Class Documents

Here are notes for our class at PNWA Conference 2023  

Power Moves to Make Your Story UNDENIABLE

with Christine Fairchild & Kim Hornsby

CLASS DESCRIPTION

The bar is higher than ever for getting past gatekeepers. Quality writing can only take you so far. You need to make your story so unique, so compelling, it’s undeniable.

From the Editor Devil, author and BookDoctor, Christine M. Fairchild, & USA Today Bestselling Author, Screenwriter & Film Producer, Kim Hornsby, you will learn dozens of tried-n-true tricks to writing a bestseller or a script that will get an agent, editor or producer’s attention.

In this class, we’ll share a list of story elements, from character development to plot twists to layering Hooks, that will make your work pop. High concept, high stakes, complex complications—elements that you can layer into a flat story to take your writing to the next level. We’ll use examples from books and film to offer creative plug-and-play ideas that will help you locate opportunities within your story for those inevitable rewrites.

Whether your goal is to attract and keep readers or to get the attention of Hollywood producers, you’re sure to benefit from incorporating these tips into your manuscript. Even if you haven’t started plotting yet, these Power Moves will be golden nuggets to get your story on the undeniable track.

WHAT DOES UNDENIABLE MEAN?

“Undeniable” is industry lingo. An undeniable manuscript, whether in the eyes of a New York publisher or a Hollywood producer, is a story that is unforgettable, unpredictable and has touched the reader in an intimate way that makes them want to take the story to publication or production. Making it into the “undeniable” category is KEY to selling scripts/books and earning reader loyalty, even if you are an Indie author or filmmaker.

CHEAT SHEET OF POWER MOVES

These Power Moves can bolster a ho-hum script or even take a solid script to the Undeniable level. Power Moves don’t necessarily have to be a main plot/story element--they can be an enhancement, like a subplot or moment in the story to make it more meaningful or magical. This cheat sheet will help you brainstorm which Power Moves might work in your story.

1.     A master plan/map that goes wrong: A plan or map can have its own character arc and be misinterpreted, mistranslated, torn, lost/stolen, ditched. EX: The Mummy, The Great Train Heist, Ocean’s 11, DaVinci Code, Indiana Jones movie series.

2.     A character has to step out of their world and into the human world, or vice versa. This is bigger than the old “fish out of water” trope. EX: Barbie movie, Free Guy, Thor, Aquaman.

3.     A character who seems real/human is not, or vice versa. EX: The Sixth Sense, Terminator, The Bishop’s Wife, My Man Godfrey.

4.     A character who gets a life redo via insider knowledge (such as spirits) or repeating opportunities or time/dimension travel. EX: Groundhog Day, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Scrooge, It’s a Wonderful Life.

5.     A relationship between human and nonhuman (animal, monster, magical, cartoon) that is on the human level. EX:  The Shape of Water, Beauty and the Beast, Avatar, Who Killed Roger Rabbit, Nalani Singh’s Angel series (human & angel fall in love).

6.     A world/reality is not what it seems. EX: Time Travelers Wife, Quantam Leap, Inception, elements of Harry Potter where there are secret doors, magical objects.

7.     The truth is not what you understood or were told by an unreliable narrator. EX: Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Atonement.

8.     Major secrets (babies, relatives, jobs, lovers, marriages) and buried truths. This is usually on the character level but can also be a plot exploitation, such as in mysteries and thrillers. EX: Breaking Bad about a teacher who also makes meth, Spy Kids, Jane Eyre (the old “wife in the attic” trope). Stories where parent really did kill spouse/other parent, or the Senator used to be a striper for the mob, or the priest is really a gangster. Great way to uplift your saggy middle. See Lincoln Lawyer season 2.

9.     Unique occupation or duty. EX: Day of the Condor, the traveling torturer in Gene Wolf’s Book of the New Sun series), the magical librarian located off-world (The Magicians series), The Professional Bridesmaid (Hallmark), Wedding Crashers. Try to juxtapose this with the plot/genre, such as an undertaker looking for love in a comedy.

10.  A high-stakes game that is life or death of hero or other character(s). EX: Harry Potter, Gladiator, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Jumanji, Ready or Not, New Adult book Nerve, by Jeanne Ryan.

11.  Hero waking up to a different life. EX: Big (Tom Hanks), Dark City, Groundhog Day, Total Recall, Freaky Friday.

12.  Someone wants to destroy or takeover the country/planet/universe and must be stopped… by an underestimated/underdog/unlikely hero like a kid, an alien, an animal. This is an obvious blockbuster trope, but think how to use it on a smaller plot level, like saving a heart/life, that’s appropriate to your genre (like Rain Main or The Black Stallion). EX: Transformers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Stranger Things, Spy Kids.

13.  A key part of society is going to be changed forever because of science/computers/weather/A.I./epidemic/law. EX: Epidemic, Minority Report, Firefly.

14.  The case/trial of the century for… the last Nazi, a super serial killer, a powerful person, the leader of the free world: Silence of the Lambs, A Few Good Men, Reversal of Fortune re: Claus von Bulow

15.  Reversal of justice: Man who didn’t kill his wife is found guilty (The Fugitive), or the person who did kill spouse is found innocent (Reversal of Fortune re: Claus von Bulow)

16.  A hero who is a Gray character that straddles good/evil: Pirate Jack Spiro in Pirates in the Caribbean, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Geralt in The Witcher, Batman in The Dark Knight, Barry, Promising Young Woman. Very popular for heroes but look at side characters like this too; you can piggy back off your hero’s flaw.

17.  A true anti-hero to the extreme. EX: Dexter, Riddick, Barry.

18.  Deep deep deep POV so the audience is so much in the hero’s head they are blind to important events. EX: First person POV, detective stories like Bosch or Phillip Marlowe books, Clare Danes, who has mental health issues and doesn’t make good judgments or gets blindsided in Homeland series, A Beautiful Mind.

19.  Puzzle stories told out of order or backwards. EX: Memento, The Hangover, Ocean’s 11 movies, The Presitge, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

20.  A tragic death that haunts the reader at the end of the story, especially if it’s the hero. EX: Gladiator, Curious Case of Benjamen Button, Titanic, Butch Cassidy, Bravehart, Philidelphia, Time Traveler’s Wife

21.  Stranger in a strange land becomes its savior. EX:  Dune (hero lands on this wild, brutal planet & becomes intoxicated with it & tames it to become king), Lawrence of Arabia, The Big Lebowski, Starman.

22.  Evil vs Good characters fall in love. EX: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy falls for a demon), True Blood, Killing Eve.

23.  Divide and conquer plot to isolate characters or pit them against each other—who do you choose/trust? EX: Silence of the Lambs, Game of Thrones, Shadow & Bone series, Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

24.  Odd couples and mismatched characters, romantic or not. EX: Turner & Hooch, Geralt and his musical sidekick, JD Robb (Nora Robert’s) “In Death” series about rich guy & grundgy but beautiful detective (see also Castle), Forest Gump, Edward Scissorhands, Donkey & Dragon in Shrek.

25.  Orphans/Outcasts/Mudbloods/Criminals save the day. EX: Harry Potter, Riddick, O Brother Whereart Thou?, nearly every character in Shadow & Bone, Firefly movie/series.

26.  Doppelganger, disguises or twins throw the plot into chaos. EX: Twins, Terminator, X-Men, Catch Me if You Can.

27.  A reversal of plot expectations or assumptions at the end of the story. This Power Move should be in all stories, frankly. RomComs are the exception to the rule because the couple must get together at the end of the story. Likewise, Romance books must have an HEA or a Happy For Now ending, as the genre demands. So if either of those are the genres you are writing, make something else the plot twist at the end, like how they overcome the conflict, or make the key thing that brings them together not what everyone expected.

 

Feel free to email me any questions or if you want me to send you info about future classes: christinefairchild@yahoo.com