THE STORY SPOT

Coaching veteran Michael Hauge, author of Writing Screenplays That Sell and Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds, has offered readers of THE STORY SPOT these words on crafting the introductory pages of your screenplay. This piece, along with others by Michael, can be found on his website at www.screenplaymastery.com.

THE PROLOGUE OPENING
by Michael Hauge

The first 10% of your screenplay is what I term the SETUP, during which you must transport the reader from the real world into the world you’ve created, as well as get them emotionally involved with the setting and characters before your main story line begins. While many films open with the hero living his or her everyday life, you may want to consider preceding your hero introduction with a PROLOGUE. Here you begin with some outside time, location or character, in order to draw the reader into the story more quickly or powerfully, and to create anticipation of what is to come.This Prologue can take the form of a FLASHBACK, BOOKEND, MID-STORY PEAK MOMENT, or NEMESIS INTRODUCTION:

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You know the ones: characters who so get under your skin that you can’t stop watching week after week, characters who get talked about at the office the next day, characters so brazenly themselves that you can’t believe they just did that? But they did. How about a few examples to paint the picture?

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape via Wikipedia

What makes these characters so compelling even when they are not the primary antagonist or villain?

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From acclaimed artist Erik Loyer comes an innovation in storytelling. Billed as a “Tamogatchi for adults,” Opertoon is an interactive story between lovers played out on your iPhone.

Ruben & Lullaby are lovers having their first fight. Whether they break up or make up depends on you! Shake to make them angry. Stroke to make them sad. The future of their relationship is in your hands.

Writers, here is your glimpse into your future. 

UPDATE: September 26, 2009
More from our friend Erik on the world of Opertoon!

It’s been a great year for Ruben & Lullaby, here’s a quick recap in case you missed all the goings-on:

* Finalist, Achievement in Art Category, Second Annual Independent Games Festival Mobile
* Coverage from MSNBC.com, Apple, and thoughtful folks like Scott McCloud, Emily Short (who mentioned it on her “Interactive Storytelling Must-Play” list), Michael Abbott and Andrew Stern
* Exhibited at E3 as an IndieCade Official Selection
* Featured in O’Reilly Media’s new book Best iPhone Apps: A Guide for Discriminating Downloaders

Finally, I’m aiming to announce development of the second Opertoon by the end of the year–there’s a number of interesting possibilities cooking at the moment. For more frequent updates, point your RSS reader at http://opertoon.com or use Twitter (http://twitter.com/opertoon) or Facebook (http://bit.ly/1mrEvg).

Opertoon at the iTunes App Store
The official Opertoon site
Erik Loyer’s Generous Machine

Take it from a guy who oughta know: sitting your squirrely butt at that keyboard or notebook for 20 minutes every day (yes, weekends too) is one true tip for finishing your writing projects. Cory Doctorow, Canadian writer extraordinaire lays it out in his feature for LOCUS Magazine for you who are convinced that there just isn’t enough time in a day to complete that insurmountable project (yes, he’s talking to me too, at times.) And you know what? He’s absolutely right.

Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction on Locus Online

Update (Jan.16/09): For further inspiration, see “Daily Routines,” an online compendium of how the publicly admired spend their days. Via VSL.

Drama, as you know from high school, can be defined as an exciting series of events. Writers know that definition to be woefully inadequate. Stringing together a series of events, no matter how scintillating, death-defying, or fantastic, can amount to a big ol’ bag o’ dull unless those events are dramatizing meaningful story points.

Writers also know the pain of rewriting to someone else’s notes when those notes are event-based and miss the underlying motion of the story. But there’s hope! We can more effectively discuss how to handle revisions by grabbing firm hold of the purpose of each scene and relating its crux to the real story events as they unfold.

So, like, what’s all the drama?
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