Line 'O the day - December 31, 2006

Fate works according to unknown calculations from a nonexistent machine.

Line 'O the day - December 17, 2006

Funny name: My name is Finglebottom Doobledye!


Present day note:
Finglebottom Doobledye is the coolest sum'bitch you'll ever meet. He only exists in my head though, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Line 'O the day - December 10, 2006

Work, don’t work; it’s all the same. Except the reason why you’re tired at the end of the day.


Present day note:
In contrast to my last line, this one is a bit more of a challenge to my lazy side.

Line 'O the day - December 8, 2006

You got the world on a silver platter, and you ain’t hungry.


Present day note:
My struggle with laziness is a common theme in these lines. Still a problem I wrestle with today.

Line 'O the day - November 17, 2006

My flights of fancy seem to have all wafted away.

Line 'O the day - November 15, 2006

I’m a young man on the verge of growing old. And so I war against both the current and the prospective.

The Rules of Attraction, bit players can do a lot

I'm going to get better about actually writing these blog entries. This one I had about half finished a month ago, and cleaned it up tonight so I could post it.

There are a great many reasons I love Avary's Rules of Attraction. I say Avary because for my purposes here I'm only talking about the film. The voice overs, the out of sequence opening, Sean and Lauren's split screen meeting in the hall, I could go on, but I'm here to talk about a valuable writing tool. The informative side character.

Basically we have three main characters, and so I'd like to point out three other characters that tell us, in a short time, a great deal about our leads.

First Rupert. When we meet Rupert we already know Sean ain't right in the head, but once we see Rupert we can grasp how bat shit Sean really is. He's an ex-military drug dealer who's coked out of his mind 24/7, which makes Rupert dangerous beyond anything else in the film. And what does Sean do in their first meeting? Boldly lies right to Rupert's face. There's a hint of fear in Sean, but that's him acting. He knows Rupert is crazy and Sean is willing to put his own neck on the chopping block to temp Rupert. Sean gets a kick out of it, which we see outright in their later encounter. So by showing us Rupert early on we get a lot of Sean's brazen craziness in the viewers mind without any direct exposition about him.

Lara is a much larger character than Rupert, but is still merely a tool to inform us about Lauren. She's an odd sorta mirror to Lauren, the name is even a shallower version of the more important character. Lauren is controlled, reasonable, intelligent; our first insights into Lara are that she got drunk and slept with the football team and that her understanding of percentages is less than stellar. Though she is great to look at Lara is distasteful, there's nothing to like about her. Lauren has her flaws, but she is genuine in most of her actions. Again in their early scenes together the writer doesn't really have to say much directly about Lauren. The simple juxtaposition to Lara tells us all we need to know and endears the audience to Lauren.

And last, but certainly not least is Richard (or Dick if you prefer). Dick shows up well after we're into Paul's story, but he tells us a lot about Paul that might have seemed odd. Paul is pretty reserved, but his friends are rather flamboyant. He pines for Sean even though he knows Sean is off kilter. And then Dick shows up and we see the prototype that Paul models his pursuits after. Dick is brash and outspoken and could care less what anyone else thinks. He's selfish and self destructive, and while Paul dislikes this he is very much under a spell. And the same draw fuels Paul's longing for Sean. From a writing standpoint that scene with Dick is like a plot key. It makes things fit together in a way we might not have seen before. Plus its an interesting character to throw in and then pull back out, to have a little fun.

You can just create characters to fill space, to give your main players someone to talk to, but you also need to use every last word to inform as best you can. Rupert and Dick are fun to play with, but they aren't window dressing, they're valuable tools that allow the audience to delve deeper into Sean and Paul. And from a 'putting in the work' standpoint these things may not be in a first draft. But when you're into that third draft, and your lead runs into her old high school flame, really squeeze every last ounce of value you can from that character.

Next time, two people talking.

Line 'O the day - October 28, 2006

Changing your diet on an empty stomach is hard to do.