I'm writing a screenplay. It is about two people (a guy and a girl) who find one another in a post-economic collapse situation. When I started telling a friend (who also writes screenplays) about this story, he asked if the two main characters were going to end up together. I almost immediately got defensive about it. I told him, "it's not a love story!"
He said, "well a producer reading this script is going to see a guy and a girl and wonder why it's not a love story!"
He's right, of course.
And, of course, it is a love story, but it's also so much more than that.
I started thinking about it, and I remembered the beginning of the "Princess Bride" when Grandpa is trying to convince the kid that it's a cool story; "...fencing, fighting, torture, giants, mosters, escape, true love, miracles..."
My story is like that. Not the fencing (mine has guns, not swords); not the giants or monsters (it's the midwest, not Middle Earth); and the only miracle in the story is that two people can find each other, even in the most insane of circumstances.
I like analogies. I'm not talking about those terrible things in English class - "desk is to chair as tree is to..." No, not that kind of analogy. This kind of analogy:
My mom makes my absolute favorite dessert. It's really very simple, it's crumbled chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream in layers (and if I get my way, it also has a few raspberries hidden in the whipped cream). It's got layers, it's got textures, and it's got surprising bursts of flavor when you least expect it.
That's the kind of movie I'm writing. It's got cake, the texture, a little dryer than the rest, the rougher bits that add definition to the story. It's got pudding, it's smooth and flows well, common elements that make the story palatable and enjoyable. It's got whipped cream, the fluffy stuff... the romance. But even in the fluffy romantic parts, there are raspberries - chunks of outstanding flavor that lend a depth to the love story that might be missed if it were just plain old whipped cream.
So, yes, it is a love story. And no, it's not a love story. The love story is just one layer of the dessert. Each part on it's own might be just OK, but take all those very simple things and put them on top of one another, and you've created something greater than the sum of its parts.
I'm still working on assembling the ingredients, but it shouldn't be too terribly long before it's ready to be served, love story and all.
