Script Doctor, Writing Coach, and Author Daniel Calvisi: Why do you want to tell this story,
like you have this Star Wars-esque space romp? Why
do you want to tell it? And if they don't have a good answer…
Film Courage: How does a writer give story meaning?
Dan: It probably comes down to theme and making us root for the main character, for the protagonist
or care for the characters in general theme is absolutely crucial that you define that theme
as early on as possible in your foundational elements. It's the “why are you writing this?
Why is it relevant? Why is it urgent? What is this story about? What is it communicating?”
So if that is something that is compelling and pure and relevant to our times and you're showing
it not telling us and you're not preaching a message but you're just showing drama
that explores that theme then I think you have a really good chance of giving your story meaning
do we always have to like the main character we don't always have to but that's probably a
good example if we don't like the main character if they're an anti-hero there needs to be some
meaning to the story there needs to be a reason for it to exist or there's other characters that
we really care about like in Breaking Bad, Walt [Walter White] just keeps getting worse
and worse he's turning into this monster but we do care about the surrounding characters too
I think you've said to create surprising stories how does a writer do this
that's kind of the magic sauce is how can you hit that signpost beat in the correct page range
and yet still surprise us still pull the rug out from under us I mean it's kind of
writing writing should surprise you as the story goes on good writing should surprise you should
not be predictable so I mean I think just the trick is ask yourself could the reader see this
coming is this predictable and then that's why you want to show it to friends you show it to three
friends and every one of them says okay I kind of saw that midpoint coming that twist where the
house burns down and you're like okay well I need to hide the build up to the house burning down or
maybe the house doesn't burn down maybe there's some other disaster that happens at the midpoint
but that's kind of good writing is you have to figure out how to surprise the reader and is
that something that's it's almost like chemistry between two people you can't really define why it
happens but it happens it's magic is that is that the part of the writing process that is not really
definable not teachable in some sense pretty much I mean that I think that's kind of maybe
the the number one thing is you can't teach someone how to come up with surprising compelling
story elements plot points beats you can't that can't really be taught I think it just has to be
in your nature that maybe it's that you have to have that intention because a lot of new writers
their intention is just to write something that's commercial and that can sell and so they're like
oh I'm just going to write something like X TV show or x movie but as you go on and you
get better and better you realize I need to surprise that reader and yeah I mean I can I
push my writers and my students to when I saw this coming come up with a more surprising beat there
and sometimes it takes two or three passes before they do but I I do see them making that progress
but there are those writers that it just kind of never clicks for them they're they're trying to
string together cliches rather than they don't have that fire in them to tell a unique story
well I like what you said earlier about pouring it into this mold and I think that's a great analogy
but if we broke it down again to dating it's like oh I've got this great gal you can she's
wonderful we'll we'll set up this meeting and the chemistry isn't there and you can go on all these
dates and it's not there but then you run into the right one and it is and you can't explain why
that is you can make yourself ready same thing with the story you can you can figure out all
these things I I mean there's the in indefinable X Factor what makes a story a character a scene
compelling and amazing and exciting there is an X Factor that can't be taught but I can teach you
techniques that are going to get you further and further toward writing something really
compelling I can also the first step is writer comes to me and I say give me free log lines
for three separate Concepts three separate ideas so maybe one movie and two series
and I'll tell them what jumps out at me and I'll ask them a bunch of questions like maybe
I have a I have a writer who he just has this dream he wants to write like a big
police procedural story or like a Navy Seals action thing but his other ideas are better so
we've been working on these other ideas like he has something set in the tech world and because
he works in the tech world and he lives in the Bay Area and he knows that so much better but
he's never been a Navy SEAL he's never been a cop and so every now and then I say well okay
we're working on this script we've been working on this a long time what about your next one
hit me with some more log lines and his other his ideas that aren't action and cliche the
ones that are about people and family and interesting settings and culture he's also
Asian and so I said work Asian culture into your stories as well and I kind of had to push him in
that direction it wasn't natural for him but then when he started to do it it really jumped
out and I said maybe you should explore that idea and that turned out to be a good thing
that's a great story yeah almost as if people like the concept of something or the idea of something
like a career but maybe they're not totally suited for it I don't know if it's the same with story
I think it's the same with the topic they chew topic and genre they choose so like I've had
writers come to me and like they love Sci-Fi movies and they really want to write a sci-fi
movie but they might not be the best person to write a sci-fi movie they may end up writing a
story about their family and when they grew up but that'll take a while and it'll take at least
a few weeks or a month of talking with them and having Zoom sessions and just asking them like
why do you want to tell this story like you have this Star Wars-esque space romp why do
you want to tell it and if they don't have a good answer if it's just I just like those movies well
that's not a good enough answer to spend so much time hundreds of hours on something and then risk
the rejection when you submit it and have to rewrite it for for many drafts it's a lot of
work and there is a lot of rejection involved and you have to be able to put up with that and so why
do that why commit that time and effort and toil to a story that you don't really care about.