The Serotonin Grand Prix

[alexjenson]

Hi everyone. My name is Alex Jenson, 34.
Once upon a time I was severely ill with paranoid psychosis and depression, which entailed numerous hospital stays.
I managed to turn my life around...I no longer see any professionals or take medication, and I have been in full time work for over 4 years.
I even managed to gain a postgraduate qualification in screen writing in 2004.
I have written a fictional work, which is loosely based on some of my experiences.. 'The Serotonin Grand Prix' is written to hopefully expand the understanding of paranoid illness and to offer hope to anyone who is struggling with a mental health difficulty. You are not alone and you can survive. I will not currently post a link to the e-book, as I am not sure if this is within the forum rules. But I will say with 100% sincerity that my book is a professional piece of work, written to offer hope to others and to point out certain aspects of the mental health system that could do with a little improvement.

Thanks for reading. If the Administrators are cool with this, I will post a link to the E-book ASAP.

AJ

[123sim]

Hello


Your central character. Your Indiana Jones, your Luke Skywalker, your karate kid. Most scripts need a central character to drive the narrative action. Someone we can identify with, root for, and experience a journey with. Not all movies have one central character.

Jaws has Chief Brody, but you could argue that there are 3 main characters. Jaws is less about one man's journey than it is about the story of the shark and what happens in Amity, even though technically Brody is the main character.

So why do we need a protagonist? You don't, but it is advisable to write one anyway, even if the story changes as it develops. One of the best ways to start the creative process of writing a script, is to start with a character and work from there. Most films do have a protagonist because most writers worth their salt, realise that to explore human complexity in all its glory, in less than 2 hours of screen time, requires a very focused approach.

How can we hope to explore multiple, complex characters in such a short space of time? The answer is that generally this is very, very difficult.

The script I am currently working on has one, strong central character, and the entire story flows from his creation. If you put the hours into the creation of a three dimensional, complex human being, who lives and breathes in your mind, you will find that the entire story can be mapped out by tapping into your character. Ask them where they are going, what are they doing, and why are they doing it. If you spend time writing out your character, eventually he/she will become so realistic that he/she will provide you with the answers to these questions without you really having to think about it.

The protagonist drives the story - how much you want to explore other themes and questions via different characters on the way, is entirely up to you, but a protagonist is always a great starting point for a script, regardless of whether you already have a strong premise/story idea in your mind.

[maddy01]

Hi

I have written a fictional work, which is loosely based on some of my experiences.. 'The Serotonin Grand Prix' is written to hopefully expand the understanding of paranoid illness and to offer hope to anyone who is struggling with a mental health difficulty. You are not alone and you can survive. I will not currently post a link to the e-book, as I am not sure if this is within the forum rules. But I will say with 100% sincerity that my book is a professional piece of work, written to offer hope to others and to point out certain aspects of the mental health system that could do with a little improvement.

Thanks