Dan Harmon's Story Circle

My current obsession with Community has inevitably led me to discover the creator Dan Harmon. His story circle maps out the basic structure to satisfying stories, especially those that grace our screens. Sure it's a very simplified approach but it's also a massive help, a loose guide to the beats your main character is going to hit, the change they will experience, and where they'll end up.

Using Dan Harmon's story circle I thought I'd analyse an episode of Community to see how it fits with the creator's outline, coz I'm super-cool like that and totally didn't cry myself to sleep last night. Beginner Pottery is the 19th episode of the first season and sees Jeff enter the ultimate blow-off class - this is a very literal manifestation of the 'unfamiliar situation', however character-wise, the real unfamiliar situation comes from within the pottery class, when Jeff is upstaged by Rich. The episode deals with Jeff's obsession with being the best at everything, and his realisation that there are some things he's just mediocre at, and that's okay.

A character is in a zone of comfort: Jeff is in the study group room discussing the ultimate blow-off class - Beginner Pottery. He's content in his familiar role as cool guy leader of the group.

But they want something: Jeff wants an easy credit.

They enter an unfamiliar situation: So he attends the Beginners Pottery class for the first time. Although this is unfamiliar territory externally, the real unfamiliar territory is internal and comes when Jeff is upstaged by Rich, who is naturally gifted at pottery and creates an impressive vase.

Adapt to it: A very jealous Jeff stays behind to try and create a piece of pottery to rival Rich's, but his efforts are in vain. The next day, Rich notices Jeff's injured his finger and informs Jeff he's a doctor but Jeff doesn't believe him, instead he thinks Rich is a con-man, a pro at pottery who signs up to novice classes to bag girls.

Get what they wanted: When Jeff notices Rich's car plates are from Santa Fe, New Mexico, he stays up all night researching the area and concludes that anyone born in the region would naturally learn pottery. Jeff thinks he's got the information he needs to expose Rich as a charlatan.

Pay a heavy price for it: When Jeff confronts Rich in pottery class, he tries to copy Rich's technique but violates the professor's 'No Ghosting' rule and is chucked out of the class.

Then return to their familiar situation: Jeff finds Pierce and opens up to him about the difficulty of failure and realising you're not good at something. Failing to produce a good pot in the class made Jeff question himself.

Having changed: Jeff returns to pottery class, apologises to Rich for his crazy behaviour and finally accepts he can't be the best at everything and makes peace with being terrible at pottery.  

Character Bios

So I've just fallen in love with Community. I mean I'm proper head over heels, walking along the beach at sun-set, already imaging our future together in love with Community. The meta-humour relating to TV tropes and movie cliches is right up my sub-plot, as are the relentless pop-culture references, and, it's just a great sit-com, with a bunch of characters you can't wait to hang out with.

The Wikipedia page on the cast and characters is a perfect example of how to write short character bios. Obviously the more you know about your characters the better, but the few lines featured on Community's Wikipedia page sums up each character's major personality traits, their flaws and their subsequent room for growth.

Annie's bio jumped out at me, it reads -

"the youngest member of the group, a compulsive over-achiever, relentlessly organised and comparatively innocent. Annie was extremely unpopular in high school and formerly addicted to Addarall, which has caused her to be very insecure and desperate to prove herself in a variety of extra-curricular groups despite already being considered naturally intelligent and attractive by others. She is normally kind and docile, but can quickly turn obsessed or throw a tantrum when she fails to achieve or is denied something she strongly cares about, even if it's about something as simple as a pen."

This last line reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's 8 rules to writing, the third states - "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." Characters with wants, aims and desires are essential because this is the centre of conflict - your character wants something, but something or someone gets in their way of obtaining it - voila! - conflict. Your characters' specific traits will set up the point of conflict for single scenes, whole episodes and a full season's narrative arch. For example Jeff wanting a date with Britta; this isn't only the over-arching point of conflict for series 1 but also the set-up for the show itself - Jeff creates the study group where our loveable bunch of misfits come together and become close friends, so he can be closer to Britta.

Using Wikipedia's Cast and Characters section is a great basis for writing your own character bios, try reading the entries for your favourite shows, see how they sum up David Brent, Tim Bisley and Phil Dunphey's strengths and weaknesses, then get off the bloody Internet and start writing!

Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul read Breaking Bad finale Felina

Lena Dunham on writing Girls

"Write stories that feel like yours and feel close to you rather than trying to fill a hole in the industry."

Lena Dunham

Girls is a pretty fantastic show, the first season never had a dull moment and from the opening scene where Hannah's parents tell her they're going to cut her off, you knew this was a generational sitcom that was going to talk to a lot of twenty-somethings. Although season 2 felt like it wobbled a little with a few missteps I'm excited that it's back. Here writer, director and star, Lena Dunham talks about the creation of the show, about being open with her drafts, getting feedback from Executive Producers Jennifer Konner and Judd Apatow, and soundtracking her writing process.

Character Traits

CHANDLER

So I have a flaw, big deal. Like Joey's constant knuckle cracking isn't annoying? Or Ross, with his over pronouncing every single world? And Monica with that snort when she laughs, I mean what the hell is that thing?

This fight between the Friends in season 1 is a great demonstration of individual character traits. The points Chandler makes at the beginning are the exact sorta thing you might write in your character's bios when you're first developing them. Here the writers get a lot of laughs out of the habits as each trait annoys or grosses-out another Friend. Chandler's habit of smoking, something he started after his parent's divorce when he was younger (also revealing some of his back story), is the catalyst for the argument which then reveals the other characters' annoying habits.

JOEY

Well, is it [his knuckle crackling] a little annoying, or is it like when Phoebe chews her hair?

Cut to Phoebe spitting out her hair. 

Ross's character trait of over-enunciation also helps distinguish his character voice - Ross is well spoken, educated and articulate. This scene is from the very beginning of the series, the third episode of season 1, 'The One With the Thumb', and shows a crafty technique employed to help the audience get to know the characters. By making the traits annoying they provide excellent material for conflict, so while the characters bicker among each other the audience are learning about each of them and the writers are getting a plethora of great jokes.

ROSS 

Don't listen to him [Joey], Phoebe, I think it's endearing.

JOEY

(mimicking Ross's over-pronunciation) 

Oh, you do, do you.

Cut to Monica snort laughing.

Traits are an excellent way to make your characters feel authentic and three dimensional, and even more so when the trait is the manifestation of a flaw or insecurity. Check this scene from Guillermo Del Toro's debut feature 'Cronos' - skip to 1.50 if you're particularly impatient.

Ron Perlman's character wants a new nose, it's a quirky trait that's unexpected for the thuggish archetype he's playing, and therefore makes his character instantly more interesting, relatable and amusing. You don't have to like every character, but you do need to empathise with them on some level. Here, we can all relate to a physical insecurity or wanting to change something about our appearance. Don't overload your characters with traits, just pick one or two things they can do - a physical tick, such as Phoebe's hair chewing, or a pattern of speech, their snorting laugh, or the way they drink their coffee - and know where this trait comes from, to make your characters leap from the page and onto the screen. 

Empire Podcast - Three Flavours Cornetto Triology special

The Empire podcasts are a wealth of information on film and television development, as well as being delightfully entertaining thanks to the characters in the Empire team. Their knowledge, humour and ability to put almost every actor, director, and writer at ease, always gets the best out of them.

This one here's a Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy special with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Their work is testament to how important finding a writing partner can be to your work. Something magic happens whenever these guys get together, and the two share stories about how they met, how Spaced was developed and produced, and plenty of amusing on-set anecdotes from three of the best British comedies of the last decade. Interesting to hear how, before writing Shaun of the Dead, they read Syd Field's book 'Screenplay' and then would watch their favourite movies and match the story events to Syd Field's paradigm, and were surprised how many fit into the structure.

Charlie Brooker interviews Vince Gilligan

Breaking Bad is one of the best TV dramas ever made. A black comedy, a Shakespearean morality tale, and a show that epitomizes the current trend in TV drama for unsympathetic protagonists, every episode is an incredible example of high tension storytelling with some of the tightest writing on the screen. At the Edinburgh International TV festival Charlie Brooker interviewed the show's creator Vince Gilligan. They cover everything from the inspiration and development to Vince Gilligan's entry into the industry.

Robert McKee - Big Think Interview

This in-depth interview with Robert McKee, one of the original screenwriting gurus, covers a lot of subjects, from the importance of mastering the craft of exposition, to whether the best screenwriting opportunities are in television. In regards to the latter he says, "television without question, is the most creative medium to write in today."

It's also encouraging when he discusses the benefits of failing, about how you have to write a bunch of unproduced screenplays because it's all practice, practice of the craft, as well as practice of life, and building up material and ideas. So we shouldn't get disheartened if we're not that 23 year old writer who got their first screenplay made, because when you finally do get something produced it'll be of real quality.

Breaking Bad scripts

Discovered this fantastic Tumblr called Cinephelia and Beyond - an amazing resource for any film fan, especially those into development, directing, screenwriting, and the like. They were awesome enough to find and post a few PDFs of Breaking Bad scripts.

Obviously, this made me wet with happiness. I've looked into purchasing some episode scripts but they're as yet unavailable, or at least they were the last time I checked Amazon. Worry not, though, because follow this link and you can read the scripts for the pilot and a few from season 3, including 'No Mas' - one of the tensest episodes in the series, which is saying a lot, coz every episode of Breaking Bad is a nail biting lesson in suspenseful storytelling.

They're not only great, action packed scripts, but they're also beautifully written. Note in the pilot episode how Vince uses the word 'galumphing' to describe the way the RV moves. When was the last time you used the word 'galumphing'? Yeah me neither, until I had read the script, now I try to use it at least once a day.

Say Your Prayers

Seinfeld Writing Seinfeld

"We're kinda in the middle of something here!"