Screenwriting : Ask Me Anything (AMA) Wednesday 11/13 to Thursday 11/14- Advice For Screenwriters in Celebration of Stage 32's November Write Club! by Meg LeFauve

Hi, Meg LeFauve and Lorien. I hope you're doing great! Congratulations on all your success! Thanks for taking time to answer our questions!

Meg, I like to highlight things in different colors when I outline a script (green for dialogue, blue for scenes, etc.). Highlighting makes it easier for me to navigate the outline, especially long outlines. Is there anything you do that makes it easier for you to navigate your outline?

Lorien, what's a common mistake you see in scripts as a Script Editor?

Hey Meg LeFauve and Lorien - thanks so much for spending your day with us for this AMA. Question: How do you each handle the emotional downs of life or as I call them, "growth interruptions" in the midst of your screenwriting especially when you're right smack in the middle of a script? Thanks in advance!

Meg LeFauve Hey, Meg. It'll be great seeing (or speaking) to you again...

Hi Meg, you done a lot of awesome work

Thank you for doing this AMA Meg LeFauve and @lorien. How did you approach writing characters that represented emotions? What were some of your challenges? I have a background in happiness and wellbeing, so very interested in this. I write a monthly wellbeing blog for the Stage 32 community. Loved both Inside Outside animated features.

Hi Meg! Thank you so much for joining us! Inside Out and Inside Out 2 (congratulations on the massive success!) have turned out to be a way for children learning to name their emotions as well as a way for adults to manage their emotions at the same time. Was that intentional? And was there a similar catharsis for you while in the writer's room for these projects, and do you believe that that's why they were so successful? When my family and I watched Inside Out 2 together, my sister and I were in tears by the end and her oldest son was quite confused. He's 8 years old lol

Meg LeFauve Hey, Meg. I first wanted to say congrats on Inside Out 2's phenomenal success. Second, I am a live action writer and wanted to explore animation feature writing to possibly write one to have in my portfolio. Is there a big difference between live action and animation?

Hey, Lorien! What are the duties/responsibilities of a Story Manager at Pixar? What was your favorite part of that job?

Hi Meg and Lorien! I am an avid listener of TSL and first wanted to thank you for all of the support you provide to writers. My question is, how do you leverage yourself and your writing if your portfolio is not "big?" I am a recent college grad and am finding it difficult to prove my experience enough to land any entry level posiiton.

Hi Meg, can you talk a little about how writers & reps negotiate salaries & bonus perks (Box office numbers & merchandise) with studios when the job is a franchise movie?

Congratulations on graduating, Sophia Camilli!!!

@Leonardo Great question. Not well, I have to admit. Well, that's not true. Sometimes I handle the emotional ups and downs of the career better than other times. I'd love to say that I manage it all with exercise, self-care, meditation, and all the healthy stuff but in reality I let myself freak out. I let it out. I cry. I go for a very long angry walk. I compose angry letters in my head that I'll never send. And my favorite: Catastrophizing and then refusing to let anyone help me. I need to imagine the worst case scenario to get perspective. That allows me to see the big picture. The big picture in terms of family and prioritizes. Then I can start to regulate myself so that I can make CHOICES. make DECISIONS. When I allow myself to get sucked into the abyss of fear/shame/chaos/anger/freak out I become reactive. Passive. Not main character energy. But it can take me a while to get out of that frozen fear state and into a place where I can tackle the issue. And yes, I'm dealing with this RIGHT NOW which is why I'm answering it that way. As far as my writing during this time - I use it to hide. Honestly, it's all I really have that I can control sometimes. So I let myself just get ripped into the world I've created and disappear from real life for a while (if I can). I hope you weren't expecting a sophisticated strategy that would give you tools. I'm just hodge dodging it along with everyone else. Essentially, figure out what works, isn't self-destructive, and allows you to process, and NOT GET STUCK. And write. It's always about the writing. Don't forget to write. Don't forget to breathe. And dill pickle chips go nicely with a slow-burn mental fizzle.

Lorien McKenna - this is exactly what I was looking for - a great big bowl of transparency that you can peer into and see the bottom and not only know that it's OK to feel what you feel but to also know deep down this frozen state will thaw at some point. And yes, it's a lot about choices when we forget that we can choose our way out of the mucky bowl. The choice I made this week to have our annual birthday eve daddy/daughter dinner and only talk about all things geek, comics and movies. No extended family funk. What a cleansing. I love this answer. Just don't tell anyone that after I brush my teeth, I rinse with dark chocolate. And yes, I did some writing yesterday. Thanks Lorien.

MAURICE VAUGHAN -- I love highlighting!! I sometimes will make actual type different colors. If I am carding I use different colored cards for characters or for emotional beats. I also like Andrew Stanton's "scriptment" approach - which is it's part outline but it also can go into a full scene -- this is more for me when I am writing vs something I'd turn in.

Leonardo Ramirez -- you asked "How do you each handle the emotional downs of life or as I call them, "growth interruptions" in the midst of your screenwriting especially when you're right smack in the middle of a script? " What I do is either put the writing aside and just be where I am -- disappointed, shocked, scared, and I will talk to friends. Try to get my feet on the ground. If it is an emotional down that is work related it always helps to talk to someone who has tons of experience in the business or my manager or agent. They have a clear eyed 30,000 foot view on it. LIke when I was an emerging writer I didn't get the first job I was up for and I was so upset. I sat with a friend of mine who had decades in the business and she said "you know you only will get to do so many creative projects in your life. Is this one of them - one of the ones you wanted to give your precious life energy to?" And I said No - so she said "congratulations". IF the life interruption is personal I can also put it into my writing -- let that emotion that came up fill up my character...

Thanks for the answer, Meg LeFauve. I like the scriptment idea! I'm gonna outline a feature script as my third goal for November Write Club. I might do a full scriptment for it.

@maurice In an original pilot, the pilot has to take place in the world of the show. When I get a pilot script and it's all the before-world of the character and they don't decide to engage in the new world until the end of the script I don't know what the show is. Look at Schitts Creek. First scene: their house is being raided, then they are told they have nothing but a town. They're in the town. Goal: they have to get out of the town. The set up and the promise of the premise of the show delivered very quickly: A rich family now poor living in a motel trying to get out of the town. The Good Place: She finds out she's dead. She decides to fake being the real E to stay in the Good Place. That's the show. Episodic procedurals - bam we are right in it. There's a crime. Here are the people solving the crime. The world of the show. Look at the first 10 minutes of an hour serialized show. Character into - problem, solution, in it. I'll be a drug dealer to take care of my family. I'll kill these zombies. We don't wait until the end of the first episode to see that Zombies are in the world. there are zombies right now. A pilot has to be in the world of the show - it has to BE the show.

For Features: don't tell me up front what the character needs to learn, what their "need" is or I've already figured out what the movie is about. Show me their world, their problem, what they are going to do to solve that problem: what do they want, what is their plan to get it, what happens if they don't get it. That's act 2. Act 2 is the movie. Act 1 is not the movie. I don't need to know WHERE the behavior comes from right away - SHOW me the behavior, it's consequences, how it impacts the character, who me the choices driven by that behavior. Show me how that behavior reinforces their belief system about themselves in the world and how the world operates. Act 1 can be so yummy. It's all back story and juicy character work but what do you need to convince your audience to root for your character? do I need to know that the reason they have to get the last word is because their parents never let them have an opinion? What if you just show me a character who is trying to get her point across but no one is listening to her. She's so obsessed with getting them to understand her she loves her job over it. . Obviously, what she needs to do now is show them that she is right about what she was talking about by proving her case and going to space to find the MacGuffin, get her job back, and show them she is right. That whole issue with her parents making her feel small will come up in her journey and she will finally has to confront it. SHOW me the character. GET INTO ACT 2. I want to connect to the character and root for her to go to space. YES! She needs to prove it because those people are not listening to her!!!!

THESE ARE NOT RULES. These are my suggestions as poorly defined examples. Take the TRUTH of it and not the "here are the steps to an act 1." because depending on your project you do need to see that her parents didn't listen to her. What I'm saying is your character has to want something fiercly and she needs to know WHY and i need to connect to her why - PLOT.

The other thing is CHARACTERS HAVE TO WANT something a PLOT. like "I want to own my own house so I'm going to rob a bank to get the money." the reason they want to own a house could be buried in wanting to prove to their family that they aren't a failure. BUT "proving I'm not a failure" is not a plot. That's a WHY. Robbing a bank to get the money to buy a house is plot.

@sophia I know this isn't the answer you want but write more scripts. You've identified a potential problem: I don't have as many scripts as I think I need. What is the plan: Write more scripts. Not just to have more material, but because each script you write you learn more, you grow as a writer, you push your craft, and it keeps you distracted from worrying about all the existential writer questions. Write.

Love that answer Meg LeFauve and I love the question that your friend asked you as it pertains to creative projects. But yes, I do find a way to put the personal stuff into my writing even if it means saving it for the right project at a later time. Thank you so much!

Thanks for the in-depth answer, Lorien McKenna! I'm mainly a feature script and short script writer, but I'm wanting to write TV more, so "In an original pilot, the pilot has to take place in the world of the show" is really helpful!

Maria you asked "How did you approach writing characters that represented emotions? What were some of your challenges?" The biggest challenge was that the emotion did not become one note. Just angry. just disgusted and yet still stayed authentic to that emotion. Having a great cast helps! :). We did a lot of research on emotions and that also helped understand the complexity of our emotions - and that they are there trying to help us.

Hello Meg LeFauve ,

Appreciating reading your career path , and achievements,

I would like to have a preview of your strategy when pitching your manuscript Until you sell it, on how you protect your work ( idea, concept) from plagiarism through media and tremendous communication tools , how do you handle like a PRO to cover that sensitive phase until the release , I know media law are not the same everywhere , would like to have some advices in that term please ,

Thank you for being available to us in that lovely space

Best regards

Lylia

Brandy you asked did we imagine the IO movies to "be a way for children learning to name their emotions as well as a way for adults to manage their emotions at the same time. Was that intentional? And was there a similar catharsis for you while in the writer's room for these projects, and do you believe that that's why they were so successful?" All PIxar movies are written for people of all ages. We research -- and we do a lot of diving into ourselves. The goal is authenticity. I had my kids in a preschool that taught emotional intelligence (to the kids and parents) so i came into the first IO movie with that knowledge of naming your emotions --though that wasn't an overall goal. the goal was the story. We did so much work in the rooms together as a team digging into the story and what was true and honest (and fun!) for us. I do think that willingness to "go there" - to the vulnerable bits in ourselves does help the stories to deepen and connect.

Anthony you asked " I am a live action writer and wanted to explore animation feature writing to possibly write one to have in my portfolio. Is there a big difference between live action and animation?" In my experience the big animation feature companies pull from live action writers (not animation writers). They are looking for someone who knows emotional theme, character, structure and has a voice to lend to the endeavor. TV animation is different -so I hear- they are looking for animation writers. In terms of actually writing animation what I learned pretty quick is that animation is about BEHAVIOR - yes, so is live action writing - but really, really in animation - you have to learn what would be fun to DRAW. To animate. It isn't fun to animate someone's lips moving for a long dialogue scene :).

Sophia you asked " how do you leverage yourself and your writing if your portfolio is not "big?" I am a recent college grad and am finding it difficult to prove my experience enough to land any entry level posiiton". yes it's a common problem so you are not alone. It is all about the samples. And you need at least two if not three really, really, really good samples. That show craft level and have a "voice" that is your distinctly. So that can take time to create - years is the truth of the time it takes. And at the same time the right sample can get you places -- but it has to be something that really stands out - and again, that an just take time to develop your craft level to get to be able to execute that special story idea you have. So I guess I am saying have patience. keep at your craft -- keep rewriting and rewriting. It seems long but the truth is you are in training cause when you do get into the big leagues you'll need all you learned and gained from this time.

Dan you asked "can you talk a little about how writers & reps negotiate salaries & bonus perks (Box office numbers & merchandise) with studios when the job is a franchise movie?" I only have the one sequel to go on so not sure I am the expert :). My experience is it's the same as any negotiation -- they have precedent for your fee and any box office bonuses you got before - and they, as they always do, ask for a "bump". Wish writers got merchandise but we don't.

Hi Meg and Lorien,

I have two questions.

Question for Meg: I’ve heard that we're supposed to give our protagonist the most interesting traits. However, my comedy centers on a mean-spirited, 25-year-old athlete competing in a race. His goal is to win, especially since his half-brother is also racing. After being abandoned by their father at age five, he now sees winning as a way to earn his father’s attention. Meanwhile, his lively and fun cousin, whom he hired to distract some of the competitors, has become the most entertaining part of the story. Do you have any advice on handling this? I’d love to keep her in the story since she adds so much humor and energy.

Question for Lorien: What key elements should I include in a one-page synopsis for a potential anthology comedy series?

Thank you for your time Meg and Lorien. Your work inspires other women who are trying to break into the film industry.

Terrific AMA, Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna! Thanks again for taking time to answer our questions!

Agreed Maurice Vaughan. This was great. Thank you so much Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna.