The Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara convened at Brooks Institute, which generously donated a classroom to the group. It was fitting to be at the premier center for photography and film making in California, in a real classroom with abstract felt grayscales dangling from the ceiling and a gorgeous student show lining the halls.
Changes were in order as outgoing President Rashi Bahri conducted elections. Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media was voted in as the new President, Ernie Witham of Ernie’s World accepted the Vice President position, and Faith Ellington agreed to be Publicity Director. The Treasurer, Secretary, and Membership Director positions will be determined later.
This month’s speaker was The Story Coach, and what a coach he was. Patrick A. Horton has been called “one of the most empowering and innovative guides for story and storytelling” and he lit up the room with nonstop illumination about what drives the heart of good writing. His background is a blend of scholarly cultural anthropology and the lecture began with how fast change is happening in our society and the industry. “In a world that increasingly has no maps you are going to have to get bett
er at finding your own compass.”
“Be unstoppable,” he said, grinning.
Horton has a new model for finding the heart of the story and the levels of depth story can reach to effect change. “Being a storyteller gives permission for others to find their voice.” Writing involves the A and B story - A being the surface plot line with all its action, tangles and twists and B being the depth of it all where the emotion lives. “The story is never what it is really about,” he said. The meaning depends on which characters the audience resonates to most.
The audience wants to know “this feels real,” Horton told the group. “Great storytelling always means raising the right questions.” That’s the B story. What questions do you want to raise in your writing? “In order to re-frame the world you have to convince the audience it is okay to be open to the scary stuff because there will be something on the other side.” This means that the writer should not fear to tread into the deepest parts of self in order to mine the material. The writer has to let go of something in order for the audience to learn something new. “Tell the stories that matter to you,” he advised the writers. “Authenticity is everything.”
In funny asides Horton spoke about actors needing real material from the writer in order to inhabit the character. “Writers want to write great deep emotional stuff without being connected emotionally to it,” but that won’t work, he cautioned the group. “Whatever you have gone through in life, it’s material.”
That’s the gift of his “practical magic” and the way screenwriters can find deeper levels of voice and meaning on the page. “Glean what moves and matters to you and that will be your best story.”
Thursday was a prelude to the free workshop Horton offered Saturday at Brooks. For more information you can visit www.thestorycoach.com and see his book on screenwriting, Mastering the Power of Story.
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