Film Courage: At some point thought you made the decision that you were going to write
and the books and teach courses.
When did you write tTHE 90 DAY SCREENPLAY: From Concept To Polish again?
Alan Watt, Author, Screenwriter and Founder of L.A. Writers’ Lab: The 90 Day novel came
out in 2010, the 90 Day screenplay was 2012-2013 something like that?
Film Courage: Is there a chapter in the 90 Day screenplay book that most contested?
Or people have the most questions about (one part of the process)?
Alan: I’m not really aware of anything being particularly contested?
I get a lot of people who love it.
But it is I think than a lot of the screenwriting books out there.
My perception of it is that it’s very much about process and less about results.
I think when we lose ourselves in the process the results can take care of themselves.
One of the things that I teach...that’s my cat.
I don’t know if you are picking it up?...There’s Captain.
But one of the things that I talk about is how dilemma is a source of the story.
A lot of writing books talk about the dramatic problem.
The implication with that for me and why I was resistant to a lot of the writing books
that I’ve read is that problems are solved.
They are intellectual (you solve the problem).
Dilemmas are resolved through shifts in perception.
So something that I didn’t discover this but sort of drilled down into it is that the
source of our story is our protagonist dilemma.
A dilemma is a problem that can’t be solved without creating another problem.
You know you’ve got a story when what the protagonist wants is impossible to achieve
based on their current approach or their current identity.
In other words it’s going to necessitate a shift in perception.
They are going to have to become a new person so to speak by the end of the story.
When you think about problems you think about I have a flat tire.
I call the tow truck, they solve my problem.
Not an interesting story.
But if I have a flat tire and I’m out in the desert and I call the tow truck and I’m
dying of thirst and this guy drives out to the desert and it’s the guy who is sleeping
with my wife, now I’ve got an interesting story.
Now I want to hurt the man who is here to save my life.
When you can connect to your protagonist dilemma then you’ve got something to work with.
The dilemma is the source of your story.
If you look at any great story, you’ve got a clear dilemma and when you connect to that,
then you’ve got something to work with.
So that’s one of the things that I help writers with is understanding the dilemma
but it’s more of a holistic way.
It’s not like let’s figure out your premise.
The premise is born out of the protagonist’s dilemma.
For me it’s a more organic way of working and then you start to see how plot emerges
out of the character’s struggle and I’m not talking about intellectually the dilemma
because you can’t (problems are solved) you can’t.
When you try and figure out your protagonist dilemma you get stuck.
But when you start to connect to the experience of the dilemma all sort of images and ideas
and situations start to emerge to support that.
So sometimes people call that the brainstorming part of the process.
The first part of the 90-day screenplay is just doing a lot of free writing imagining
your character or your protagonist in relationship to other characters before you start to put
a framework around it or insist on any kind of structure for it.
Film Courage: Do you think some people get very confused thinking their dilemma is their
problem and it’s not?
Like when you were talking to the prisoners [all taught writing a few times in a prison],
were they very clear about what they thought the problem was in their story?
Maybe you didn’t get into all that with them?
Al: I don’t know if I got into all that?
I can’t remember that.
But sometimes writers get confused about the difference between problem and dilemma.
And you know, problems are solved.
So like I say that’s solvable.
It’s an aspect of the dilemma.
In other words, part of the story could be that I get a flat tire and I have to get my
flat tire fixed but there’s a movement to a scene.
If a scene begins with a problem like I’ve got a flat tire and at the end of the scene
I get my flat tire fixed and nothing else happens, we don’t have a story.
What has to happen is by the end of the scene I can get my flat tire fixed but something
else happens that’s going to lead the story in a new direction.
In other words, my dilemma wasn’t the flat tire.
The dilemma is my false belief about what the flat tire means.
I don’t know if that makes sense?
Here is where writers get stuck, writers think (when you hear the term dramatic problem)
you may assume that it’s your job to figure out your character’s solution to their problem.
Einstein says you can’t solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that created
the problem.
In other words, it’s not difficult, it’s impossible.
You are never going to figure out your protagonists transformation.
So what you don’t want to do is think that your character has a clean line from the beginning
to the end of the story.
You need to understand that your protagonist is going to die at the end of Act 2.
They are going to die to their own identity.
I don’t mean they are physically going to die.
But they are going to be forced to surrender to the meaning they made out of their goal.
When Jimmy Stewart leaves Bedford Falls, then he’ll have a wonderful life.
The end of Act 2 is I’m worth more dead than alive.
So he dies to his old identity.
It’s a great moment where he jumps off of the bridge (he wants to end his life).
He wants to jump into the icy water.
Now I love this image because Clarence jumps into the icy water and so the action is the
same.
Nobody ever questions this but he jumps into save somebody else so he doesn’t die he’s
reborn and that’s the beginning of Act 3.