Should A Writer Start With Character Or Plot?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ธ.ค. 2019
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#writing #screenwriting #writer - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
The fact that this issue is being debated and discussed is evidence that the whole process is less formulaic than we sometimes pretend it to be. The development of creative works is not set in stone. Ideas, characters, and plot can spring into the imagination randomly. (Which, of course, does come across in the video).
cjpreach precisely
Preach, cj, preach!
yes, specially for people who have adhd like me!
You're on the right track here by observation. The plot arises out of characters and the premise of the idea and the execution of that idea. But the way everything truly starts is with the main theme/controlling idea. Everything else falls in place to shape and talk about that main idea. That main idea forms the basis of your story world and all the rules that govern it. Everything you set for your characters and plot are by those instructions you give so you can tell the story. This is also called worldbuilding, or another way to think about is idea generation. All faculties of your many ideas fall back onto one central core idea that shapes everything else. When you know this as the basis for your writing, that's how it all develops. Everything talked about here is strengthening out and bringing that controlling idea: *to life.* And that thing that is brought to life starts with a broad Truth(a larger positive idea).
That isn't a fact, dumbass.
Story telling is Still Formulaic, but it is also Subjective. So that proves NOTHING.
It is particularly Formulaic with Screenplays is what alot of people don't realize, because there are "Industry Standards" and Formatting you must know and adhere to or your Script won't even get read and will be thrown in the trash!
Studios like to "play it safe". No one wants to dish out millions of dollars on a Whim! They want to know for sure the movie will sell!
That is why Hollywood doesn't deviate away from Formula.
They subscribe to "If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it"!
People need to face it, at the end of the day Movies, shows, books, show etc. are a BUSINESS!
....and in business you need things to sell!
Character v Plot is a trippy subject for sure. Thinking about it, I realize that I begin with plot and a soft preconceived ending and let the character dictate everything from there, including how the story ends up ending.
I thought your avatar was of Peggy Carter for a second.
I think it depends on the story we feel like telling based in the ideas itself. Like, I knew going in, I had the one character in mind and I had to develop all the world around that character, to make the plot work
Yes. Both.
Groundhog Day example from Jill Chamberlain was great. Sure, the premise is the dominant force, but you can't get far without the character putting the meat on the skeleton, i.e. beyond the premise.
It's like debating if you should start running with your left or right foot. Doesn't really matter since the other will come immediately after anyway, or else you'll be hopping instead of running.
Intelligent comment
Great way to put this!
Perfect break down. Some stories are easier to start with plot and premise. Some are easier to produce after you dev a set of characters
It's not black and white, for example, I think all of the Nolan movies are more driven by the plot rather than characters. Inception, Prestige, Interstellar, memento, etc...
@@evil_duck6405
I dunno, I feel like Inception wouldn’t be quite as impactful without Cobb’s past haunting their present, Interstellar would’ve been much weaker without McConaghey’s connection to his kids, etc.
A truly plot-driven Nolan movie would be something like Tenet, and look how that thing turned out 😬
Characters are more interesting to me, so I start with a character. I know where I want him or her at the end. Developing a strong and interesting plot, twists and turns, are essential to get them there.
There's another video on this channel, I think called "the 6 questions about character" or something, idk exactly, so forgive me. But the questions the speaker says you should ask yourself and have answers for are:
Who is it about?
What do they want?
Why can't they get/do it?
What do they do about that?
Why doesn't that work?
How does it end?
And I found that this is a great structure for developing a character, and an easy gateway for the plot to enter your story planning.
I see the character and the plot comes. I see it all in a minute
@@ndep93
Do you mean the Film Courage video clip with Glenn Gers? He’s great!
@muzikmanner6019
Characters being more interesting is exactly why you should start with PLOT first, because caring about Character more makes you weak at plots by Default and you should ALWAYS start with what you are weakest at in ANY endeavor you take on!
A interesting complex deep character, bring all the good stuf out a great writer, including great plots
i would say christopher nolan is the most plot/story driven director
design principle
Even Inception and Interstellar felt pretty emotion-driven to me though
Now, Michael Bay on the other hand …
When I wrote my book Prelude to a Distant Future, it started with the "What if" theory, then I asked "Who?" But with another book, it was the opposite. I guess I think it depends on the book as well as circumstance.
Do you work with marble or clay? Do you find the character in the structure, or find the structure in the character? Writing is the same way. Both can work.
This is probably the best question
Character informs plot.
Plot forces character.
Yes!
I find that I always start with characters because I am more interested in opposing ideas under a similar theme and what they are willing to do to prove themselves, its hard for me to find out a plot when I think that I should try to think of how one of my characters would solve it 🤷♂️ Thanks as always for the video ❤❤❤
Agree with Richard Walter they are inseparable - a character is a story within a story or the plot
I'm glad he mentioned that the characters begin to talk. For the last several months, following all your instructions (on Film Courage), I have been engaged with intense character development for my story. This requires that I RESTRAIN from writing let alone outling until I have completed "talking" with my characters. My issue is that they have begun to talk with me sometime between sleep and waking or waking and sleeping. Even during meditation, they come to me with concerns and suggestions. I listen, make new scene cards, rearrange order, and revise the emerging outline.
I suppose I will reach a point where I can get them all to sign off on an acceptable outline form to write the First Draft. I have learned to be patient: they are a diverse lot.
Had a similar process and wrote 5 incomplete drafts that refined and richened the story and world from those particular characters it revolved around. Now, it's a matter of starting back to the brainstorm, to straighten out all ideas, then jump to the outline stage, and finally take what previous drafts have done to turn it into a first and complete draft, not missing all the information. We hear characters talk the longer we spend time and grow with them; that's how we begin to know them, and nurture the evolving story into what it'll become.
Whenever I write I always introduce the characters in my opinion that's the best way to understand a story. The plot should come later on and it should still happen within the first 10-15 pages but you don't want to give the juice away too soon and you want the readers/ audience to know the person thats being affected by whatever it is before we reach the problem. The character and their ways is the result of any issue in the script or book and the backstory is a very important element thats relevant to the plot.
Start with an emphasis on character, but make that character's interactions with the world beg questions about the nature and details of your plot. With initial characterizations of world and setting out of the way, switch over to plot centric details with characters taking a back seat but still present. 100 pages for character emphasis as a vehicle for the plot, followed by 100 pages of plot emphasis as vehicles for the characters. After this, construct an action sequence or some other proof of concept scenario where the characters must grapple with obstacles in your world as you've revealed them. Another 100 pages. If you're writing a standard story, this is your book, with perhaps a nice cliffhanger at the end to set up potential sequels. If you've decided to take a more epic scope for your narrative, then this template forms the first act. For an example of this blueprint in recent fiction, check out the first book of Frank Herbert's Dune franchise. As to the question posed in this video, in my opinion it is always best to start and end with character.
They are inseparable. All of my films/screenplay started with, "what if this guy/girl had this happen to them?" That's it. Guy survives cancer, has to pick up the pieces. Woman's husband has a child with her college roommate. Kid messes with his brother's Ph.D science project.
Kind of an impossible question when you think about it. Lost dog has to find his way home. Kid gets left behind in a house that's the target of burglers. You need an subect and an action. A noun and a verb.
I think the question is not so much whether each can exist separately, but rather whether it’s easier to start a project with one foot or the other
In my own experience, it’s generally been a mixed bag; sometimes the premise itself is so exciting that I can’t wait to invent characters worthy of inhabiting it, but sometimes a character is so compelling or haunting for me that I just have to invent a premise in order to help justify their existence 🤷♂️
@@corpsefoot758 Makes sense to me. That's pretty much what I said. Good luck in your work, and maybe Film Courage will feature you one day!
I love love love that they just share their approach and we choose which one works in which contents and it’s up to us to decide and experiment. Thankyou!
Thanks Dave. We like to present different points of view. We all have our own process. Have fun experimenting and creating!
Start with whatever gets you writing or drawing the pages. Sometimes it's neither character or plot. Sometimes it's a raw idea - or a premise, yes like the lady just said in the video as I typed this.
Whatever serves the story and gets you putting pen to paper.
What Scott Myers speaks about regarding developing characters is absolutely spot on. I was taught this too, not by Scott himself. I'm inherently a conceptual writer, someone that's heavy on structure, "what are the rules?", "how do I do it step by step?" kind of guy...but when it comes to character exploration, you HAVE to put that aside, quieten it down and let go, just like Scott says, when you do that the characters you can find will start taking over in the words you write, they'll "run the show" you'll discover things your thinking, conceptual mind would Never, because you're so open and unconstrained to limitations, logic, rules.
I watched an interview on YT with Paul Thomas Anderson, he talks about this very thing, he describes it as a sort of seance, where you the writer aren't really there anymore, it's the character just alive and speaking to you, it sounds spiritual and a bit out there, trust me, i've been there, it's transformative for anyone struggling with trying to find authentic characters. Thanks Film Courage and great video:)
the video itself is a story with conflict between the "plot driven" and "character driven"methods ....both are possible we have to take what works for us that's it. Thank you for this wonderful video .
sometimes what comes to my mind first is a situation, and that situation usually let's me see the charachters, lets me know who's playing what, and who's perspective I'm following, and I work from then on; I have never developed an idea from the "what if?" I visualize the situation and I get the questions: where? when? who? and then time leads me to the answers.
Character or plot is like form versus function.
character is destiny. It gives you cause and effect and great dialogue.
I think it depends on the type of story.
In some stories the existence of set character could be the plot it self.
In the terms of a GM, there are about... six basic plots. Keeping in mind, conflict is the central premise of an RPG, there just aren't many other things for a group of Players to get excited about...
"Patience my ass, I'm only here to kill something."
A GM is stuck beginning with Characters, and as stated in the vid', it's THEIR story. So everything else that goes on in the game/story, is about how I can toss interesting antagonists at them, with enough variety to keep them engaged...
1. Murder (It's as simple as it sounds)
2. Revenge (isn't always murdering you back)
3. Kidnapping/Imprisonment/Theft (person or object, it's the same thing)
4. Scout/Infiltrate (get information)
5. Delivery (message or mcguffin, it's the same thing)
6. Escape/Rescue (whether prison break, or personal egress from something else)
ANY other story you're likely to get involved with can ultimately be boiled down to some combination of these basic plots... The only "uniqueness" is the wrapping you put on it. The Characters, the scenery, the backgrounds, set dressings, and major or minor Players involved... including the environment. Knowing this principle, you don't particularly need to worry so much about plotting, but how your Characters (once you have them) are going to interact with that Plot...
Yes, in D&D, along with most other RPG's, there's a WHOLE LOT of murder. In battle scenes (simultaneously, the most and least obvious) the Murder, isn't just soldier on soldier violence. The Murder is the ultimate goal... the general of the "enemy" army, or the leader of this particular detachment of that army... Detective stories, tend to start with the "murder Plot" and lead straight into the scouting plots, the infiltration plot, and a Revenge plot... Sometimes with and sometimes without a "delivery" plot, because a good Police Detective DELIVERS his information (mcguffin of evidence) to his superiors, so the courts can lend to the revenge plot where we don't encourage detectives to "just shoot the bad guy".
Good stories come about not because the plot was so fantastically well done. They come from the peculiar Characters that added their weight to the set dressing...
I agree that Plot is a fine thing for examination and "fixing" after you've written something. Otherwise, you'll end up trying to pitch something plotted like a D&D arc... which more closely resembles a plate of spaghetti hurled at a wall than anything like a geometric arc.
Sometimes, it's worth checking in with a Plot design before you finish, just to avoid too many rabbit-holes of never-ending writing.
Maybe see how many of YOUR favorite stories can be broken down to the "top six"... You might be surprised. Plot is simple... Character... that's tougher. It's definitely more fun... probably BECAUSE it's tougher. ;o)
I'm not sure a person who is writing a book and a GM writing for their players is equivalent. A writer has 100% control over the story. GMs are at the mercy of the players, and vice-versa. GMs have to really know their specific players, and be constantly vigilant. It's rough - as you say, spaghetti thrown against the wall!
@@Sunshine-zm1fx It's not about being equivalent... As you pointed out a GM only really writes for the intimate audience and group of his Players, and is often at their whim...
BUT there's quite a bit to be learned and understood from GM'ing where writing story and plot is concerned...
Can I put a romance plot into a Game? Sure. It can even be a lot of fun, but it only works as a "side plot" as it likely only concerns one or two of the Players and their Characters... AND if it doesn't "fit" it's going to feel forced...
Writers only really have total control of their stories because they generate all the Characters within them... AND it's only up to us (readers/audience) in a much broader sense to pour through and decide how well a given writer did in "staying true" as far as the Characters were concerned...
SO some time GM'ing can be very well informative as to how certain archetypes and stereotypes might function within a given story of choice...
The need for a GM to know his Players particularly well isn't so much a necessity as an advantage. A fairly seasoned GM has utensils in his "bag of tricks" to employ behind the screen to GET to know the Players and feel out their intentions within the confines of story/arc and their PC's (Player Characters, for those not in the know)...
SO if you find a story where a writer utterly describes one "type" of Character, but the story proves everything otherwise, then you've got a writer who's never really examined the traits of character... or s/he is relying FAR too heavily on some form of flawed narration technique... You've definitely got a story that's not Character driven...
...Not that plot driven stories are necessarily a bad thing. It just seems a lot more with them that Characters become entirely reactionary and not forces of their own... and many of us find it less than appealing if it's uncovered. ;o)
Needed this. Have been exploring ideas for so long and am trying to get a final treatment with a clear plot and character connection by Dec 31. This helps a lot!!
Thanks for this video, been struggling creatively recently for a bit
Great conversation
Totally disagree with the Groundhog day example...not only the character, but Bill Murray is the absolute must for the story to shine
Either could work better for different situations. Think about comics, games, or mysteries. And world is always there but doesn’t get enough acknowledgment and has so much potential to make or break a story if the rules aren’t established or followed. It almost always starts with what genre you want to write, what world you want to write in. Then characters and stories come, but you could also think of a character or plot first then find the right world to put them in.
Seventeen minutes of authors trying to dissect this question, when I can answer it in two sentences:
If you get an idea for an interesting character, start with character. If you get an idea for an interesting plot, start with plot.
The end.
I've written stories starting from either direction. With my first published novel, I came up with a fascinating plot idea, then designed characters to fit it. With a recent novella I completed that I consider one of my best stories, I came up with a fascinating character, and developed a plot around what she would do. With the first volume of my fantasy series, I concurrently came up with a couple characters along with the beginnings of a plot, then wrote the story with no clue where it was going, making up plot and characters as I went.
Any author, no matter how famous or successful, who tells me I have to start one way or another, can just go suck it!
Hi, what if I'm starting with a setting? I have a cool setting I can see there being a lot of potential in, but I feel like I'm designing characters who will inhabit it. I don't have character or plot idea, just the setting. for example take a farm, I might like to tell a story set on a farm. I can pick any main character to follow. Or, I can think up a plot that could happen on the farm, and involve a character and explore their journey that way. But I feel like I'm creating plot and character just to be able to tell a story on a farm.
@@danielburns1556 Start with whatever idea comes to you. If it's a setting, start with a setting. Just make sure you take as much care developing a plot and characters for it so they don't feel hollow or contrived.
Interesting video. Thanks
How can we think a plot without characters ? Do they write some essay first? I think one can think characters without a plot , but how is it possible to think a story plot without characters ?
I don't know man that's what I've been wondering
I consider myself a plot-first writer, and I usually think up wild situations to get my next script idea. What if a kid is one of the first colonists to explore a strange alien planet? What if the daughter of a 1-800 fortune teller, who believes her mom's a fraud, has strange visions on the morning of her 13th birthday? I think of the big event, and I don't know who the character is yet. How do writers write a character without plot? Isn't that a profile of some random stranger?
It isn't that complex, maroons!
You simply come up with a plot first. It isn't Rocket Science.... It's Brain Surgery!
With "Breaking Bad" Vince Gilligan said "We're going to take Mr. Chips and turn him into Scarface." He didn't do much plotting, but he knew exactly where it was going.
When his friend suggested to him as a joke that if their post "X-files" writing career doesn't get off the ground, they can always rent a winnebago and go off into the boonies and cook crystal meth, they laughed about it, but then he thought "I wonder what kind of middle-aged man would do something like that?" - "Breaking Bad" is the answer.
Your characters dictate the plot, but the plot can define your characters - in a way they already have, you've chosen them to be participants in your narrative experiment; you must have chosen them for a reason.
I think you have the wrong end of the stick. From the few videos online where Vince talks about writing it's clear he's all about plot - first and foremost. In fact, in one video he says creating the plot, or "breaking" as he calls it, is the most crucial part of the process. Characters and dialogue are important but that bit of writing is "carefree" compared to the "crucial" work of "breaking" it, i.e., finding the plot.
You don't seem to understand what I said.
@@futurestoryteller My apologies. I thought you were suggesting Vince Gilligan didn't do much plotting and that characters dictate plot. Mea culpa.
I thought I was pretty clear, but idk. It was more along the lines of, Gilligan plotted the character, and the character created the plot. It's more like an ouroboros or something.
Yeah, the characters in a story are what's important. But on the other hand, most people who practice "discovery writing" and do anything longer than short to medium length standalone novels do get in trouble later on rather more often than not. Bad recent examples are GRR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels and Patrick Rothfuss who derailed his three parter pretty early on with is undisciplined meandering and lack of structure and pace.
So, create your characters, the environmental influences they are under and how these shape them, but then plot out what will happen before you start writing 1000 pages about them.
Discovery writing pulls you into a novel with these intrigueing characters and premises and then spits you out halfway through because it's going on and on in ever more rambly meandering that ends nowhere.
Ironically, at 4:20 - what he's saying is: smoke a bowl or a joint to escape the realities of everyday stuff in your life, and get into your character. I often drive from LA to the Bay and back with no radio, just thinking about my characters.
Character. Really interesting character that you care about matters so much more. Like music or lyrics? If you bang a pot with a spoon, but have great lyrics, it's not music. A purpose and adventure comes from the character not the environment. Focus on the character. Focus on the cake, then choose your icing.
Completely wrong, dumbass. You can definitely make music from banging pots with a spoon,, idiot if it has timing and Rhythm, so stupid analogy!
Sometimes I feel like people‘s logic behind how they do this shit just travels in circles. I think it’s really personal. Everybody does it a little differently for me I think I have to have an idea for a story first and then I build the characters around that idea, thinking about it in terms of what would be the most interesting type of person to put in this place at this time, during this thing. It doesn’t make sense to me to develop a character first because then there’s no rhyme or reason for the person I’m creating. Also it’s a really old fashioned, human centric way to begin far as I’m concerned. Science fiction writers? What if after you’ve ended up developing a set of very human characters you realize the story is set A long time ago in a galaxy far far away? You’d have to change your characters completely. Why not start with at least a vague notion of what you’re about to write before you base an entire story around characters that have no rhyme or reason to be there? LOL that’s just my take. I think or of writing is to communicate ideas. If you’re starting without any ideas and just characters… How do you even know what universe the characters live in? That would shape them in so many ways. Okay, thats all i got for now, lol.
It doesn't matter how you start. You can start with plot or character, but you need both. A story is basically a puzzle that has to be put together. You start with whatever inspires you first and build the rest in.
It all depends, either way is right
It depends on the story. I’ve written scripts in both ways. My current screenplay the plot came first
Both methods can work!
Depends on what you mean by character. First goal of the work should be to make the audience care, so start with characterization in the exposition. Then, once the audience cares, think about premise to create inciting incident. Otherwise, we don’t emotionally invest in inciting incident and the inciting incident doesn’t particularly matter to that particular character.
I can only start with character. I would never be able to write if I had to start with plot. I would have no interest.
Count me as another plot first contrarian. Not only are characters not even REAL until you do that "ritual", but the ritual is literally just a trick to get you to burn through drafts of PLOT really fast (the character telling you their story, a moment of their day, an important formative memory/event) and then just keeping the best 10%. It's just PLOT re-writing, with the narrator pretending to be a therapist. God. I'm so SICK of hearing about how characters are everything. Just an ouroboros of how important someone is because they are because they are because they are. WHAT DID THEY DOOO? What are they focusing on? What THING in the WORLD of EVENTS are they INVOLVED IN??!?!? All my favorite characters earned my empathy from what was HAPPENINGGGGG to them. I don't REALLY care about Phil Connors. I care about GUY FORCED TO CHANGE HIS CYNICISM TO ESCAPE A TIME LOOP.
I suspect I'm just afraid of re-writes, because that's what "getting in touch with your character" means -- blazing throughs dozens of short stories involving them and then just throwing 90% of it in the trash bin, then break my own legs to ease out of the pain. Oh. AND, I also tend to write fantasy, so there's no simple way to NOT build character and plot simultaneously, because the story metaphysics have to be internally consistent, whereas "straight real life settings" come prefab, essentially.
you are a strange character and your behaviour is giving me some plot ideas.
Scott Myers is the real deal. I've been lucky enough to get notes from him on a few occasions, and he has some of the sharpest creative instincts ever. He's a really gifted teacher.
A character is defined by their actions therefore plot comes first.
I am definitely a character-first writer for certain. Ever since grade school. These characters are conceived and born in my mind. I always ask myself "what is his or her story? Why do they act the way they do?" And almost instantly, their stories come right behind their creation. Character-first gets you in the mind of the character and helps navigate how they will conduct themselves during the plot.
I definitely concur with being a plot-first writer is a lot easier because you at least have the story. You at least have the foundation and all that is left is to send in the players. Not so with character-first.
Characterization rarely has much to do with back story or deep internal motives. That stuff is boring. Characterization is simple, easily communicated synecdoche traits.
I will always start with characters simply because I have trouble with abstract 'What if?' propositions. I'm more interested in why people are the way they are, what they want, who they love, what they are afraid of. Maybe I'm not the best plotter in the world. Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses, but there is no 'right' way to start a story.
The qualities that make up a believable person seem a lot more abstract than plots.
@@futurestoryteller I can only go by what works for me. I'm neurodivergent, so I've spent a lot of my life pondering why people act the ways they do.
Or Theme…
I assume they mean in the general starting phase, not actually start as in the work itself psychically.
Definitely
There is a premise that the plot must keep challenging the character at their deep wound. And keep challenging the character till they grow into a better version of themselves.
if u can put any character in the plot then the plot aint good enough
I agree that it exposes a weakness in the plot, but if you could replace your main character with any other character, then there's more of a weakness with the character.
@@thefootydave639 For sure a character weakness more than anything else.
What about Jurassic Park lol
I think it all depends on what you want your project to achieve; that movie was just one glorified amusement park ride
@corpsefoot758
Jurassic Park has BOTH Weak characters and Weak Plot!
Depends on your audience. Western culture prefers characters over plot but Eastern culture prefers plot over character.
That isn't true at all, dumbass.
Horror always starts with the horror. So you are introduced to the shark, dinosaur, masked murderer etc, first. If the story is character based then we need to know that person so that person must be introduced first. Brody is not important. The shark is. Jennie is not important. Forrest is. Start with the whole point of the story. And add the meat and potatoes.
dude 95% of horror movies sucks because of that reason. what's the plot exactly ? a monster killing "characters" we don't care about one by one until one or two are left . remove Brody from Jaws and you got an empty plate, Bon appétit
And who's right now? You guessed it: Frank Stallone!
Character first for me.
Characters are more important than plot. While plot is still essential to crafting a story, you need to build the plot around the characters, not forcing the characters to betray their characterization for the sake of the plot.
Can any one reply with a link for the second speaker's course?
Let’s be honest - no one fucking knows. Keep writing.
Genre. Love Story- character with plot. Ten feet of fury- plot with character.
In good fiction the most interesting character is often the world itself.
I like to start with character, but the plot has to align with it
Character drives plot... Plot doesn't create character... Also, while I'm here, action must come out of characters strengths, phobias fears and weaknesses...
Totally wrong, idiot.
I think doing it at a both time i ok
Oh this is tricky indeed I write film too or at least I am trying to
Meh we already got characters aka us humans
And it’s all because of my last name too!
Usually I would start with scene the old fashioned way
And believe me scene determines character
Who is the woman always asking questions tho. I still haven’t seen her face. Gotta watch more videos then. Anyway I think both are essential tho
I think you should start off with plot, because the plot tells you what characters are best suited for that plot, but then you end the story with character. Start off with plot, but end with character if that make sense.
Yes,I was devoloping a story and a character separately and when I tried to put them together the character was fine but the plot broke down
Start with Character Arc, which is both character & plot
Not all characters need an Arc though, dumbass. Marty Mcfly in the First Back To The Future has.no Arc or development, nor does he change whatsoever!
I think I'm 50/50 when it comes to starting with a character first. Like, when I had an idea of a farmboy whose late father was a great hero. After constantly swearing he'll be like his father and that he'll prove he can do it, he takes his father's sword and runs away from home. I often envision it to be in the American civil war setting. But that's about as solid as I've gotten with that. I struggle greatly to piece things together for this fantasy. Maybe the problem lies in the setting or maybe it'll be easier if I change his goal to getting the farm rich through his adventuring.
Another idea: Wizard cat goes through space to save a princess. Funny thing is that I have way more solid with this one, but I'm a bit unsure what the antagonist looks like and the spaceship. . . . . . .And if the Cat and princess gets together in the end.
"I envision it in the Civil War setting"
Funny I envision it "a long time ago In a galaxy far, far away..."
(You've sort of described Luke Skywalker 😀)
M’daya? You mean Madea
I wonder what Quinton T. Starts with?
m.th-cam.com/video/LSyjzICWX1c/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUjUXVlbnRpbiB0YXJhbnRpbm8gY2hhcmFjdGVyIHZzIHBsb3Q%3D
2:25
New THUMBs?
Just a little something different for this one
LISTEM TO JILL CHAMBERLAIN GUYS. Seriously. 20 years experience here.
Doing what? Editing other people's scripts.
shes dead wrong. groundhog day about a character that needs to change, the plot is an engaging way for HIM to change. she doesn't even understand what she's us describing that its really not about plot at all but character by herself stating that it doesn't work if its another character.
Its about starting with character/plot not basing your writing on them groundhog day is focused on the character as a movie and as a screenplay but starting from scrach it seems more organic to start with the premise of the movie as i have this jerk guy that i need to change doesnt exactly lead to put him in an endless loop. But the other way seems to be the thing that did happen. You can start with plot and have a character based story and start with character and end with a plot based story one does not have to lead to the other.
I totally disagree that Phil in Groundhog's Day isn't interesting. He was VERY Interesting from the jump to me, and I also disagree that that plot couldn't work with a more Nieve person!