Screenwriting : Issues with adapting a true-life story by James Welday

Other people in his life? Maybe they bring conflict.

James Welday sounds like an interesting challenge;

yes it would seem there must be struggle underneath, though it might be of the "long hard slog" variety that is slow moving on the screen

until it does get condensed and punched up.

If the accomplishments are inspiring, then the protagonist must have surmounted obstacles to attain them, there's conflict there,

and even if his voice of determination was buried deep or resides in simple virtues like persistence or quiet dedication,

dramatizing those conflicts could involve using your creative license to come up with some "things that could have happened" to show a story that progresses and builds drama. Good luck !!

Thank you for the suggestions, guys!!

I have the protagonist's want and need established, and the conflict is more in the fact that he's a minority in a white-dominated world, but the antagonist doesn't have a face, it's more of a man vs. establishment.

Daniel, I feel those private moments would greatly improve my approach. I'm thinking of how Oskar Schindler is in quiet contemplation before he decides to do the right thing and put his fortune up to save his factory workers.

I'm having a similar problem with a friend of mine. He's a famous ex-cop in my city, and he's interested in turning his memoir into a novel. He broke some important cases, including a gang of bad cops who were pulling off robberies way back in the day. The only problem is there was never any real threat to him or the good cops, so no big drama just normal everyday police work leading to some arrests. You might try explaining the lack of conflict to your subject and see what they think might work. Difficult to tell a rousing story from a list of non-dramatic facts. Perhaps there was some big side drama going on in their life that made the accomplishments into triumphs?

James - A minority in a white-dominated world? Where does he live? What time period? How does this effect his goals, job prospects, civil rights, the safety of his family? Plenty there to work with.

Gary - No offense, but Blue like Jazz is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I had to be talked out of walking out of the theater mid-movie by a friend. It bombed big-time and is hardly a model for other movies.

Erik A. Jacobson A Hispanic reporter in a white-dominated field in Los Angeles during the 70's/80's. Some conflict is there, but not enough to sustain the narrative of an entire film. That's why I specified in my earlier comment that it's a man vs. establishment story. The drama will need to added, but I don't want it to feel tacked-on, if possible.

Mike Romoth glad I'm not alone here with this issue. That's why it's difficult to sometimes tell "Great Man" stories, because they don't always their demons to fight. I'll continue to dig and speak with the subject himself. Maybe there's something there that he chose to leave out.

maybe focus on one event in the mc's life and make that the goal. From what I remember of "Stand and Deliver" is not the teacher's personal goal but a corrupt and racist public school system.

You can also invent a character to act as a proxy for society. If society was racist have this character as the weaponised version. Then you can show social change via that character’s actions.

Plus like Dan suggested focus on a time. I would have a few items. Resolve one, as Dan suggests, then leave one hanging to show his struggle went on for his life.

You could have your reporter uncover white law enforcement corruption or something similar which directly affects his job and safety so that the story becomes much more than man vs. establishment. Perhaps more of a Chinatown?

you could base the conflict on a specific ending, a specific phrase, his personality, his internal or external conflicts/obstacles, add a character like Craig said, or re-write it.

There's a technic that's called: ¨Dan Harmon´s story circle¨ so in case you want to rewrite it maybe it could be helpful to you, and at last, you could try to project yourself.

What I’ve discovered in the text is an overarching theme that works as a collective tissue for the entire story, so I might be in better shape than I thought. The process isn’t done, as I want to interview the subject and delve further into his personal life at this time to tie the entire thing together.

So appreciative of a community that helps each other help, thank you!!

You'll have to create some characters that spice the story up. Leave the accomplishments alone, but have spicy characters. I had to do that a screenplay about Dr. Frederick Banting who discovered insulin.

Some adaptations merge characters to illustrate wider perspectives and in some cases to give a voice to something a character has to face. In the movie Lawrence of Arabia, Omar Sharif’s character represents more than twenty leaders Lawrence worked with and in Chernobyl Emily Watson’s character represents a whole section of the soviet scientific community.

What's the character's motivation, what's their back story wound, how does that manifest as an internal struggle they must overcome, and what's the theme?

Read A Beautiful Mind, The King's Speech, & The Imitation Game.

Watch "Adaptation"...Charlie supposedly had same issues...

Myself, I'd ditch that piece a moment I saw there's no cinema in it...there's this anecdote told by Kubrick's secretary...day after day she heard him bouncing books of the ground all day long in his office, closed doors....suddenly it all got quiet...she then knew he found his next film...it was "Shining"...