Screenwriter Robert Gosnell ~ It's Not Complicated

It's Not Complicated

There seems to be confusion among some writers about complications within a story. What they often wind up with, as a result, is a story that is complicated.

That is not what we want.

Complications are reserved, primarily, for our protagonist. We need problems for them to solve; obstacles to overcome; issues that make them think and make difficult choices.

Complicating the story simply means making it too hard to follow. If it's too complicated, we risk losing the audience. They like to think, but they aren't in the theater to solve a Rubik's Cube.

I'm sure you've experienced it, just reading someone's novel or screenplay. If you have to keep going back and re-reading to keep up with what's going on, that's a problem, especially today, when audiences have such short attention spans.

What we do want, and this is where the confusion seems to lie, is a story that is complex, meaning a multi-dimensional story and characters. Every personality has dimension. Think about opposing characteristics as an example, or character flaws that can threaten the goal.

Everyone has an agenda. Sometimes, it's a surface agenda and sometimes it's a hidden agenda. So, how does one character's agenda either complement or conflict with another?

Story-wise, we want subplots, relationships, and actions by the characters that create positives and negatives. When does the worst thing that can happen turn out to be the best thing that can happen, and vice-versa? Does a positive action lead to a positive result for one character, but a negative result for another character?

I don't mean, a protagonist's positive result leads to a negative result for an antagonist. That's a given, and the simple choice. 

But, what happens when a positive result for one protagonist character leads to a negative result for another protagonist character? Or, if a protagonist's positive result also leads to an antagonist's positive result? The good guy thinks he's achieved a victory, not realizing that it's exactly the action the bad guy wanted him to take.

That is complexity, which creates...wait for it...conflict.

Conflict is at the core of every story, and finding every little angle in every character that creates conflict adds complexity. Basically, we don't want the story to be simple or the characters to be superficial. It's a matter of using every tool in the toolbox to add depth and dimension to the story.

~Robert

"The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of Screenplay" is currently available at:

Amazon digital and paperback |CreateSpace | Barnes & Noble |
Smashwords

Find Robert:

Website (with information on classes) | email

BIO: 

A  professional screenwriter for more than thirty years,  Robert Gosnell has produced credits in feature films, network television, syndicated television, basic cable and pay cable, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of Canada.

Robert began his career writing situation comedy as a staff writer for the ABC series Baby Makes Five.  As a freelance writer, he wrote episodes for Too Close for Comfort and the TBS comedies Safe at Home andRocky Road.  In cable, he has scripted numerous projects for the Disney Channel, including Just Perfect, a Disney Channel movie featuring  Jennie Garth. 

In 1998, he wrote the  Showtime original movie, Escape from Wildcat Canyon, which starred Dennis Weaver and won the national "Parents Choice Award." Robert's feature credits include the Chuck Norris/Louis Gosset Jr. film Firewalker, an uncredited rewrite on the motion picture Number One With A Bullet starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, and the sale of his original screenplay Kick And Kick Back to Cannon Films. Robert was also selected as a judge for the 1990 Cable Ace Awards, in the Comedy Special category.

In 1990, Robert left Hollywood for Denver, where he became active in the local independent film community. His screenplay Tiger Street was produced by the Pagoda Group of Denver and premiered on Showtime Extreme in August of 2003. In 1999, Denver’s Inferno Films produced the action film Dragon and the Hawk from his script. In 2001, Robert co-wrote the screenplay for the independent feature Siren for Las Vegas company Stage Left Productions. His feature script Juncture was produced by Front Range Films in March of 2006. 

Robert is a principal member of the Denver production company "Conspiracy Films." He is frequently an invited speaker for local writers organizations,  served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in 2002, and in 2007 was chosen to participate as a panelist for the Aspen Film Festival Short Screenplay Contest. Robert regularly presents his screenwriting class "The Elements of Screenplay," along with advanced classes and workshops, in the Denver area.

Additionally, he is a frequent contributor to this blog. 

Screenwriter Robert Gosnell ~ Rule Number One: Beware of Rules

Hi Guys, this post made me laugh but think as well.  

There are a million rules out there...read on.

In the first major screenwriting class I took, the instructor insisted that the first act of a screenplay must end on page 30. Not around page thirty, not give-or-take, but on page 30.

So, that's what I did. I ended the first act of every spec screenplay I wrote on page 30. The trouble was, sometimes my first act didn't want to end on page 30, and conforming to that was often a source of frustration.

That frustration led me to do some research. I got my hands on a few produced scripts and timed some successful films and discovered the fatal flaw of this rule. A fast-paced, 90 minute romantic comedy might have a 20 minute first act, while a longer, more involved drama with complex characters and subplots might require a 40 minute first act. It isn't determined by page length, it is determined by the story.

Another rule, one which I've heard many times, recently resurfaced in a conversation.

Voice-over narration is death!

Only amateurs do it. A script with voice-over narration will be instantly rejected. Show, don't tell!

I fact-checked that one, too. It didn't take long to find evidence to the contrary.

Okay, we don't want a screenplay that reads like a 1950's wildlife documentary, with all of the action being described off screen, but many notable films have employed voice-over narration to great effect. "To Kill A Mockingbird," "Sunset Boulevard," "Forrest Gump," "Apocalypse Now" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" all relied heavily on it, and it seems to me, those films did okay.

There are a number of hard-and-fast rules to the screenplay form,  but different methods from different instructors create new rules, some of which are debatable. Understand that they are teaching you how they write a screenplay, not necessarily how to write a screenplay.

I have a personal hard-and-fast rule of my own: Never kill the dog.

That one can likely be debunked, too, with a little research, but I can't help it. I've never forgiven Disney for Old Yeller. (LA here, neither has my husband and I refuse to watch it.)

A comic friend of mine once enlightened me with this advice:

"Bob, what's the most important rule of screenwriting?"

"I don't know, John, what is the most important rule of screenwriting?"

"Number your pages."

There's a rule you can take to the bank.

~ Robert

"The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of Screenplay" is currently available at:
Amazon digital and paperback

CreateSpace 
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Find Robert at:
Website (with information on classes)
Email

BIO: 

A  professional screenwriter for more than thirty years,  Robert Gosnell has produced credits in feature films, network television, syndicated television, basic cable and pay cable, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of Canada.

Robert began his career writing situation comedy as a staff writer for the ABC series Baby Makes Five.  As a freelance writer, he wrote episodes for Too Close for Comfort and the TBS comedies Safe at Home andRocky Road.  In cable, he has scripted numerous projects for the Disney Channel, including Just Perfect, a Disney Channel movie featuring  Jennie Garth. In 1998, he wrote the  Showtime original movie, Escape from Wildcat Canyon, which starred Dennis Weaver and won the national "Parents Choice Award." Robert's feature credits include the Chuck Norris/Louis Gosset Jr. film Firewalker, an uncredited rewrite on the motion picture Number One With A Bullet starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, and the sale of his original screenplay Kick And Kick Back to Cannon Films. Robert was also selected as a judge for the 1990 Cable Ace Awards, in the Comedy Special category.

In 1990, Robert left Hollywood for Denver, where he became active in the local independent film community. His screenplay Tiger Street was produced by the Pagoda Group of Denver and premiered on Showtime Extreme in August of 2003. In 1999, Denver’s Inferno Films produced the action film Dragon and the Hawk from his script. In 2001, Robert co-wrote the screenplay for the independent feature Siren for Las Vegas company Stage Left Productions. His feature script Juncture was produced by Front Range Films in March of 2006. 

Robert  is a principal member of the Denver production company "Conspiracy Films." He is frequently an invited speaker for local writers organizations,  served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in 2002, and in 2007 was chosen to participate as a panelist for the Aspen Film Festival Short Screenplay Contest. Robert regularly presents his screenwriting class "The Elements of Screenplay," along with advanced classes and workshops, in the Denver area.

Screenwriter Robert Gosnell ~ Your Belated Easter Egg

Your Belated Easter Egg

I try to keep this blog confined to the subject of screenwriting, but today, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to promote someone who really doesn't need promoting.

The gentleman in question is Chuck Lorre, the writer, producer and creator of numerous situation comedies; my first love in the industry. If you aren't familiar with Mr. Lorre's name, you will certainly be aware of his track record. He is the creator of such shows as "Dharma and Gregg," "Two and a Half Men," "Mom" and "The Big Bang Theory," among a host of other credits. In the world of situation comedy, Mr. Lorre is a show-runners show-runner.

At the end of his currently airing shows "Mom" and "The Big Bang Theory," Mr. Lorre leaves us a gift, called a "vanity card." The object of a vanity card is much the same as that of a blog, in that it serves to express opinions, thoughts or observations about pretty much anything. In Mr. Lorre's case, it might be industry related, personal or political. It runs from a single line of text to several paragraphs. It is sometimes insightful, sometimes ironic but always humorous.

Before I go on, a word of warning. On the political front, Mr. Lorre leans left, so if you're conservative in your politics, you may be rankled by some of his statements. His first vanity card following the election of Donald Trump consisted of one word:

"Uh-oh."

He is never offensive or mean-spirited, but he is not afraid to tell you how he feels. That's what vanity cards are for.

Finding this little Easter egg can be a challenge. It arrives when the show is over. I mean over, after the last frame has faded from the screen, and you're expecting a commercial to pop up, which it will, almost instantly. Before it does, though, Mr. Lorre's vanity card "blips" on the screen for less than a second.

You can only access the vanity card if you have a DVR and can find just the right second to freeze the frame. If you manage, though, you'll likely be rewarded with a smile.

There is an index of past vanity cards, hundreds of them, on his production company website: http://www.chucklorre.com/index.php so this isn't really a big secret. Still, they don't advertise it, either, so I'm sure many people don't know about it. I consider it a rare gem and felt the need to pay it forward.

Enjoy. 

~Robert

"The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of Screenplay" is currently available at:
Amazon digital and paperback

CreateSpace 
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Find Robert at:
Website (with information on classes)
Email

BIO: 

A  professional screenwriter for more than thirty years,  Robert Gosnell has produced credits in feature films, network television, syndicated television, basic cable and pay cable, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of Canada.

Robert began his career writing situation comedy as a staff writer for the ABC series Baby Makes Five.  As a freelance writer, he wrote episodes for Too Close for Comfort and the TBS comedies Safe at Home andRocky Road.  In cable, he has scripted numerous projects for the Disney Channel, including Just Perfect, a Disney Channel movie featuring  Jennie Garth. In 1998, he wrote the  Showtime original movie, Escape from Wildcat Canyon, which starred Dennis Weaver and won the national "Parents Choice Award." Robert's feature credits include the Chuck Norris/Louis Gosset Jr. film Firewalker, an uncredited rewrite on the motion picture Number One With A Bullet starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, and the sale of his original screenplay Kick And Kick Back to Cannon Films. Robert was also selected as a judge for the 1990 Cable Ace awards, in the Comedy Special category.

In 1990, Robert left Hollywood for Denver, where he became active in the local independent film community. His screenplay Tiger Street was produced by the Pagoda Group of Denver and premiered on Showtime Extreme in August of 2003. In 1999, Denver’s Inferno Films produced the action film Dragon and the Hawk from his script. In 2001, Robert co-wrote the screenplay for the independent feature Siren for Las Vegas company Stage Left Productions. His feature script Juncture was produced by Front Range Films in March of 2006. 

Robert  is a principal member of the Denver production company "Conspiracy Films." He is frequently an invited speaker for local writers organizations,  served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in 2002, and in 2007 was chosen to participate as a panelist for the Aspen Film Festival Short Screenplay Contest. Robert regularly presents his screenwriting class "The Elements of Screenplay," along with advanced classes and workshops, in the Denver area.