DZ-67: Writing Passive Protagonists & Melodrama

Listen if you want to write powerful stories centred on characters without much agency.

Stu and Chas are joined by Stephen Cleary following his exploration into Melodrama, and together they try to reclaim the word from its pejorative meaning.

By examining powerful Melodramas - like THE HANDMAID’S TALE, LADIES IN BLACK and STRANGER THINGS… with many a tangent on MARRIAGE STORY, PETE’S DRAGON, MILDRED PIERCE, GAME OF THRONES, LOST, THE JOKER, THE KILLING, THE WITCHER, war movies and survival films - the three hosts try to unpick what makes Melodrama an alternate story paradigm to the Hero’s Journey.

They delve into how Melodramas centre on characters that don’t have agency; where the plot happens to characters (as opposed to being driven by them); how Melodramas don’t end so much as close; and how all of the above delves into character questions more deeply than the Hero’s Journey. And to wrap it all up, the kind of techniques you use on the page to write effective melodramas.

Content Warning : There is a lot of discussion in this episode about melodrama being associated with "women’s stories" vs "the hero’s journey" - which is biased towards a "masculine" mode of storytelling - and we fully acknowledge in the show and here that we are three cismen talking about these things.

This episode was edited by Christopher Walker.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

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CHAPTERS

00:01:25 – Intro: Melodrama & Passive Protoganists
00:01:31 – What is Melodrama?
00:38:06 – The Handmaid's Tale
00:56:44 – Horror and Melodrama
01:00:35 – Marriage Story
01:15:18 – The Handmaid's Tale & Narrative Techniques
01:30:37 – Game of Thrones and Endings
01:33:20 – Melodrama & Endings
01:39:19 – Ladies in Black
02:13:47 – Stranger Things
02:31:52 – The Killing
02:38:23 – The Witcher
02:44:16 – Wrap Up: Passive & Still Characters

FILMS

LADIES IN BLACK (2018) — (w) Madeleine St John, Sue Milliken, Bruce Beresford (d) Bruce Beresford
MARRIAGE STORY (2019) — (w) Noah Baumbach
PETE'S DRAGON (2016) — (w) Toby Halbrooks, David Lowery (d) David Lowery
MILDRED PIERCE (1945) — (w) Ranald Macdougall, James M Cain (d) Michael Curtiz
JOKER (2019) — (w) Scott Silver, Todd Phillips (d) Todd Phillips

SHOWS

THE HANDMAID'S TALE 1x1 "Offred" — Reed Morano (d), Margaret Atwood (w)
STRANGER THINGS — (w) Ross Duffer, Matt Duffer
THE WITCHER — (w) Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
LOST — (w) Jj Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber

SCRIPTS

Study the script: MARRIAGE STORY (2019) — Noah Baumbach
Study the script: JOKER (2019) — Scott Silver, Todd Phillips

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We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2020/dz-67/

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