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Finding Your Voice – Part Two

Finding Your Voice – Part Two

How to give Producers, Executives and Publishers what they say they want

If you haven’t already, check out Part One here!

In the first part of this article, Ian Kennedy wrote about how stories always show us an important aspect of life. Finding your voice as a writer involves recognizing the aspect you’re exploring and expressing it through the choices you make in your story…

This is a key tool in focusing your script – to ensure that everything that’s in it shows clear choices by the writer which each reveal different, important and often subtle features of that aspect of life which they’ve decided to explore. What choices you make, and how you present them (i.e. your style, another little-understood word that is often used by producers, execs and publishers), gives your writing its voice.

Here are some examples, they’re all just my own interpretations and summations of the stories mentioned but you’ll get the idea:

  • “It’s about how life can be brutal and cruel.” This leads us to: “GAME OF THRONES explores a vivid fantasy world that is brutal and cruel, but where you can thrive if you’re tough enough, whether you’re a man or a woman.”
  • “It’s about how life can be threatened by chaos and injustice.” This leads us to: “BATMAN battles a world where criminals and injustice threaten to turn our civilization to chaos.”
  • “It’s about how life can be determined by what’s in your heart.” This leads us to: “STAR WARS is about how even the biggest cosmic battles come down to the goodness or darkness in people’s hearts.”
  • “It’s about how life can be trapped in eternal childhood for some people.” This leads us to STEPBROTHERS, and other comedies.
  • “It’s about how having the biggest brain doesn’t always make life easier.” THE BIG BANG THEORY.
  • “It’s about how some people have special abilities or powers and have to decide how to use them right.” – Any superhero story. (Technically, Batman doesn’t have any superpowers, but hey, he’s rich and runs a huge tech-innovation company, so that’s the next best thing.)

For me, it’s both the choice of the aspect of life they want to explore, and the way that they then go on to explore it, which gives the writer their “voice”. Make a conscious choice about the aspect of life you want to explore, the many forms it takes and how you can dramatize those in a way that feels convincing (within the internal logic of your story world – even if that’s a silly or surreal one like MONTY PYTHON), and show how that aspect of life creates dilemmas and issues with important repercussions for your characters and their story world, which you can resolve in a way that shows your conclusions about these questions, and give us an answer we can go away with. As McKee explains, it could be a “This means that this”, a “This means that this, but also means this”, etc.

So for choosing your ending, this comes down to the ‘moral of the story’: your ending should reflect the message and new understanding you want us to take away from the story about life, particularly about ‘life in a world like the one we see in this story’. A message like, “in a world like this, hope always triumphs” or “in a world like this, hope is an illusion”. And you should focus your story on exploring all the features of the aspect of life you’re exploring, and bring us to a conclusion that’s both dramatically, emotionally, and intellectually satisfying conclusion which gives an answer to the big questions you’ve asked.

Script

I believe that all great writing teaches us something about the world, that we didn’t already know or hadn’t understood in this way before. That’s why we want to live out alternative lives through characters and worlds that – if we’re honest – we’d run a mile away from ever having to live as. From their struggles and dilemmas, we take back lessons that enrich and inform our lives, for the better. Even grim stories, enrich our understanding of life for the better, and help resolve us not to let our world turn out that way.

In all of this, the writer’s voice is revealed, and proves itself to be unique. So. Focus your writing on what I’ve explained here, and as you’re applying it to every passage of your work, ask yourself whether your telling of this is fully convincing. Because that’s then the main obstacle to getting greenlit, once you’ve found your voice and proven yourself as a writer.

Develop your voice as a writer with even more in-depth advice from an industry expert: check out our Elite Mentoring and script development services!

Finding Your Voice – Part Two

Finding Your Voice – Part One

How to give Producers, Executives and Publishers what they say they want

When they’re answering questions about what they’re looking for in a script or book, you’ll often hear producers, execs and publishers claiming that the vital quality they look for in writing is the unique voice of the writer. I’ve heard this one a lot, and even when asked what they mean, they’ve rarely given any kind of definition to help writers go away with confidence of what they need to do.

But I read hundreds of scripts a year, watch plenty of productions in lots of genres, and help other writers improve their work every day. So here, I think, is a useful definition of where a writer’s voice comes from in their writing, and how they can “own it” and come across as unique and commissionable.

TypewriterFirstly, it’s vital to recognize that all stories show us an aspect of life – hopefully an important or stimulating/entertaining one. (Why does nature reward us with laughter for recognizing things that are counterintuitive, ie funny? Because it’s stimulating and therefore expands our understanding of the world – which better equips us to survive and thrive in it. Comedy is not frivolous, it’s vital.)

So, recognizing the aspect of life you’re exploring in your story, can be expressed in one simple sentence:

“It’s about how life can be (funny/perverse/brutal/arbitrary/beautiful/whatever!)”

You should be able to pick a word or phrase to finish that sentence, which encapsulates the theme, tone and underlying logic of what kinds of thing happen in your story and why they happen. This is a key tool in focusing your script – to ensure that everything that’s in it shows clear choices by the writer which each reveal different, important and often subtle features of that aspect of life which they’ve decided to explore.

What choices you make, and how you present them (i.e. your style, another little-understood word that is often used by producers, execs and publishers), gives your writing its voice.

In the second part of this article, Ian looks in more depth about a writer’s voice, the moral of a story, and how to write a great ending…

Best Video Game Script winner announced – Spring 2018 Contest

Best Video Game Script winner announced – Spring 2018 Contest

We’re really pleased to announce the first winner from our Spring 2018 Contest – and the first winner for our newest category, the Best Video Game Script! Video games are a huge and growing market, and often cost as much as the biggest movies to make. Their scope and scriptwriting are often as intricate as the best movie scripts, and on a much bigger scale. We wanted to offer a new prize for video game scripts to reward writers who can see the potential of that market for writers and who can stake a claim to it. (more…)

WriteMovies new Director of French Services

WriteMovies new Director of French Services

A warm welcome to our new Director of French Services, Nicolas Bodereau!

Nicolas est un auteur/producteur français. Féru d’innovation et de nouvelles technologies, il s’intéresse également aux différentes techniques de réalisation, notamment avec les smartphones. Écrivain et poète publié, il est aussi acteur, réalisateur et producteur de court métrage.

Ayant remporté lui même une Mention Honorable lors d’un precedent concours Writemovies, Nicolas est fier d’aider à la découverte de nouveaux talents, et de permettre aux auteurs français de percer au niveau international. « Nous avons tellement de bons scénaristes en France, qu’il est grand temps de le prouver maintenant. C’est pourquoi, j’invite nos ambitieux auteurs à soumettre leurs textes, rapidement, et ce afin de multiplier les chances de succès.

C’est officiel, c’est le Printemps ! Et comme une bonne nouvelle n’arrive jamais seule, les textes en français font leur retour dans les concours, après plusieurs mois d’arrêt. Je sais que cette nouvelle va ravir beaucoup d’entre vous, car certains attendaient avec une impatience non dissimulée. Et les autres, tous les nouveaux venus ? Il faut les prévenir, je vous invite donc à diffuser la nouvelle, sur Facebook, Twitter, partout. Voilà, chers auteurs français, et francophiles du monde entier, vous pouvez à nouveau soumettre vos textes, et avec de la chance participer aux Oscars 2019, rêvez grand ! N’oubliez pas de vous inscrire ou réinscrire à la niouzlettre, afin de connaître dernières nouvelles. »

And in translation:

Nicolas BodereauNicolas is a French author and producer who innovates with new production technologies including smartphones. He works as a published poet, novel writer, actor, director and short film producer.

Having won an Honorable Mention himself from WriteMovies in the past, Nicolas is proud to be helping discover new talent and help French language writers break into the international entertainment industry: “We have so many good scriptwriters in France, and now is the perfect time to catch our eye. All ambitious writers should get their submissions in as soon as possible to get the most chances for success!”

“Springtime is there, officially ! And good news never arrives on its own, the french-speaking contests are also back, officially, after being stopped for months. And I know some of you will be really happy to read that, because they’ve just been waiting for so long. What about the others, the newbies ? Well, spread the news, I urge you to tell them the contest in french is back, on facebook, twitter, everywhere. So, dear French writers, and all around the world Francophiles, all you have to do is submit your scripts anew, and why not be a part of the Oscars 2019, dream big ! Don’t forget to subscribe or resubscribe to the newsletter, so you can have all the fresh news.”

Spring 2018 Writing Contest closes June 7!

Spring 2018 Writing Contest closes June 7!

TIME’S RUNNING OUT! It’s that special time when the contest is coming to a close and everyone’s polishing their last-minute submissions… get yours in by June 7th! Don’t forget all of the special prizes we’ve created this time…

Win $2000 and become our next success story! There are 9 winning categories, $2000 available in prize money, plus over $3000 in script development for the 3 winners, bonuses and promotion through InkTip – we promise to develop and promote them to the top of the international film industry. ENTER HERE to become our: Overall Winner – Best Studio Script – Best Indie Script – Best Short Script – Best Long Form Pilot – Best Short Form Pilot – Best Book – Best Stageplay – Best Video Game Script! Entry fees just $45-59…

And here’s what you’ll earn by winning them…!

Prizes and awards up for grabs in each category… Click on the prizes to learn more about them!

PRIZES Overall Winner Best Studio Script Best Indie Script Best Short Script Best Long Form Pilot Best Short Form Pilot Best Book Best Stageplay Best Video Game Script
$2000 Cash Prize YES
Year of script and pitching development worth $3200 YES YES YES
Elite Consulting YES
Development Notes YES YES YES YES YES YES
Studio Coverage YES YES
Judging Feedback YES YES
Confidential Studio Manual YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Inktip prizes guaranteed to winner 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Placed Winners

 

Guaranteed Pitching to Industry 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Placed Winners

 

YES YES TBC TBC TBC
Virtual Film School exclusive previews YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

ENTER HERE!

A Hollywood Pitching Whirlwind Tour, part two – make it your script next!

A Hollywood Pitching Whirlwind Tour, part two – make it your script next!

Part Two of Alex and Habib’s Hollywood pitching whirlwind tour from early May 2018… Want us to promote your script in our next our next Hollywood pitching whirlwind tour, or other pitching? We are seriously looking for 2-3 scripts for 2x Academy Nominated and 2x BAFTA winning, Habib Zargarpour to direct. If you have what we need please participate in: https://writemovies.com/spring-2018-screenwriting-contest/ now! (more…)

A Hollywood Pitching Whirlwind Tour, part two – make it your script next!

A Script Pitching Whirlwind Tour in Hollywood – and yours could be next!

Want us to promote your script in our next our next Hollywood script pitching whirlwind tour, or other pitching? We are seriously looking for 2-3 scripts for 2x Academy Nominated and 2x BAFTA winning, Habib Zargarpour to direct. If you have what we need please participate in: https://writemovies.com/spring-2018-screenwriting-contest/

WriteMovies founder and producer Alex Ross and VFX expert turned movie director, Habib Zargarpour, just went on a tour of various Hollywood production companies talking to top executives about their new project. Here’s what happened! (more…)

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