 | |
| Author | Yves Lavandier |
|---|---|
| Original title | Construire un récit |
| Country | France |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
Publication date | 2011 |
Published in English | 2017 |
| ISBN | 9782874496998 |
| Preceded by | Writing Drama |
Constructing a Story (French: Construire un récit) by filmmaker and script doctor Yves Lavandier (Writing Drama) is a treatise on conceiving and writing stories for the cinema, the theater, television, and comic books, but also for novels, albeit to a lesser degree. The English edition, translated by story consultant Alexis Niki, was published in May 2017 by Le Clown & l’Enfant.
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Transcription
In J.R.R.'s world, Gandalf is one of five wizards sent by the Valar to guide the inhabitants of Middle Earth in their struggles against the dark force of Sauron. Gandalf's body was mortal, subject to the physical rules of Middle Earth, but his spirit was immortal, as seen when he died as Gandalf the Grey and resurrected as Gandalf the White. According to the Wachowski's script, an awakened human only has to link up and hack the neon binary code of the Matrix to learn how to fly a helicopter in a matter of seconds. Or if you are the One, or one of the Ones, you don't even need a helicopter, you just need a cool pair of shades. Cheshire cats can juggle their own heads. iPads are rudimentary. No Quidditch match ends until the Golden Snitch is caught. And the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is most certainly 42. Just like real life, fictional worlds operate consistently within a spectrum of physical and societal rules. That's what makes these intricate worlds believable, comprehensible, and worth exploring. In real life, the Law of Gravity holds seven book sets of "Harry Potter" to millions of bookshelves around the world. We know this to be true, but we also know that ever since J.K. typed the words wizard, wand, and "Wingardium Leviosa," that Law of Gravity has ceased to exist on the trillions of pages resting between those bookends. Authors of science fiction and fantasy literally build worlds. They make rules, maps, lineages, languages, cultures, universes, alternate universes within universes, and from those worlds sprout story, after story, after story. When it's done well, readers can understand fictional worlds and their rules just as well as the characters that live in them do and sometimes, just as well or even better than the reader understands the world outside of the book. But how? How can human-made squiggles on a page reflect lights into our eyes that send signals to our brains that we logically and emotionally decode as complex narratives that move us to fight, cry, sing, and think, that are strong enough not only to hold up a world that is completely invented by the author, but also to change the reader's perspective on the real world that resumes only when the final squiggle is reached? I'm not sure anyone knows the answer to that question, yet fantastical, fictional worlds are created everyday in our minds, on computers, even on napkins at the restaurant down the street. The truth is your imagination and a willingness to, figuratively, live in your own world are all you need to get started writing a novel. I didn't dream up Hogwarts or the Star Wars' Cantina, but I have written some science thrillers for kids and young adults. Here are some questions and methods I've used to help build the worlds in which those books take place. I start with a basic place and time. Whether that's a fantasy world or a futuristic setting in the real world, it's important to know where you are and whether you're working in the past, present, or future. I like to create a timeline showing how the world came to be. What past events have shaped the way it is now? Then I brainstorm answers to questions that draw out the details of my fictional world. What rules are in place here? This covers everything from laws of gravity (or not) to the rules of society and the punishments for individuals who break them. What kind of government does this world have? Who has power, and who doesn't? What do people believe in here? And what does this society value most? Then it's time to think about day-to-day life. What's the weather like in this world? Where do the inhabitants live and work and go to school? What do they eat and how do they play? How do they treat their young and their old? What relationships do they have with the animals and plants of the world? And what do those animals and plants look like? What kind of technology exists? Transportation? Communication? Access to information? There's so much to think about! So, spend some time living in those tasks and the answers to those questions, and you're well on your way to building your own fictional world. Once you know your world as well as you hope your reader will, set your characters free in it and see what happens. And ask yourself, "How does this world you created shape the individuals who live in it? And what kind of conflict is likely to emerge?" Answer those questions, and you have your story. Good luck future world-builder!
Content
Upon the re-publication of the French version of Writing Drama in 2011, Yves Lavandier decided to extract the book’s most useful chapters and to create two stand-alone books: Construire un récit and Evaluer un scénario (Analyzing a Script). Construire un récit grew from 50 pages in the French version of Writing Drama to 170, and then to 220 for the 2016 edition.
Constructing a Story is a practical handbook on how to write a narrative. Yves Lavandier’s ambition is to help authors who want to tell a story convey their thoughts and their universe in an accessible way. For this he proposes a method that starts from the meaning the author wants to communicate to arrive at the complete narrative via the steps of the pitch, the foundations, the milestones, the step outline, and the treatment. The general principle of Lavandier’s approach is: "You don’t build a house starting with the wallpaper."
As in Writing Drama, the author puts forth a vision of the three-act structure that differs to that of many English-speaking theorists and that he considers "simple, logical, and more importantly, natural: before the action, during the action, after the action."
In addition to several passages covering the work of characterization, a large chapter is dedicated entirely to the character arc, the potential for psychological transformation for one of the characters. The author proposes tools to justify such a transformation and analyzes some twenty works from the specific angle of the character arc. Among these are: The Apartment, Casablanca, A Christmas Carol, Groundhog Day, The Lives of Others, Oedipus Rex, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, One Thousand and One Nights, Schindler’s List, The Taming of the Shrew, and Toy Story. In his analysis of the beginning of Tootsie, for example, Yves Lavandier points out that contrary to many other analyses, the protagonist (Dustin Hoffman) is not actually characterized as a chauvinist who needs to learn to respect women.
Front cover
The cover photo represents romanesco broccoli, a natural example of fractal structure. Yves Lavandier considers the objective-obstacle pairing to be the basic pattern of story, and to follow the fractal principle. In Lavandier’s view, narrative is the combination, at different scales, of thousands of objective-obstacle pairings and of their resulting mechanisms: the protagonist, the inciting incident, the three-act structure, the climax, etc. The author uses the 1968 film Once Upon a Time in the West to illustrate his point.
Reception
In the magazine L’Avant-Scène Cinéma issue 609 (January 2014), Jean-Philippe Guérand writes: "Constructing a Story is a veritable guide of writing know-how in which the author prods his reader and pushes the emerging screenwriter to give his best with sections such as 'Be ferocious to your protagonist' or 'Make the audience participate', and is applicable to both cinema and television."[1]
Jack Brislee of The Story Department gave the book a mostly positive review, saying "Lavandier’s Constructing a Story, like his previous work, Writing Drama, is an original, erudite work, packed with helpful ideas based on the author’s many years of research, teaching and writing."[2] Ray Morton of ScriptMag also praised the English translation of the book, saying "it does an excellent job of laying out the core and the advanced concepts of dramatic storytelling and how they apply to telling tales on the screen."[3]
"The chapter on creating story and character arcs is unique", writes screenwriter and novelist Ann Kimbrough, "I’ve never seen anyone break down arcs in this manner. I found it very useful as a writer of any medium. It’s a MUST READ part of the book."[4]
References
- ^ Guérand, Jean-Philippe (2014-06-18). "Numéro 609 - Seul contre tous de Gaspar Noé". Avant-Scène Cinéma (in French). Archived from the original on 2017-02-06. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
- ^ "Jack Brislee Reviews 'Constructing A Story'". The Story Department. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
- ^ Morton, Ray. "MEET THE READER: Something to Learn - The Craft of Screenwriting". Script Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
- ^ Kimbrough, Ann (2017-08-04). "Constructing a Story – Book Review". Screenwriters Daily Dose. Archived from the original on 2017-08-17. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
External links
This page was last edited on 8 February 2024, at 01:18