In a post on the Killzone blog, James Scott Bell says writers can learn a lot from the classic noir film Sunset Boulevard.
His lessons include:
- Use a framing device. “We begin in the present, then the movie unfolds in the past; the last scene returns us to the present,” Bell explains. In Sunset Boulevard, though, the narrator is a dead man. The device works because Wilder had a unique spin.
- Craft high stakes. The narrator is/was an out of work screenwriter ducking bill collectors. If he doesn’t find work, he’ll lose his car and have to go back to his hometown. When Joe meets faded film star Norma Desmond, he’s desperate for work. He takes on her unlikely project to make some fast cash. “If the death stakes are professional, make sure the reader understands how important it is to the character,” Bell writes. “Most of Act 1 is showing Joe Gillis in various stages of desperation for dough.”
- Create a doorway of no return. Norma has Joe’s belongings moved to her home and the repo men get his car. Joe is angry at his circumstances, but is now basically Norma’s prisoner. He can’t go back.
- Complicate your hero’s life. Despite his dire straits, Joe shows some kindness to a young studio reader. When the two start falling in love, Joe’s life gets more complicated. “A love interest subplot should intersect with the main plot in a way that causes more trouble for the Lead,” Bell writes.
- Show the mirror moment. At the mid-point, Joe has the choice to leave Norma and fade into obscurity or become her lover and revive his career. The rest of the film shows the consequences of his decision.
- Write sharp dialogue. “Dialogue is the fastest way to improve any manuscript,” Bell says. “Show an agent, editor or browser, on your first pages, that yours has zing and you are halfway home to getting the whole book read.”
