Romantic Screenplays 101 (13 page)

Read Romantic Screenplays 101 Online

Authors: Sally J. Walker

Tags: #Reference, #Writing; Research & Publishing Guides, #Writing, #Romance, #Writing Skills, #Nonfiction

This entire chapter is going to be a kind of applications-review-analysis challenge.

From the Fundamentals and Log Line . . .

As a category or genre, a Romance is expected to be a relationship story.

Men expect to see physical responses, women expect to see commitment.
Cinematic romances must . . .
1) Be character-driven, not plot driven stories
2) Have structure of meeting, misunderstanding, separation, commitment
3) Present consistent expression of emotional impact & angst
4) Balance screen time between male & female leads
5) Incorporate subplots/minor characters/environment only impacting couple
6) Depict love scenes, not sex scenes

The most important focus at the start is to write a clarifying log line. At this point you should be able to analyze your log line and anyone else’s for the elements stated above. Coldly, clinically ask yourself “Would anyone reading this log line know it is a romance?” A log line is not meant to puzzle the reader, but to intrigue the reader and motivate that person to read the script (or watch the ultimate film).

From the 3 Approaches . . .

On-screen lovers must be seen moving through the “Twelve Steps of Intimacy” visually demonstrating trust, acceptance and permission the audience believes.

The physical signaling in the romance will be true to values of the culture and era.
Both Hero and Heroine will visually depict both Outer Identity of roles seen by the world and Inner Essence of precious internal desires shown only in private and the true lover will want the beloved because of the Essence, not the Identity.
When the Romance is the central plot, the visualization of the relationship moves up the rising tension of the Relationship Plane with crucial moments pacing the story.

The primary point of a screenplay is to deliver a story in visuals. A screen writer must smoothly carry the reader / audience along on the journey of the two people, logically and unobtrusively 1) choreographing the Twelve Steps of Intimacy and 2) depicting visual evidence of Inner Essence and Outer Identity. When deciding the romance will be the main plot, the major points of the story progression will also be the major events in the couple’s relationship. Quite simply, the relationship is the story.

From Characterization . . .

Character Profiling allows you to flesh out, understand and orchestrate your characters.

Character Profiles need to cover general history/background, personal preferences/influences, and forces driving the character in the current story.
Romantic Heroes need to be Alpha-Beta, motivated and confident yet vulnerable.
Romantic Heroines need to be Beta-Alpha, motivated toward pride and empowerment.
Every other cast member has to have a direct influence on the Hero-Heroine relationship in a romance.

Since romances are character-driven stories, profiling is a necessary evil. When approached as an exercise in discovery, profiling characters can give you insights into the motivation of subsequent logical reactions to one another. Lew Hunter pronounces “Give your characters passion and they will give you plot!” So once you have established your strong, thoughtful hero and your questing-toward-empowerment heroine in the circumstance of your log line you will logically be able to identify the cast needed to contribute to and support your story.

From “Hollywood wants Sex and Violence” & Sexual Tension in Plotting . . .

A romantic screenplay needs to deliver sex in the Twelve Steps of Intimacy, the titillation of inference, the unspoken assumptions.
Violence in a romantic screenplay should be delivered in increments of jeopardy pitting a willing main character with a worthy-of-risk goal against a high stakes threat resulting in the inference or actual harm to character well-being.
Consistently utilize the Pull-Push of sexual tension, the recognition of attraction followed immediately by the rejection of willingness to act upon it.
Pay attention to the pacing and timing of the Sexual Signaling throughout the romantic screenplay.
Avoid predictability, be consistent in character values, and be realistic while playing out your own fantasies.

By now you should have a definitive handle on how you want these two people to interact as the audience feels the pull of their attraction and the discomforts of the complications that push them apart. Your writing, your words on the page must deliver the cinematic Pull-and-Push of the relationship. Think significant jeopardy, worthy-of-risk goal, and sexual tension to prevent any possibility of encountering the-happy-people-of-the-happy-village. Yeah, you should be sick of hearing that phrase enough to avoid it at all costs! Yet, you want your characters to be empathetic enough for the reader / audience to care and unique enough keep the interest high is how they will resolve their dilemmas.

From Time-Pace, Theme & Main Plot or Subplot . . .

Carefully consider Story Time-Place and the Romantic Theme to be sure you are writing to the expectations of your audience.
A Statement of Purpose will provide you a solid guideline for writing every scene, every character, every speech as providing evidence for the point your story is trying to prove.
The four kinds of movies will dictate the amount of space and the elements of the romance you will depict: Man’s Movie, Chick Flick, G-Rated Family Fare and Box Office Hit.
The four kinds of movies require different sexual intensity and relationship focus in the romantic plot as either Main Plot or as Subplot and all are based on reader/targeted audience expectation.

The evolving romance industry has grown the various sub-genres following who come to the stories of choice with definitive expectations. A writer has to understand those expectations and meet them or fail to capture the discerning audience. Once the core story elements are clarified, the writer can formulate a Statement of Purpose that will provide the depth and diversity of human experience good writing, good storytelling requires. This is the point when a mature writer examines a gut-deep attitude about a subject and plots a story to make a point based on that attitude! The writer’s passion then overflows into the vivid writing, action, dialogue of the story’s characters. The romantic passion of the relationship story then is carefully choreographed to meet all the expectations of the kind of story that evolves.

Do you see how all of the information must be woven in to create a dynamic story, your unique story? Yes, there are basic story lines and the predictable meeting-misunderstanding-separation-commitment structure to a romance. But your how and the uniqueness that you instill into your characters will create a vivid cinematic template for all the other film industry professionals to build on!

HOW TO CLARIFY YOUR THEMATIC POINT

Never forget your screenwriting fundamentals, those concepts that will truly give you powerful characters living memorable stories! In Hollywood-speak theme translates into the spine of your story. So, pull out your Statement of Purpose. Are you still having difficulty identifying the core theme driving your story?

Consider the “1
-3-5 Concept”
of DMA (Donna Michelle Anderson,
www.movieinabox.com
) in her
THE 1-3-5 STORY STRUCTURE.
She is a story analyst or reader for the CEO’s of several well known Hollywood production companies. In other words, she writes the make-or-break coverage on submissions. Her concept is:

Insert the
one word, one issue
(the same word for all three sentences) driving the theme of the screenplay, the one word completing these statements about what is experienced by the Main Character (thus identifying that character’s internal Character Arc):

REJECT:
I don’t want ____________

EMBRACE:
I do want ____________

SACRIFICE:
I reluctantly give up _________ to make myself a better person and the world a better place.

Examples:

Tom Hanks in BIG. That character says

I don’t want “adulthood.”

I do want “adulthood.”

I will sacrifice “adulthood” so I can be a better person and the world a better place.

Any Jennifer Lopez romance . . .

I don’t want “intimacy.”

I do want “intimacy.”

I will sacrifice “intimacy” so I can be a better person and the world a better place.

Story consultant Michael Hauge recommends you complete one sentence to further clarify the driving concept behind your character’s motivation, thus your story. Complete his suggested sentence to help focus your plotting and Character Arc, wherein the Main Character says:

I’ll do whatever it takes to __, but don’t ask me to __ because that’s not me.

Do you see the correlation of theme driving the story and Character Arc that happens because of the story? Does it make you think of plot twists and turns you can create to test your Protagonist’s resolve? Does it give you ideas of where to make your character question their own motivation and perhaps change priorities?

A typical western hero statement (THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS), Nathanial says:

I’ll do anything it takes to save Cora, but not become a helpless prisoner because that’s not me.

Nathaniel’s Character Arc becomes:

I don’t want cultured society’s mores. (Rejects militia recruitment)

I do want cultured society’s mores. (Embraces Ft. William battle to be with Cora)

I will sacrifice cultured society’s mores to make me a better person and the world a better place. (Sacrifices his Alpha Male persona by tolerating label of coward for leaving Cora to Magua’s capture)

FROM PLANNING TO WRITING

The concept driving this book was to give you the fundamental tools for thinking through and planning your story. Not for a minute should you ever think that any romance writer will produce a mirror image of someone else’s story . . . if they truly allow themselves to create. Yes, we as human beings have some fundamental similarities, but each of us is unique in our experiences, in the details we have encountered. That means each of us has assimilated details that color our preferences and decisions. In that uniqueness you have an obligation to take the fundamentals found in this book and write your own very unique story.

Brainstorm What-if’s in both your character profiles and your paradigm. With an understanding of audience expectations, push the envelope. Analyze your passion for the point you want to make then go the extreme (not the predictable) route to prove that point. Yes, in a romance the couple will end up together as a committed unit, but what a challenge to get them to that point in a memorable story!

Chapter 10

Concluding Remarks

Anyone entering the creative writing game with illusions of immediate, frequent, big-money sales is delusional and wrong-minded. The more reasonable and sane goal is to learn and practice one’s craft then complete every project to best of one’s own ability for the sole purpose of getting it out of one’s mind and into the validating form of the written word. Document your imaginings for
you
, no one else. Then you let others read it and finally you research the hows of marketing. While marketing you continue to write. That is your immediate positive reinforcement of why you are alive with this talent to tell stories. What if you never sell? That doesn’t make any difference. You have gotten the abstract images from your mind into the concrete form of written words.

If the Fates smile and all things come together—right project at the right time for the right agent or producer—then you can wallow in the glory of having someone else believe in your story, your characters. Maybe you never sell another script or story. Does that matter? Not to the focused and confident Creative.

So, crawl through the preparation / planning stage then stand-up and toddle through the first draft stage, then maturely stride into the marketing stage and, hopefully one day perform an Olympic Gold jump-for-joy in the sale stage. But do so humbly, understanding that stage may only come once or twice. Like all writers, you had to crawl before you could stand and walk. You simply have to want to go through the process with the determination to thoroughly enjoy each phase.

No one but you can tell your story. Make it the best you can write and prepare yourself for the marathon journey of a lifetime!

So, go forth and write an iconic Romantic Screenplay!

-30-

APPENDIX A

36-POINT CHARACTER CHART

General

1. Name:

2. Age:

3. Height & Weight:

4. Hair:

5. Eyes:

6. Scars/Handicaps: