Beginnings, Part 2
After finishing a book that I’ve read more than a few times, I was struck by what keeps bringing me back. It wasn’t just the hero that I liked so much, or even his opponent in the story. It was the direct contact between the two. It gave me chills. All of a sudden I had an emotional stake in what I was reading.
It’s something to think about if you’re early in on a new project. Your hero and his or her arch enemy having a personal encounter, or even a temporary alliance to go up against something bigger than themselves.
Imagine the possibilities …
Thomas Harris did it twice with Hannibal Lector, Will Graham and Clarice Starling in Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. JK Rowling used this approach through the entire Harry Potter series with Harry Potter and Voldemort. And Sidney Pollack and Robert Towne played the beat to perfection with Gene Hackman and Tom Cruise as Avery Tolar and Mitch McDeere, when they rewrote, restructured, and revamped John Grisham’s novel, The Firm, in what many regard as one of best legal thrillers in the history of filmmaking.
ROBERT ELLIS WRITERS BLOG
01/14/2024
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