The Doctor Is In - Know Your Characters

A recent client told me that talking to me was like a talking to a clinical psychologist. He’d written a feature screenplay but told me he had an aversion to going deep on characters. I urged him to face his fears. Any serious writer will tell you that storytelling requires you to understand your character’s motivations and wants and hopes and dreams.

Understanding a character's psychology is crucial for a fiction writer because it drives authentic behavior and decision-making, ensuring that the character's actions are consistent and believable. It allows the writer to create deep, relatable characters whose motivations resonate with readers. Even non-fiction writers delve deep into psychology. We wouldn’t have 4.3 million books about Abe Lincoln if writers weren’t exploring his psyche as well as his hat.

I believe we are all capable of writing at a level that can at least provide us with valuable moments of reflection or solace. At its best, writing helps us understand the experience of being human and connect people across time and space. I mean, even a well crafted poop joke can touch our shared humanity. 

From a craft point of view, this talk of psychology falls in the bucket of character development, an actual screenwriting buzz word if that’s what you’re looking for. When I talk to students, clients, friends or myself about character development, I sometimes give them this thought experiment: imagine a person sitting on the bus when someone steps on their brand new and expensive shoes. How do they react? Different people will react differently; one person will brawl while another will apologize for being in the way. As a writer, a Creator, you must know your characters well to know how they will react to the litany of challenging situations you’ve (hopefully) put in your plot. You can bet Charles Shultz would know how each of his characters would react on that bus. Do you know how your various characters would react?

I hope my recent client decides to dig further into the psychology of his characters. I know it would help his script. If not that, maybe he can schedule an appointment with Lucy. I hear she’s good, but don’t step on her shoes. She does not play. 

My story consulting business is called This Time/Next Time because of pig snouts. I help people with stories they’re writing and stories they want to write. Fiction, non-fiction, short and feature screenplays and murder ballads. If you are looking for fresh eyes, suggestions, guidance on a piece of writing please be in touch.

And a shout out to Andrew Condell @picturecardstories for replacing Lucy’s face with my pretty mug!

Writers Guild Initiative + Wounded Warriors Project

Over the last few weeks, I mentored with two amazing organizations I’d like to spread the word about. The first is the Writers Guild Initiative, a nonprofit organization that brings the craft of writing to communities whose voices and stories are underrepresented in the popular discourse. If you are in a position to donate PLEASE support them. They operate on a shoestring.

WGI has partnered with organizations that represent wounded veterans, family caregivers of veterans, immigrant youth, LGBTQ asylum seekers, and people living with chronic illness, to name a few. They most recently completed writing workshops with nurses on the front lines of the COVID crisis, through a partnership with the New York Professional Nurses Union. Their workshops are led by volunteer mentors who connect with populations of new writers to encourage self-expression through storytelling.

My mentoring experience was with an amazing organization called the Wounded Warrior Project. In their words: Through our direct programs in mental health, career counseling, and long-term rehabilitative care, along with our advocacy efforts, we improve the lives of millions of warriors and their families. This effort requires the passion and commitment of friends, supporters, and like-minded organizations that enable us to fulfill our mission. With their collaboration and support, we strive to ensure that when those who serve come home, they’re afforded every opportunity to be as successful as a civilian as they were in the military.

Our WGI workshop was virtual and we’d never met before, but I was deeply impressed and humbled by everyone’s willingness to get personal as they did exploratory writing based on prompts and conversations. My mentor partner and I did our best to demystify the writing process and encourage exploration. Beautiful writing was done in that time. 

As I’ve read more about WWP, I learned that June is PTSD month, something I’d never heard of and wanted to share here. I also saw a quote that landed hard on me:  “The greatest casualty is being forgotten.” I suspect that idea will resonate with anyone who reads it. If you’re in a position to donate to WWP please do.

My experience with WGI and WWP was yet another reminder (do we still need reminders?) that people need to talk to each other to increase understanding and empathy. We need to talk across race and class and type. We need to get better at basic social discomfort that prevents sharing and listening.

The veterans in the workshop bravely opened their hearts and minds during our time together despite clearly feeling uncertain or raw or vulnerable. It helped that the atmosphere was charged with acceptance and love and support.

I’ve grown increasingly hungry for opportunities to use my storytelling experience in new ways and I’m grateful that WGI and WWP gave me the opportunity to participate in their programs. I hope it’s the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship. Again, if you’re in a position to donate to WWP please do.

In the name of PTSD month and in honor of WWP, I’ll share another quote from their website: Creativity can unlock new ways of healing. Creative pursuits contain a type of magic for sure. No matter the size or type of your trauma, acts of creativity - writing, painting, music, anything that connects you to that bigger thing out there - can lighten the burden you carry. This time and next time…

The Great Unplugging

When I turned off my wifi today, a shiver ran through my body. It was as if I’d cut a cable connecting my laptop to my brain stem. It felt good. My breath was a bit lighter. I could focus on the story I was writing. It’s not the first time I’ve felt this. It happens more often than not. I struggle like hell to unplug. When I manage to do it, it’s usually out of desperation.

Deep thought is essential for writing well, and I don’t need a scientific paper to know the internet is the enemy of deep thought. To write works of fiction, we must hold many threads at once - narrative drive, character arcs, theme, tone and a bunch more. As much as possible, writers must push aside our ‘real’ lives to focus on the intangible worlds we’re creating. Part of the joy of writing is a disappearing act; we get to disappear into the imagination and subconscious. At its best, writing is a meditative state, and I’ve yet to hear of a mediation practice that includes reading about cosmic latte on Wikipedia or scrolling reels of dogs with cats in their mouths. 

When I consult with clients or teach screenwriting or serial writing at NYU’s Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing or Pratt Institute’s Film/Video Department, I urge (beg, insist…) people to turn off their internet and hide their phones when they settle down to write. I want clients and students to cut ties with this reality to immerse themselves in the reality of the story they’re writing. To be honest, if you’re not willing to do this occasionally I don’t have much confidence in your writing life. Sorry if that hurts.

Our deep intimate relationship with technology shouldn’t surprise anyone. We bring our phones, ipads and computers into the most private and cherished spaces. From churches to bathroom stalls to bedrooms. We play games and listen to music with them, FaceTime loved ones on them, watch films with them and exchange racy photos with them. Needless to say, we’re intimately connected to our technology. But we need time away from even our most beloved friends and lovers. 

If you’re engaged in a creative endeavor - writing or otherwise - do yourself a favor and turn off your wifi and shut down your phone today. Then let me know if you felt it in your bones like I did. Let me know if you had a better writing session. Let me know if it felt good. And if it did, do it more.

And finally if you or someone you know needs help writing a story, you can get in touch about that too. If you’re not familiar with me or my work, please check out my what my collaborators, clients and colleagues have to say about me on my site. In this case, their words are more important than mine. I’ve been writing and teaching for a long time and have only recently hung a shingle as a story consultant working with writers, directors, producers, and storytellers of all kinds. This time and next time…

Do I Have To...?

Excessive self-promotion may cause headaches, nausea, palpitations of the pituitary gland, helium voice and existential drought, but now that I’ve launched my story consulting service, an honest-to-goodness entrepreneurial enterprise, I need to step more firmly into the ether of the internet.

Our social media feeds are already an endless stream of commercials, but I still loathe the idea of self-promotion. Like many people, I feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and dead inside when posting on social media for the sole (and not so subtle) purpose of self-promotion. In the gig economy, however, freelancers need to stay in front of people’s faces enough to land gigs and advance their careers. So I’ve bought some big boy pants and figured out some ways to be more e-present so This Time/Next Time can thrive alongside my career as a screenwriter.

This moment reminds me of when I finally admitted it was wise and necessary to aim some of my screenwriting brain at genre stories instead of the intimate, odd, or intimate and odd indie stories I was writing. Eventually, I chose to focus on science fiction and psychological thrillers as my genres of focus In order to not rely too heavily on the predictable tropes and expectations of the genre, I asked myself at the time, “What is my version of a science fiction story?” What is a psychological thriller that I would love to watch? Similarly, I am asking myself, “What is a form of marketing that would NOT annoy me as a human/consumer? For me, the answer to this conundrum is to continue to share the words of my collaborators and colleagues and clients and even past students. I’d like to use their voices to highlight the work I’ve been doing over the years in the name of inspiring people to contact me to explore how I can help them with their words and stories. Maybe that’s you even.

Moving forward, I plan on occasionally sharing the words of others along with some context or memory connected to that person. In that way, I hope to share something meaningful about the work I do while also…yes…promoting myself to clients. I’ll leave by sharing the unsolicited gratitude of my most recent client who was able to execute a much more substantial revision of a pilot script with a tight deadline after talking to me. 

“2nd draft done. Your session took it to a place i wouldn’t have been able to get to with what i had. More work to do but thank you for helping with this next step.”

— playwright client May 5, 2024

Of course, this made me happy. This time and next time…

This Time/Next Time

Thank you community! I’m so grateful to the people who’ve congratulated and encouraged me as I’ve launched This Time/Next Time, my story consulting venture. I’m particularly grateful to collaborators, colleagues, clients and even past students who’ve shared the news and contributed testimonials. It’s like a sneak peek at my obituary and you’re all invited!

In the past two weeks, I’ve heard from a playwright adapting her play into a 60 minute TV pilot, a creative writer with a children’s book in mind, a cross platform video game maker developing his next game and an animator looking to write a short screenplay that he’s been trying to get to for a long time. I also spoke with the Marketing and Communications Director of an exciting nonprofit looking for new ways to articulate their work and someone at the WGA East who suggested I do a workshop in the near future.

The variety of clients and potential clients is exciting. Each medium (and client) has its specific wants, needs and expectations, but there are core elements and considerations with all storytelling. Who is your audience and how do you want them to feel? When do you start the story? Which information should be revealed when?  Why do I keep looking at my phone?

Maybe I’m projecting, but I’ve found most people I talk to are in need of slowing their minds down as they consider their projects. You’ve probably heard writing can be therapeutic, but writing can also be a metaphor for life. Slow down. Decide what you want. Be intentional. Commit to the purpose. Do less.

One of the reasons I feel comfortable helping a wide range of storytellers is because my writing has been partly defined by my versatility with genre and tone and form. To the consternation of my reps over the years, my projects have ranged from dramatic to comedic to thriller to a science fiction musical about cloning. I’ve written features and shorts and pilots, and I’ve developed an unscripted dating show being circulated as I write these words. Forgive the name dropping, but some highlights from my writer’s desk include Martin Scorsese signing on to Executive Produce one of my projects, Phoebe Waller Bridge complimenting my writing about the octopus, Alexander Payne reporting that he cried while reading one of my screenplays. 

I’ve considered stepping into the consulting space for quite some time. I love helping people do what they want to do, and I love talking about and demystifying the creative process which, for the most part, involves identifying the thing, trying the thing, failing at the thing, and then making the thing better. I won’t claim to be an expert in every form of storytelling, but I will claim to be a good listener and an active participant in the process. 

But enough about me.

If you’re working on a story or need help in developing and crafting communication set up a call to discuss how I might be able to help you.

This time and next time…

Getting Off The Page and Onto the Couch

Since long before the launch of Couples, the Digital Series on a Couch, I've encouraged writer-friends and clients alike to nurture at least one idea that could be taken off the page easily and cheaply. A short film is perfectly reasonable, but I've advised people to develop an idea that has the potential to be a serial so they can continue writing and producing episodes if the idea continues to inspire them. If you're developing ideas for film or television, bringing your words off the page is not only invaluable to you and your craft, it's kinda the point of the entire endeavor. 

For starters, it's fun to collaborate. I enjoy the solitude of writing. I truly relish conjuring voices and escaping into new worlds I create, worlds where the unpaid bills are addressed to other people. But there's no denying that writing can be a lonely endeavor. There's a point when you need to interact with people in the same dimension. Shooting a short film or web series gets you out of your chair, out of your head, and away from your damn screen. It forces you to communicate with people, real people - not the imaginary ones you've created on Mount Olympus, you control freak. 

Hearing your words in the mouths of others will make you a better writer as well. You should do it as much as possible. Veteran writers learn from the process every single time. Hearing actors read your lines - hell, hearing anyone read your lines - can alert you to awkward phrases or mangled sentence structures that obscure your intentions. When I partnered with the good people at Third Wing Media to rehearse early pages of Couples, I realized I had written some dialogue that didn't fit with the characters I had created. So I cut them. Some day soon I'll use those scenes to invent new characters for the show, straight out of the trash. 

The act of shooting one of your scripts will inevitably lead to new ideas. This is true of life in general: the more active you are the more ideas you will have. Listen to live music, dissect a forg, play ping pong or even its backwards cousin, Gnip Gnop. In general, get away from the damn screen; I'm convinced it's poison. I am hooked on it as I've been hooked on other poisons.  My point is, when you get together with people and go through the process of rehearsing and shooting and editing something, new ideas will be sparked. After shooting our first couple (Doug and Dana, played by Will Blomker and Stacey Linnartz) on Couples, I had new ideas for future seasons. Spoiler Alert: there will be scuba gear involved.

Finally, if you're not able to get past the technology of it all (the camera and audio equipment and the editing of the piece), do everything but shoot it. A simple reading: get the actors, get the director (if it's not you), get in the room, and listen to your writing. I guarantee good things will come from it. If all else fails, you can just do it on your couch. 

The Birth of A Digital Series

Couples had been in my head for several years before I got it off the page a few months ago. I'd always been drawn to the simplicity of the idea: a therapist's couch would provide a simple, familiar frame for relationship comedy between a married couple. My characters could explore conflicts around parenting, sex, salads, and the best way to load the dishwasher. Universal stuff.

From its inception, Couples was intended for the Web. I knew I wanted short episodes, micro-episodes even. In part, that was because I wouldn't allow the characters off the couch, and after all, how long can you watch two people on a couch (maybe we'll test that question in future seasons). But the shortness of the episodes also seemed appropriate for viewing on digital devices of all kinds. 

I let the idea sit on my shelf while I wrote the feature screenplays for +1 and The Quitter, but my mind would often drift to Couples. It was a concept that would allow my characters to get off the page easily (any screenwriters reading this will know what I mean); all I needed were a few game partners and I could get it off the ground quickly and cheaply. I already had the couch. 

Somewhere between then and now (closer to now), I met Cameron Bossert sitting kitty-corner from me at Bar Sepia, a beautiful little local tucked away near the Brooklyn Museum. We were both alone. We were both drinking whiskey. It wasn't long before we struck up a conversation in which I heard about Jeremy Rishe and Stacey Linnartz, his conspirators over at Third Wing Media. Soon thereafter I shared my scripts with them and it wasn't long before we talked over a few drinks back at Bar Sepia where we put a date on the calendar to shoot our first couple: Doug and Dana (played by Will Blomker and Stacey Linnartz).

I hope you enjoy watching them struggle to get off the couch.