Reading: Developing Story Ideas (Part V) - Michael Rabiger

Expanding Your Work

• Iron out kinks in storyline before expanding it
• Break outline of script in scene cards. This allows you to "try structural alternatives" p. 171

• Consider:
  - Timeline: is it chronological or not?
  - Point of view - the is from the main character's perspective or an omniscient narrator?
• "The point is that emotion often affects how we travel through time, space and memory" p.172

This quote is relevant to my own work as I will be including flashbacks in my film, related to the main character, Manon's emotions and memories.

• Rabiger argues that characters' emotions can distort time. 

This is useful to consider for structuring my narrative as it doesn't have to be linear. I think the structure I'll use will correlate with how the characters are feeling

• Keep the narrative focused from the beginning
• Introduce actors quickly
• Scan each character

It could be useful for me to develop the secondary character, Alecia's backstory in order to make sure that she has enough depth. I don't want her to seem unnecessary, I want her to be a compelling character for the audience.

• "Keep extraneous information till later to avoid information overload" p. 175
  I should try not to reveal too much information at once. Instead this should be spaced out
• Don't give away too much too fast "keep us guessing as long as possible so we exercise our minds and emotions and stay in that wonderful state of anticipation" p. 175
• Keep action going in story as new characters are introduced
• Decide on character's motivation 
• Raise the stakes in characters lives 
• Vary audience reactions - change up rhythm and conflict
• Kill anything off if the story still works without it (scenes, characters, conversations etc)
• Check for multiple endings
• Keep reworking hypothesis