My screenplay, Harder Than Heaven, was just about perfect. Set in Korea in 1957, it was about six year-old Nguyen's wrenching journey across the war-torn country to find her father after the brutal death of her mother. The search for her father, who had been conscripted into the war, was harrowing. My screenplay had pathos. My screenplay had scenery. What my screenplay didn't have was a second act.
I needed help. Unfortunately, living in Ohio, there weren't a lot of people I could turn to. So, I turned, instead, to a piece of computer software called MonsterScriptMaster (TM). The ad for MonsterScriptMaster (TM) promised "to help novice writers and seasoned professionals alike create gripping second acts!" Well, could anything be more perfect? I mean, really? I immediately ordered a copy ($59.99 + $3.99 SH) and, four to six weeks later, installed it on my computer.
My investment almost immediately paid off. The first piece of advice MonsterScriptMaster (TM) gave me was to "add a tall, dark stranger to help your hero on his journey." Brilliant! The stranger could be a source of mystery as well as a help to Nguyen.
Except...except an adult travelling with a six year-old might look...well, creepy to some people. (I tell you, there's no accounting for some people's imaginations!) Now, if I made Nguyen 16...yeah! Excellent! There could be an element of romance in their relationship. And, my relationship with MonsterScriptMaster (TM) was working out!
Although this was good progress, I still didn't have many ideas for scenes that would advance my story in the second act. Scrolling through some of MonsterScriptMaster (TM)'s possible scenes ("Hero discusses the existence of a traitor in the organization while balancing a salami on his head," "It is revealed that the villain became maniacally opposed to the hero when he accidentally shot the toes off the villain's pet iguana," "The horse dies" - you know, the typical sort of Hollywood plot points), it occurred to me that perhaps setting my story in Korea was too...constricting. Yeah, sure: I needed a setting an American audience could relate more easily to.
I reset the story in Toledo during the Vietnam War. Nguyen - know renamed Naomi - wanders through the mid-west looking for her father, who disappeared after getting his draft notice. Good...good; instead of meeting the mysterious stranger at a bathhouse, Nguy - uhh, Naomi could meet him in a run-down diner. My screenplay was getting better and better...well, except for one problem.
At the end of my original story, Nao - err, Nguyen finally does meet up with her father, who is then killed saving her life during a French bombing raid. Major pathos - I envisioned awards. The problem was: having the French bomb Selma or Birmingham at the height of the Vietnam War was - despite being lots of fun to contemplate - simply not credible. I consulted MonsterScriptMaster (TM) for a solution. And the programme did not let me down. It's advice: have the father die while protecting his daughter from an alien attack.
Yes! MonsterScriptMaster (TM) distills the wisdom of hundreds of producers, studio executives and publicity agents, wisdom that can be a lifesaver to a budding writer. Okay, I realized that throwing the whole alien invasion scenario into the last act of my screenplay was a bit of a stretch; but, it really did work for me. Instead of a historical picture, my screenplay would now be a modern day story about a young woman looking for her lost father against the backdrop of an alien invasion of earth. Yeah, and we don't know until the very end if the mysterious stranger is really helpful, or if he's an alien collaborator!
Hey - if Dashiell Hammett had been a science fiction writer, his advice would have been: "When you get stuck, have an alien walk through the door with a big gun."
Knowing I now had a winning screenplay, I made a hundred copies and sent them to all the agents and studios I could find. Oddly enough, there was virtually no response. One agent's Executive Assistant did return the screenplay with a brief note saying that what I had written looked like just about every other of the hundreds of alien invasion stories that crossed her desk.
At first, I was discouraged. But, then it occurred to me that if so many people were writing the same thing as I was, I must have my finger on the pulse of what America wanted to see at the movies. And, I owe it all to MonsterScriptMaster (TM)!
