What the Beginning of a Screenplay Can Help You Understand about Your Novel

Based on a request from a good friend and a fine writer himself, Dave Larsen of U of M Flint, I’m going to try to do a few more blog posts about how novelists might learn from the structure of screenwriting. This time, I’m going to narrow it down to just beginnings.

When I teach screenwriting, I teach students that the opening ten minutes of their feature script has a very specific job. In the opening ten minutes, students introduce their character (profession, personality, current situation, aspirations, dreams, flaws, etc).

Of course, this is done organically. They put their character into action, and the film “reveals” the character to us. Watch any movie… the opening ten minutes shows the audience what it needs to know to understand who this character is. And every scene is working towards that end. Scenes are either showing us character, their circumstances, or their world (in the case of sci-fi, fantasy, etc). The opening scenes also reveal most characters… even if they don’t make a physical appearance, they are alluded to.

For example, I think of the opening scenes of the film Silver Linings Playbook. The main character arrives home after a stint in a psychiatric ward. He comes in the house. He looks on the wall at the family photos. There’s his brother’s picture hung high and prominent (clearly the golden child). Pat then looks down on the table, and there’s his fallen picture leaning against the wall that nobody has bothered to hang up on the wall again.

This scene gets so much done. First, the fallen picture shows his status in the family. He is the black sheep. But, it also establishes (without actually having him in the scene) that there is a brother. And so, when the brother appears in the film much later, the audience isn’t surprised or thinking… “how convenient, the film needed a brother and now there is a brother.”

Something for novelists to think about. Is there a way to introduce important characters so they don’t suddenly appear some 35 pages or 105 pages later. I know you can’t introduce everyone, but you can allude, even if characters just talk about someone's existence.

If you can, I see that Silver Linings Playbook is on Netflix right now. Watch the first 10 minutes and 30 seconds because I’ll be talking about what it’s getting done before the movie’s Inciting Incident happens.

Ok, you either watched or re-watched those ten minutes or so… or you didn’t. In any case, here’s what that opening gets done:

Circumstance: Pat is in a psychiatric facility and has been for 8 months. His mom takes him out early. He arrives home where he will live in an attic bedroom. He is in a family that is very poor at communication. (Pat to his dad: “Mom just told me all about it outside.” Mom denies  “Yes, you did, you said, ‘Don’t say anything about it, but your dad lost his job and is making money as a bookie.’” His mom didn’t tell the father that she was taking Pat out of the hospital early either. The family loves the Philadelphia Eagles. His dad is very uncomfortable with Pat being home… the tension is palpable when he sees his son has returned home. (When Pat walks in, the dad's first words are, "What's this?") Dad has his own issues—lost his job, working illegally as a bookmaker (taking bets, not making literature), and he wants to open a cheesecake restaurant. His mother dotes on Pat. He did something that landed him in the psych ward… something it seems related to his wife. What he wants…? To get her back. From what we hear from the dad, the wife has moved on. Pat wants to erase the past and redeem himself.

Character: This is a man who wants redemption. He’s rebuilding himself. Working out. Wants to read his wife’s high school syllabus to connect with her and what she thinks is important to read (he’s making an effort in his way). He believes in Excelsior and the idea that there are silver linings to bad events. He’s driven, but he also wants to do it by himself. (Remember, he spit out his pill at the hospital.) He’s convinced he can do this on his own. But we see too that he still has anger and impulse issues. From the jump, without telling his mom, he tries to help his friend Danny escape the hospital. When the mom wants to turn around and bring Danny back, Pat grabs the wheel, almost causing an accident. When reading an Ernest Hemingway novel Pat, disgusted by the ending, throws it through a window shattering the pane. Then, he wakes his parents to go on a rant about why the book was so bad. He’s likable enough because of his focus on the positive, but we see that his reintroduction into society and his goal of winning back his wife are long-shots at best.

Are we drawn to Pat because he’s sympathetic? I suppose. I think we are more drawn to him because he’s dynamic. He’s like a car accident on the side of the road. You can’t look away. I don't believe your character always has to be sympathetic, but they do need to be dynamic.

Secondary characters: Many of the prime players are introduced in this opening ten minutes. The mom, the dad, Danny (yes, he will return), the brother, the dad’s friend, Nikki (alluded to), and then Dr. Patel.

In ten minutes we have learned so much. And, if the screenwriter (like the novelist) has done her job well, by the time we hit the 10-minute mark, we are invested. We’re in. We couldn’t walk away from this movie (or book) if we wanted to.

The opening of your novel is as crucial as the opening 10 minutes of a film. Often, when trying to find an agent, you’ll find that they request the first 10 pages of your book. I think they are looking to see if it has that same pull. You can’t say, “But it gets really good on page 40!) It has to be good and interesting and organic from the jump.

Now, for screenwriters, they have about 8 to 12 pages (what amounts to 8 to 12 minutes of screen time) to get this introductory work done. The whole time, the opening is naturally moving us toward the Inciting Incident.

The Inciting Incident brings new information onto the character’s radar that demands something of them. They might not immediately recognize that something is being demanded of them, but it’s happening.

What’s the Inciting Incident in Silver Linings Playbook? Well, right around 10 minutes and 30 seconds in, Pat learns that he has to go to therapy. It’s part of the deal. He can’t stay out if he doesn’t go. Imagine how this feels to a man who feels he already has a plan and wants to do this on his own. (But, we the audience, given what we’ve seen of him, really doubt that he can do it on his own. He needs help.)

And, as I tell my students, characters don’t often immediately embrace the Inciting Incident. They might run from it. Try to ignore it. Look for a quick fix. In Pat’s case, it takes a long time before he truly sees that Dr. Patel is an ally and his approach is helping him.

Now, what’s the magic spot in a novel for the inciting incident. That I don’t know exactly. Movies usually work in a pretty fixed timeframe… an hour and forty minutes to three hours. Novels can be 50k words to 500,000K words (more even!)

I would think, though, that 10 to 12 pages in would still be the sweet spot (keeping in mind again what agents will read… but also for the sake of your reader who really does want something to happen.)

Think of Harry Potter (book, not movie)… we learn his circumstances for a number of pages, see who he is, see the people in his life… but it’s not long before Hogwarts is knocking—via letter, but then via Hagrid. If Rowling had held off the Hogwarts invitation for too long (which is that book’s Inciting Incident) maybe no agent/publisher would have been interested.

I’m not saying, “Write a screenplay” but I am saying that your novel might benefit from an understanding of screenplay storytelling structure.

If you find my blog posts instructive, please consider purchasing a copy of my new book of short stories, The Neighborhood Division, as a donated payment for the "class."

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