A LACK OF CHARACTER(S)

As you all know I like science fiction but more than that I like a good story with interesting characters. It seems that writing good science fiction is harder than any other drama because its a genre that is literally "an embarrassment of riches" or put it another way, there are so many fascinating possibilities that its easy to get lost. I don't believe that is a negative and point of fact its a huge advantage.

But again with so many possibilities its easy to forget that every story in every genre is ultimately about the characters. I wanted to avoid slagging "Transformers" (Michael Bay) but its just too good of an example to ignore. Basically "Transformers" (sequel included) is just a lot of set dressing and little or no plot let alone characters. The bitch of it is that "Transformers" as an idea or concept is full of potential.

Ironically enough that potential was better expressed during the 80's animated TV series. I feel that Japanese animie is in the same league in that they have a myriad of great ideas and concepts but usually the execution is poor and overshadowed by big explosions and pre-pubescent girls with huge eyes. I have to admit, the latter isn't that much of a detraction but I digress and would like to move on.

I want to make something clear as I believe I have before, I like action and a grand adventure. So I'm not some kind of Indie Film snob but I do believe in any story there has to be an order to things. First, the story has to be about your characters and second the things around said character(s) and third, how they react to those things. But that can be a tricky balancing act even for seasoned writers let alone hacks like me self, lol.

When Ronald D. Moore and his staff were starting to write the finale episode of the new "Battlestar Galactica" they had such a difficult time nailing down how the story would end. Finally it hit him, he walked up to the white board in the writers room and erased all the possible story idea's then simply wrote in big letters "Its about the characters stupid" and in the end it was all about going back to basics and that's the road I would like to travel.

-Jayson C.

July 17th 2009