When Your “Moments” Eat Your Story
Hollywood’s ongoing obsession with hitting beats.
Okay, we’ve got another screenwriting focused article, because as it turns out, writing a tutorial about something that confused you to the point of burnout is really hard.
And while I’ve been going insane trying to break down the aspects of that process that I got hung up on, I’ve been going insane about another thing that I keep getting hung up on: what’s wrong with Hollywood.
Alright, maybe not that drastic. I actually enjoy both properties I’m going to be talking about today. But I’ve noticed something increasingly common in writing these days — something I myself struggle with in my own writing: beats.
What’s a Beat?
I think beats have a more technical definition which is somewhat tangential to what I’m talking about today. They’re the segments of plot structure that make up your overall plot. I’m not knocking on structure, and in my last article I wrote about how I interpret structure as something that’s not formulaic, but a throughline to maintain and showcase your story’s theme.
Books like Save the Cat have done a pretty good job of outlining plots as common beats that can be adapted to their individual stories, and while they can be pretty rigid if you don’t take them with a grain of salt, they’re a good jumping off point for a well paced plot.
To some degree, though, beats are moments that the story has to hit, even if they’re very vague moments: the protagonist has to be introduced, the conflict has to be introduced, the characters need a darkest moment, etc.
There’s something inevitable in this. Your story does need to have certain moments, although you can bring a lot of creativity to interpreting how, why and what that means in your story.
Content Beats
What I’d like to talk about today, though, is a different kind of beat. Not so much plot structure as certain moments that have to happen. Specifically, because your story is popular (or trying to be) and you have thoughts about what would be cool for fans to see.
Now, I’m not knocking cool moments just for the sake of cool moments. I’m a devout believer in the Rule of Cool. I think the number one thing writers can do for themselves is to be recklessly enamored with their own ideas.
But more and more, I see stories fall victim to the Must Have Beats. I’ve noticed in part because I’ve been analyzing my own pilot, and have seen the points where my characters are sloppily laced together by a handful of moments I wanted to accomplish, rather than the moments being tailored to my characters and theme.
It’s something that I’ve worked hard to stop doing, and yet it seems the bigger the budget, the more projects seem to do it.
Stranger Things and Marvel: Deep Nostalgia (Just Not That Deep)
Both the MCU and Stranger Things got me invested in their world because they took something I was familiar with and tried to do a grounded take on it. And to some degree, they succeeded!
Winter Soldier took the cartoony Captain America and put him in a new world of espionage and seriously asked: what would that do to a guy? Season 2 of Stranger Things took the Goonies-esque plotline from season 1 and reminded us that those kids definitely have PTSD.
And then… they got lost in the content beat.
Suddenly, we need a new era to the Avengers franchise, so Steve Rogers goes back to… the 50s? Wasn’t his whole arc moving on from that? Suddenly, a subplot (spoilers for Stranger Things 4) where the monster is a metaphor for dealing with suicidal ideation has the character overcome that guilt… only to die anyway so the rifts into the Upside Down can be opened for season 5.
And it’s not just the needs of the franchise. Characters are slotted into their most stereotypical takes from fandoms, just so certain beats can happen as lackluster as possible. Because they have to.
I loved Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and I loved what they were attempting to do. But we have to watch hours and hours of Bucky Not Getting Race to a comical extent only for him to suddenly understand so we can have the moment of bonding and Sam taking on the role of Captain America… without any real catharsis of seeing him learn.
We watch Mike Wheeler stay by his friend’s side and watch a LOT of people die in season 2… only to have him be the careless boyfriend for the next two seasons and, I guess, get a big impactful “I love you” after everyone hates the character for having been a dick to all his friends (who meant everything to him in seasons prior).
All because the characters were written to get to the moments, rather than moments being an integral part of the character.
Closing Thoughts
Honestly, I have no idea what to do with any of this. As I learn to reread and think about my writing in greater depth, I hope to also keep writing thought pieces on how to keep character and theme present in every moment of your story — something I’m striving and learning to do.
And maybe that’s something we can all think about as we keep writing: what’s the story behind the moments, and why?
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