Writing Emotional Scenes: A Father's Perspective on Storytelling and Character Connection (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Film Courage How do you write an emotional scene? I have a 17-year-old and that's an interesting story in itself that I won't get too into but her mom and I didn't go about having her the traditional way. She was a wonderful surprise and I think after especially as she got older we've always been very close, we still are and she's my heartbeat and I think as a father it definitely feeds into as a writer your stories are your babies, your children and you feel for them, you care for them and I think there was something about becoming a dad especially at a young age which I was, I was 26 when I became a dad that really helps you understand and empathize with characters and tell a story that's compelling. And I always am able to I feel like take a step back and really delve into that. We've all dealt with loss, I mean I lost my father at a fairly young age, older than a lot of people but still pretty young. And he was a seminal figure in my life and I feel like the relationship that I had with him and with my daughter and again having experienced great loss, great love, it definitely I think having those relationships helps on a lot of levels especially when you're writing an emotional scene whatever it may be. It was definitely with TAKE BACK the fear of something like that happened to my daughter and it drove it. At the time when I first started writing it she was 8 and almost 9 and I read about girls as young as her age throughout the world, even in the United States of being taken or being sold off and especially as she got older and we got further along in the development of the script and then it became made it was definitely like oh my God, it could happen to her. So there was definitely some fear that drove it for sure and I know when it's like how do you…it's also sort of like how do you come back from that? How do you rebuild your life? Those were definitely questions that I experienced throughout and as a father it definitely had a huge impact and I think we can always relate back to our personal experiences and pull from that. I think you have to. And not everyone and fortunately a lot of writers didn't have that type of tragedy or anything that happened to them and I certainly…my dad didn't die in a terribly tragic way but you still feel the same emotion if you lose somebody you're close to and if you can infuse that in your writing and use that you definitely again it goes back to us really caring and giving a crap about your characters and your story. Film Courage Do you miss your characters when you're done writing? Yeah, sometimes. I think that's a great question. I think if you get really invested in that story. There's something about it too because I've gone back to rewrite scripts for people over the years that I had written and they wanted to see a draft or they've been in development for a while and I'll put them aside and go do something else because that draft is where it is at the moment. But I always look forward to going back and reworking it. It's always good to see old friends again. And I've certainly gone back and I'm like I'll cringe. What did I write? What did I do? But yeah, there's definitely something when you're done with a script and you put it aside or you're done in that moment, you've kind of got to let it go. It gets easier as you write more and you can breathe. I've never been one of those people who is so wrapped up in his world and the characters and that works for some but I've never been able to…I know that sounds bad. Some people live and they're in their character's world and that's wonderful. I didn't mean to dilute that experience for them or anything. But for me it's like I'm invested when I'm writing and then I am at the end of the day able to pull myself away. Of course I think about story when I'm not there but I think once I'm done and yeah if you've spent a long time on them and you're done you do miss it a little bit. You miss that story a little bit. But then again you always have in the back of your head well I may need to go back in to again make it better, refine it. So I'll be back. I'll see you in a little while, take some time. Have a beer and a cigarette and I'll get you down the line.