Lighting Up Stories
I’ve always loved Charlie Brooker, I was an addict of his show Charlie Brooker Screenwipe – originally on the BBC and then moved to Channel 4: it was sharp, funny, satirical and analytical: everything I love. Black Mirror has made its mark in the TV …
“The question is not whether or not we are capable of making AI more intelligent than us. The question is, will we be able to live with it?” – Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld (2016). This line from the thought-provoking TV series Westworld perfectly captures the …
Like cooking, writing needs essential ingredients. And like cooking, the better your ingredients are, the better is the end result.
So what are those ingredients?
The concept is the core idea of your story. It’s the HOOK.
The concept of your project is what sets it apart and grabs people’s attention when you send out your manuscript or screenplay, making them curious and eager to read it.
The concept answers the question: What is the story about? (in a broad sense).
To create a great concept, you need to start with the very famous What if question. If you can’t put your idea into a what if question, you’ve got a problem.
What if AI wants to rule our world? (Westworld) What if you die and end up in heaven instead of hell where you belong? (The Good Place). What if a great number of people disappear randomly on the same day at the same time? (The Leftovers).
If it’s a good concept, it should present a conflict to come, and we want to know more about it. It creates a sense of excitment. I strongly recommend to start with your concept before writing your story.
The theme is the underlying message of your story.
It could be your opinion as an author. Opinion doesn’t mean that you have to teach your readers a lesson. Writers are not there to do a lecture. It’s more about your UNDERSTANDING of the topic you decided to talk about.
The deeper meaning (or theme) is not always obvious, but it’s always there. It answers this question: What is your story saying? Or Why does it matter?
If done well, everything in your story should reflect your theme: the characters, the settings, the plot itself… The theme is like a diamond, it has different reflections.
A theme explores a universal human experience, what it means to be a human being (love, loss, loneliness, fear, poverty etc…).
For instance, the themes of the TV series Dead To Me (excellent TV series by the way) are Loss, Love and Friendship. And the screenwriter Liz Feldman explores many angles of those themes. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean.
The plot, however, answers this question: what happens in the story?
It’s more about the actions and events that occur in the story and move it forward. That includes all the problems, conflicts, obstacles, and resolutions that shape the journey of your characters.
The plot is difficult to craft, because it should be believable but not predictable.
The key is to follow your characters AND to ask yourself: ‘Is this scene a bit cliché?’. If the answer is ‘yes’ then go against it.
The last ingredient is the reason why people care about your story: the characters, because they identify with them.
The concept, the theme and the plot will attract them to your story, and the characters will make them stay until the end. It’s probably the only thing they will remember years after reading your story.
So take care of your characters, get to know them, live with them, hear them speak and make sure they are unforgettable.
There is no good story without those four elements.
The concept grabs attention–It’s the big idea and should be exciting.
The plot answers the concept in actions done by your characters, and the more those actions are unpredictable, the better your story is.
The theme gives the story an emotional and intellectual depth. It makes people think about it way after they saw your script or your book.
And the characters embody everything mentioned above.
Well…I don’t’ know about you, but now that I’ve talked about cooking, I’m feeling quite peckish… for writing!
Happy writing x
Hey, let me tell you a secret: I’m never in the mood for writing. I think about writing all day and night. But, when it’s time to sit in that chair and work… I do something else. Oh, but I have many good excuses. You …
In life, there is never a time when you say: I’ve arrived! I’ve always thought that we were all part of a big game. The first time I shared this thought to one of my classes, I had a complete silence and shocked eyes in …
Some of my friends told me they wanted to give up on their writing career. I know that they have been working very hard for more than 15 years. They wrote screenplays and published some novels. Yet, they don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
They feel like giving up.
It’s understandable. Burnouts, disappointments, and rejections can drive you to the point where you feel like letting go of your dreams. (See post: How to Recover From Burnout) Especially now when competition is tougher than ever.
Myself, 17 years ago, I gave up on my writing. And I tell you what, during that time, I felt as alive as a zombie in The Walking Dead. Dead inside.
Being a writer is tough. Chasing our dreams is hard but it’s also the only way to feel alive. So before you take a reckless decision, please let me give you 10 things you could try to have your mojo back.
When it rains it pours. When I lost my home, my country and became homeless, I also got sick and soon after, my husband passed away. Indeed, when it rains, it pours. Yet, what saved me was my work and my writing.
Putting all my rage and my despair on paper somehow kept me alive. I surrendered to the process of writing and somehow it made it feel slightly more bearable.
Surrender to your despair, to your sadness, to your fatigue. Don’t internalize it, it’s the worst thing you could do – it will soon become some kind of physical disease. So express it, write it and WAIT.
When you have a bad momentum, don’t fight against it. Instead surf the wave, let it take you where it wants. Don’t swim against the current, you’ll lose. Instead wait until it brings you to that peaceful beach.
I read a fantastic book that should be taught in every school: Why we sleep by Dr Matthew Walker. He explains how detrimental lack of sleep is to our body, mind and spirit such as:
Sleeping is far more important than you think. Do yourself a favor and have a minimum of 8-9 hours sleep. Go to bed early, have a nap. After a week, I promise you, you’ll feel stronger mentally and physically.
And more importantly, you’ll be more creative.
Once rested, it’s time to reflect on what made you feel this way. Be honest with yourself. What triggered it?
A rejection? A nasty comment online? An unexpected bill? A launch that didn’t work (again)?
Trace back what caused your misery and expose it to the light.
Now answer this question: Will it matter in five years time? If the answer is no, brush it off.
Maybe you’re sick of your writing, you don’t feel excited about it anymore. I tell you what: it’s time to try something new.
The idea is to give you a proper break. Trying something new will create new neuropathways and will excite your brain cells. You’ll feel a bit more upbeat.
Soon enough, you’ll get an epiphany while doing paddling, martial art or painting.
I ditched my Instagram. I also switched off ALL my notifications, and deleted most of the apps on my phone.
Do you know what happened?
My stress level went right down. Now, I’m only checking my phone when I’m ready for it and not when I’m told to do so.
So liberating!
Tell me the truth, is your life full of duties?
If so, it’s not surprising that you want to give up.
If you don’t plan some kind of reward in your day, your life will soon become like in The Shining: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy“.
Here is the secret though: you have to plan it. If you don’t, I promise you, you’ll do another duty because there is always something to do.
It can be anything you want but it has to be fun FOR YOU. The idea is to plan each day, five things that makes you happy. You’ll get your motivation back sooner than you think.
Walking is the best sport you could ever do.
It increases your energy levels, improves your mood, your memory and sleep, maintains a healthy weight, reduces stress, strengthens your immune system and so on…
Start with 10 minutes a day and increase the duration after a while.
It will make a huge difference to your health and creativity.
Now let’s talk about your writing goals.
The key is this : One step at a time.
This is crucial. Take baby steps.
When Stephen King was asked: ‘How do you write?’ He replied: ‘One word at a time‘.
Simple. It’s okay to dream big but in terms of daily action, it’s best to have small, manageable, happy goals.
If I tell you, write the best screenplay ever now! Your body and mind will shut down automatically.
Now if I tell you: write a scene, AND it doesn’t have to be good, you have the right to get it wrong but just write it. I’m pretty sure you can do that without a sweat. If you do that everyday, you have the first draft of your screenplay finished in two or three months.
Don’t make perfection a goal. Instead, make daily action a habit.
This one is my favorite mantra. This is the first thing my friend and co-writer Kary Oberbrunner taught me and it changed my life. Take imperfect action.
You don’t need to know all the answers, you don’t need to look perfect, you don’t need to be the best writer in the world. You just need to show up and be yourself.
Do you want results? Do one action a day towards your goal. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it has to be regular.
The more actions you take, the more opportunities you get. It’s not witchcraft, it’s science.
When you look at people who succeeded, they didn’t get successful overnight.
It takes a long time to build a career.
It doesn’t matter when you started writing. My point is these people kept practicing again and over again. They accumulated mini-wins one after another. So don’t look at the big picture. Aim for the mini wins. That’s what makes the difference.
One last word… Writing is an adventure. When we read a book or watch a film, we’re looking for answers to this question: How do you survive in this society?
Of course, we don’t say that out loud to ourselves but this is what we’re looking for.
We also write to understand ourselves and others. And we also write to give our understanding of life to others. It’s an important mission. It’s a calling. So don’t give up on it please, the world needs you.
Ps: I would like to dedicate this post to one of my faithful reader, Patricia, who kindly sent me a very nice email. I replied but my email bounced back. I wish you to get better soon.
Here some mantras you could use to get your mojo back:
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I have never liked January and its New Year resolutions time. I don’t see the point. Each year is what you DAILY make it… for 365 days.
Many times, I saw people making plans and giving them up after a few weeks…
‘Man makes plans… and God laughs’ wrote the Author and Screenwriter Michael Chabon.
Why do we expect so much from ourselves?
Is it to justify our presence on Earth?
I often find answers in Nature.
I love observing Nature around me, trees especially. In shamanism, they are called ‘The Plant people and the Standing People’.
Trees grow tall and strong knowing their purpose. They don’t ask themselves ‘What should I do with my life?’
They just are. They exist and make the world better (by providing oxygen for instance).
Us, the human kind, we have a brain and a heart. With these gifts, we should know what to do. Yet, we probably are the only species on Earth wondering what our purpose is.
Life is chaos.
I know what I’m talking about. Within two years, I lost my home, my beloved country, some close friends, my dignity, and my husband. None of these events were planned or thought. None of these things were part of my ‘plan’. They just happened to me.
Yes, life is chaos and any form of co-creation (coming from the heart) is a way to express or explain this chaos.
When you lose it all, you see everything clearly.
First you see who are ‘your allies’, to quote my dear friend and mentor Lucy V. Hay (Bang2Write). The allies are the ones who pick you up when you fall but also help you to fight back. ‘You can’t do without them’, she says. She is right. As always.
My other Friend and mentor, Kary Oberbrunner, wrote it in his life-changing book Unhackable that there are three types of people:
The Consumer, the critic, the creator.
The consumer consumes, probably to feed their emptiness with stuff.
The critic critics. Spotting the mistakes in others reassures them.
And Creators create. To me, this type is never reassured. They try, they test, and stumble often but they know their purpose. When creators let go of expectations, they become unrestricted and inspiring.
When you hit rock bottom, your needs become simple: food, shelter and love.
If you have those three things in your life, it’s a blessing. Millions of people on Earth do not have that.
When you fall, you realised that friends and family are what count in life.
On your death bed, the number of zeros on your bank account or your job title will do nothing for you. People make the difference.
People you love are the ones who are going to make your life meaningful.
That’s why I have changed the name of my website. It used to be called Inside the Writers Bubble but I felt quite lonely inside my bubble.
My friend and Shaman Catherine Maguire (https://www.inlightenment.it/) said to me,’ your gift is to light other people’s light, you’re a pilot light’. From there, another dear friend – the author Sally Bibb and my brother-in-law – Daniel helped me to put the pieces together.
And that’s how Pilot Light Writing is born.
We can’t do it on our own.
I am not interested in consuming or criticising.
I’m interested in bringing love into everything I do, so I can help other people who love what they do, to shine too.
We can’t get rid of the darkness or the shadow in this world. We can only bring light inside it.
So be shiny my friend. x
This post is dedicated in loving memory of my late husband, who will be missed forever.
Phil Clarke (aka Philmscribe) is a UK-based script consultant and screenwriter with over twenty years service to cinema. After years working at the coal face of film on such features as Sleepy Hollow, Enigma, The Beach and two of the biggest box office franchises: Star Wars …