Relating to Characters: Part I
The premiere of The Rise of Skywalker (2019) nears. Scuttlebutt around plot leaks are discouraging. One of the scariest is that test audiences laughed at how easily Rey disposed of the Emperor. Sigh. Even if that’s not true, or it is true but has been corrected, I’m not expecting much. Disney’s Star Wars movies have featured an array of unrelatable one-dimensional characters. They have no depth and take no real journey (unless, like Rey, it’s to discover who they are). They’re flash and style with little substance. Just because these characters belong to an extraordinary sci-fantasy premise doesn’t mean they have to be unrelatable. You can create relatability in characters…
How I Would’ve Done It: The New Trilogy
In case it’s not evident, I’m a huge pop culture nerd. Growing up as a teen in the 1980s and aspiring to write, I had a writing bucket list – and, tragically, it still exists today. I’d love to write features for DC superheroes, such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman; I’d love to write a James Bond movie; I would love to create a Star Trek series; and I would love to write a Star Wars movie. (Even more tragically, this is not a comprehensive list.) In the early 1990s, I wrote some of this as fan fiction. I probably actually wrote too much, given I had no avenues…