 Sometimes storytellers get so excited about getting to the end, the gooey center gets forgotten. And really, who doesn’t love the gooey center? A lot happens in the heart of that murky swamp of act two that gets pushed aside. We know how to start, and we certainly know how to end (you know, WITH EXPLOSIONS) but the weird, swirly middle doesn’t get the same love and attention. So what should you be doing in the murky swamp? One thing the brilliant Matt Bird emphasizes in his Secrets of Story (a book so good I returned my library copy and bought my own) is that your protagonist should “pursue a false or shortsighted goal for the first half of your story.” (pg 107) Since this topic doesn’t get enough dedicated pages, let’s talk about false goals.
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 The Major vs. The Major Don’t worry, I won’t spoil Ghost in the Shell (2017) for you… but the reviews are in, and they are decidedly “meh.” Despite Ghost in the Shell (2017) being visually and aurally stunning, no one seems to like it. So where did it all go wrong?
The concept. That may surprise you, because the original anime movie is loved by legions. Many of the scenes are lifted almost completely from the original movie, so it should be a no brainer, right? But when rewriting the 2017 version, the central question of the film (the question that holds your concept together) was changed. Once you mess with a story’s core-- it’s skeletal framework-- the flesh won’t hang on it the right way and it becomes an unwieldy lump. I’ll let Manohla Dargis of The New York Times describe the results: |
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