Screenwriting structure Part 13 The Protagonist’s call to action dilemma
You may or may not have heard about this… Most of us have heard about the Protagonist’s “call to action” which is followed by “refusal of the call.” And I personally believe in the Protagonist’s call to action — refusal of the call but what about right before the call to action? Remember the inciting incident? Remember how it totally kicks the Protagonist off that balance beam we call his or her ordinary world?
Well right after we make him or her lose their balance and take that fall, they’re stunned. They weren’t expecting this to happen to them. Their ordinary world is now disrupted to the point that they’ve got to stand back and take a breath… They don’t know what the fuck to do…
Time to regroup.
The Protagonist is going through a call to action dilemma. No, this ain’t the big dilemma that you might want to throw at your Protagonist later on down the line… This is a small one but to me, it’s really important. In fact, I look for it in every script and guess what?
I rarely see it.
Most books and gurus never seem to mention it but don’t let that keep you from understanding it. Most scripts that I read definitely have the call to action — refusal of the call and wow… They seem to slap that right in our face, don’t they? It’s almost like the screenwriter is saying, “Look Ma, I’m using the Hero’s Journey!”
In other words — it ain’t too subtle. No it doesn’t have to be but it just happens to be one of my pet peeves.
Oh well.
The Protagonist’s call to action dilemma is your chance — early on in your story to show us how fucked up your Protagonist is… Or maybe how fucked up your Protagonist, ain’t. That all depends on you and your Protagonist.
But make no mistake, showing us how your Protagonist handles this dilemma is important stuff. It helps clarify what kind of person your protagonist is. It’s okay to show us how fucked up your Protagonist is before the call to action dilemma because now you can redeem him or her if you’ve a mind to.
Or not.
Sure, we almost always see the Protagonist refuse to get involved in a new adventure… Geez… At this point in our lives and with all these movies — haven’t we pretty much come to expect it? They can’t get involved because they’re needed at home. They can’t get involved because it’s not their job. They can’t get involved because their pee-pee hurts.
Ho hum. Fine. Then all of a sudden their pee-pee doesn’t hurt anymore OR what the hell… Even though it still hurts like a motherfucker, they’re gonna go.
Sever that predictability by concentrating a little more on the actual dilemma that the inciting incident brings to the game. Take this opportunity to let us learn more about your Protagonist. His or her real fears and flaws. Now’s the time to show us. Now’s the time to tell us if this guy or girl is worth our investment of time, popcorn, and soda.
Don’t pass it up.
Unk
Screenwriting structure Part 12 The Inciting Incident
Been awhile hasn’t it? LOL. I just haven’t had time to write anything but that’s okay, right? I’m knee-deep in my own shit right now and today… Sunday of all days, I really need to get some more work done and you know… The more I look at it, the less I wanna work on it.
So my procrastination turns into another structure post. I had another screenwriting structure post just about completed but it’s now gone. That’s what I get for working on it ahead of time… LOL.
No more.
Winging it has always worked best for me anyway… I type all my blog posts up in a little piece of software called BlogDesk and it’s always performed flawlessly till today… Today it wouldn’t run. Something about Microsoft’s DHTML editor needing repair. So like any good Windows user, I uninstalled it and then reinstalled it and guess what? No more post.
So here, I wing it.
The last post on screenwriting structure covered the first ten pages of the screenplay and your Protagonist’s ordinary world. I won’t revisit it except to say that you really should consider showing us your Protagonist’s ordinary world and make sure that ordinary world is relevant to what’s currently happening to your Protagonist. I’m always getting asked about the ordinary world and a lot of you seem to think we’re talking about the Protagonist’s everyday life and while that might be what you need to show us depending on your story — that’s really not what we’re talking about when talking about the ordinary world.
What I usually find is that a lot of screenplays get the ordinary world just a little bit wrong… Remember, the ordinary world that’s pertinent to the story. The ordinary world that your Protagonist is caught up in right now! Show us that world and it should be easier to get your story moving along.
The Inciting Incident…
Some call it the catalyst… I’m partial to inciting incident and I’ll tell you why… It’s self explanatory plain and simple. Let’s take a look at the definition of inciting and incident:
incite
–verb (used with object), -cit·ed, -cit·ing.
to stir, encourage, or urge on; stimulate or prompt to action: to incite a crowd to riot.
incident
–noun
1. an individual occurrence or event.
2. a distinct piece of action, or an episode, as in a story or play.
3. something that occurs casually in connection with something else.
4. something appertaining or attaching to something else.
5. an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, esp. involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war: border incident; international incident.
6. an embarrassing occurrence, esp. of a social nature.
–adjective
7. likely or apt to happen (usually fol. by to).
8. naturally appertaining: hardships incident to the life of an explorer.
9. conjoined or attaching, esp. as subordinate to a principal thing.
10. falling or striking on something, as light rays.
And just to let you know (in case you’re interested), I’ve discussed the inciting incident here and here awhile back so you might want to read up on these as well… Here, we’re discussing the inciting incident within the context of screenwriting structure…
I personally strive to get the inciting incident going no later than page 12. Sometimes I hit that mark — sometimes I don’t but I do most of the time. Gotta tell ya… One of the first things a producer usually does is either ask the reader when the inciting incident occurs or if they decide to read it themselves, they turn ahead through the pages to see what gets things moving and if you don’t have some inciting incident to get your Protagonist of his or her ass by page 12 — no later than page 15, don’t expect a call back about your script.
Is it formula?
Nope.
It’s form.
It hits us upside the head just a little harder these days when you give us the inciting incident within the first 12 minutes of your story. The mass audience of today isn’t really interested in sitting around waiting for a half hour for something to get your protagonist’s ass in gear. Remember, these are the fucking people sitting in the audience sending text messages and even making Goddamn phone calls. You really think these are the kinda people that wanna wait a half hour or gasp — never — for your incitiing incident?
Not on your life… In fact, you may want to consider writing your inciting incident so that these rude sons-a-bitches decide to turn those fucking cell phones off till the end of your film.
Some artistes might want to argue this cold hard fact… Don’t bother arguing about it with me. Not interested.
My two previous posts above pretty much spell out what the inciting incident is… Not a whole lot more information I can add… The big thing to remember is that you need an event to happen to your protagonist that causes him or her to eventually make the decision to leave the safety of their ordinary world and remember… They won’t want to leave. They will probably try to figure out a way not to leave but eventually, they acquiesce to the fact that they gotta go on a new journey to resolve whatever conflict the inciting incident just caused.
Make note that you’ve actually got quite a bit of leeway with the inciting incident…
Try to come up with an inciting incident that we’ve not seen before… Astonish us. Grab our attention so that we lean forward in that theater seat and invest ourselves into the rest of your story. Catch us by surprise… Don’t telegraph it to us.
Come up with an inciting incident that grabs us by the throat — something we haven’t seen before (yes, it can be done) and you’re on your way to a compelling story.
Remember… You’ve shown us your Protagonist’s ordinary world. We’ve seen how he or she behaves within that ordinary world. We understand it. We understand your Protagonist. It may not be a great place (I’m not talking location here) to be but it’s one that the Protagonist is at home in. He or she is safe within that world because they know the rules and they exist and make decisions based on the rules of that world.
The inciting incident is that unexpected banana peel your Protagonist slips on. He didn’t see it coming and neither did we. It’s that drive-by that happens for no fucking reason. It’s that grenade that makes no fucking sense.
Knock your Protagonist off her or her ass and you’ve got our attention.
Unk
Screenwriting structure Part 11 your first 10 pages and the Ordinary World
Take me to a world I’ve never seen before… Your Protagonist’s ordinary world. I want to know as much or more about his or her world than he or she does. Don’t just think you know all about your Protagonist’s ordinary world. Just because you’ve seen a few movies with a similar ordinary world doesn’t make you an expert.
But guess what.
You’ve got to be.
How do you do that?
Good question.
Any way you can. Movies, screenplays, books, interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, and the Internet. They all work. One of the things that shine through almost immediately within the first 10 pages of a script is the authenticity of that particular story world.
Come on… If you can’t even sell me on your Protagonist’s ordinary world — how the hell are you gonna sell me on the rest of the story? Remember, this ordinary world is the world you created for us. For us to believe in. That means new rules. Not the rules of the world I left behind to read your screenplay or watch your movie… Nope. The new world that sets the stage for your story.
It doesn’t matter if your Protagonist’s ordinary world looks a lot like our world… Show us something different. Show us the world within the world. The ordinary world could be as small as a clique and as large as the universe but you’ve got to show us that world. Open it up to us. Show us the characters in that world — good and bad.
Set the stage for me so that when one of your characters does something — anything — I’m okay with it. I understand it. That’s the way things are in that world.
Get out and walk that world… That’s right, immerse yourself into that world. Your only limit is your imagination. Remember, you’re God now so it’s time to be in charge. Establish the rules and regulations of your new story world. Let us know what kinds of things can happen there — what kinds of things we can expect to happen there.
Remember this is the world that has helped form your Protagonist but obviously not all the way. Most likely, he or she is unhappy there although he or she may not even be aware of it.
Along with showing us your Protagonist’s ordinary world, you’ll also be introducing your Protagonist to us. That’s right… Within the first ten pages. I recently read a script where the screenwriter didn’t introduce the protagonist until page 22. Of course he had introduced other characters before this and to be honest, I didn’t even know this new character was the fucking protagonist until I read another 25 pages.
Fuck me.
Yeah… That’s what the writer did. He fucked me. Why? Because I invested my time and energy and generally cleared my head and hoped to my God that I was in for the story of my life.
Nope.
I think all told, I spent at least 40 minutes going back and checking to see if I fucking read it wrong. Does anyone really think anyone else is going to be interested in a screenplay like that?
Nope.
The point is that we expect you to introduce your Protagonist and stay with them so that we understand this character is the character we’re supposed to be concerned about. Speaking about your Protagonist — again, you really should consider introducing them within the first 10 pages. This introduction should be memorable. Remember, this is the character that the story revolves around. This is the character that drives the story forward — or should be driving the story forward.
You owe it to me to make the best first impression you can with your Protagonist. There should be something about your Protagonist that sets him or her apart from the other characters — lead me by the spiritual umbilical cord that I should have with your Protagonist.
Your Protagonist’s ordinary world shows us his or her current state of mind and like I said — this world could be a totally fucked up world but your Protagonist just doesn’t know it…
Yet.
Why? Because he or she has yet to enter into the new world you’ve created for them later on in the story. It’s your Protagonist’s progress and story pushing in the new world that eventually defines him or her and causes him or her to change from where they originally started from…
Their ordinary world.
This means you’ve got to do the research because you’re the one creating the ordinary world. This means you have to know more about this world than anyone. More than your Protagonist. More than the other characters and definitely more than me.
The ordinary world of your Protagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a location either… It could simply be their state of mind. It could be their world within the location depending on your story. If your story’s about fisherman, you better fucking know a hell of a lot more about that world than I do. That means absorbing as much material you can get your hands on. That means seeing if you can find a fisherman in a similar world to show you his or her world if that’s what it takes to be authentic.
Please don’t just watch movies for your research… Doing this tends to create derivation. Read books about it. Stories. Watch documentaries. Experience it if you can. The more information you gain about the world you create for us, the more real it’s going to be to us.
And that’s what you want.
You desperately want that because doing that helps sell me on getting on board with your Protagonist. Show me a great Protagonist’s ordinary world and introduce that Protagonist to me in a way that really impresses — makes me sit up and take notice — and I’m well on my way to investing the rest of my soul into your story.
And that’s what you want.
When you introduce your Protagonist to me — shock me. Make it edgy. Make it outrageous. Make it mysterious. Make it cool. Make it extreme. Try to have your Protagonist do something we’ve never seen before as part of his or her introduction.
Maybe your Protagonist’s introduction shows us what’s lacking in their ordinary world and again, they simply don’t know it yet.
Maybe your Protagonist’s ordinary world and introduction hints at your overall theme.
Your Protagonist’s ordinary world is going to be compared to the eventual new world you push him or her into so be sure to include that contrast. The more contrast, the more eventual conflict. The more your Protagonist will have to learn to make it in the new world.
Remember, when I say ordinary world — I’m talking about that world being ordinary to your Protagonist. He or she already knows how to move within that world. It’s safe but doesn’t have to be a safe place. It’s what he or she knows. It’s what he or she is and has been used to for a while now.
Their ordinary world should not necessarily be ordinary to us. We need a baseline to compare the new world to later on and the baseline is where your Protagonist starts out from.
How much research is necessary? As much as it takes.
Another example… I read a script about a year ago about a salesman who screwed around while he was on the road. The writer spent more time showing us his family and his place of employment when in fact, this salesman really never spent time in either place. His ordinary world was being on the road and all that goes along with that yet by the time the writer showed the salesman’s real ordinary world to me, it was almost the same time as the inciting incident took place. The writer should have simply shown us the salesman leaving home to get on the road with maybe a couple of cell phone calls to his place of employment.
In other words, he failed to show me the salesman’s ordinary world and the story just never felt right. It felt out of place. It simply became a series of circumstances and events that were written specifically to exploit the genre. The end of the story was the salesman going back home where he started. I never really felt he changed… In fact, I just felt that after a few months, he’d just chalk up his series of circumstances and events to dumb luck and go back to fucking around while he was on the road.
Fuck that.
The writer missed so many great opportunities for a really great story that the entire read just pissed me off. Did the salesman go back home and change jobs so he could be with his family more?
Nope.
Did the salesman learn anything? Not really. He might have learned to be a little more picky about who he slept with but what he should have learned was not to fuck around anymore.
Nope.
Missed opportunities. Don’t miss any. Create an authentic ordinary world for your Protagonist and make sure it’s the right ordinary world for the story.
Unk
*NOTE: Here’s great example of the Protagonist’s Ordinary World: