The Backstory
From the 2nd Floor #11
We write words. We hope that pile of nonsense can be
organized into an order others will enjoy reading and watching.
Writers have goals, albeit a novel, short story or
screenplay. I’ll leave theatre plays and other media out of the conversation
for the time being.
We finish the work. It’s re-read, polished, examined by
friends and agreed upon to be the final draft. It’s done.
But is all that work really done? Is it commercial? Did you
create a backstory? Is there one character that will be loved, hated or
admired? In other words, is it complete?
Let’s assume the ultimate goal is to write a screenplay
designed for studio production and of course make money for everyone and win an
Academy Award.
Your goal is aggressive, but can it be reached? Of course it
can. In the motion picture industry everything is possible. Even the impossible
can be flipped into the positive.
Can you learn to write from a book? Yes and no. Yes, you can
learn sentence structure and the proper way to organize written work. Will the
book teach you how to create story in depth? Some will argue, but in my opinion
the answer is a resounding no. The written word comes from the heart not a
book. If you tell a great story you can write one.
As a studio reader, you receive hundreds of submissions. How
many can you read in a day or week? How do you grab the attention of the
reader? You hook them and you do it in the first 5 to 10 pages. If you wait too
long, the chances of your project getting covered are reduced to ashes.
So, the catch is to create this great story. How do you
write it for submission? What does a great story need? The entire story must be
one that can be told to others in two minutes. A story that is so entertaining
you can reduce it to a one-page, compelling synopsis. A manuscript or
screenplay, so ridiculously written the reader wants to flip the page. That’s
your magic bullet.
Writing an agent or publisher a query letter for your
manuscript is no different than verbally pitching a story or TV series idea. To
hook the reader, you get anywhere from seconds to hours to secure interest from
your audience. Decisions come quickly and sometimes they’re not always fair.
Time is truly a commodity with limited boundaries. If your story is great, time
is taken, reading schedules set aside and time becomes your pal. If the story
is slow out the starting gate and you lose the attention of your audience, it
can mean a certain death to the project. People want to turn pages. They want
to know what’s happening with the story, the characters and those briefly
mentioned in your backstory. The audience is demanding, short on temper and
patience. They need to be entertained albeit that comes in many different
formations. The audience is powerful and can’t be fooled or sweet-talked with
nonsense.
It all comes down to the story and the backstory that
accompanies your work. Take a look at all the fabulous screenplays considered
for the Writers Guild of America and the Academy Awards this year. Boil it down
to the finalist list and then pick the best original and the best adaptation. Spotlight
had all the right elements and started with a bare-bones concept of what the
Catholic Church had done. Spotlight was written as a story
built by brilliant kids playing building blocks. They had backstory, story and
history all going in the same direction. The story had a group of wonderful
characters that knew how to interplay, mystery was created, and boredom
eliminated.
Writing Spotlight took time and hard work.
It paid off for Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy at the Writers Guild – now we wait
to see if they win the Academy Award.
When you examine the other top 4 films, Bridge of Spies, Written
by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen; Sicario, Written by Taylor Sheridan;
Straight
Out of Compton Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story
by S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berlott; and Trainwreck, Written by
Amy Schumer – you realize each had a great backstory, entertaining characters
from all walks of life, unique story content, and perfectly developed
beginnings, middles and endings.
Examining the best Adapted Screenplay crawls into a
different bag of tricks. Here they have the story, backstory and a list of
characters a mile long. The locations are set, and who and where everyone came
from has all ready been exposed. So what’s the big deal? Ah, an adaptation is
the gift of learning how to take a 500-page book and transpose the breathtaking
manuscript into a 125-page screenplay. It sounds easy until you check the
works, read the books or biography and realize there is so much wonderful stuff
in each novel - your script can’t live without including all of it. On the
second or third read you find ways to trim. The writer’s bag of tricks includes
ways to remove words, restructure the intent, and still keep the authenticity
and integrity of the original work.
Out of all the wonderful material available, the list
dwindled down to the 5 best. The peers of those who write the words create the
list – so the audience is not only picky but also demanding. They don’t want to
make mistakes and usually don’t. They read, watch films and vote.
The narrowed list for best adaptation screenplays at the
Writers Guild of America included: The Big Short, Screenplay by Charles
Randolph and Adam McKay; Based on the Book by Michael Lewis; Carol,
Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy; Based on the Novel “The Price of Salt” by Patricia
Highsmith; The Martian, Screenplay by Drew Goddard; Based on the Novel by
Andy Weir; Steve Jobs, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the Book by
Walter Isaacson; and Trumbo, Written by John McNamara;
Based on the Biography by Bruce Cook.
After many hours of watching films and reading screenplays,
my writer colleagues and I voted again. The list was exciting and all those
words hung in the balance. We’re a picky bunch. It took time to get the list to
5 – and then reduced to what we all thought was the best. The Big Short was chosen.
The script started with a bang, the dialogue flew against the walls, the
characters roared, laughed and behaved as expected, and the story dazzled. The
writers made it look easy. They had the material. All they had to do was create
magic and that’s what they did.
The key to most great written works is the backstory. This
is where you mold the characters and give them a personality. If you scrimp on
this through development your story will suffer.
An idea for an original story is your seedling. You plant it
in your computer and water it by giving it a name. It percolates like a
whispering coffeemaker. A few characters are added. Who are these people? Where
did they come from? Do you have a family, husband, wife, kids, parents or other
relatives? What about a dog, cat or bird? The story is in California, but is
that where the characters were born? What about traveling the world or
beginning life out of the country? What about friends or drinking partners? Are
they sexually active? Do they have a dark past? This all falls into the
backstory category. Without it, there is no body for the work to build from.
Have you written an idea and now it sits there as a lost
child in need of direction? It happens to all writers and it’s not exactly
writers block – it’s a story that jumped tracks and is going in a different
direction than first started. Frustration stops you and kills the story. It
goes into the filing cabinet or story folder on an external drive. You may visit
it from time to time or forget it was ever written. You move on.
Wait a minute! What if that simple idea is a great one? What
if the underbelly of the story not only grows muscular legs – it can run the
mile faster than anyone else? If you
don’t go back for a second or tenth look, you’ll never know.
If I’m not goofing around in front or behind the camera or
writing another work, I spend time helping others locate the ground beneath
their dancing fingers. If I can help you, let me know.
William Byron Hillman © 2016
Visit my revised web site www.williamhillman.com
Now offering Script Consultation
Recently Completed Screenplays
Quigley’s Christmas Adventure
The Legend of El Doblo
His Name is Joey
Recently Published Novels
