Latest / The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor / S2 Ep4 Story Structure

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S2 Ep4 Story Structure · The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor

• 0:01
  welcome to the imperfect impulse with brie o'connor hey i'm
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  your host brie o'connor
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  today we're gonna get down to structure yeah okay i said it but
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  here's the thing uh
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  i have a little bit of a different approach to structure which
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  we'll get into
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  SPEAKER_00: There are many different kinds of story structures,
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  SPEAKER_00: and you'll be able to go online and look up 2-act structures,
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  SPEAKER_00: 3-act structures,
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  SPEAKER_00: 5-act structures,
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  SPEAKER_00: save the cat,
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  SPEAKER_00: all different kinds of storytelling outlines,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they can tell you beep by beep.
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  SPEAKER_00: how a story is constructed,
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  SPEAKER_00: what is the rising action,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the inciting incident,
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  all of these bits of information that are actually really
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  helpful to know,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially if you are working on television pilots or on film scripts,
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  SPEAKER_00: because those structures are a lot tighter.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you can...
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  Go even look online and find by page two you should have this
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  happen,
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  right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Those are really helpful and you can memorize those.
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  You can keep them bookmarked on your browser so that you can
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  look them up.
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  SPEAKER_00: I do find them to be helpful.
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  What I'm about to say is not to discount the importance of
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  those things,
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  but...
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  SPEAKER_00: If you have a brain like mine,
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  SPEAKER_00: sometimes that feeling of structure can inhibit getting it on the page.
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  Now,
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  some people love having those guidelines within form there is
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  freedom.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if that helps you.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've definitely used it in looking at television scripts.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm not going to say they're never helpful.
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  SPEAKER_00: But for me, and I use this...
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  SPEAKER_00: other bit more hippy-dippy approach,
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  SPEAKER_00: not just in getting words on the page,
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  SPEAKER_00: but also in self-assessment.
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  SPEAKER_00: So here goes, if you're ready for it.
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  SPEAKER_00: I believe story structure is instinctual.
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  I think it is ingrained inside our bodies and we can tap into
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  that instinctive
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  SPEAKER_00: knowledge by just paying attention to our responses to the material.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll put it this way.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever listened to early draft work,
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  SPEAKER_00: the most important thing to notice is when do I drift?
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  SPEAKER_00: When does my attention start to
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  SPEAKER_00: get away from this story?
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  SPEAKER_00: Did I encounter a lie?
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  SPEAKER_00: Did I get ahead of this story and find myself impatient?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is it that sent me away from this story?
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  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like we inherently as human beings have a
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  a rhythm that we like to follow when it comes to live
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  performance or film.
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  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to watching bodies in front of us tell a story,
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  SPEAKER_00: we have ingrained expectations that keep our butts in the seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a little different for novels because in novels,
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  We have a lot more freedom to explore the inner life of a
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  character outside of
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  simple monologue which is really monologue or flashback which
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  is really the only
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  SPEAKER_00: tool we have in live storytelling.
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  But in a novel we have a lot of latitude to do all kinds of
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  fantastical things.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is not to say
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  SPEAKER_00: that there isn't structure inherent in novels.
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  SPEAKER_00: There absolutely is.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's just there's a little bit more flexibility inside the storytelling.
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  So let me drill down and talk a little bit more about what
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  makes our attention drift.
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  Our attention drifts when we encounter a few different
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  scenarios,
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  like I mentioned earlier.
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  SPEAKER_00: The first I'm going to go deeper into is if we,
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  SPEAKER_00: as an audience member,
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  SPEAKER_00: as a receiver,
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  SPEAKER_00: are finding ourselves ahead of the story.
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  If we're getting bogged down in exposition or in monologuing or
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  extraneous detail,
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  SPEAKER_00: we are going to drift.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go away.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're going to check out
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  SPEAKER_00: because we are trained to notice what is important.
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  We are looking for the things that are important to the story
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  that we need to pay attention to.
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  And if we can't find an important detail,
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  if it's buried in a character sort of
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  waxing rhapsodic and we can't understand why they're going on a
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  monologue and why
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  SPEAKER_00: it's important,
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  SPEAKER_00: we're going to go away from the story.
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  SPEAKER_00: You have to give us enough of a signal to say that this speech matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
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  that's why we talk a lot about having to earn monologues
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  because monologues are
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  SPEAKER_00: hard to pull off.
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  Because we like the challenge of bouncing around from character
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  to character.
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  SPEAKER_00: We like having to read between the lines.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's wonderful when you don't tell us everything.
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  SPEAKER_00: Subtext is your best friend.
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  We'll get more into subtext and circumstances in the next
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  couple of weeks.
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  SPEAKER_00: Suffice it to say,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you find yourself drifting from the story,
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  SPEAKER_00: being ahead of the story is one cause.
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  SPEAKER_00: Another thing that may take you out of the story is a sense of disbelief.
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  If you as the writer have given us a moment in which we can't
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  quite connect to the truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it can be as simple as a word.
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  SPEAKER_00: A word will set us off.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like,
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  SPEAKER_00: for example,
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  SPEAKER_00: in writer's group just last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: I had a character address someone as boy,
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  SPEAKER_00: and that took the audience out.
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  They're like,
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  oh,
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  that really stuck out in my ear,
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  and I kept thinking about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why would he call him boy?
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  SPEAKER_00: That's so insulting.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um...
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  Or I think that was too much of a risk for him to call that
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  character boy.
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  SPEAKER_00: That reveals something unsavory about this character.
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  SPEAKER_00: It didn't seem to fit with his personality.
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  So disbelief can take you out of the moment and send you on a
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  wild bunch of
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  SPEAKER_00: questions that will take you away from the narrative.
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  Another thing that will take you away from the narrative is if
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  you find yourself
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  SPEAKER_00: waiting for something to happen.
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  We are waiting for new information,
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  either a character discovering something or
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  a character coming to understand something that they didn't
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  understand before,
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  SPEAKER_00: or someone taking action somewhere,
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  SPEAKER_00: something to move the plot along.
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  SPEAKER_00: We inherently understand this as human beings.
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  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's the biggest concern when you hear someone say,
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  SPEAKER_00: That movie was just so slow.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was slow because you were waiting for something to happen.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now something happening can be a big plot point,
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  SPEAKER_00: a big turn in the narrative,
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  SPEAKER_00: an important conversation,
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  SPEAKER_00: an important discovery.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to constantly bring this up because it is the ultimate in...
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  SPEAKER_00: breaking the rules of cinema,
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  SPEAKER_00: but my dinner with Andre is,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's just two guys talking over dinner.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it is such an engaging dinner.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's an engaging conversation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't shift.
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  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't leave the table.
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  SPEAKER_00: just two guys talking about subjects that they're passionate about,
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  SPEAKER_00: that they are intellectually engaged in,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it's
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  SPEAKER_00: It's really a lovely look.
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  While a Sean have a light bulb moment and you are invested in
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  what he has suddenly
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  SPEAKER_00: understood,
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  and that spurs him to bring up a new topic or to shift the
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  conversation just subtly
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  SPEAKER_00: enough that it leads to more discovery.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're constantly...
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  SPEAKER_00: giving each other these little ping moments of intellectual engagement.
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  SPEAKER_00: It follows the rules while breaking the rules at the same time.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's proving that conversation can be interesting in and of itself.
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  SPEAKER_00: But
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  for the most part,
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  for most of us,
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  when we are expecting,
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  we are expecting shifts.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when those shifts do not happen,
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  at the moment our body is riding the wave of the story and we
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  do not reach the
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  SPEAKER_00: crest of the wave at the time we expect it,
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  SPEAKER_00: we lose our trust in the storytelling and we swim back to shore.
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  SPEAKER_00: So these are
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  SPEAKER_00: Important things to think about,
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  SPEAKER_00: not necessarily while you're writing,
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  SPEAKER_00: but you can have faith in them while you're writing.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can try to surf the story while you write.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trust that you're going to say, hey,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know what,
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  SPEAKER_00: nobody has left the room in a while,
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  SPEAKER_00: or so-and-so hasn't said anything for a while.
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  SPEAKER_00: What are they thinking?
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  SPEAKER_00: Or nobody has discovered anything new for a while.
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  SPEAKER_00: They've just been droning on and on and on.
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  SPEAKER_00: You start to get a sense of that as you're writing,
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  and you will definitely have a clear sense of it when you go
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  back and read what you
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  SPEAKER_00: wrote.
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  SPEAKER_00: Listen to your body as you assess your own material.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and check in for where you check out.
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  Wherever you check out or find yourself saying,
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  I don't want to read that part.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is where you need to place your attention.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you have a moment where you feel like I can skip that part, it's fine.
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  SPEAKER_00: It does what it needs to do.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the part you absolutely need to pay attention to.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Poke at it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Does something need to happen here?
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  SPEAKER_00: Is too much being said?
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  SPEAKER_00: Is there a moment of disbelief?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why did you want to skip over this part?
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  SPEAKER_00: It happens to all of us.
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  SPEAKER_00: But if you can trust in that sort of instinctive sense of story,
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  SPEAKER_00: you're going to find yourself moving forward a lot faster.
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  SPEAKER_00: A lot faster.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you get lost, go ahead.
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  Reach for Save the Cat or whatever structural guidelines that
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  you want to follow.
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  SPEAKER_00: But check in with your body first.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty much all I have for this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's my big advice.
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  SPEAKER_00: Pay attention.
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  SPEAKER_00: You have the meter and rhyme built into your body.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is a thing that you want from each story.
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  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you're getting it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and one more.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will credit playwright and screenwriter Webb Wilcoxon with this advice,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I think it is actually wonderful advice.
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  SPEAKER_00: is as you're writing dialogue,
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  try not to give anybody more than three sentences without
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  absolutely earning the
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  SPEAKER_00: right to speak.
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  You've got to let that tension build in order to let someone
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  say more than three
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  SPEAKER_00: sentences at a time.
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  That's a good general rule,
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  and I find that if I can do that,
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  it keeps the conversation
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  SPEAKER_00: buoyant and going back and forth.
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  SPEAKER_00: So thank you, Webb Wilcoxon, for that advice.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's it for this week on the imperfect impulse.
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  SPEAKER_00: This one was pretty quick, and I'll have some more information for you.
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  We're going to be looking at circumstances and all kinds of fun
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  story stuff in the coming weeks.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you'll come back and listen.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you find this podcast helpful, please share it with your friends.
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  SPEAKER_00: Please, we need to up our listenership.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have questions,
• 15:22
  you can send them here at The Imperfect Impulse as part of our
• 15:27
  unreliable narrator
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  SPEAKER_00: story network here on Substack.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or you can email me at artisticdirector at playfulsubstance.com.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we will see you here on The Imperfect Impulse