Writing Advice Wednesday
Writing Exercises
As well as a relevant video essay I’ve found, I’ll be giving you writing exercises to perform, if you’re keen to either get some practise, or need some motivations to start a new script or novel. It’s exercises like this that form part of my One Hour Screenwriter course, which will help you write an entire feature film script in 22 weeks. You can purchase it at the shop here. You can also read testimonies here that show my methods have worked for plenty of other people.
This week, it’s time to push yourself to the limits…
Disturbing News
Search the web for photos. There are lots of sites that showcase a variety of photographic work. Find a photo of an interesting or odd-looking person.
Select one situation/set-up/ circumstance from each of the following three lists:
List One
(a) At a high profile reception for a VIP you’ve been dying to meet
(b) At a funeral home
(c) In a public restroom or toilet
(d) Backstage in a large lecture hall or conference room before you are scheduled to speak at a meeting crucial to your career
Now you have a location. Next, write a scene in which the person in the photo approaches you.
This person makes a confession to you.
List Two
(a) Has wrecked your car
(b) Is having an affair with your father
(c) Reports that you are fired from your job
(d) Has accidentally killed your beloved pet
Quickly describe the scene, describe your reaction and write the conversation between you.
In the middle of the conversation, someone else arrives and insists that:
List Three
(a) You are a thief and are about to be arrested
(b) You are a long-lost relative
(c) You are infected with a highly contagious virus
(d) Your name was just drawn and you won a fabulous prize but you must go and collect it immediately!
Finish the now three-way conversation. What happens? Write as quickly as you can.
It is helpful to put a character off balance when creating conflict.
Forced conversations inappropriate for the setting help to do that. So does more than one urgent or unsettling matter competing for the character’s attention.
Reversals in tone that take a scene from comic to tragic are also very effective.
Make conflict fresh and lively by finding ways to keep your main character disturbed and forced out of his or her comfort zone.
Make a list of ways to push your character into uncomfortable or panic inducing situations.
Make a list of comic, crazy, disturbing, odd or uncomfortable confrontations for your character.
Video Essay of the Week
Lord of the Rings is all about characters being forced out of their comfort zone. There’s a lot that writers can learn from the screenplays for the trilogy:
Let me know what you think of this week’s writing exercise by emailing me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you as we go forward with more of these writing exercises. Next week, it’s time to see what you’re really made of…
Until then, remember- all you need to do is Get Started and Keep Going!
– Laurie
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