Tony DuShane, Writer/Podcaster/Teacher: What would be the greatest job in the world that you could
ever have and think of anything, anything at all. What would you like to do for eight hours a day?
Film Courage: How do you define story and how do you teach it to students and clients?
Tony: We tell stories all the time even as I’m talking to you I’m telling stories
I'm bringing characters in. We are made to tell stories. We are made to tell stories about what
our aunt did that Oh my goodness, she's crazy. She's out of her mind. What she did
and so we're story building constantly just even if we don't know it. That's when we go okay so
how do we craft it? That's when I talk about character and plot. Let's talk about a character
okay. What does this character do? Let's talk about plot. I do a free writing workshop
for the library once a month and so it's one of my favorite things to do because I get nobody I know
in there it's just like all of a sudden I have all these eyeballs looking at me going Teach us
how to write a story and sometimes they have a lot of experience and sometimes it's the first
time they've ever even thought of being a writer and so right away I just talk about character and
plot and the what drives me nuts about there's monumental catalog of books out there 500 pages
how to create a plot into screenplay 500 pages character work and throw all those out
there's not it is the we can't be bogged down by this intellectual this is how it is in black blank
blank blank blank it is good to read those books I mean I'm a fan of Joseph Campbell I'm a fan of
I I'm a geek about storytelling but as far as as far as it's concerned just start writing and just
have a character and just give them a goal and then just get in the way of the goal and just
see what happens and then what I do is I do free writing so I'll do a free writing exercise so I'll
just put that I'll have them do a free write and then they usually don't know that there's a second
and third part I'll throw in the plot twist for them and and then they're and then they they've
they create kind of full-fledged stories within 30 minutes and there's a beauty to that it's
it's there's a beauty to having a time limit and then just going what you all wrote crap everything
you wrote is problematic and awful I can't wait till you bore me with your story because what you
wrote is you it took you 30 minutes there's people that write for years to write a good
short story so let's let's see what happens and usually they're all very interesting they're it's
way more interesting than anyone would ever think and so that's that's kind of how I wanted I want
people to just jump into it and write a story in 30 minutes and then kind of walk away and go
I can do it and this is like yeah you can but you kind of got to do it every day
and it's got to be a practice like anyone could anyone could do yoga they might but
you're not going to go do a handstand on the first day if you've never done yoga in your life
you got to come and practice every day you got to teach your body so when you're writing you got to
teach your mind teach your mind that you're coming to the page you're coming to the page
then your mind starts to go oh crap we're coming to the page I better come up with something so
yeah can you give me an example of let's suppose what a free writing sort of assignment the in
five minutes Karen I need you to and and you you would have me write something out what would it
be so what what I so here's an assignment that I get that I give is I asked I would say Karen
what what would be the greatest job in the world that you could ever have and think of anything
anything at all what would you like to do for eight hours a day and then I would hear what
you would like to do for eight hours a day and I'd be like great on this scenario you're going to get
50 million dollars a year to have this job but you only have one more you've been through eight
interviews they want you you have one more interview so you need to you need to drive
to the interview but when you as you're driving to the interview you're gonna get a car accident
and someone's going to cut you off and so right and I would tell you to write that
write that scene you got the last interview for the greatest job in the world for all the
money you could ever want but this car cut you off and that would be the beginning of
that writing exercise and then the plot twist yeah everyone write it out and usually it's just like
that that just I'm gonna cool and oh and it's just great they like really get into it because
as they find something they're passionate about the character it's we've created the character
the character has a passion and the character has a goal and then after that that limit I go okay
great now you're now your character's at the interview and they find out that the person they
got in the car accident with is the person that's interviewing them now how does that play out and
that's when it's just like because they weren't thinking of that there and so then they they're
like oh how do we how do we resolve this huge problem now usually that has been a very
contentious scene is now the person that they need so it's a lot of fun and then after that
my big question is that the last sentence is do they get the job or do they not get the job
and usually it's 50 50. usually people find a way around it people it's
so that would be that that would be one of the the one of the one of the lessons I use a lot to
get someone to write and that would be about 30 minutes so I'd have them right about 10 minutes
just really dive into the anger of the scene ten minutes of resolution and then five minutes after
that so excellent that sounds fun yeah I know sometimes the beauty of being in a writing class
is just hearing the other people it's not it's not so much getting critique on your own yeah and in
that situation there's no critique at all because it's just re it's just reading it oh I see okay so
and and for the most part everyone is laughing at every story because they're so good and it's and
people get really ten like i've had people who are like that is the first time I have ever read
anything i've written in front of everybody it happens more than not
and and I'm like were you expecting that reaction they're like no and I'm like
you got story to tell so make a decision you're going to join us in hell
what is it laugh with the sinners or cry with the saints
Virginia come out [Only The Good Die Young by Bill Joel] yeah I don't know why I'm singing I
shouldn't be singing why are you allowing me to do this no no but I village I would join in if I knew
it I got to watch Mystic Pizza I got to listen to Billy Joel if we were to have a Tony DuShane
part writing process to a story what would that be I don't know why I'm drawing a blank a pen paper
yeah a pen paper good cup of coffee or whatever or whatever drink
and a desk or even a chair just somewhere and whether you're disturbed or not disturbed I
think something that happened with is people said oh it must be great for you because you
can write now like you want I'm like no no no you don't get it I have to be irritated right
people are not I need to be in a cafe where people are talking loud on their cell phones people are
being awful and I have to tune that out and then I have to write I have to kind of write in the
in situations where it's kind of antagonistic where things are coming at me
and that's when I do my best writing when I'm at peace I don't do great writing
yeah yeah no the certain coffee shops are great for conflict and for oh and it
has to be boring people are like oh do you have intelligentsia I'm like oh no I'm at coffee bean
they're just like why would you go there and like because it's boring and corporate
oh so you don't want too much too much happening I don't want it to be cool
oh I see okay yeah yeah I don't want it to be hip okay so no filtered water and
yeah Arabica beans or what you've got to have more just I mean my coffee bean has great coffee
so yeah you just want something where it's not there's not hipsters coming in all the time
well yeah it's it I just I don't want the whole place to be a fashion show oh okay yeah you know
but it's a group hipsters or not I mean people look at me and people look at me and sometimes
oh great there's a hipster here I get it well sometimes what's greater are old diners I know
they're hard to find where there's someone that I'll be right with you and it's like they're
going to serve it from one of those ancient coffee pots and that's great because there's
so many characters in a place like that and it's real quiet and there's just everyone like
each person has a fascinating story like what they're doing and
yeah but there's not that many places like that anymore yeah they've been replaced.
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