Film Courage: Why is it important for writers
to understand that the idea of the story is not the whole story well?
Alan Watt, Author/Screenwriter and [Founder of L.A. Writers’ Lab]: I do always say that
to my writers is that your idea of your story is never the whole story. It's not
that the idea is incorrect, it's the the idea is incomplete all right and so being a writer,
being a storyteller, being an artist is humbling because you're not the author you're the channel.
When I'm working with writers I'm really speaking to their higher self. I'm talking,
I really believe that your subconscious is the seed of your genius and the genius is not a noun
it's a verb it's something we all have access to and so you have to let go of your idea of your
story you have to let go of your ego because as Einstein says you can't solve a problem at
the same level of consciousness that created the problem and every story begins with an apparent
dramatic problem all right but you can't solve it at the same level of consciousness that created it
so what you've got to do is you've got to you've got to let go of this idea of what the story is
in order for the truth of the story to emerge if I was to reduce or distill story structure
to three words I'd say it's desire protagonist has to want something that stakes your life and
death if I don't get blank my life will be unimaginable if Jan Brady doesn't get a date
with Tad Hamilton she will positively die all right and then surrender your protagonist has
to let go of the meaning they made out of their goal all right and then finally transformation
so desire surrender transformation I'm really a big believer in the three act structure and
so the first act is all about thesis it's the argument it's the dramatic question stated act
two is about antithesis it's the drama played out and then act three is synthesis or integration how
can we take these two seemingly disparate ideas and that collide and lead and lead us to a deeper
truth so and the two these two seemingly disparate ideas involve the dilemma so for example justice
would be powerful desire I want Justice the false belief is that when I kill my enemy justice will
be done by the end of the story your protagonist reframes their relationship to what justice means
they might discover that true justice means taking responsibility, discovering perhaps that
I'm complicit in this thing. It might be a mystery story or a thriller where they discover that in
their attempt to uncover justice they discover something about their beloved that puts get that
creates a dilemma where if I do kill my enemy I will in some way be complicit in the crime.
Film Courage: Now you say that we are not the author, we are the channel. If we take something,
let's say like Oppenheimer (an amazing film) that's based on someone's life.
How are we actually a channel when that life has already occurred?
Al: Ah it's a great question, so if you gave the Oppenheimer story to 10 writers they're going to
write 10 completely different stories right. Not completely different I mean they would
have to they would have to be some way germane to the the events of his life but the story is
not about what happens it's about the meaning we ascribe to what happens I'll give you an example
so let's let's just put Oppenheimer for aside for a second somebody asked me years ago one of my
students they said you're always talking about meaning what are you talking about I said well
I'm going to tell you a story right now I just made something up and now this is the stupid good
example I always give I'm going to make up a story I'm going to tell you exactly what happened but it
will be bereft of meaning so woman comes home says to her husband we've been married 20 years I want
a divorce husband quits his job gets on a plane flies to France goes out to a carrot Farm the
farmer rushes out hugs the man and together they open a carrot juice restaurant called carrot juice
Charlie I just told you exactly what happened doesn't mean anything so now here's the story
with meaning woman comes home says to her husband we've been married 20 years and you're still a
stranger to me the man quits his job and flies to France which is the last place he saw his father
alive when he was 8 years old he goes out to the carrot Farm where his father dropped dead of a
heart attack the farmer who was the father's best friend rushes out and hugs the son still
distraught over his inability to save the man leaving the boy orphaned together they open a
carrot juice restaurant in honor of the the boy's father whose name was Charlie and they begin the
process of healing so it's not what happens it's the meaning we ascribe to it I can't tell you how
many writers I work with that will say they'll say well my character would never do that and my
answer is always well if you have an Impulse if an idea comes to you and you dismiss it because
you think your idea is your character wouldn't do that you're actually cutting off the channel your
job as a storyteller I believe is to support what your subconscious gives you I can't tell you how
many times I see second acts start to flatline because we get so attached to our idea of how
the story ought to go that we disconnect from the truth of what the story wants to be I'll give you
another example I don't know why I always bring up It's a Wonderful Life but I don't know if you
remember the midpoint of It's a Wonderful Life but this is where Mr Potter offers George Bailey a job
now imagine for a moment that you're writing this story that would make no sense logically for the
devil for the the the the primary antagonist to offer the hero a job because they're in
direct competition with each other but here's the thing as a storyteller he doesn't offer the George
Bailey from act one a job he offers the George Bailey from the middle of act two a job this
is the midpoint this is where your protagonist experiences temptation between what they want
and what they need and George barley considers taking the job because this is how we experience
how desperately he wants to leave Bedford Falls that he would actually con consider working for
the devil so this is why story structure is so important and this is why an outline particularly
in screenwriting is essential because without an outline your idea of your story is never going
to get you to the end because you're going to be so attached to what you think should happen that
you're not going to allow yourself to truly be surprised by where the characters want to take you
if you're not allowing yourself to be a little bit embarrassed a little bit vulnerable you're going
to be protecting yourself in some way the first exercise I give my writers in the workshops is the
fear I call it the fear exercise and the exercise is simply I'm afraid to write this story because
you write for five minutes listing all your fears and I and then I asked the writer I go why do you
think we do this exercise and they always go well it's probably really helpful to become aware of
your fears so they don't rule you and I go well that's part of it for sure but here's the deeper
truth is the fears you have in writing your story are identical in nature to the fears that your
protagonist has in the story and so when you allow yourself to be vulnerable on the page
and list your fears in writing the story you are you're connecting to the truth of your story and
you're discovering how you are uniquely qualified to write this story because you're writing for
this raw vulnerable place I think sometimes we have this idea of what it means to be a good
writer but when I work with writers I stay out of the result it's all about process and I truly
believe that the story lives fully and completely within the writer I fully believe that their
subconscious is the seat of their genius so my job is to facilitate the writer in finding the story
that already lives fully and completely within in them so it's if you make the thrill of creation
its own reward you're going to you're going to start to get to something that's really exciting
and you've got to my job is to be curious it's the Socratic method it's just asking questions
and I'll say one other thing it's got to come from love it's got to come from openhearted curiosity
it can't be it can never be curiosity because I see creative teachers do this sometimes of if
it's not coming from a spirit of play like we're just in the sandbox we don't have to worry about
anything the writer is going to get self-conscious and they're going to protect themselves which is
what you're kind of talking about and it's so easy for artists were so there's something so fragile
about this process so easy for artists to get into their ego. I'll tell you a funny story Louis B.
Mayer created the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 1929 because he was afraid that
the actors were going to unionize because they the they had the stage hands build his house and
he had discovered they had just unionized he goes oh the actors are next and they're going to ruin
me because when they they unionize they're going to want a piece of the action so the Oscars were
created for strictly monetary reasons it was to save him money he saved millions of dollars
by creating the Academy Awards the Academy Awards were were he he was appealing to the actor's egos
as a way of protecting his business interest award shows when you really think about it artists don't
need awards our egos love awards but we when I was when I was a number of years ago I won something
called the Prix Printemps which is it's in France, it's best foreign novel and I remember I got
flown to Paris and it was for this thing called Festival America with all these famous authors and
I remember being in my booth and all these people are around me and I'm and I can feel myself like
I was feeling like a big shot and then I look up and there's Michael Chabon who had just won the
Pulitzer for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and I remember he had his hands in his
pockets and he was kind of looking at me with this half smile like dude what are you doing and he was
very sweet but in that moment I felt like he saw me and I was like I forgot why I was there which
was because it wasn't I wasn't being celebrated my the channel was being celebrated do you understand
what I mean and it's really dangerous for the artist not to differentiate between the channel
and the which is which is all that matters and then the the the author which or the or the ego.