Screenwriting : True stories by Donnalyn Vojta

Credibility (my thoughts) has two components. They add together to give you a credibility score. Once you meet the magical number in the readers mind you have credibility.

If you have no credibility in the readers mind because you are an unknown. The burden is on the story. If you have credibility, you can have a story with no credibility. How you approach this is up to you.

Is this reader important? Do they have cash? If they are just some note giving. Assess their credibility in your eyes.

I ask myself this question all the time. It comes up quite often when telling stories with either a racial or gender component.

Donnalyn Vojta , I remember Bob McKee pointing to Sarah Connor (Terminator) monologue as a technique to make impossible plausible, one that end with “... one can go crazy thinking about this stuff.” Guess the technique would apply to make implausible plausible.

First - there is no "true" in fiction. That goes for all them "based on true event" pieces. Wanna make believable story? Know your subject. You either write of your own experiences, or do an extensive research. And don't worry of things u can't control such as coverage/contest readers...

Robert, I totally get the coffee factor. LOL. Thank you for the thoughtful response.

Sandeep, I think you solved my problem. Thank you!

Craig, that's true. In this case, I trust the reader. That's why I'm giving it so much thought.

guessing the setup doesnt sync with the payoff/conclusion? Go back to act 1 and add some foreshadowing, either verbally or visually.

Dan, you are correct. I have to do that. Thanks for the reminder. I have to take the two storylines which are almost both A stories and better intertwine them.

I wrote one that someone who read it didn't think it was plausible. I didn't tell him was based on a true story. I optioned it to John Travolta's manager/producer a long time ago. I had another producer last year say he wanted to produce it but I decided not to sell it.

Sometimes films add a modifier to the standard "Based on a True Story" in a way that acknowledges just how unbelievable it really is. Some have said things like “a surprizing amount of this actually happened”. Its answering the question did this "really" happen before its asked.

I saw one title card that said, "Yes, this really all happened." - I particularly liked that one.

Jason, I'm thinking a title card, now, because when I tried the voice-over, it changed the tone too much for my genre. I guess think about the genre, too, before deciding what exactly to do.

We did one script about Doctor Frederick Banting who discovered insulin. Half of it is fiction.

This is a problem with real life, there are sometimes coincidences that wouldn’t be believable in fiction. So your job is to make it plausible or leave it out. Is it vital to the story? If not, leave it out or change it. If it’s important, then find a way to support it, perhaps with narration or commentary from a character. What’s the tone of the story? Have you set up a world where these events fit in?

Another thought is the “one coincidence” rule. You get one coincidence to set your plot in motion… Peter Parker getting bit by a radioactive spider. But you don’t want to use a coincidence to get them out of trouble later.

Mike B., I did not know of that rule. Thank you for sharing!