The Furby Way To Make Your Script Stand Out...

By Jurgen Wolff

What does writing your novel or screenplay have in common with Furby?

Kevin Young, a principal at design and innovation consultancy Continuum, analyzed the factors behind the success of Christmas crazes and found three:

1. They appeal to emotions.

Being useful is not enough (but it helps people to rationalize their buying decision). Design can be an important component of this, motivating us to buy the product that also has a pleasant look or shape, and then keep updating to the newest version of a product because we’ll feel we’re ahead of the pack (status appeal, whether or not the buyer is conscious of it).

2. They address subconscious desires.

For instance, the Cabbage Patch doll appealed to little girls’ desire to be mothers like their own. All dolls do, but these had a story behind them and even had a birth certificate and were “adopted” by the girls.

3. An unexpected outcome.

This one is the hardest to come up with. Examples are the Furby (for the first time a doll had seemingly independent action), and the Wii (for the first time, you could use your bodily movements to control games, instead of just a joystick or buttons to click).

Applying this to screenplays

I think the same three elements can make your script stand out, and it’s useful to think about them at the start of a project.

In next week’s tip I will go into more detail about making your script appeal to emotions, but for now suffice it to say that people who go to movies hoping to have an emotional experience, whether that’s laughing, crying, being scared, or being amazed.

In terms of unconscious desires, we all want to have the feeling of being a hero without having to do something heroic, and of being a villain without suffering the consequences. Via your movie, the members of the audience can be superheroes or villains or win the lottery or go back in time.

Writing a screenplay that delivers an unexpected experience is more difficult. In the case of films this challenge tends to be addressed by the use of special effects, but these days people expect to be amazed. Here are three other approaches that work :

• A surprising character (as in the film “Precious” or Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” or “The Elephant Man” or Dexter in the books and TV series). Feeling an emotional connection to a character to whom you initially don’t relate can be an unexpected outcome.

• A major plot twist, as in “Psycho,” “Sixth Sense” or “Seven.” Having a story take an unexpected turn or make a surprising revelation can also be an unexpected outcome.

• A topic or treatment of  characters or a situation that makes people think about and discuss it long after they read the book or saw the film. (The ending of the movie “Gone, Baby, Gone” and the characters in the novel “The Great Gatsby” are examples.)

Unexpected outcomes are not only positive, of course. If people expect the ending of a film to resolve the main mystery of the story, for instance, but it doesn’t, they will feel cheated. This is not uncommon with films that turn out to be mostly a set-up for a sequel.

If you can imbue your screenplay with positive versions of these three elements, you’ll be delivering what producers and audiences are looking for.

About Jurgen Wolff

Jurgen Wolff is a writer, teacher, and creativity consultant. In the United States, he wrote for sitcoms including “Benson” and “Family Ties.” He wrote the feature film, “The Real Howard Spitz,” starring Kelsey Grammer and directed by Vadim Jean. He was a script doctor on the hit film, “Mannequin” and others starring Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, and Eddie Murphy. For Germany, he co-created the comedy series, “Lukas,” which ran for 65 episodes, and an original comedy series called “Krista.” He also wrote nine episodes of the series,” Relic Hunter.” He wrote two TV movies for the Olsen Twins, and several the German TV movies including, “On Top of the Volcano,” starring Maria Schrader and Sebastian Koch (2007). His play, “Killing Mother,” was produced at the Gorky Theatre in Berlin, and he’s also had plays produced in New York, Los Angeles, and London.

As a writing and creativity teacher, his courses include “Beyond Brainstorming,” “Create Your Future,” and “The Creative Breakthrough Workshop.” He has presented his courses at the University of Southern California, the University of Barcelona, the Skyros Institute, many films schools, and groups and organisations including The Academy for Chief Executives, Egmont, Grundy-UFA, and Columbia-Tri-Star. For eight years he was a visiting lecturer for the Pilots Program in Sitges.

His books include “Your Writing Coach” and “Your Creative Writing Masterclass” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing), “Creativity Now” (Pearson),“Do Something Different” (Virgin Business Books), “Successful Scriptwriting” (Writers Digest Press), “Top Secrets: Screenwriting” (Lone Eagle Press), and “Successful Sitcom Writing” (St. Martin’s Press). He has written for many publications including the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Broadcast Magazine, and he is the editor of “Brainstorm,” the creativity ebulletin.

His writing blogs are at www.TimeToWrite.blogs.com and www.SuccessfulScreenwriting.com. He runs the Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program, an online group coaching program. He is based in London but spends part of each year in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at jurgenwolff@gmail.com .


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