Scratchings for storytellers

These are the notes the rest of this blog grows out of. No throat-clearing. Rules I keep relearning, written down so I stop relearning them.

Character

• Give them a want and an obstacle. That's a scene. Everything else is set dressing.
• A character is what they do under pressure, not what they say about themselves when it's cheap.
• Nobody thinks they're the villain. Write the reasons, not the label.
• Contradiction reads as depth. The bully who's gentle with one person is more real than the bully who's only ever a bully.

Dialogue

• Cut the line that explains the line. If the next line says what the look already said, you only need the look.
• People don't answer the question they were asked. They answer the one they're afraid of.
• Subtext is just want, hidden. If everyone says exactly what they mean, you've written a memo.
• Read it out loud. If you run out of breath, so will the actor.

Structure

• Lead with the schtick. The whole case for why is its own post: schticks that stick.
• A constraint is a gift. One room, one reflex, one flipped rule makes your decisions for you. The long version: single location as a pressure cooker.
• Late in, early out. Get into the scene at the last possible moment and leave before it explains itself.
• If a scene comes out and nothing downstream notices, it wasn't doing any work. Cut it.

The one underneath all of them

• Specific beats vague, every time. "He was upset" is nothing. The detail you're slightly embarrassed to include is usually the true one. Keep it.

That last one is the whole game. The rest is bookkeeping.