Hero’s Journey and Screenwriting: Managing Time Pressure
[From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters and sitcoms at www.clickok.co.uk and our isolation and identification of more than 188 stages of the Hero's Journey that you need to know about...]
The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.
Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.
The Hero’s Journey:
a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.
b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.
c) Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.
Managing Creativity: Time pressure
The following article applies to those of you interested in managing creativity but also to those of you interested in screenwriting. The subject is the effect of Time Pressure and it is easy to relate to in this context: do you get better ideas if you try to force them out or if you allow them to “come to you” / will you write better screenplays if you apply yourself regularly each day or if you wait for inspiration?
The answer is that both time pressure and incubation enhance creative output. There are a number of forces at work:
a) Time pressure increases creative output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a “do your best” approach is taken. If a leader asks participants in an idea generating session to address a problem and think of at least 5 ideas every half an hour, then 80 ideas are produced by one individual and 1600 are produced by 20 individuals at the end of an average working day. This level of output is conscious and would not be produced normally.
b) Time pressure encourages prolific production and therefore the probability of generating good ideas increases. It can be said with great confidence that quality of output is closely related to quantity. The best single creative product tends to appear at that point in the career when the creator is being most prolific.
c) Forcing output pushes individuals along the experience curve, refines their methodology, builds competencies and knowledge and improves performance. The best screenwriters know that they are likely to produce more, better quality work faster if they set themselves a schedule of a certain number of pages per day.
d) Motivation is critical to creativity. If a person is intrinsically motivated, time pressure may be a synergistic extrinsic motivator. If the person is not intrinsically motivated then it may turn out to be a non-synergistic extrinsic motivator, which reduces the level of engagement in the endeavour.
e) Short term time pressure may be a negative in that it does not allow the mind to engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It does not allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation. Intrinsically motivated individuals will benefit from short-term time pressure and goals (sets cognitive forces in motion) and will generate richer ideas through incubation over the longer term.
Learn more…
The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/
You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.
Kal Bishop, MBA
**********************************
You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.
|
Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/ |
