Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Destiny vs Secret Desire

When it comes to human nature, Destiny almost always loses to Secret Desire. As we see in La La Land, even though two people appear destined to be together, nothing is stronger at getting it's own way than that urge living deep within us, our Inner Need, sometimes buried so deep that we don't even know it's there until it's forced from hiding. At this point, it is called the Secret Desire.

Mia, played by Emma Stone, and Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling, seem to be the perfect romantic couple. There are lots of sparks in their relationship, but often the typical romance taps into the Inner Need of the characters and fulfills whatever is missing in their lives. Not so much in real life, and La La Land depicts this, much to the consternation of it's audience (aka, me.) Did I want to see these two together? Absolutely! I write romance. I've gotten several couples together successfully. But this movie, as fantastical as it is, (dancing, singing. . .floating,) was written to portray real life. Well, some real life. Obviously some of us have had successful romance stories. I'm going on 42 years with the love of my life.

The following Tree Plotter gives us some insight as to the Inner Needs of these two characters. My take: When writing a story with real life emotions, tap into the Secret Desire and make the character's dream stronger than whatever Destiny might have planned for them.

Mia:

Sebastian:

Click on images to enlarge.

It may be cynical, but the lesson our two characters learn is, "Here's to the fools who dream." 

No comments: