Possible Writing Breakthrough!!!

I have spent 12 years studying the writing process(es) and trying to figure out how it's properly done. Every writer is supposed to have their own personal way of getting it done, the way that works absolutely great for them, but probably not 100% for any other human in the world.

Well at the very beginning of this year I had a crisis of faith and gave up "being" or "trying to become" a writer. After over a decade, if I couldn't find a process that worked for me -- a way of generating stories from scratch -- then it just wasn't going to happen.

And, practicing Wu-Wei, I simply accepted that. I am not "a writer". I am one who can write, and one who knows a great deal about writing, but I am not a writer.

Then tonight...!!!

Okay, so I'm working on my first 6-part audio miniseries. I'm not worried about "being a writer", I'm just worried about getting the job done. I've done some other stuff last week, but tonight I hit a snag that might have stopped me cold in my tracks five months ago. But I thought about it, with no expectations, nothing to live up to, and I think I figured out the first part of my method for writing! My Process!!!

I'm sharing this in case it contains anything useful for anyone else, but mostly so I can come back here when I finish this story and start my next one.

Now, this is for a longer-form story, like a screenplay or a novel (or an audio miniseries)...

1. Find your Concept:

You need to know the major elements of the story that will immediately hook people into your story. You need Time, Place, Hero, Villain, Goal, Complication, and Hoped-for Resolution (the way the audience wants it to end) & Not-hoped-for or Hoped-Against Resolution (the way the audience DOES NOT want it to end). Now, you don't necessarily have to have all those elements, just enough of them to hook your audience from the logline. Note: If the Concept isn't a grabber, all the work you do after this is pretty much in vain.

2. Thematic Statement:

What do I want to say at the very end? What basic human Truth do I want to illustrate with this story? I'm not talking about preaching here. The theme should never actually be stated verbally. But the thematic struggle informs every line and every action of every character I create (otherwise, they don't get to be in it) and the outcome defines the culmination of the story. So I decide what my core Thematic Statment and then I...

3. Frame the Argument:

Here I'm combining Robert McKee's approach with that of Ted Elliot & Terry Rosio (imdb them if you don't know who they are) and I won't go into what those approaches are, I'll just say what I'm doing. I find the core Value at stake in my Thematic Statement. Let's say my T.S. is "Humans will help each other if circumstances allow." In that case, I judge the core value to be "Help". And that's a Positive Value Charge (see McKee's STORY for more). Then I figure out the counterpoint, or Negative Charge of that value, which I would say is "Hinder". But I don't stop there: I also fins the "Contrary" and "End of the Line" charges of that value (again, refer to STORY) which I would say are probably, respectively, "Ambivalence" and "Help that Devistates". Next I...

4. Character-ize the Arguement:

Now this is what tripped me up for 12 years... The Anagonist obviously represents the Negative Value Charge... But so does the Protagonst! The difference is that at the end of the story (if it has a "happy ending") the hero will learn his/her lesson -- via the other characters in the story -- and switch to the Positive Value Charge. So here's how I solved that problem: With the Protagonist's allies. [NOTE: I'm writing a taught, Action Horror story with a very simple throughline, where a band of monster-fodder try to escape alive. This IS NOT a quiet, pensive Drama; I would re-think this strategy for a different genre.] So here's how it plays out: The Protagonist begins the story with the Negative Value Charge, the Faux-Antagonist (the Prot's Ally with whom the Prot can argue during the story) will actually represent the Positive Valure Charge, but an extreme version of it that comes off abrasively. Then 2 lesser characters represent the Contrary and End-of-the-Line Value Charges, but in passive, powerless ways. (I'm just looking for means of debate and personality-clash here. My thematic point will be made by how the story plays out.)

5. Break the Story:

Next I break the story down into bite-sized peices. I arbitrarily chose 15-minute chunks, and here's why:

When I first started writing I learned the basic 3-Act structure, and that didn't work because I could easily bore my audience to sleep in 30 pages... and Act II is 60 pages long! Then I tried to micro-manage, going at the script in 5-page chunks; but I found that I tended to cram each segment with too much story info, so every scene was exposition with no real room for just sort of "being" in the world, with the characters... 10-page chunks may work, but I'm trying 15-page chunks for the time being.

So, knowing that every 30 pages needs to climax big -- in a Plot-point or a Reversal -- and knowing that every 15 pages needs to be it's own unit of entertainment to keep the audience from losing interest, I break each 15-page segment into five 3-page units (a more-or-less arbitrary division, but I suspect it will "all come out in the wash"). So I break the basic story into 5 untits within the 15-page Segments, getting as far along as I can until I just don't know what happens next. (The ending will work itslef out, if I stay true to my characters and my theme. It just somehow does.)

6. Segment-ize the Arguement:

Here's where I get really clever! AFTER I have figured out the basic (the VERY BASIC) action of the majority of the movie, I re-state the general storyline (movie as a whole) in terms of all 4 Value Charges!!! I make sure to hit all the bases, bending the story action (not changing it, just sort of nudging it) so that it covers the gamut of my Thematic Arguement.

Then I do the SAME for EACH SEGMENT!!! (Yes, you may worship my brilliance now!) I've got the action that happens within most of each segment now! All I have to do is look at what I've got, then see how I can apply it to all 4 of my Value Charges!

Why is this such a brilliant stroke? Because I know that subliminally, the audience will FEEL the thematic arguement playing out every 15 minutes. More than that, each Segment is a different bit of action, so I'm effectively playing out my thematic arguement 9 times, under COMPLETELY DIFFERENT sets of circumstances.

PLUS... You know what happens to those last 2 missing Segments at the end of your story? THEY GET WRITTEN! When you get there (I'm recomending the Plotting stage, not the Page-writing stage, mind you), they'll just sort of write themselves because of what has come before and what your thematic arguement is doing.

So after you've broken down each Segment in terms of how it hits the 4 Value Charges, you WILL NOT have to ask yourself "What happens next?!!".

And for me, that's the toughest part of writing!!! That's always what stops me dead in my tracks!

Well, that AND the realization halfway through my script that the Concept is merely mediocre, and no one will ever want to read this anyway! If I can't pitch my story in 2 sentences I don't really have a story worth 120 pages!

Blah.

So that's for me, and for anyone who wants to try it.

Too bad no one's reading this thing...

;)