do they suddenly have such an appeal? What a waste of time. What a waste of time!
This I know: If I would take some time to develop anything even a bit further I would feel a hell of a lot better. The more aware I am of this the more I push things. This gets to a point of absolute dissatisfaction, even to self doubt. This seems to be my common self-inflicted kick in the butt. Painful, but it always works. At some point I can't help but to act.
Stage Two
The problem, as always (and I know I'm in good company), is motivation. The motivation to start. Or rather: the motivation to risk. To risk failure. To risk disappointment. And the more I focus on this risk the more it gains in size and weight, to a magnitude of absolute ego loss. "If I fail, I die" — which couriously is adopted from a 'how to' and 'being funny' book: The Comic Toolbox: How to be funny, even if you're not (Vorhaus, 1994, p. 11). Consciously I know that lower expectations increase creativity. But how to lower expectations? The answer is: I don't know. Someone else does: According to the Toolbox (ibid.) one way to lower expectations is to write down (or record in one way or another) not one (the one big idea that has never been there before) but a number of ideas, regardless of their quality. New ideas, old ideas, new ideas inspired by old ideas - or even someone else's ideas. Yes, let's plagiarise — if need be. So what! No one's looking! ... And so on ... So that's one thing on how to get things done. Or at least on how to start somewhere. It's the most crucial step. From here it's all the fun.
So how does this look in practice? Tonight I wrote down eight short one line sentences, all starting with: "This is the story about a guy who...". That's inspired from a 'how to' and 'screenwriting' book called Save the Cat (Snyder, 2005). I've never read it but I like the title of chapter three: "It's about a guy who...". Well, as I mentioned, I wrote eight sentences, each one describing one story in one line — the one line (oh yet again) being an idea from a 'how to' and 'dramatic writing' book: The Art of Dramatic Writing (Egri, 1960). I have my influences and I pick what I believe works best for me.
Stage Three
Take the one-line sentences and expand them. Works for some, not for all. Some stories fail and never make it beyond the one sentence. Death on conception. But that's natural selection. Beautiful! A few less things to worry about!
Some stories make it half-way: They are promising but need more work. Too early to throw them away, though. Let the subconscious work on them over the next few days.
Some stories are too complex: How should a story work if I'm already confused by the synopsis? But the core may be still worthwhile. So too early to completely forget about it.
Some stories are not workable: Nice and interesting thoughts, but too abstract for a film (if that's what I intend to do). It's maybe good for a written story. Or maybe I'll have some sudden insight some day on how to make a film out of this. But it's tricky, very tricky... It's the can-of-worms story type.
Some stories surprise: They are deeper than expected, with new insights. I didn't know I could be 'deep'. But then on a second look tomorrow morning they may appear more banal than I'm thinking right now. They may turn out to be rubbish or a little gem. Who knows? Either way is a step in the right direction.
Some stories are well formed: with a beginning, a climax and an end. Full three act structure. Interesting characters, promising conflict. Believable. Exciting. That's the real stuff.
Stage Four
Sleep over it. I should be satisfied enough now. The guilt over pushing things away is gone. I got something done. The only thing that may keep me from sleeping is my excitement - working on the stories over and over in my mind. That might make a good dream.
Stage Five
Meet someone whose opinion you trust. Who is on the same wavelength. To be honest, I haven't done this much (yet): I was either too protective about my stuff or had too little confidence in discussing something that's yet so unformed. In other words, I'm back facing my good old fear. I want to show only what's already perfect. So I'm right back at the risk of failure (see stage two). Back at the ego loss. If I fail I die. But that, again, is rubbish. That's why I said "meet someone whose opinion you trust" and not "meet someone whose ego is so massive it will devour yours and still ask for more". I come to think that talking about things with the right people is much more valuable than trying to protect whatever little there would be to protect.
Stage Six
At the moment I'm not even at stage five yet - but I guess stage six will be to focus on one, maybe two or three, stories and to develop them further. Use what you got out of the conversations with others if you think it works for you. Tell the stories again. Retell them. And retell them over and over again. Write. Think. Dream. Whatever works best.
Stage Seven
Be honest. What works best? What do you want to spend your next days/weeks/months/years/lives with?
Stage Eight
Nitty-gritty.
(To be continued.)
References
Egri, L. (1960). The art of dramatic writing. New York, NY: Touchstone Books.
Snyder, B. (2005). Save the cat! Studio City, CA: M. Wiese Productions.
Vorhaus, J. (1994). The comic toolbox: How to be funny even if you're not. Los Angeles, CA: Silman-James Press.
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