Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Using the Model

Acknowledgement

Today is a milestone. I've written a year's worth of blogs. I try and write a page and a half each day. It has really helped me as a writer. For those who have taken the time to follow my scribbles and the tangents you have my appreciation and thanks.

Using the Time Tested Model

Last night Linda and I went to the movies in Baraboo and saw Real Steel. It was a warm and entertaining screen play, that had a lot of excitement and the visual effects you'd expect from a top notch flick. What I found myself reflecting on afterwards was the model that the writer’s used. It was the classic story telling model that I have been hammering my students about for the past few weeks.

The Central Character was a fighter (CC) who had run out on his wife years before and gone on to lead a dissipated life style. The movie provided a good before snapshot.

The supporting characters were his son, girlfriend and a sparring robot they resurrected, and a host of minor characters all of who had a part and moved the story along. Every line of dialogue and every scene met the test.

To begin with the audience saw the CC as a “Me” sort of guy who had hit rock bottom… To get the money to buy a new robot he shakes down the rich old man about to marry his deceased wife’s sister. As part of the deal he agrees to watch his son for the summer while they go to Europe.

Now it appears that the CC’s want need or desire is to win, but slowly the theme of redemption begins to emerge as he and his son begin to bond.

What follows is a string of crisis, each bigger than the last building in the “Rocky” tradition. In the end he begins to regret signing away his rights and there is the grand finale in the ring. By this time we have witnessed a complete turnabout in the CC’s character. He has a life changing experience and wants to be a good father.

For those who aspire to become better writers I recommend you go and see “Real Steel” not so much for the movie, which is entertaining, but to follow along and see how the screen writers, religiously followed the science of good writing and the model that has evolved over centuries for the spinning of yarns.

Much of what I read here at WDC is a meandering of whatever pops into the author’s head. It almost reads like stream of conscious. JRR Tolkien had a character, Gandalf’s brother, Radagast. He went around trying to wake up the trees. Sometimes I feel like Radagast. “There is a science to writing ,“ I lament in the wilderness. “It forms the frame-work for all the art that follows.” Ignore the science and suffer the consequences.