Screenwriting : Today's Wish and Creative Tip by Laurie Ashbourne

The Screenwriter’s Conundrum day 2 To pick up where we left off yesterday... Stating what happened isn’t storytelling. Storytelling is so much more than a retelling of events, yet screenwriters are commanded to NOT write in heavy prose, or word for word dialogue, in fact the script is usually referred to as a blueprint for the film. I ask you, when was the last time you were gripped and on the edge of your seat by reading a blueprint? Each day this week, I’ll offer a nugget that can help your screenplay build with blocks of emotion, as a good story should. Today is number 2: Find the Twist The very nature of a story is that it's about something that takes us out of the ordinary. If the audience knows what's going to happen, it's not a very interesting story… It’s crazy Aunt Catherine telling us for the hundredth time about how she met Elvis Presley because she had to pee so badly she ran into his dressing room thinking it was the ladies room. Until Uncle Fred chimes in to take the wind out her sails because all she really got was glimpse of Elvis’s ass as she was hoisted away by his bodyguards – interesting at first, but 99 times later it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. Identify the surprises in your story — the parts that fly in the face of what's expected — and set them up with a contrast: Maybe Crazy Aunt Catherine wet her pants when they denied her the King’s throne, so he in turn gave her a kiss and a pair of his famous sequined bell bottoms and sent her on her way – only when she went into the arena she was mistaken for Elvis and sent on a wild chase from fans, through the stands and across the stage where she swung from the rafters and was caught by the bodyguards who took her to her seat next to a clueless Uncle Fred, who asked if everything came out okay -- and she's been keeping it from him for the last 98 times, until now. At least then, this Thanksgiving would be a little more tolerable. Of course your twist could be something not so fantastical; set up almost like a joke; "I go to my bird's cage every morning to feed him, but this time he wasn't in there, and the door was closed… and I live alone!" My friends know that when the round is delivered and the jaw is lubricated, the words, you can’t make this shit up are soon to follow, that’s partly because I invite intrigue as way to engage in life but it’s also what I do for a living as a storyteller and that ability to tap into twists comes from observing your surroundings like a blood hound that works for the CIA. Look for inspirations for your twists in your local news and restaurants. Even though I lived in Asheville whose slogan is ‘where normal is weird’ and moved to Austin, whose slogan is ‘keep Austin weird,’ the state that has them beat by a weirdness mile is Florida, where I’ve spent a lot (way too much) time. Here, the bizarre twists that feed my imagination are commonplace – and freaky, so much so, there’s no need to put it on a bumper sticker. But, if you happen to live in a not so twisted town and need a taste of humanity’s surprising psyche to inspire your twists, check out the twitter feed @_Floridaman. Bless his twisted soul, he culls all of the weirdest state in the nation’s headlines for everyone, and sadly, they’re true. His last tweet was: Florida woman calls 911 to demand chicken wings and cigarettes… Prior to that was, Florida Man sneaks out of Drunk Driving seminar for a drink, later found stumbling around in hotel only in his underwear. What’s so twisted about that you ask? Well it turns out he was a cop and the seminar was sponsored by Mothers against drunk driving and was to give him an award. Wishing you twisted weirdness in the most inspiring way.