Marilyn Horowitz on... PLOT & CHARACTER

http://www.marilynhorowitz.com/

But I want to make the point here that one of the main things about the Horowitz system is that you don't do one without the other, you always consider plot and character you're looking at a DNA strand. You're always looking at two parts of this. So here, by knowing what you want, having a sense of how your characters would behave in a similar situation by deciding how you would behave and using that as a springboard, that now leads you back to your ability to work with your plot because by having a sense of what your characters want then you can look at the events you've selected, or even the kind of story you've selected and ask yourself if it really is the best sort of gauntlet to put your characters through because the way dramatic writing has to work is you've got characters who want something and you've got to create obstacles to prevent them from getting them.
If you have a character who is involved, for example, their version of self and family is a crime story like The Godfather, then the fact that you think you're writing a comedy, unless it's Married to the Mob, is not going to work. By the same token if you want it to be a comedy but you want crime, then the premise question can lead you through a series of events that can make them comical. So you need to, by using both aspects of plot and character, when you're working with premise question, it allows you to build a story that's an organic story.
What great about that is that you don't end up with a first draft with a house of cards that you can't rewrite. So it sets you up so that by creating a story that's always dealing with both aspects allows you to do a much more effective and quicker rewrite.

Marilyn Horowitz, the author of "How to Write a Screenplay in 10 Weeks" and creator of The Horowitz System™, is an award-winning university teacher, a producer, a screenwriter, a script consultant and a successful writing coach. Her students include published novelists, screenwriters and award-winning filmmakers. Her website is :http://www.marilynhorowitz.com/

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• screenwriting
• screenplay
• movie
• script
• plot
• character
• film
• the
• godfather
• married
• to
• mob
• springboard
• gauntlet

[joe102769]

What your giving away here,is invaluble!

Thank you for waking me up, And facing me in the right direction

Now, I'm ready to Rawk!

[ddrstandard2008]

THANK YOU!!!!!! ^^

You don't know how long I needed this! :D