Horton Foote on keys to writing
Earlier this week, I ran a quote from the late great playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote, whose movie credits include To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies and The Trip to Bountiful. I was struck by one particular line because it points out how critical characters are with regard to plot, story structure, and the nuts and bolts of writing. Here’s the line where Foote discusses working with his story characters:
…what do they want, what causes the conflict between them, what is the structure of the scene, what is the overall through-line of the play, what is the spine, what does everything kind of hold on to.
Let’s break this down into its component parts:
What do they want: One of the key questions a writer can ask characters. The Conscious Goal of a Protagonist is so important, it typically defines the end point of the narrative.
What causes the conflict between them: We’ve all heard how without conflict, there can be no drama. The single best way to ensure our stories have drama is to identify the conflict between characters and within characters.
What is the structure of the scene: Interesting that Foote goes to this in the context of talking about working with characters, but if you think about the characters involved in any given scene, determining their goals and the conflict between them can inform how we approach shaping the scene.
What is the overall through-line: I believe this goes back to Constantin Stanislavski, the famed Russian actor and theater director, and progenitor of the “method acting” who taught actors to think not only of their objective within each scene, but also throughout the entire narrative.
What is the spine: In thinking about a character’s goals, conflict and through-line, and in particular the Protagonist, that can lead us to identify the spine of the narrative.
What does everything kind of hold on to: This evokes the idea of a central theme which — again — is almost always tied to characters, the meaning of the story as it relates to their physical and psychological journeys.
Yet again, we see how critical characters are to the story-crafting process, Foote acknowledging their intimate connection to the emergence of a story’s structure.
Here is an hour-long interview with Horton Foote: