Raising the Stakes When There's No Stakes

What The Banshees of Inisherin can teach us about structure and stakes; among other things.

Last week, I shared a quote from Rick Rubin that completely changed how I approach screenwriting. It was something along these lines:

“If something excites you, chances are it’ll excite someone else.” 

Now, it’s all I can think about when I write. Does this scene excite me? How does writing this character make me feel? It’s odd to listen to your body rather than your brain 🧠

Going from a place of awe and excitement rather than necessity changed the whole writing process for me, making it much more enjoyable. Rubin’s philosophy is a nice one to live by, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized he was actually right. 

A year or so ago, I wrote a campy Sex Education spec script titled “Happy Halloween.” It wasn’t a conventional spec per se, as it put a spotlight on a “background” character that only briefly appeared in Season 1. But I let my creativity run free and included references from some of my favorite – and campiest – horror TV shows. I had a blast writing it.

The structure wasn’t perfect and I knew it. But it made me laugh so much, I thought other people might have a good time reading it. Plus I knew the show inside out and did a great job at transcribing the characters’ voices. I was very proud of it, still am. 

I decided to send it to The Stunt List, hoping someone there would be excited by it. After several months, I lost hope. Maybe they didn’t like it after all. And then yesterday, I got an email.

They loved it. “Happy Halloween” will be featured in this year’s List. Someone else got excited by what excited me. 

Screenwriting and storytelling rules are nice… But what truly matters is this: does your work excite you?

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We Need New Stories on Climate

Every crisis is in part a storytelling crisis. Sometimes, the situation has changed but the stories haven’t, and people follow the old versions, like outdated maps, into dead ends. — The Guardian

Don’t Look Up (2021) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) are good examples of what we could call “new stories on climate.” I have rarely seen a blockbuster with such a strong political statement than Avatar 2. In my opinion, it perfectly shows that storytellers can valuably contribute to the climate change discussion and have a positive impact on society.

The Banshees of Inisherin: Allegory, Stakes, and Structure

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but this podcast was enlightening nonetheless. It compares the extreme complexity of Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) to the simplicity of The Banshees of Inisherin.

But first, I want to talk about one of the biggest accomplishments of the film: The Banshees of Inisherin creates stakes out of a situation that almost anyone would consider extremely low stakes.

If you don’t want to listen to the podcast, you can read the notes here. You’ll learn about stakes and most importantly, how to raise them to create tension and interesting situations. A must-read.

Coming Up

Next week, we’ll talk about the New York Times’s Modern Love column. More specifically, I’ll share highlights on structure and storytelling from reading and analyzing hundreds of Modern Love essays.

And we’ll obviously discuss the eponymous TV adaptation.

Have a great week,

— Alicia