Screenwriting : Webinar - "How To Keep The Stakes High In Your Story With The Emmy-Nominated Writers Of THE HANDMAID'S TALE" by Maurice Vaughan

Thanks for sharing Maurice, this is an amazing webinar!

You're welcome, Niki. There are a lot of webinars I'm excited about watching, but this one's at the top of the list.

Will this be re-scheduled, I was due to join and then it got cancelled due to technical issues.

Stage 32 is working on re-scheduling the webinar, Greg. I got an email about it a little while ago.

Thanks, got one too. I spent my time productively working on my script, so no real issue for me. We're 8 hours ahead in London!

You're welcome. That's great. I was networking while I waited. What type of script are you working on? Feature, short, etc.

A feature, about a 12 year old girl who gets a cancer diagnosis that is ultimately fatal.

Ahh man, Greg Wong. I hope she lives even though it's fatal.

Will be rescheduling this ASAP. Thank you everyone for your patience :)

Maurice Vaughan I'm afraid it's a downer. But there is a upend twist in the end making the story bittersweet.

I like twist endings, Greg Wong. How far along are you with the script?

I thought I was about half way through, then I read Save The Cat. Now I’m rewriting the start and moving the inciting incident to page 10. So I’ve taken three steps back but the story will be better for it. I also saw Living with Bill Nighy with a Q&A and it made me realise that a story that the protagonist dies, especially near the end can carry the story forward. My B story takes over as the twist in the end requires it to conclude the story. I’m also slowly striping out dialogue and adding more description and creating more subtext to tell the story.

I used to read "Save the Cat," Greg Wong. I use some of the beats, but not all of them. "My B story takes over as the twist in the end requires it to conclude the story." If it's what's best for your story, I say do it. Scripts don't have to follow a "by the book" structure.

The B story conclusion wasn't from Save The Cat, it just made sense as the protagonist is no longer the focus, it needed the secondary character to conclude the story. The character is the love interest and he grows. His interaction with her helps him overcome his fears and he is changed but his life is poorer for losing her. But a twist at the end rounds the circle and the ending is up. (And no, she doesn't live, no deus ex machina conclusion!)

Great learning opportunity from a pair of world-class professionals.

I've heard about scripts where the protagonist died and a secondary character had to take up that role, Greg Wong. I haven't heard about many scripts like that though. That approach is definitely one way to make your script stand out, which is something writers need to keep in mind since there's so many similar scripts out there. When I outline a script, I look for different ways to make the script stand out: a unique concept, a theme that hasn't been used often, unique locations, unusual situations, etc.

When I started this script I was concerned my protagonist doesn't make it to the end. I didn't purposely intend for the protagonist to die, it's just the nature of the cancer that has an 80% mortality rate, so it had to have a basis in reality and there was no coming back from that. However, it was a choice to reference a real illness that in most cases only affects children and are almost always fatal. The stories of these children really resonated with me and I wanted to tell it and be accurate with all the details.I struggled with the story, I was worried no one would be interested in the ending and therefore the script. When I saw Living with Bill Nighy, the death of the protagonist is not the 'death' of the story as long as the setup allows a secondary character to change the value at the end. And as a bonus, if that end can be unforeseen, then even better.

I heard about "Living with Bill Nighy," Greg Wong, but I didn't get a chance to attend. Your comment gave me an idea for my script. I'm gonna try it out. Thanks!