The Central Question Part 2

central-question-chart

I was reasonably sure Josh’s question would get a lot of play and it certainly did… Time to throw a little more fuel on the fire.

I think we’ve comfortably established that the central question is capable of change.

Cool.

Why does it change? When does it change? Think about it… Methinks it’s reasonable to assume that the central question changes because the want or desire of the Protagonist changes. And WHEN the Protagonist’s want or desire changes, that can and often does change the central question of the story.

There, I said it twice.

There’s still something we’ve not yet discussed that is definitely worth discussing as part of the central question.

The Protagonist’s overall want or desire…

In the previous post, we more or less danced around the Protagonist’s immediate want or desire and how it changes and when it changes, so MIGHT the central question.

In what I consider some of the best stories and movies, the central question does keep changing… The Protagonist searches for an answer and in conducting that search, discovers his or her overall want or desire. They more or less SHED the immediate want or desire as they make their way on their journey into the new world and as they explore and learn what they need to learn in the new world, their immediate want or desire develops and grows to an overall want or desire that drives them through the rest of the story or movie.

This is another reason why we want to keep all these changing central questions related… The overall want or desire is usually directly related to the story’s theme — i.e., the overall want or desire that divulges your truth… One of life’s questions you want this story and movie to explore.

And whether you have a story or movie with a Protagonist that doesn’t actually transform but transforms the story OR a Protagonist that does in fact transform — this works very nicely. Even with Protagonists that do not necessarily arc — per se — we still usually see their noble philosophy become even stronger than it was in the beginning. That’s growth — and to me, that’s still a KIND OF CHANGE they go through.

Whew…

No emails, please… LOL.

But with stories and movies containing Protagonists that DO undergo a , this works even better. For lack of a better phrase — a kind of internal structure for your Protagonist if you will.

A requirement? Not at all. But does it make for a great story? Of course, as long as it’s done correctly.

At some point, the new and now defined overall desire can be your Protagonist’s . Not only does it offer him or her the ability and opportunity to resolve the story — whether he or she succeeds or not — it brings up theme and affords us the opportunity to ponder the question and or truth you want to let us in on.

It’s almost as if our Protagonist begins our story bleeding profusely…

Without stopping the bleeding, he or she will die (NOT change enough to resolve the story).

Each wound (if more than one) being one of his or her flaws… They move through the story trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding so they can heal and be whole again (change) — achieve their goal — ANSWER THE CENTRAL QUESTION.

Just thought I’d throw that in…

Unk

July 24, 2008 | Filed Under Questions

78 Comments 

The Central Question

central-question

More questions… But to be precise, THE CENTRAL QUESTION. Also sometimes referred to as THE CENTRAL DRAMATIC QUESTION.

Hey Obi-Wan…

When you get settled down and whatnot, got coffee and feel like it, would you mind a few more elaborating words on THE CENTRAL QUESTION… either email or on the dear old blog - I was surfing through there, but maybe I missed it… but it’d be cool to hear anything more you have to say on it…

I’m probably overcomplicating it in my head, I’m sure… When I break it down, I see it as basically related to the call to action… once the hero accepts the call, the question is will he / she succeed at whatever the call requires… will Frodo return the ring to the pit, will Marlin find Nemo, will Angelina take her shirt off (oops, different question, perhaps more central to my viewing habits than it is to any movie story she participates in)… etc.

Just curious, what would you see as the central question of TRAINING DAY, is it, will the rookie survive training day?

Anyways, no rush, boss… just muse when it hits you.

The Central Question is like a lot of screenwriting elements… We can make it as complicated as we want.

Or not.

The first thing we should probably get out of the way is that normally, the central question poses itself somewhere in the first Act. Does it have to be in the first act? Nope… But if yours isn’t in the first Act of your screenplay, you better keep me glued to my seat with something while you make me wait for it to reveal itself. And that something needs to be related to the story to keep me glued. Don’t just toss some spaghetti up against the wall to keep me interested UNLESS it really has something to do with the story.

I’ve seen the central question CREATED in a myriad of ways in even more than a myriad amount of movies. In stories and movies where ye old Protagonist doesn’t really have a character arc — rather — they are used as elements of change i.e., they don’t really change or arc themselves but they try to change something major that’s happening in the story — usually something being done by the antagonist or antagonistic forces. In a lot of these kinds of stories and movies, the central question is pretty simple. Will the protagonist defeat the antagonist and bring about the necessary change to set the world back in balance? Not in balance like it was before but just a little better than it was before that nasty old antagonist was working his or her plan.

In most of these kinds of stories and films, the central question evolves from the inciting incident and once the inciting incident occurs, hopefully both the reader of the screenplay and the audience of the story is immediately asking themselves a couple of questions:

1) What does the protagonist want?
2) What or who is gonna try and stop him or her from getting what he or she wants?

Together, these two questions normally infer the story’s and once a reader or audience member’s gotta decent understanding of a story or movie’s premise — once again, the subconscious kicks into high-gear makes the central question clear:

Will the protagonist stop the antagonist?

In stories and movies where the protagonist definitely transforms, the central question can be a little trickier… Some stories and movies like to use the inciting incident to thrust the protagonist on his or her journey and this almost always brings up the central question of:

Will the protagonist resolve whatever the inciting incident disrupted in his or her ordinary world? Of course this isn’t REALLY the central question is it?

Nope.

Because the protagonist will journey away from his or her ordinary world — pick up knowledge along the way — maybe even a friend or two that depart some of their knowledge — this begins the element of change within the protagonist.

They’re absorbing all this new knowledge and very much like a caterpiller in a cocoon undergoing physical change to emerge as a beautiful butterfly, the protagonist discovers his or her TRUE GOAL. The want or desire that evolved from the inciting incident is no longer the real central question. Now the central question is will the protagonist now become the beautiful butterfly? And in becoming so, will he or she ALSO defeat the antagonist or the antagonistic forces in play?

Maybe — maybe not.

Another way to present the central question is simply by creating the … Remember, we’re not talking about the best of the best. Not the best cop. Not the best private investigator. Not the best attorney. We’re talking . The very best representation of that KIND OF CHARACTER.

If it’s a cop on the take, make the cop the quintessential cop on the take.

If it’s an attorney who only defends scumbags, make the attorney the quintessential attorney who only defends scumbags.

By creating a quintessential character — we — meaning we who will read your screenplay and or hopefully watch your movie, will automatically ask ourselves if this quintessential character is going to REMAIN the same. If you go with your character, thereby making him or her quintessential, we will almost always subconsciously ask ourselves these two questions:

1) How did this character come to be this way?
2) Will this character stay this way?

Whereas the first question is simply a question that we will wonder about but the second question can easily become the new central question of this story i.e., now assists in creating the central question of your story.

A lot of stories and movies try to make THEME the central question of the story. Nothing wrong with that at all especially if your theme explores one or more of life’s many unanswered questions.

The problem?

Making the central question important enough, dramatic enough, compelling enough to hold our interest through to the end and to ME, that’s the hardest part of getting the central question RIGHT.

Now let’s DISCUSS…

Unk

July 20, 2008 | Filed Under Questions

60 Comments 

Is imagination natural talent?

imagination

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Got an email today that I think could benefit some readers… Again, I won’t mention who sent it but it just hit me as a really good question that I think we all have from time to time… Maybe even day after day. LOL.

Here it is…

Unk,

I know you’ve addressed this in the past on the website, but I still have some unanswered questions and I need input from someone who knows what the fuck they’re talking about.

Here’s the deal, I am a soon to be 35 year old with a. full time job, a wife and two kids, and a soul sapping mortgage payment on a house in the ‘location withheld’ area. I realize that these things severely handicap me with regard to becoming a succesful screenwriter. So, although I enjoy the shit out of writing screenplays, I need to know if I’m any good at it. I don’t want to put all of this time and effort into a “hobby” if it can’t lead me to something bigger and better than my current career in the fabulous world of insurance. My conclusion, after reading books and articles and listening to professional screenwriters, is that they all seem to agree that one must have a certain level of natural talent to be good at this. Makes sense to me. What I can’t figure out is how to tell, without waiting several years whether or not I possess that certain level of natural talent.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

A Reader (he gave his name but I don’t out anyone without their permission)

P.S. - sorry for sounding like a whiney bitch.

Here’s what I wrote…

Reader,

I think a certain amount of natural talent certainly helps get someone there FASTER but I don’t necessarily think that it’s a requirement.

I’ll trade IMAGINATION for natural talent any fucking day of the week. I’ve seen some naturally talented writers write some amazingly derivative screenplays. The natural talent was for structure, maybe some dialogue, formatting, and basically writing a coherent script.

Believe me when I tell you that not too many people seem to be able to do that.

But in the end, the scripts were too much like something else that’s already been done.

And sometimes, it takes a hell of a lot of KNOWLEDGE and even some experience for the natural talent to start flowing… I know that when I FINALLY felt (nobody told me) that I had conquered structure, my natural talent multiplied like crazy and the first script I wrote after simply FEELING like I understood structure, sold less than a month after I wrote it.

I’m now working on two more that I’ve sold via pitches…

I’d like to think that I have some natural talent but I assure you that in the beginning, the natural talent usually gets in the way… LOL. Too much cleverness. Too much self-indulgence. Too much writing outside the lines.

Learn the mechanics through and through and I personally THINK that doing that will set the natural talent FREE.

And like I said, most screenwriting books and blogs never really talk about the most important thing a screenwriter needs…

IMAGINATION.

Without a good supply of imagination, derivation always seems to lead the way.

Unk

May 27, 2008 | Filed Under Questions, Screenwriting

32 Comments