Film Courage: How do you help writers find the emotional spine of their story?
Pat Verducci, Writing Coach, Teacher and Mentor: That's a great question. The emotional spine is
the most important thing. It is the most important thing and oftentimes it's one of the last things
that becomes really clear because sometimes you have to write through a bunch of stuff to actually
realize what the emotional spine is of your story but one way that I work with writers on finding
their the emotional spine of their story is by using the hero's journey and the reason I actually
like that story model is I think it's the deepest kind of psychological model and it really is
about fear and facing whatever darkness we have in ourselves you know in pursuing what we want and so
what I do with writers when they're you know sometimes writers have a really great story but
I'm like what do they want what's the emotional growth like what's their flaw what's their problem
we actually do kind of talk through this idea of the hero's journey and often what's missing is
like a fear like some people write main characters that are like perfect
like they're just good people and they always do the right thing and
it's like after a while it's kind of like wow the secondary characters are really fun and
interesting and your main character is just kind of like dull you know and so how do you take some
of that juice that you've given your secondary characters and really create a main character
who's complicated and flawed you know and it's so good to have a character that has a flaw because
then they make mistakes which creates more conflict and then they do things out of fear
which allows us to understand them more deeply you know and create structure so which creates
structure for us so so what I do is we sort of talk through okay what is your character afraid of
like what is their emotional need let's say it's love and connection and let's just say they're
afraid of being rejected just to pick them a really simple example right and so I encourage
writers to think about why are they afraid of being rejected like what happened to them
what happened to them and to actually write that scene even if it's not going to be in the
movie like what is the scene where they were rejected in some really primal deep way then
they are grounded in that character's backstory and they don't have to do a
flashback but everything they write is going to be infused with that thing that happened to them
and it's going to infuse the way that they interact with the world and how their fear gets
triggered right and so a great character let's say let's say they got rejected in their past and
they're going along in their life and they want love but they don't have it
and the call to adventure is oh my god that person that's my person but they refuse the call because
they're too afraid of being rejected right again so we're getting internal conflict
and then maybe I can do it this time maybe I can actually put myself out there so they talk
to their friends or they get some guidance from somebody you know and like in the meeting the
mentor section of the hero's journey and they they realize like if I do if I if I do this then maybe
i'll i'll be able to be with that person and so they decide to go for it and they commit to like
I'm gonna I'm gonna make that person love me you know and they set off on their quest and
now we're in act two and they go for their goal and there's people who are helping them like yeah
yeah he really is really into you let's do this you know and someone people are trying to stop
stop her I'm just gonna say it's a she at this point you know like
you're not his type he likes this other girl like putting that fear so that that fear is
externalized through a character that can press on that character in the story and but they really
want that person so bad and so they keep moving forward and the middle of act two in the hero's
journey is called approach to the inmost cave and the way to think about your story in this section
is that in the cave is the treasure which is that person that she wants to fall in love with her
right and she really wants that person really badly but the cave is made up of her fear
because she wants him she's she's going to go for him but as she's going for him
she gets more and more vulnerable and so her emotions get triggered
and she's afraid and maybe you know a lot of times in a romantic comedy
or a romance story you know the midpoint in act 2 is a kiss or some kind of intimate connection and
that triggers let's just say for our character that we just made up right now that triggers her
fear like oh my god I'm so she pushes away again to protect herself and the other person's like
wait what's going on I thought we and she's you know and then she she does something even more
sort of out of her fear and now she's at the end of act two she's completely alone she's blown it
and she's failed and that person is with someone else and she's never ever gonna have that person
love her okay but then maybe the mentor comes in or maybe she discovers something
that allows her to believe she has a chance one more chance and so she decides I'm going to try
to get him one more time and that launches her into act three and then there's that race you
know or she's trying to get to the person whatever and in that scene she has to face
her fear like like you know the classic cliche version of this is like she's running
to the airport oh my god he's leaving on a play she gets there and there goes the plane he's gone
right so that s that death of her dream at the end of act two where she failed
is reenacted once more and it's like oh my god she's not going to get what she wants
but then she turns and there he is he didn't get on the plane or he goes on the plane and he leaves
and in a scene that happens after that they meet again by accident or something and she tells him
how she feels and she opens herself up and she's completely vulnerable which is her growth and
her transformation and because she's grown and because she's revealed her true feelings
he's like hell yeah i'll be with you and she gets what she wants so the hero's journey by creating
this idea of the fear in in the character and actually grounding it in a real thing
that's something you can play with in the story to create emotional growth for the main character
and another way that I like to think about creating emotional structure for the for the
character in the story is that you know how are they going to change and this may be a Richard
Walter [Screenwriting Chair at UCLA and author] thing again I don't know if I'm pulling this from
Richard I probably am but he I think in his book he talks about this idea of like a bow and arrow
and if you're let's just say you know at the end of this movie that you're writing
that she's gonna stand before him and say how much she loves him and be really vulnerable
so that's the that's where the arrow lands right so in creating the arc the emotional arc you want
to pull that that arrow back as far away from that as you can so that there it looks like there's
no way she can ever be vulnerable with anybody okay so that you're you're creating these this
polarity in the story of how who she is at the beginning what her belief system is about herself
and the world and then how it changes at the end and then you're kind of building the emotional
journey between those two poles so that's another way to think about creating emotional structure
you know as you were speaking I it was taking me back to 16 candles oh my god so I mean I realize
I’m going back a few years but I'm so I'm thinking of the Molly Ringwald character yes and she's
feeling left out because her sister's wedding right yeah and and everybody's busy yes and then
she has the crush on Jake Jake right yeah you all remember jake and he's got like sort of
the cheerleader girlfriend and in her mind he's totally unattainable but he was perfect right and
so she's at the dance and then she gets sort of this unwanted attention but it's part mentor right
the the one and forgive me it was Anthony Michael Hall yes okay yeah and and he was awesome in the
film and he's kind of a mentor but he's also trying to pick her up yeah yeah and and so you
know and then yeah we don't want to spoil it even though the movie is 30 plus years okay all right
it's it's been it's been a little yeah but so then there's the moment where there he is yes and yeah
it's the awkward and I forget he's got his car he probably has like this or whatever yeah yeah and
so and then they have the weird conversation and you know yeah so I'm thinking of I'm thinking of
that that's exactly how yeah the all is lost right at the end of act two we have it where
you know the the person is with someone else and then the character has to kind of relive it in
the climax again right and that character of Jake it's so interesting because I watched that movie a
few months ago his character is so problematic oh is he oh yeah I mean it's but it's fascinating to
watch it from 2021 back and and going oh yeah we thought that was okay or whatever you know a lot
of the stuff that happens in that movie but that's exactly what I'm talking about that emotional
structure of like there he is you know and yeah and sometimes the way that that emotional growth
happens in the climax is also you know like the the harrow is sort of in the climax it looks like
they're they're they're not going to get what they want again you know that person's gone or whatever
but because of what they've learned on the journey they do something emotionally they
never could have done at the beginning of the movie and because they do it in that
moment they actually get what they want and they might not get it in the want
in the way that they wanted or thought they would get it back then but it's it could be
in a new way that is actually even better than the way they thought they were going to get it.
Question For The Viewers: What did you like about this video?