Screenwriting : How Your Life Shapes Your Stories by Leonardo Ramirez 2

Hey, Leonardo Ramirez 2. You're right. The stories we tell are often pieces of ourselves. I can't think of an example off top of my head, but I use things about myself and my past in my scripts. Sometimes I don't realize until later.

I wonder if we do that from our subconscious at times, Maurice Vaughan.

Hi Leonardo, you are absolutely spot on! I totally incorporate pieces of myself into my stories, even the ones that are not about me and my life. I have noticed that subconsciously I put something from me, into every character. I write a lot from trauma but have noticed that even when it's not intentional, it's still in there

Probably so, Leonardo Ramirez 2. Is that picture from one of your projects?

Yes, Maurice Vaughan. It's from the graphic novel, "Haven of Dante" which is also a feature script.

It's a piece of us that we're pouring out Pink Matzke. Thank you so much for sharing that. What genre do you write?

Leonardo Ramirez 2 Absolutely. No one has the same experience about or through anything in life. Marriage, death, birth, travel, to put general topics, every single person lives them, sees them differently. It's strange how it comes thorough, when I see a person, or a situation, or get inspiration from "somewhere", it's the feeling of their story that matters. It tends to manifest in my stories with leading females, with mysterious backstories, conflicting present moments, and dreams that seem impossible.

Very nicely said, Juliana Philippi. No two writers are alike so the piece of our heart that we include will be pretty different from the next. There may be some common structures but there will always be a nuance that sets itself apart.

Sometimes, yes. A character will have one of my habits or use one of my phrases.

I've only done it a handful of times with intention. In INSPIRATION INC, there are two big parts of my personality that I used intentionally for my protagonist who just so happens to be an AI.

The result is... Different. The whole film turned out very much something else than intended in the very best way but now I have no idea what I've written.

But it's good! Haha. Whatever it is, it's good.

I've done a little of everything except ROM-COM so far, but mostly in the THRILLER genre

Very cool Pink Matzke. Love me some thrillers!

That's super interesting Elle Bolan - didn't think of using parts of our personality. I was thinking along the lines of experiences but you've added a new dimension. Very nice!

Oh I use experiences too! I guess I misunderstood. But yes, I do use life experience in my work. Most times it's subtle, but I like drawing on lived experiences for that authenticity factor sometimes.

I've only used my personality traits a couple times. It was actually way harder than I expected it to be.

All my characters are partly me, so it's inevitable how I shape them and their experiences. As for my own life experiences, I find a lot of what happened to me personally boring so I don't replicate any experiences on the page (though I half-joked in high school that if I took a particularly epic love triangle I was involved in and changed the names, it would win awards lol).I prefer to use my imagination and put my characters in situations I wish happened to me for the most part. Some of them I also just make really fucked up just so I don't totally fall into the idealism trap...

Yeah, there are parts of me in my stories and characters,

but I could say Daro, the AI in my story The De-Evolution Game, reflects perfectly how my mind works— constantly chasing different possibilities at once. It’s something I do even in daily life, not just in my stories.

It's still a great idea Elle Bolan. I will definitely have to try that sometime.

"if I took a particularly epic love triangle I was involved in and changed the names, it would win awards " - that's hilarious Banafsheh Esmailzadeh - especially when it comes to those high school love triangles. Oy.

That's interesting Meriem Bouziani - I think that is probably the mind of a writer you're describing. The hard part is shutting it off. When my head hits the pillow at night, I have to whisper, "Ok, that's enough. Time for night-night."

Yes, and even when you succeed in convincing it to sleep, it might keep thinking in dreams—or wake you up at 3 a.m. to discuss a new alien world. Lol Leonardo Ramirez 2

Ain't that the truth Leonardo Ramirez 2, high school haunts me for many reasons, but that love triangle was something else... doesn't help that it mutated a couple more times... lol and one might wonder how the hell I write drama so well XD

Oof...3am Meriem Bouziani. Same time for me. Always that third watch hour that beckons.

Sounds like a good rom-com Banafsheh Esmailzadeh!

So overwhelming, but also fascinating—we must enjoy the craziness.

Not everyone has a crazy mind.

I truly think a life guided only by routine and limited thinking would be incredibly boring.

Thanks to the PFC—the true source of all the craziness Leonardo Ramirez 2

We roll with it and enjoy the journey Meriem Bouziani ;o)

Yes of course Leonardo Ramirez 2

Thanks Leonardo Ramirez 2, it could've been xD of course a few years later I got caught in a love rectangle that was just as epic but mostly cringe lol (it was a cheap adulthood copy of teenage drama so vastly more cringe). In fact that one might well have even been a twofold rectangle at one point (as in, when one corner left, it was soon replaced). It was an absolute mess and made me miss the high school one because it was so much simpler and infinitely more real rofl

Too funny Banafsheh Esmailzadeh!

Yes, my former "professional nerd" (now Private Eye) character has lots in common with me, other than the PI and mystery stuff. His story of getting fired when he rewrote a program that ran too slowly - and making it run in about 1/10 of 1% of the original version? Something quite similar happened to me. (Except I didn't get fired right away. When I asked if there might be a bonus I was told I made them look bad, and I was transferred to another project that was going away.) It's sort of like therapy to get those stories out of my system.

It truly is like therapy because that's how I process everything is through writing

Leonardo Ramirez 2 you are an artist and you know the truth "replacing it with hope" that is so accurate.

Yes the one I've been shooting and bringing out to festivals this year in miniature format,

#superturbojetboats

it's a vicarious schizo-affective expression of my creative containment during quarantine voiced and fictionalized into a joyful ensemble cast adventure/comedy,

so I found a channel to express each of my mental and emotional "5 people I spend the most time with" from inside my head to the page to the screen,

and yes it is the journey from conquest to hope, folded, spindled and mutilated and reassembled into a far-flung fictional Golden Fleece that is unrecognizable and sharp in its eventual realization. I am so thankful to have created an outlet for these ideas!

Leonardo Ramirez 2 A close friend is the inspiration behind my protagonist, I do try to imagine myself in her shoes though.

I'm sorry that this happened to you Eddie Lawhorn. It's always tough so I can see how including it in your character's story is like therapy. I once had a boss that was very abusive so I wove some of those instances into one of my stories - not out of revenge but out of wanting to process through the healing. I read the logline to your private eye story and it sounds fun. Your life experience found a sense of redemption in being woven into a comedy. Nicely done!

I love that Pink Matzke. There's a healing process in that. I keep a piano next to my computer and when I need a rest from computer work I turn to it and find that healing there. There's a lot to be said in finding restoration in our creative process.

Daniel Stuelpnagel it's good to hear from you friend. I've seen some of the snippets that you've put together and it looks like so much fun. But I do get what you mean - quarantine was a tough time so I'm so glad you found this as an outlet. I so love that description of the journey my friend.

I love that Marie Hatten - sounds beautiful. What a tribute to your friendship!

Maurice Vaughan how you don't ask for help! lol

Leonardo Ramirez 2 it's a bitter sweat one.

Oh yeah, Marie Hatten. Thanks. I wrote two scripts about that. I've gotten better at asking for help.

Ah, I see and understand Marie Hatten. I hope it’s also comforting.

Maurice Vaughan you are certainly good at giving help.

It's moving but also quite sad Leonardo Ramirez 2

I like to write family drama and family humor and as I read my own scripts - I'm in every one of them, some more than others.

Well, takes breath to put it simply, I scatter parts of myself into different characters and plots(oftentimes unintentionally). Whether it's through parts of my life or personality, to quote an old teaser of FNAF Sister Location, "There's a little bit of me in every body."

This year i had very, very bad experience at work, facing almost quiting from job. That's why I have decided to put this unpleasant experience of mine in a script where i can identify with all the characters.

Doug Nelson There's some story food right there. You've given me something to consider for future stories. Thanks so much for sharing!

I love that quote Holly Fouche and it sounds like you're not wasting anything. Nicely done!

I'm so sorry you had to deal with that Aleksandar Lahtov. I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing but I had a very abusive boss at one point. Some aspects of that are in one of my scripts as well. I hope you're still not going through that angst at the workplace.

I'm so sorry Marie Hatten.

A common theme in my work is "perfection" and how important it is to embrace the person you are, which is a message I've definitely needed. The question that inspired my most recent script (Out of My League) was: what if I had to coach my son's baseball team? I have a middle school son who played baseball at the time, so that's as close to "based on real life" as I've gotten. In smaller ways, my characters do sometimes share interests with me and say things that have come out of my own mouth.

Are you pitching the Haven of Dante script, Leonardo Ramirez 2?

Thanks, Marie Hatten. That's how the protagonists in my scripts are. They're good at giving help, but they don't ask for help or accept it.

Something that often bothers me when I watch movies and series is seeing events or characteristics in characters that simply don't make sense. Consequently, one of my biggest concerns when I write is the plausibility of the characters and events. And, because of this search for realism, I inevitably end up sharing my own experiences in the stories I create. Because then the realism is guaranteed (it actually happened), and, more importantly, because what I am writing about is familiar and evokes emotions in me (which fuel my motivation).

I think a lot of us need to hear that message Erin Leigh!

I've only submitted it for coverage Maurice Vaughan. I don't pitch it because it's a passion project that I've always wanted my daughter to star in. If it's animated and goes through Magnetic Dreams Animation Studios, then that won't be a problem. If it's live action, not sure - still navigating that.

I love your approach Letícia Peyrous and I agree with it by a longshot. But it does remind me of an instance where I received coverage from an executive who said, "Nobody talks like that." I had to respond, "Yes. And I knew them." It's one of those things that we have to be prepared to defend because an executive won't have the life experience that you and I do.

I think you told me that before, Leonardo Ramirez 2. I'm excited to watch it! You could also do what they're doing nowadays. Make it animated, then live-action.

On the one hand Leonardo Ramirez 2 we could say that everything in our stories is a part of ourselves, since we are the medium that processes it and, hence, a part of ourselves will always latch on and escape into our writing. But in the more literal, conscious sense, I am aware (though not always willing to admit) that the series I am developing right now is not about an investigative journalist who travels back home to Eastern Europe and becomes entangled in the East/West energy wars but about me starting to process some of my unresolved feelings conceived at the moment I had to leave my birth country at 12-years-old. So, yeah - point well taken lol

Loving this thread Leonardo Ramirez 2 - thank you for it.

I think I love that idea better Maurice Vaughan. I'll put that in my pocket and pull it out when the time comes. Good thinking!

Oh man Sebastian Tudores. That's such a tough age to make such a big move. You're old enough to remember details like sights, sounds and familiarity so you remember what you're missing. I'm so sorry my friend. But yes, you're right - everything in our stories is a part of us.

Thanks, Leonardo Ramirez 2. Or start with live-action and make an animated version later.

I'd love to do both Maurice Vaughan - at least some kind of American anime style.

you're spot on Leonardo Ramirez 2 about the age. especially if you're blessed with a great memory. but it's been actually a wonderful journey - being able to shoot it and direct some of it in Romania would be the icing on the cake :) thank you for always being your caring self my friend.

The childhood trauma thing is a big deal to me so I'm comforted to hear it's been a good journey Sebastian Tudores. Thanks for the kind words as well. They mean a lot.

If you write a hundred thousand fictional words, you can still remain invisible. If you write a million fictional words, you are in those words whether you attempted to hide yourself or not. You are a product of your experiences. I have two pieces of work, one feature, one TV, both of which are true/based on truth from my life. You'd never be able to guess which ones.

True words spoken David Taylor. If we're a product of our experiences, it will pour onto the page.

Leonardo Ramirez 2, I love this question, because it gets to the heart of why so many of us write in the first place. Even when we’re building impossible worlds or pushing our characters into fantastical situations, there’s often a piece of our inner life, beliefs, or fears, guiding the story.

As you know, my current book series is incredibly personal to me. I’ve based characters loosely on people in my life, and the themes of grief, discovery, and healing have been a north star in my own journey since losing my mom. Those emotional threads ended up becoming the foundation of the entire story, because they were the truest things I had to say. I think those pieces of ourselves are what make stories resonate most deeply. Even in sci-fi or fantasy, readers can feel the real-life heartbeat beneath the worldbuilding.

I'm so glad you shared this Ashley Renee Smith because yours is one of the most powerful examples I know, of the drive that is behind why we write. And it's those pieces that are coming together through the journey to heal that not only helps us process but inches others upwards in the healing journey they may be on - nuances that will resonate. It's when something we see or hear resonates, that we know we're not alone in the journey.

Coming to this creative pursuit later in life I find that I personally have a lot to say and specific viewpoints to articulate. Not (at least I hope) in a preachy or even persuasive way, but intentionally presenting a point of view that is meant to provoke thought. So at least to date I find that lots of me are in every story I write and in many of the characters I create.

Leonardo Ramirez 2 no need to be

Love that @Maurice

I agree Ashley Renee Smith. I believe it is also for the same reason writers have such a hard time accepting feedback without taking it personally, especially in the beginning. We leave so much of ourselves in our projects that feedback feels like a personal attack, and we find ourselves defending our choices for this or that in our work, instead of removing our attachment to it and listening/hearing the feedback with an unbiased ear.

That's such a great observation Pink Matzke. It's like we have to pour ourselves out and then let it go with an open hand.

I love work that provokes thought Darrell Pennington. It's what helps us all to see things from a different vantage point and perhaps grow, even if it's just a little.

Leonardo, how much of myself I put into my stories and the characters in them depends on the stories themselves...but the three most personal scripts I've written are the "Edna's Garage" TV pilot and two screenplays: "Mental Lockdown" and "Intervention!"

"Edna's Garage" had two inspirations: A print ad I saw in the 1970s where one of the photos depicted a woman fixing a car in front of her own auto-repair place; and my own father's work in auto detailing in my birth city of Des Moines. (Dad was at it from 1952-1996; he was the first person I ever worked for and got paid from at the same time.)

"Mental Lockdown" was originally Dennis Erichsen's idea...and even then, when he and I worked on the story, I thought back on my own childhood (I turned 18 in 1973)...when I grew up with an alcoholic mother and the constant belittling and constant faultfinding that came with it. (And just like "ML's" Kenny Martin, I once worked in a RadioShack store.)

All the racist slights I ended up dealing with since 11-1-2003 (the day an Omaha police officer stop me over a busted taillight on the 1975 Lincoln Mark IV I owned at the time) formed the basis for "Intervention!"

By the way...I got the taillight fixed.

So sorry for the hardships Jim Boston but it sounds like you've turned something good from the ashes of those hardships. And I can relate to some of it. My first job was working for my dad in his restaurant in Puerto Rico. I don't think I ever got paid though LOL.

And glad you got that taillight fixed! Thanks for sharing this Jim. It was great to get some insight into your work and life experience. In short, it's nice to get to know you better friend.

I write about myself fairly exclusively. Even when the characters are nothing like me or when they are aliens from a foreign planet -- the encounters they have, the events they experience, and the philosophies they carry are always 100% my own. Which makes it easy for me to answer the oft-dreaded question "Why me?" Well, what I write is about me and about the way I've experienced the world.

I wrote a techno thriller about a family stuck in a 24/7 surveilled house. This was inspired by the time I found out my neighbors across the street had a camera pointed at my front door that helped me realize a package had been stolen from my front porch but it would also capture all of my comings and goings every single day, which pissed me off. Then I walked down to the stoplight nearby and I realized there's cameras there too. Then I went into the 7/11 - more cameras. Then I went to the coffee shop and realized I was in the background of a young woman's TikTok - more cameras. All these experiences irked the shit out of me that I couldn't go anywhere - the cafe, the convenience store, down the street, outside of my own house - without being monitored or surveilled. And that became the impetus for my story.

I think many great movies, including stalwarts this year like Sinners, Weapons, Eddington or One Battle After Another, are vehicles for their writers exploring maddening series of events (which makes for great conflict of course) in their own lives. Whether that's experiencing Racism in America even as a Successful Black Man (Slavery being the ultimate example of vampirism) coming from Ryan Coogler; the loss of those close to us for inexplicable and potentially evil reasons coming from Zach Cregger, who was inspired to pen Weapons following the mysterious death of his longtime friend and collaborator Trevor Moore; the enormous cultural divide in America amplified by COVID and how at times both sides of the aisle were completely wrong making it doubly annoying, coming from Aster; or how even after making masterpiece after masterpiece for decades PTA clearly still feels disrespected and feels he constantly has to prove himself every time - yet even as a dodgy old man who just wants to smoke week and maintain healthy relationships with his family, he's still got tricks up his sleeve to come out on top when shit hits the fan.

Good grief Pat Alexander - a camera pointed at your front door??? I get that the violation (because that's what I think it is) spurred what sounds like a great techno-thriller. It's that I would probably lose it if something like that happened to my family. Still, sounds like a great story I wouldn't mind watching. And I'm afraid I know little about PTA still feeling disrespected I'll have to dig into that. Thanks so much for sharing your experience and thoughts Pat!

I’ve always found it interesting when people assume that art is a direct reflection of the artist. It can be true to an extent, but as writers we often build worlds far removed from our own lives. We don’t have to live something in order to explore it.

Vince Gilligan isn’t a ruthless killer, yet he wrote Breaking Bad.

Cormac McCarthy didn’t need to be a warlord to write Blood Meridian.

Sometimes we write what we fear, what fascinates us, or what we’re trying to understand.

Curiosity can be just as powerful as experience.

How do your personal experiences influence your writing? Do you stick close to what you’ve lived, or do you gravitate toward worlds completely different from your own?

Leonardo Ramirez 2 yea, it's like every two years when he's in between movies, some article or soundbite comes out with anonymous studio sources or even worse a podcaster quoting anonymous studio sources bashing the fact that his movies "don't make money" for the studios. it's happened like 4-5 times in the last decade. and while a valid criticism, because the majority of his movies are in the red for the studios, they are still literally some of the most popular and talked about movies every year he releases one. thus, it's one battle after another for the guy. he makes great movies and has become a beloved director, but still has to squabble with studio heads because they aren't automatic profit machines

Both Luis García. "The Jupiter Chronicles" is a steampunk space-opera. It's a setting I haven't (obviously) lived. The poverty and single-parent setting that the protagonist's story starts out in is one that I have. In "Haven of Dante", the protagonist is an heir to an ancient legacy of fighting an "Aristocracy" of evil embedded in all levels of society. In the story, she is assaulted by a member of that society. The latter part of that story I took from a similar incident that my wife experienced as a way to inspire hope in others. People that meet my wife all say the same thing, her positivity is infectious - you'd never know she experienced such a horrific ordeal. Writing what we fear is putting ourselves into our writing and that's the heart of what I was getting at. Hope this helps friend.

Gotta love those anonymous sources Pat Alexander. It adds to that belief that repeating a lie over and over makes it a truth.

This is a great thread Leonardo Ramirez 2 I write sci-fi/fantasy, and for something completely different recently completed a psychological thriller. I always look for the light and the joy that can come from surviving difficult experiences. I'm sure there's a part of me in every character I write, but they are mostly composites of people I know, have met, even briefly, and character traits I admire, or despise. My observations of how people behave and relate to each other in different environments also feeds in to building a rounded character.

My thriller, Darke Manor, was a different experience as it was inspired by my own life, growing up with a narcissistic mother who groomed me from childhood to do exactly what she wanted. After her death early last year, writing the script was cathartic as it helped me process what had happened to me and to think about how to move forward to become the writer I've always wanted to be!

Lew Hunter told me to, “write what you know.” Including bits of me and my family histories creates nuances that make each character intriguing, unique, and relatable.

Thanks so much Ingrid Wren. It's funny because there have been times where I'll post something and it just gets buried (I'm sure that happens to everyone) so when I posted this, I honestly thought very few people would read it so I'm honored you stopped by. I absolutely love how you said "I always look for the light and the joy that can come from surviving difficult circumstances" - I SO resonate with that because I feel it's my "calling" to raise hope through story. I'm so sorry that you had to deal with a narcissistic mother - for some reason, I've had a ton of narcissistic persons show up in my life at one point or another. As odd as it is to say, it's actually helped me to grow in being able to resist the arrogant mindset with thicker skin. Thank you so much Ingrid.

You're so right Nancy Wilkinson - and interesting how much we learn from our family dynamics. Some make us stronger through growth while others we learn "what not to be". I'm grateful you stopped by to share.

Leonardo, thank you so VERY much for the post!

Jim Boston Honored my friend. Glad I got to know you a little better.

My characters tend to be "reflections" of myself, in various ways. In one of my older ones, each of the main characters was just that

Love that Spencer Magnusson. I did that with one of my protagonists and it's actually helped me see my life from a vantage point outside of myself.

Glad to know you, too, Leonardo!