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

Identity Maintenance and Your Audience When framing the point of view of your characters, where they are in their life cycle and where they are geographically and societally needs to be a conscious choice. Stories help define who we are throughout our lives, but during certain periods we embrace them more. As children we love to sneak to the adult table late at night when we’re supposed to be asleep – because that’s when the good material comes out. Likewise, as the adults, finally able to have some fun – we can’t help but bring up the times we actually did (or didn’t) have a good time. As we age, we recollect stories of our youth. In midlife, we tend to rediscover the importance of affirming and rediscovering our identity, as we unwind on the porch, or walk through the neighborhood, we make up stories about our neighbors or find other ways to be nosy, like on facebook, facetime or face-plant hour (read happy hour, but we’re facing reality here). But when we’re teens and young adults, forget it – you’re not getting anything out of us and anything you or my family has done is a complete embarrassment not to be repeated until I’m at an age where I’m not cynical and emotionally constipated. At the competitive age group level, it’s more about getting ahead, and figuring out who we want to be, than sharing experiences that have shaped us thus far, until we realize that we’ve spent much of our life racing toward our fortune and it’s not what matters most. Geographically and societally, some towns and communities and groups lend themselves to engaging through story more than others. Groups of immigrants tell stories to keep tradition alive, they set up Little Havana, Little Italy, Chinatown, Little Ethiopia – you name it. Even a film crew becomes a group that creates stories for work and life, to bond during their crazy hours. But an individual migrant or individual job transfer, may have a hard time weaving their narrative into the community they’ve joined and some struggle for a long time because they know deep down that stories are who we are and who we are is more important than what we do. This is sadly how many radicals are recruited; by preying on individuals at a vulnerable point in their lifecycle, to become part of a group. All of this back story shapes the story you tell, the characters within them and most importantly the reception or rejection of them. Think about your setting and genre, is it a BARBERSHOP/FRONTPORCH where gossip and ridonkulous shape your plot and you have to laugh at it? Or is it a SPOTLIGHT where one group (NEWSPAPER JOURNALISTS in a somewhat competitive life phase), investigates another group (RELIGIOUS EGO RUN AMOK who feels they are above everyone)? The severity of this story could only be a drama. Going back to the face bit – Look at THE SOCIAL NETWORK, and how the main character lived among the college crowd as an outcast and his solution was to create an online resource – a new crowd – which alienated him even more. The character in the film was really just trying to find a community to fit in – BUT he was in that age group of the emotionally constipated. (With the added irony of course being the real life group created where people go to share stories). When shaping story, think geographically and zoom into society, then into the character and groups of people – and tie it to your perceived audience via genre and subtext. We will NEVER run out of stories because there is always another life cycle starting. Some will harken back and others will look forward, empires will crumble, societies will cease, but new groups are formed and in order for all of us to have a frame of reference, we join in story and everyone's is different. Think about your family group, your neighborhood, your alumni, how would (or did) they react collectively and individually to an event or craze? How could that be applied to your story? If you truly don’t have a frame of reference, the online world, including this one, is an orchard ripe for the picking. Go to a forum here, or search a hashtag and find a group on facebook and twitter that applies to that hashtag -- read the group’s page of threads – this is our modern day fodder of the campfire, porch, barbershop, newsroom… and this is where all the characters hang out. It’s no wonder studios now weigh new releases by the amount of social chatter, this is also where your audience is. Be a part of the story of your story and the story of this community by engaging and doing a little identity maintenance.