It’s Complicated: The Relationship Between Hero And Villain (Part 2)
Overlap If you look at the Venn diagrams you can see the relationship, ideally, of hero to villain. No villain should be entirely evil and no hero entirely good. Why? Because each character both reflects and depends on the other to make them whole. They need each other symbiotically to bring out both the […]
It’s Complicated: The Relationship Between Hero And Villain (Part 1)
Villains are essential to any story. We all know this. No hero gears up unless a villain demands their attention through misdeeds either directly or indirectly. And internalized villains (drugs, alcohol, greed, ego, etc.) are just as strong (maybe stronger) as any physical baddie and they are in place as well before anything really gets […]
How Ethics & Morality Shape Characters (Part 2)
Here’s the second part of our two part series. Elementary, Ms. Holmes An old saying in writing is we’re not writing reality, we’re writing the illusion of reality. Taking a character, surrounding them with a complete world and a set of moral values that either support or deny that world is a fantastic way […]
How Ethics & Morality Shape Characters (Part 1)
The words ethics and morality are many times used interchangeably. I’m going to resist doing that old article trope of pasting the definitions here, but basically, an ethic is a global, world view provided by an outside source, i.e. a religion, workplace rules, or a society at large, whereas morals are personal, internal guiding principles […]
Just Write The !&*>^% Script Without The Tricks! (Part 2)
We continue with the second and final part of our series on misusing narrative tricks in your screenwriting. Your screenplay should work just as well without them. 1) Montages A montage basically compresses time. That’s why it exists and that’s the only reason it should be put into any script. A character needs […]
