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hi so the single biggest question I've
00:00:01
gotten since I introduced the good old
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start with a theme create characters who
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represent different perspectives on that
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theme model has been what if I'm
00:00:10
starting with a character and my answer
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historically has just been tough titties
00:00:13
but then I went and got myself into that
00:00:16
very pickle I plucked a character from
00:00:19
an old story of mine and tried to work
00:00:20
him into a completely different one
00:00:22
because I was attached and I didn't want
00:00:24
him to go to waste his name was Leon and
00:00:26
he was the chief security officer of a
00:00:28
post-apocalyptic City he was a
00:00:30
supporting character who embodied the
00:00:31
humanity must survive no matter the cost
00:00:33
mindset he also had an extremely
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memorable personality and aesthetic he
00:00:38
was so easy to write dialogue for I
00:00:39
could hear it imagine like a hybrid of
00:00:41
Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and rust from
00:00:43
True Detective but all wrapped up in
00:00:45
this weird statesman-like demeanor I'm
00:00:47
not doing it justice but my point is to
00:00:49
integrate him into my new story I found
00:00:51
that I had to divide his existing
00:00:52
attributes into two categories purpose
00:00:55
basically His function thematically
00:00:57
speaking within the original story what
00:00:59
he repres presented and personality all
00:01:02
of his quirks the way he speaks and
00:01:04
looks and feels his temperament what I
00:01:06
realized was that I wasn't attached to
00:01:08
his purpose I was attached to his
00:01:10
personality the characteristics that
00:01:12
make him lifelike I found a suitable
00:01:14
role for him in my news story which has
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its own thematic framework and I grafted
00:01:19
all of that personality onto the new
00:01:20
role while he is doing a completely
00:01:22
different thing now it's like he never
00:01:24
left but there's a good chance this
00:01:26
isn't your situation there's a good
00:01:28
chance your situation is a really cool
00:01:30
character life like and Vivid who never
00:01:32
had anything to do still though you want
00:01:35
to start with this same exercise just to
00:01:37
clear your head the only things that
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should go in the purpose column are your
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character's deepest beliefs don't fill
00:01:43
that column with likes or dislikes or
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demographic factors or sad happy angry
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none of that I'm counting all of that as
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personality the purpose column is for
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what your character believes but um
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depression is at the core of my
00:01:55
character can I put depression in the
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purpose column well it's depression a
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belief can you recontextualize
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depression as a belief how about instead
00:02:04
of saying depressed right believes there
00:02:07
is no hope in life now instead of an
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attribute you have a perspective a
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belief that can be weighed against other
00:02:13
beliefs and tested by the plot if your
00:02:16
character has no beliefs make some up
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this step cannot be skipped after you
00:02:21
have a clear understanding of what your
00:02:23
character believes turn that belief into
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your theme and now you have the first
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two steps of the method you can't even
00:02:28
tell which order they were done in the
00:02:30
next question the question at the heart
00:02:32
of plot generation is what is a
00:02:34
situation that will test this belief and
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then that situation becomes the plot
00:02:38
it's important to remember that your
00:02:40
character could have a number of
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foundational beliefs this plot doesn't
00:02:43
have to challenge all of them honestly
00:02:45
it's better if you just hone in on one
00:02:47
that one priority that Central thing you
00:02:49
want your story to be about the
00:02:51
personality is still there still
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chilling We'll add it in later but we
00:02:54
gotta nail this plot down first instead
00:02:56
of talking about this like it's a
00:02:58
feature film or a story with definitive
00:03:00
beginning middle and end let's think of
00:03:02
it more like an episodic TV series pause
00:03:04
here's a little vocabulary serialized TV
00:03:07
is when you have to watch the episodes
00:03:08
in order because each one flows into the
00:03:11
next and they have an overarching plot
00:03:13
episodic TV is when each episode gets to
00:03:16
be its own thing a new contained
00:03:18
Adventure every time while there might
00:03:20
be the occasional multi-episode Arc the
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show can generally be viewed out of
00:03:23
order any given episode puts the
00:03:25
characters in a new situation and we get
00:03:27
to see how they respond to that
00:03:29
situation maybe it changes them maybe it
00:03:31
changes our perspective of them maybe
00:03:32
it's just interesting I don't know what
00:03:34
I do know is that doctor who is
00:03:36
excellent at this so I'm going to do
00:03:37
that thing where I talk about an IP for
00:03:39
just long enough to put it on the
00:03:40
thumbnail Dr shu
00:03:43
down your Shoe Doctor Who is a show that
00:03:45
should give you a headache but doesn't
00:03:46
at its best it will present the most
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absurd the most corny the most visually
00:03:52
and tonally clunky premise imaginable
00:03:54
and then somehow ring deeply meaningful
00:03:56
character moments out of it for instance
00:03:58
imagine a protagonist who has learned to
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see everything through a scientific lens
00:04:02
a character who believes everything must
00:04:04
have a rational explanation I'd like to
00:04:06
write an episode where I single out that
00:04:08
belief and challenge it how maybe
00:04:10
present him with something that defies
00:04:12
scientific understanding present him
00:04:14
with a situation that requires him to
00:04:16
act on faith alone you know like maybe
00:04:18
he goes to a church and makes some sight
00:04:20
he crashes on an asteroid with rose and
00:04:22
it's right next to a black hole but it's
00:04:24
not getting sucked in because the
00:04:25
asteroid is actually a prison for a 300
00:04:27
foot tall CGI Satan whose Mind Is
00:04:30
possessing crew members and giving them
00:04:31
tattoos and so the doctor has to go into
00:04:33
itself
00:04:41
wait why am I tearing up look the point
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I'm trying to make is that if your
00:04:45
biggest priority is just to spend time
00:04:47
with the character an episodic approach
00:04:49
might be just what you're looking for
00:04:50
good episodic storytelling starts with
00:04:53
character finds themes within the
00:04:55
character and then builds a plot out of
00:04:57
those themes the thing is since you get
00:04:59
an infinite supply of plots you have a
00:05:01
lot more freedom to play with those
00:05:03
themes to a serialized content writer I
00:05:06
would prescribe maximum efficiency but
00:05:08
the game is a bit different for episodic
00:05:10
shows Once you find the core of your
00:05:12
episode the heart string you're going to
00:05:13
pull on to make it meaningful you can
00:05:15
kind of just do whatever I mean you can
00:05:17
extrapolate those themes into the most
00:05:19
elaborate wacky plots imaginable and
00:05:22
nobody's going to get mad at you because
00:05:23
they came for the characters that's the
00:05:25
unspoken contract between episodic
00:05:28
creators and episodic consumers I will
00:05:31
watch because I enjoy spending time with
00:05:33
these characters and as long as these
00:05:35
characters are being utilized in
00:05:37
faithful and dynamic ways I will keep
00:05:39
tuning back in but for serialized
00:05:41
content the contract is this better be
00:05:44
headed towards a meaningful Climax and
00:05:46
again you can have a little bit of both
00:05:47
on an episode to episode basis
00:05:49
multi-episode arcs continuity sure but
00:05:51
fundamentally there are two types of
00:05:53
shows the ones that end and the ones
00:05:55
that get canceled if you go episodic you
00:05:58
can just play with your characters until
00:06:00
the meta Cuts you off The Meta being
00:06:01
money viewer fatigue production
00:06:03
complications there's some other real
00:06:05
world Factor but if you go serial you're
00:06:08
committing to having an ending you can't
00:06:09
have your cake and eat it too even
00:06:11
Doctor Who for all of its intermittent
00:06:13
climaxes has never come out and declared
00:06:15
this is the last one because there is no
00:06:18
last one and the show has built-in
00:06:20
mechanics to ensure that it keeps
00:06:22
chugging along and I love that some of
00:06:24
my favorite stories are episodic
00:06:26
Adventure Time for instance was
00:06:27
instrumental to my journey as a writer I
00:06:30
mentioned this in the Q a but one of the
00:06:31
first things I remember writing was an
00:06:34
episode of Adventure Time and no I still
00:06:36
won't call it a fanfic because my
00:06:38
underlying intention was to bring it to
00:06:40
Cartoon Network and get it made it was
00:06:42
is about Finn having an evil clone who
00:06:44
comes from space or something and there
00:06:46
was a lot of sword fighting because I
00:06:48
was in my sword phase anyway my point is
00:06:50
I love this show I can admire a story
00:06:52
that meanders on purpose but as a writer
00:06:55
and as a writing coach I just have to
00:06:56
think of it a little differently and my
00:06:58
conclusion is that if your goal is just
00:07:00
to spend time with a character you
00:07:02
created episodic is the way an episodic
00:07:05
doesn't mean the story lacks depth
00:07:07
Doctor Who in Adventure Time digs so
00:07:08
deep episodic just means there's no
00:07:10
momentum towards an ending which
00:07:13
eliminates the concept of filler even
00:07:15
Adventure Time's final episode doesn't
00:07:16
claim to be the ultimate out point it
00:07:19
has a showdown with a god-like villain
00:07:21
but after that the show settles back
00:07:22
into Apostolic mode and reminds the
00:07:24
audience that this universe extends out
00:07:26
forever and these characters are going
00:07:27
to keep being their goofy selves even if
00:07:30
we're not watching this is a
00:07:32
cancellation type ending but that
00:07:34
doesn't mean it isn't graceful and
00:07:35
meaningful episodic stories and
00:07:37
serialized ones can both work equally
00:07:39
well all it takes is a clear
00:07:40
understanding of that distinction and a
00:07:42
defense Choice as to which one you're
00:07:44
going with if you're collaborating with
00:07:46
someone else have that conversation
00:07:48
please two years ago I was working on a
00:07:50
story that involved a character who
00:07:52
belonged to my creative partner and this
00:07:54
character in my partner's mind had
00:07:56
fundamental traits and beliefs so I
00:07:58
would pitch a scene involving this
00:08:00
character and my partner would be like
00:08:01
well he wouldn't do that it's against
00:08:03
his morals well yeah but at this point
00:08:04
in the story he isn't there yet he's a
00:08:06
much darker character and then he
00:08:08
eventually becomes the character you
00:08:10
envisioned and that back and forth
00:08:11
persisted for months because we were not
00:08:13
addressing the real difference in our
00:08:15
respective approaches with this
00:08:16
character so if you heard all of my
00:08:18
episodic praise and you're still like
00:08:20
nope I want my character to be part of a
00:08:22
story with a beginning middle and end I
00:08:24
want them to grow and change I am going
00:08:26
super duper serial ask yourself this one
00:08:29
essential question at what point in the
00:08:31
story does your character occupy their
00:08:34
original form if you want to give your
00:08:36
character an arc you have to figure out
00:08:38
if the version of that character you
00:08:40
have now is post Arc pre-arc or midar
00:08:42
work you have to place this character on
00:08:45
a timeline and no matter where you place
00:08:47
them you're going to be forced to spend
00:08:49
whole scenes maybe even whole acts with
00:08:51
a version of this character that you're
00:08:52
unfamiliar with because that's how arcs
00:08:55
work now there's another important
00:08:56
distinction I want to cover which is how
00:08:58
to create a functional plot for a group
00:09:01
of pre-existing characters let's say
00:09:03
you're starting with three characters
00:09:05
glyingus twingis and
00:09:08
put your hands up oh my God oh my God oh
00:09:11
my God all right okay hands
00:09:13
up okay okay you and me we're gonna have
00:09:16
a little talk I'm sorry I I can't seem
00:09:20
to place you no offense one minute my
00:09:22
boyfriend is about to tell me he loves
00:09:24
me and then he just starts speaking in
00:09:26
tongues the universe around me collapses
00:09:29
and I wake up in in uh Ohio you're gonna
00:09:32
send me back to Philip and you're gonna
00:09:34
fix this this is your fault
00:09:38
is gonna be easy to hear but he's
00:09:40
literally written to not love you well
00:09:43
he does I wrote him to not love you and
00:09:46
now
00:09:47
I now have a gun to your head did you
00:09:49
write that too you were gonna spend the
00:09:51
rest of your life stuck in that moment
00:09:52
lying to yourself now you don't have to
00:09:54
send me back tell them about Skye do you
00:09:58
wish that you that you want you wish you
00:10:01
had skills well you gotta check out the
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sponsor of today's video skillshare I
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got a little secret for you don't take
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I want to build my brand and keep my
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money under control and the platform as
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a whole represents a refreshing
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alternative to education as we know it
00:10:55
injecting growth into your work-life
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balance can be tough when that growth is
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coming from a heavily structured
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educational machine that demands you set
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an arbitrarily High bar for yourself but
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at skillshare no goal is too small for a
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one month free trial of skillshare click
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the link in my description oh you're
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still here
00:11:15
yeah
00:11:16
well we don't have skills
00:11:20
skills and it actually sounds pretty
00:11:21
cool
00:11:22
and maybe I got some other stuff to
00:11:26
think about
00:11:27
I'll I'll see you
00:11:30
you think that was insane you should see
00:11:32
what I did to Matthew anyways you have
00:11:34
these three characters you created them
00:11:36
all for fun they've been living in your
00:11:37
brain for years and now you want to put
00:11:39
them in a story this exercise is
00:11:42
basically going to be a more advanced
00:11:43
version of everything I've been talking
00:11:45
about in this video glingus twingis and
00:11:47
the other guy all need to be divided up
00:11:49
into purpose and personality or belief
00:11:52
versus everything else glyingus's core
00:11:55
belief is that the space war is bad and
00:11:59
needs to end twingis's core belief is
00:12:02
that protecting your family comes first
00:12:04
and the other guy's belief is that space
00:12:07
god is real and he will save us glad we
00:12:10
cleared that up ready to move on just
00:12:13
kidding this sucks my method involves
00:12:15
giving characters in a story
00:12:17
perspectives on a single theme but each
00:12:20
of these characters is dealing with
00:12:22
their own theme so if you were doing my
00:12:24
method you need to create a Supporting
00:12:26
Cast around each of these three
00:12:28
principal characters twingis would need
00:12:30
a supporting character just for twingis
00:12:32
who doesn't see the value of family and
00:12:34
so on and so forth and then you don't
00:12:37
really have one story anymore you have
00:12:39
three but hold on what if you could
00:12:40
arrange the beliefs so that each
00:12:42
character has a different orientation on
00:12:44
each of the three themes space god
00:12:46
family and the ethics of War so
00:12:49
glingus's anti-war twingis loves war and
00:12:52
oi thinks war is a necessary evil
00:12:54
twingis puts his family first the
00:12:56
glyingus thinks family is second to the
00:12:58
mission and oh he never had a family or
00:13:01
something I don't know finally OE has
00:13:03
faith in space god glyingus is an
00:13:05
atheist and twingis believes in space
00:13:07
God but doesn't think he'll be of any
00:13:09
use this might seem clever but it's
00:13:12
messy and heavy and it was really
00:13:14
annoying to write and say and when you
00:13:16
try to create a plot to accommodate
00:13:18
these themes and introduce moral
00:13:20
quandries relating to them you're gonna
00:13:22
have a hard time one theme is better in
00:13:25
my experience and you might have to
00:13:26
fundamentally change some of your
00:13:28
characters to make them work for that
00:13:29
one one theme and when you drag your
00:13:31
personalities back on you might find
00:13:33
other contradictions in the characters
00:13:35
honestly it's just really hard creating
00:13:37
a cohesive story from a grab bag of
00:13:39
fully formed but disparate elements the
00:13:42
willingness to Kill Your Darlings as
00:13:44
they say might be crucial here if I were
00:13:46
you I would be prepared for that but
00:13:48
once again I recommend the episodic
00:13:50
format namely because you can have an
00:13:52
episode focused on one particular
00:13:54
character without the other characters
00:13:55
needing to justify their existence you
00:13:58
can literally just leave them at home if
00:14:00
you're writing a glingus episode you can
00:14:02
just focus on glyingus since the episode
00:14:05
is about glingus's relationship with his
00:14:07
father you bring in twingis for one
00:14:09
scene because twingis also has an
00:14:11
interesting relationship with his father
00:14:13
so twingis can just say his peace and
00:14:16
leave instead of just hanging around I'm
00:14:18
tired of saying these ridiculous names
00:14:20
so I'm going to talk about Adventure
00:14:21
Time pahue is top five the episode
00:14:24
starts with Finn expressing what could
00:14:25
be described as some mild to moderate
00:14:27
anxious attachment pattern and
00:14:28
concerning his relationship with one
00:14:30
Flame Princess his so-called girlfriend
00:14:32
she hands me her cell phone and the
00:14:35
theme of this episode is attachment it's
00:14:37
11 minutes of run time are solely
00:14:39
devoted to exploring that theme we
00:14:41
initially get both of our leads
00:14:42
perspectives on and Finn is all tied up
00:14:44
in knots because look I could spend
00:14:45
hours talking about attachment Theory
00:14:47
but the gist of it is that he's
00:14:48
obsessing over innocuous things like
00:14:49
whether or not his girlfriend laughed at
00:14:50
a joke and letting those observations
00:14:52
Fester into a fear that shall leave him
00:14:54
an irrational fear I might add that we
00:14:55
think stems from inconsistent nurturing
00:14:57
during the formative years of childhood
00:14:59
anyway Jake's rebuttal to Finn's anxiety
00:15:01
is this you see this cup this is
00:15:04
literally my favorite cup
00:15:06
which is really great characterization
00:15:08
but it gets better because while Finn is
00:15:10
trapped in the pillow world living an
00:15:12
entire lifetime with his pillow family
00:15:13
subconsciously learning how to put his
00:15:14
worries into perspective and overcoming
00:15:16
his anxious attachment we get some brief
00:15:18
cutaways to Jake which give us a simple
00:15:19
but absolutely brilliant deconstruction
00:15:21
of his perspective the first one shows
00:15:23
Jake retrieving the mug that he
00:15:25
previously claimed was out of sight and
00:15:26
out of mind when [ __ ] points out the
00:15:28
contradiction he awkwardly ignores it
00:15:30
that's the whole cutaway it's like 15
00:15:31
seconds to me it shows that he does have
00:15:33
some sentimentality but that he'd prefer
00:15:35
not to interesting but then in the final
00:15:38
cutaway we learn why he discloses the
00:15:40
[ __ ] that he never got a chance to get
00:15:41
attached to his own kids because they're
00:15:43
half Rainicorn genetics caused them to
00:15:45
mature immediately and go off to live
00:15:46
their own lives and he doesn't cry or go
00:15:49
on some emotional tangent he just makes
00:15:51
a face and then the Cutaway ends another
00:15:53
tiny 15 second thing and I keep bringing
00:15:56
up the length to stress that these
00:15:57
didn't need to be there like their nice
00:15:59
little act breaks to divide up the a
00:16:01
plot but the last one especially proves
00:16:03
to me that this was deliberate because
00:16:05
it comes out of nowhere it's not even
00:16:06
tied to the mug argument but there's
00:16:08
also a cutaway in between those two that
00:16:09
doesn't seem to be about Jake at all it
00:16:11
shows [ __ ] putting a wig on the mug and
00:16:13
acting like it's a person which is cool
00:16:15
because if you're dealing with the theme
00:16:16
of attachment why exclude a character
00:16:18
who might have a third perspective [ __ ]
00:16:20
personifies stuff all the time you could
00:16:22
argue he has a loose grasp on the
00:16:25
concept of sentience but then again he
00:16:27
is a robot one a minute the mug is bmo's
00:16:29
friend but then when Jake comes and
00:16:30
takes it [ __ ] doesn't seem to care and
00:16:32
this is the least important of the three
00:16:34
perspectives expressed in the episode
00:16:35
it's not really a perspective that can
00:16:37
be applied to the relationships Finn and
00:16:38
Jake are struggling with it's just a fun
00:16:40
window into how the goofy little robot
00:16:42
character sees attachments again laser
00:16:45
focusing on that theme what does each
00:16:46
character have to contribute in Finn's
00:16:48
case a lot but if the episode were about
00:16:50
a theme more relevant to Jake their
00:16:51
roles would be switched and there would
00:16:53
be no pressure to give Finn something to
00:16:55
do because of the episodic format he
00:16:57
would just be allowed to offer whatever
00:16:58
relevant input he had and otherwise
00:17:00
chillax and I want to clarify the
00:17:03
characters can grow and change in an
00:17:05
episodic story they just shouldn't be
00:17:07
growing and changing on a trajectory
00:17:08
that requires an ending to be meaningful
00:17:11
this is the model I use is it the only
00:17:13
model no obviously but since I evidently
00:17:16
have to spell it out in cran for some
00:17:18
people the video is over by the way I am
00:17:19
aware that there is no inherently
00:17:21
correct way to write stories I get a
00:17:24
comment every so often that goes like
00:17:26
um actually art is subjective and that
00:17:29
statement is true but you know what it's
00:17:31
not
00:17:33
it's not [ __ ] helpful like imagine if
00:17:35
you were writing a novel and you paid an
00:17:37
Editor to comb through your entire
00:17:38
manuscript and they handed it back to
00:17:40
you and the only note was no wrong
00:17:42
answers follow your heart LOL would you
00:17:45
gain anything from that of course not if
00:17:48
you honestly think screenwriting can be
00:17:49
approached in the same manner as
00:17:51
interpretive dance I have reason to
00:17:53
suspect you haven't attempted either but
00:17:54
go ahead open up that document and let
00:17:57
no wrong answers be your Guiding Light I
00:17:59
think you'll quickly find as I did that
00:18:01
subjectivity cannot be wielded
00:18:03
offensively it can only be wielded
00:18:05
defensively as far as I'm concerned it
00:18:07
serves no purpose Beyond deflecting
00:18:10
criticism so I don't worry about it I'd
00:18:12
rather construct theories and translate
00:18:13
them into practical skills if you're
00:18:16
into that consider subscribing to my
00:18:18
channel and if you're not into that
00:18:19
consider subscribing ironically my
00:18:22
patreon community has doubled since the
00:18:25
last video and at this point it would
00:18:26
feel disingenuous to pad out my run time
00:18:28
with three minutes of names so here's
00:18:31
the gang in scrolly format I can't thank
00:18:34
you guys enough really I'm almost at the
00:18:36
point where I can fully support myself
00:18:38
through this Venture and a lot of that
00:18:40
comes down to your generosity writing
00:18:42
consultations are back open the document
00:18:44
is linked if you don't see any slots
00:18:46
open it's because I'm fully booked
00:18:49
you're too late the jeans are already
00:18:51
ironed boy the turkey is already in the
00:18:54
oven the yogurt's already in the parfait
00:18:57
bud please do not scroll all the way to
00:18:59
2027 and send me an email telling me my
00:19:02
calendar is broken it's not this block
00:19:05
only goes through July I'm not going to
00:19:08
schedule meetings years in advance and
00:19:10
I'm also not going to be a beta reader
00:19:11
for your novel because I can't read I am
00:19:14
kind of curious though about what sorts
00:19:16
of writing problems I should tackle next
00:19:18
on this channel if you have any ideas
00:19:19
let me know either in the comments or
00:19:21
through the silly little telephone we
00:19:23
made out of two cups and a string
00:19:32
thank you
00:19:39
[Music]
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