by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
I’m watching a lot of YouTube videos about writing a screenplay. While I’m writing a novel, the concepts of good storytelling are essentially the same with a novel and a screenplay, even though the two forms of storytelling have dramatically different internal logic.
Anyway, I’m quite pleased with how things are going right this second. Things seem to be falling into place and it’s really just a matter of doing the hard work of putting things together. I’m really leaning into my own personal experiences for the most part. There are a few rough edges in the plot — there are some scenes I know I want to write, but I can’t figure out quite yet how they happen in the context of the story — but other than that simply by working from my own personal experiences things are moving quickly.
This go round, I’m establishing my characters first and then fusing that with the general idea of the plot so things hopefully will be a lot better this go time. A lot is going on with this novel, but not so much that it becomes too confusing. I have 200,000 words to play with and as such I have room to explore. One thing I have to study is how to make the focus and crux of the story the relationship between the Hero and the FRL (Female Romantic Lead.) I keep coming back to Lisbeth Salander as well as Joel and Clementine in The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. I have to figure out a way for us to care about the relationship between the two main characters without us hating them for being so flawed and generally unlikable. (That has been a problem with me with past novel attempts.)
I think I have it figured out, but I’m not sure. I really need to give more “screentime” to the two main characters so I don’t lose focus on what, really, is going on. As I’ve written before, the heart of the story is my relationship ten years ago with the late Annie Shapiro. That, at its core, is the story I want to tell. I just have to structure the story in such a way that that is the case.
The characters are growing stronger by the moment and I’m still reluctant to make the story a thriller, even though it’s going to probably lean into that genre for no other reason than it helps heighten the action and drama. But I have a lot of work ahead of me. But it’s still fun.
One thing I am struggling with his representation. I want there to be at least one Hispanic and one African American POV character and…that hasn’t happened yet. It’s simply a face of modern American storytelling that you need to represent your audience better. With the browning of America, you need black and brown characters among your those in your story for no other reason than, well, people are kind of expecting these days.
So, I think I’m probably going to have to do some fancy footwork and change a few characters in ways I didn’t really think about at first. This is an example of how there’s a little bit of pressure on me between the art and the market. But I think that says more about me maturing as a would-be novelist than anything else.
But we’ll see. The key point is to finish the first part of development and begin writing the scene summary so I can actually start to write the novel.
