Speaker 1: Film Courage How does a writer create an emotional core for their story where the audience will relate and go on the journey and feel the ups and downs?

Speaker 2: Jessica Lange Well I usually talk about the emotional core as being sort of a combination of four components, actually five so there's another fifth stealth element here. So the four that I think are involved are the things that basically the character has to prioritize over the course of the story. And the way they prioritize those things, sort of the change in their priorities shows us the effect that the plot events have had on them, if that makes sense. So they start out in a status quo so they have…we're just going to get real technical with it. So they start out with an inner drive, so some sort of inner motivation that's causing them to…that's sort of…I take that back…that's motivating their actions in life, right? I'll use my favorite example. So in DIE HARD, John McClane shows up on page one wanting to fix his marriage. That's what's driving him internally. So we know that he has come to LA, he wants to bring his wife back to New York, their marriage has been sort of struggling, whatever. So we know that that's what's driving him internally. He also has a misbehavior. So some people call this a character flaw. I like to call it a misbehavior because I don't think it has to be objectively negative. So it's a behavior that isn't serving them as well as they think it is or it's some strategy that they're using in order to pursue that inner motivation. So he shows up on page one wanting to fix his marriage and the strategy that he's using for that is by being macho and uncompromising, right? So he's basically a caveman when he shows up. He's like I'm going to take my wife and drag her back to New York with me, right? That's kind of his attitude when he shows up. So those are the first two elements. That's kind of the character status quo, right? What's motivating them internally and the way they're going about getting it which is really their defining characteristic. It's their misbehavior, right? And then the other two things are the stakes and the goal and we've already talked about those so you know what those are very well. So those four things are in play. They're put in play basically in the setup of your story, right? So he shows up on page one wanting to fix his marriage. The way he's going about it is by being macho and uncompromising. Over the course of act one terrorists show up and he forms the story goal of needing to save those hostages from the terrorists, right? And one of the hostages is his wife. So that's his story goal. What's at stake? The lives of the hostages including his wife, right? He really wants to save his wife's life obviously because that goes to fixing his marriage. So those four things, these are his priorities when we have completed our setup. As we watch the movie and his pursuit of that goal and all of the things that are happening to him as he pursues the goal, all of the complications and obstacles and that main force of antagonism, those things and the plot events that he's encountering are forcing him to reprioritize. Now Die Hard is a slightly rare example because he isn't necessarily forced to reprioritize by his interaction with the terrorists but because he goes through this whole experience of potentially losing his wife, right? She might die. He might die. They may never be able to get back together and make it work, right? Because that's hanging in the balance he is forced to have sort of this like come to Jesus moment where he's like I have been doing things wrong. He says to his cop buddy on the outside like if I ever get out of here or if I don't get out of here tell my wife that I was wrong or that I should have done things differently or something like that. I don't remember the exact dialogue but he has that moment where he admits that he has been going about things the wrong way because he thought he knew the right way. He didn't give her enough credit, right? So he continues through the rest of the plot and then by the end of the movie we see how he has prioritized those four things. So he has managed to save the hostages so he's accomplished the goal. He has protected his stakes because he has saved the lives of those hostages including his wife. He is going to be able to fix his marriage, we get the sense, right? Because his wife and he have that moment at the end where they're working together, right? And then his misbehavior is the last thing that's left that could potentially change and so by the end of the movie this may be my interpretation but I think that he has come to realize that he cannot treat his wife like he's a caveman and he's macho and uncompromising anymore. So he has to take her needs into account too. Her input, she's a smart lady, she's clearly had this whole career that she didn't need him for, right? So they're more equals than he thought. He doesn't have to protect her all the time. He can let her be a part of their marriage, they can be a partnership. So he has reprioritized those four things and really what I mean by that is he's sort of like let go a little bit of the macho-ness in order to get the other things. Saving his marriage, saving the hostages, basically that's it, saving the hostages and protecting their lives, right? So the way he reprioritizes those things shows us the emotional arc and the character arc. Now we know how he's changed. We know that he started out thinking he had to be this macho protector and by the end he knows that he can actually allow his wife to be a real partner in their marriage and they can work together and ride off into the sunset together. Does that make sense? Film Courage Yes, it does. Wow.

Speaker 1: That's excellent. I don't even remember what my initial question was because I'm still thinking about the movie and how he softens a little bit, has a little more humor to him at the end.

Speaker 2: And DIE HARD is a big action movie so it's not like he's going to have this profound like internal change where he goes from being macho to being just a pussycat who's not going to stand up to anyone. It's not going to be that kind of 180 change but we do see that he has reprioritized those four things and that's what the question was which was about the emotional core. So that's what the emotional core…it's just a term that I use to sort of encapsulate the character arc and the emotional journey and kind of the takeaway message of the theme all in one because that's really when we see that character go through this experience and have this particular change or adjustment in attitude that tells us, that gives us the lesson of the theme. It tells us what's important that we need to know about how to live a better life or be a better person or whatever.

Speaker 1: Film Courage And if we look at the stakes too, it's not just the terrorists but aren't they like in a very high point on the building? It would just be like the ARCO building or whatever, the highest one in LA. And so there's the stakes of that. How are they going to access this level and they're going in the stairwells and things

Speaker 2: like that. So that adds to it.

Speaker 1: Emily Nugent

Speaker 2: It's the Nakatomi building. Film Courage Oh, okay. Sorry. Okay. Emily Nugent No, in the movie. It's the Nakatomi building. It's in Century City. So the stakes are really the life of the hostages including John McClane's wife. So that's what he's trying to save. And then we talked about stakes and sacrifice. He is sacrificing his own safety in order to protect those stakes, right? Which is again story nerd stuff but valuable to think about because it's like if he was going to risk his life to get his wife out of a parking ticket we'd be like I'm not on board with the story. People would check out, they'd stop reading, stop watching the movie or whatever, right? So the stakes and the sacrifice have to really balance. We have to understand how they warrant each other essentially, you know?

Speaker 1: Film Courage Well, you say story nerd like it's a bad thing or you have to apologize. Doesn't someone have to really be a story nerd to write well? Because if you're too cool for story then you're going to ignore a lot of the details and a lot of the parts of this engine, correct? Emily Nugent

Speaker 2: Yeah, well I mean thank you for saying that. So I like thinking about kind of the theory of how stories work and all the parts and that's my favorite thing. That's why I do what I do. But I actually think that…I mean yes, is it valuable for writers to understand? Definitely. I don't think everyone is as nerdy about it as I am and I don't think that's a problem. I do think a lot of writers come at their stories sort of instinctively and intuitively and we all have kind of that sense of a story, right? Like we all understand beginning, middle and end and we've had that ingrained in us since we were kids. So I think a lot of writers don't need to understand kind of the minutia of all of this stuff as much as I enjoy talking about it because they come at their stories instinctively and they just have a story they want to tell and they can get it on the page without thinking about stakes or sacrifice maybe on the first pass, right? But where I do think it will come in handy is if you are struggling to make a story work or several screenplays work, right? If you're kind of running into the same problems over and over then I think it's super valuable to look at what is it that I am instinctively not getting, right? Where is that thing happening that's not allowing my story to work as well as it could? And then that's maybe the part of the story nerd canon to dive into. Just figuring out like what is the thing that I'm not automatically bringing to the page and sort of like understanding that part of it a little bit better and maybe honing those skills.

Speaker 1: Film Courage So then the story nerd can take the Rubik's Cube apart and have all the pieces down and put it back together but someone can still configure the cube just to have it all the same colors on each side and there's still going to be a good…

Speaker 2: Film Courage Right, okay.

Speaker 1: So they don't have to necessarily pull every little plastic piece out.

Speaker 2: Film Courage Yeah, I mean I think that's a really good analogy that I had never thought of. But yeah, I think that's true. I really like, and I do think of it in terms of being a mechanic, I really like being able to totally disassemble a story and look at each little part and go, oh I see what you did there and I see what you did there and I see how you're making all of these things work together and that's really cool and here's the one thing that's knocking, right? Or that's like, I'm actually not a car person, but here's the one thing that is making that funny noise. So let's look at that and maybe talk about why the choice that you made isn't as strong as it could be or is getting in the way of something else or whatever it is, right? So I like to be a story nerd because I just enjoy it and I think that sometimes I can help other people understand the one little area that they might not be fully understanding by bringing that to them but I don't think every writer needs to be able to understand every single thing that we've talked about today.