SCRIPT FORENSICS
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from — T.S. Eliot
It is a tricky beast, text analysis... it takes a lot of rigour and a lot of intuition. Yes, there will be concrete, fact-based stepping stones you can rely on as you chart the story. But sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. One of my subscribers has asked me to write a Substack about this process of nutting out the story on the page so that you can work out what acting-offers to make.
GOING BACKWARDS
What seeds need to have been planted in order for the flowers to grow?
Find the fully-developed fruit and the flowers at the end of the story... and then move methodically backwards to discover when, where and how those developing seeds must have been planted.
Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand have this whakataukī, (proverb):
Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua.
It means "I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past".
In life, time runs forwards not backwards. You can't stir the cream OUT of the coffee. But when you are working on the logic of a story, you are able to easily run forwards and backwards through the narrative as you comb it for clues.
Of course, first you read the script from the beginning!
And, once you have done that, you possess something mysterious and powerful. Now, you are enriched with special knowledge and insight that neither your character nor the audience has. Now, you know what happens next in the story.
But this means you can never again experience the story anew, the way the audience experiences it.
So that you are not seduced or confused by this knowledge of the future in the story, I suggest that you flip the process, like flipping this iceberg you see below, and work backwards, scene by scene or line by line. As T.E Eliot wrote:
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
Over on the paid site I talk more about script analysis, about crime-site forensics, about chiropractic treatment, about icebergs, about the game Join the Dots, about strawberries, Ibsen's play A DOLLS HOUSE and about the archaeology of architecture.
Come on over and check it out!
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