We'll silence that pesky inner-editor and explore the depths of terrible writing with unbridled enthusiasm.

You can either use your treasured screenplay idea or your “back-burner book.”

Assignment: "The Bad Version Is..."

For Undergraduate Screenwriters:

Objective: To enhance creativity, and create a “break-through skill” in screenwriting by exploring what is at the heart of their ideas. 

*A “break-through skill” is one that helps with writer’s block, stuckness, or ideating in general. 

Instructions:

• Choose a story idea from you “back burner” notebook. If you are further along in your ideating, you can choose a specific scene or plot point that you feel stuck on or find challenging. I’d prefer you use an idea on the back burner, so we feel less attachment. While we are learning this skill, let’s not use our precious ideas.

Now, imagine the worst, most cliched, and uninspired version of that story, scene or plot point. Think of all the typical, overused tropes and stereotypes you can come up with.

• Write down this bad version in detail, emphasizing all the elements that make it unoriginal, boring, or predictable.

• Don’t’ analyze too much why the version is "bad" or cliche. See if there is anything “good” about this “bad” idea. Is there anything at the heart of the “bad” version that gets at the crux of what you need to do.

• It’s at this point we will go back to basics and write more about your character. Ask, how would your character do this “bad version” differently? You may not know yet. That’s okay. Go back to your character history/ biography and add a few more sentences about her. Then move onto a new area of your story (or a completely different story idea) and use this method. Don’t force, have fun!

Intended Value for Learning:

"The Bad Version Is..." exercise helps beginning screenwriters in several ways:

• By giving yourself permission to write a cliche, you give yourself permission to transcend the cliche. In some cases we find that the bad idea is the idea we need, but may not be in the correct shape just yet. If the bad idea holds the crux of the solution, the  writer can go back to character and think specifically about what their character would do or say… Everything goes back to a character and her WANT, and the bad version helps us get back to that place when we are stuck (in a roundabout, fun way!). 

• Creative Problem-Solving: It encourages us to be playful and explore avenues that even if we have seen before, will help get us into a FLOW STATE of creating. When we let ourselves explore what’s wrong, we turn off our inner-editor, and allow ourselves to get to what WORKS for the story. 

• Narrative Innovation: By rejecting cliche ideas, students are encouraged to explore unique narrative angles, creating a more compelling and memorable screenplay. Also, sometimes what we think is the “bad version” isn’t really that bad… 

An example of “The Bad Version Is…” for undergraduate students… 

I have an idea in my journal about a princess skateboarder. That’s all it says actually…  You might be thinking, that is already the bad version. What a bad idea! Oh well! Let’s make it worse. 

The bad version of the princess skateboarder would be an Avril Lavigne-singing preteen princess from the Rococo period in France who is a bit Marie Antoinette-ish who builds her own skateboard and accidentally rips a hole in the space-time continuum and transports to I don’t know, modern day Venice (okay, I’m ripping Barbie clearly, but well, bad ideas only) and meets a boy there and enters a skating competition and she clearly needs to build something to get back in time because she needs to be a princess and a skateboarder, because why can’t she be both? 

Back to my character sheet… 

Princess Skateboarder. Let’s give her a name. France? French names… Cosette? Fantine? Should I google search Les Miserables tfor some cool/funny references? JUST ONE MORE LOAF OF BREAD!

See… now I’m having fun and loosening up!

Okay, bad version #2 - let’s make it worse!

The bad version of the Princess Skateboarder is a princess who is super-duper frilly, typically-girly, non athletic, doesn’t want to move around at all, hates walking, and builds a skateboard so she doesn’t have to walk, but then falls in love with the contraption… yada yada yada… space-time continuum hole… ends up in Venice? Is there anything worse than this time-space continuum thing? Let’s go back to the character sheet… Maybe there’s something in her DNA that helps lead me to something that is not the space-time continuum idea.

So, I’ve called her Eponine by now, after well, Eponine from Les Miserables. Maybe Eponine is kind of a cool skate brand name? Eppy? Peppy (is that her nickname?). Her favorite food is BREAD “one more loaf of breaaaddd!!!”

For Graduate-Level Screenwriters:

Adapted Assignment: "The Bad Version Is..." 

Objective: Graduate level students will learn how to story produce for another student and/or co-write. We will use “The Bad Version is…” method in pairs in order to provide feedback in general, and in more specific instances like dialogue, plotting, etc. 

Instructions:

Pair up with your story producer and/or co-writer. Go to a scene you did not write, and use “The bad version is…” to give feedback. You may have a “good version” in mind for your partner already, but now is not the time for your “good” ideas. Pitch the “bad version is” so that the writer can take your feedback and come up with her own version. 

Pedagogical Justification:

The adaptation of "The Bad Version Is..." requires students to be at a  level in which they understand long-form story structure, character arcs, and, most importantly, have a somewhat trusting-relationship with their writing partner or story-producer. We will focus more on specific instances within the screenplay, rather than overall story ideating.  The undergraduates will be learning what makes a great story and a screen-worthy character. While they are starting to get the muscles for how to make stories in more broad terms, the graduate students, we will start getting into the nitty-gritty of scenes, character arcs, and dialogue.

It will:

Encourage Iterative Writing: Screenwriting is a process of constant revision and refinement. By allowing writers to iterate on their work based on the feedback received, the assignment emphasizes the value of multiple drafts and continuous improvement. 

Real-World Skill Development: In the professional world, screenwriters often collaborate with others and provide feedback on each other's work. By practicing "The Bad Version Is..." method in pairs, students develop valuable skills in story producing and giving feedback in a palatable way. I want to see good ideas win, and this method helps us practice how to give feedback in a way that might actually be used.

Elevating Ideation: For ideation, graduate-level screenwriters need to go beyond basic brainstorming techniques. By exploring bad ideas and cliches, students are encouraged to think more critically and inventively, generating fresher and more innovative concepts for their projects.

I recently pitched a concept to cowriter on a screenplay we are working on based on my Mormon mission in Japan. In it, a female Mormon missionary named SISTER CLAY meets a Business man named Tanaka. They fall in love and all sorts of good trouble ensues. My cowriter and I both felt it is important to meet Clay before her mission and at the beginning, but needed a time-jump by roughly one year to get into the heart of the action with Tanaka. As we read our first draft, we realized the jump would work better if there was some piece of transition. So here is the bad version I pitched…

There’s a giant timer, or clock, running backwards. (Wow! a clock! Bad, I know). Sister Clay hugs her favorite companion, Sister Tanner goodbye, she’s so lonely. Her new companion sucks, they can’t communicate and they have to go everywhere together. She looks longingly at a family photo, and/or the ring John (her hometown boyfriend) gave her. But then, Clay connects with humans, they hug her, they are moved by her, she feels a sense of purpose, Elders pat her back, but she looks off, still desiring a connection of some sort...still kinda miserable... ENTER TANAKA.

Okay, so obviously I don’t want to cut to a clock, like… ever! But writing out this bad idea helped us understand that we were missing a big emotional beat, and that we need a hint at the rat race Sister Clay was involved in before meeting Tanaka.

Another recent “the bad version is” was in giving some story feedback about a movie I’m attached to direct. The story is about a girl named Gemma who has become a parent to her nephew, Giorgio, after the death of her sister. I found there to be a surprising lack of reference to the sister in the film.

I needed to write some dialogue to pitch to the writer. I could probably come up with something specific and cool, but it would take some time, and hey, they aren’t paying me to write this. So here’s what I pitched:

Giorgio should say something like this to his Aunt Gemma toward the end of the movie. Here’s the bad, unworkshopped version,  “There’s only one other person my mom loved as much as me and my dad, and that was you. And I know you love me like that. But you deserve that kind of love and adoration right back. And I see the way Griff looks at you. It’s the way you look at me. The way my mom looked at me. It’s a deep love… Go get him.” I know, that’s the schmaltzed-out version. Maybe there can be some mention of a chosen-family too, which I think is so deep and beautiful and worthy of our screen-time. 

The bad version doesn’t mean we just write a bunch of silliness, although that sometimes opens up portals to solutions. The bad version is meant to lead us somewhere good, even if we aren’t sure how to get there. 

“It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.”

-Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY