If you’re reading this: this is your sign that your WIP is worth writing, is worth the effort, and that you are doing great. Keep going, take breaks, reflect. But do not lose sight of how far you’ve come on this project! You can do it!
Guys this completely changed my writing, heed it. I often do an entire draft just looking at sentence variation and oftentimes the results are absolutely transformative in the difference.
ESSENCE: Your first TV writing credit was Queen Sugar. What was it like being in that writers room? I imagine it was particularly diverse, just given Ava DuVernay’s philosophy on inclusivity.
Kay Oyegun: It was unbelievable. The team that Ava put together was just so incredibly supportive, and smart, and capable, and very much a family.
[Ava] takes a chance on people, and then also wants to cultivate, and also wants to sort of nurture, and mentor, and watch people grow.
For me, as a Nigerian immigrant who grew up in Nigeria and America, I think for me so much — and I talk about this quite openly — so much of my experience with Black culture and the issues of Black America has been academically, in an odd way.
So for me being in the Queen Sugar space, it allowed me to work through a lot of those dual identities as I was experiencing the world. Like, my brother was in prison for a long time here in the state of Florida, and I come from a very independent matriarchal household, and have had a very interesting relationship with my father. So much of my growing up both in Nigeria and in America were things I could bring to the table.
I no longer felt this sense of otherness that I had felt for so many years. You know like, ‘Oh I’m not American enough, I’m Nigerian,’ but it’s like, no these are just sort of human stories that are connecting people together. That was something that I personally took away from that experience.
If your plot relies on something that doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t work.
I know this sounds obvious, but I have seen countless films and read countless books where the plot hinges on one or more points/incidents that are either entirely unexplained or make absolutely no sense. Here are some things to look out for:
Lack of communication that only exists because you need it to move the plot forward
A character doing something against their self interest for no apparent reason
A character doing something that doesn’t fit with their previous actions for no apparent reason
People meeting when they should never reasonably have been able or likely to meet
A complicated in-universe plan that relies on factors outside of anyone’s control succeeding (ie Gambit Roulette)
A bad idea written down is far better and far more useful to you than a blank sheet of paper and a mythical piece of brilliance that has been stuck in your head out of fear of failure. Go ahead and fail. Then make it better.
My screenwriting prof.
I felt like a lot of people needed to hear this. Including myself.
I think I want more antagonists in fiction who are good at:
mentoring
people management
exploiting people’s positive emotions
Because fictional antagonists tend to exploit the negative emotions of their underlings (usually by controlling through fear), but a charismatic leader can also get results by appealing to people’s need for community, solidarity, justice, and self-actualization.
With the right pitch, you can get your troops to man the Death Star and feel great about it.
Just Sha 