Last Saturday and Sunday, I participated in a workshop given by Michael Hauge. He’s a script consultant for Hollywood movies. He’s also endorsed by actor Will Smith. The workshop was AWESOME! Michael went over different aspects that needed to be present in movies in order for them to be engaging and successful. These same elements can also be applied to novels. I felt the heart of the workshop was when he was talking about characters. In order for your story to be engaging, your character has to have a wound. A wound is a terrible emotional experience that affects the character. In movies, SOMETIMES, the wound is symbolized by something physical, like, you might have scars from being abused as a child. But this wound, well, it makes the characters suffer emotionally.
Characters don’t want the world to see them as they really are, their essence. Every character has to have an identity, the identity is the way they appear to others – their essence is their hidden side, the side that REALLY shows who they are. The world seldom sees the essence of the character, except, perhaps, in bits and pieces. The whole point is to have the character living in their essence, their true self, by the end of the story.
I’m paraphrasing and leaving a lot of stuff out, but, for me, the essence/identity was the most important point made during the workshop. He also used movies as examples of good story telling. We watched clips of different movies and we were told to watch the following movies before the workshop: Titanic, Shrek, Good Will Hunting, Sleepless In Seattle and The King’s Speech. I’ll be posting reviews for some of these for my Saturday Matinees in the near future.
So, if you need a guest speaker for your writers’ group, I highly recommend Michael Hauge. Oh, I also purchased his book, Writing Screenplays That Sell. I think some of his advice may help me with my writing.
