Whose World Is It Anyhow?

Whenever I type FADE IN on a new screenplay I'm entering a whole universe created to serve the story I want to tell. Sometimes it feels like I'm choosing the proverbial Door #1 or Door #2, because whichever one I go through will be my character's world for 120 pages. I have to choose wisely, or it'll be like planning a vacation to Tuscany and landing in Wasilla, Alaska. It might be interesting in a 'where's da bear?' kind of way, but it ain't no Michelangelo.

I'm writing a fantasy comedy, and to paraphrase the great Steve Kaplan: Comedy shows us who we are. Drama shows us who we want to be. Comedy is the ordinary person struggling against the odds and being forced to use whatever means necessary to achieve success. Comedy is the truth about being human. So I keep that in mind whenever a scene sounds forced or phoney: is it real?

Anyway, back to page one....I want to show my protagonist in his natural environment and how he navigates that environment in the best way he can. If the audience doesn't immediately relate to him (it happens to be a guy in this story) on a gut level, it's an uphill battle to get them invested in his or her journey. The old "first impressions" rule applies.

Looking back over most of my stories, I seem to gravitate towards seeing my protagonist alone or emotionally isolated in one way or the other. Do I marginalize them so I can bring them back in? Could be. We root for the underdog because we've all felt like that at some point in our lives. And if you haven't, then you're not a human I would like to spend an evening with. Then again, you're what I call the 'delusional' character who we meet living their life like they have everything under control - but the audience knows there's a brick waiting to fall on his or her head. The metaphorical brick is the circumstance that will bring them down to Earth so we can like them...an ordinary person. Then we're cheering him or her on towards their goal like our life depends on it. That's why we leave the theatre smiling and feeling satisfied...unless it doesn't work, and then we leave feeling like we spend 2 hours on a crowded Greyhound bus next to a guy who smells like a rancid baloney sandwich.

I can only hope my first draft won't be that sandwich.