Cars vs. Cars 2

Today I have a guest blogger - novelist (and my sister) Chris Eboch. She writes on the difference between Cars and Cars 2, and how structure affects the success of each story.

Cars vs. Cars 2

by Chris Eboch

My husband and I own the movie Cars and watch it at least once or twice each year. It’s funny, it’s action-packed, it’s heartwarming. Recently we watched Cars 2 on video and found it… Lacking.

Cars was nominated for an Academy Award, won a Golden Globe, and won several other awards. According to IMBD trivia, Cars 2 is the only Pixar feature film to receive a Rotten collective rating at Rotten Tomatoes, the first Pixar film not to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film since the category began, and the first Pixar film not to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film since the award was created.

Cars 2 has a lot going for it – an action-packed plot, gorgeous animation, and plenty of humor. So why did it fall short? In a word, structure. Let’s look at some of the basics:

Cars

Main Character: Lightning McQueen. Though there are some important secondary characters, this is his story, start to finish.

Goal: To win the Piston Cup. It’s a clear goal at the start, he works toward that goal despite many complications throughout the story, and he makes his final attempt at the end.

Stakes: Fame and respect. He may change what he values most as the story progresses, but the stakes are clear and they are important to him.

Plot Arc: With a clear goal and high stakes, the plot moves smoothly and logically through a series of complications with that goal always in sight. Suspense builds as the date of the Piston Cup nears, and he can’t get there. At the climax, it’s all about whether or not he will win.

Character Arc: Lightning McQueen changes over time in a believable way as his goal shifts from fame and fortune to an appreciation of friends and community. In the end, he gives up his original goal in order to help someone else, showing how much he’s changed and learned.

Cars 2

Main Character: Lightning… No, wait, Tow Mater. At least, if you look at how much of the screen time focuses on one character, Tow Mater would edge out Lightning McQueen. He’s also the hero at the climax. But it takes 30 or 40 minutes before you realize this is not Lightning McQueen’s story.

Goal: Mater’s goal is weak and confusing. He wants to support his buddy, but he loses that focus for much of the story as he gets caught up in a spy plot. In the end, he wants to save Lightning, but that’s a reaction to immediate circumstances, not an overall story goal. Lightning wants to win the race and beat the foreign car, but it doesn’t seem all that important to him, and it’s not the focus of the story. Besides, he’s not the main character (is he?).

Stakes: Without a clear goal, the stakes are automatically weak. There are big stakes in the spy plot – damage to cars and destroying the reputation of alternative fuel – but the main character (whether you think it’s Mater or Lightning) doesn’t know about any of that.

Plot Arc: The plot is all over the place. It starts with a spy scene with no context. Then a racing battle is set up between Lightning and a foreign car, but first Lightning and Mater do some touring, for no particular reason except that we get to see the Cars interpretation of Japan. Then the story focuses on Mater as he gets caught up in spy activities, with occasional race scenes. It’s like two different plots rammed together.

Character Arc: People make fun of Mater, but in the end they realize he has a lot going for him. However, those are secondary characters. Mater doesn’t know that people are making fun of him until close to the end, so his plot arc lasts for about five minutes. Lightning has a slightly stronger plot arc, as he realizes he shouldn’t be embarrassed by his friend, but he gets that epiphany far before the end as well. For a strong plot arc, Mater should understand early that people see him as a fool, feel bad about it, try to change it throughout the story, and realize his true value at the end.

By looking at these simple aspects of structure, it’s clear how Cars is stronger on every count.

Focusing on a different main character in Cars 2 might have been a good idea. We saw Lightning change in the last story, so he would either need a different strong character arc, or the movie could focus on someone else. The problem is that the main character isn’t clear and doesn’t have a character arc. Without a specific hero, who has a clear goal with high stakes, the character arc is weak and the plot wanders. A lot of stuff is happening, but there’s no sense of where you are in the story – no building toward a clear climax, so the pacing is off.

I expect Cars 2 would be more enjoyable with multiple viewings. Once you know what’s going on, you could focus on the fun animation and humor. But if the moviemakers had concentrated on structure at the start, they might have had another beloved classic instead of a disappointing sequel.

Structure: It’s not just a good idea, it’s the basis of sound storytelling.

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Chris Eboch is the author of Advanced Plotting. If you struggle with plot or suspect your plotting needs work, this book can help. The Plot Outline Exercise is designed to help a writer work with a completed manuscript to identify and fix plot weaknesses. It can also be used to help flesh out an outline. Additional articles address specific plot challenges, such as getting off to a fast start, propping up a sagging middle, building to a climax, and improving your pacing. A dozen guest authors share advice from their own years of experience. Read the book straight through, study the index to find help with your current problem, or dip in and out randomly — however you use this book, you’ll find fascinating insights and detailed tips to help you build a stronger plot and become a better writer.
 
This really is helping me a lot. It's written beautifully and to-the-point. The essays really help you zero in on your own problems in your manuscript. The Plot Outline Exercise is a great tool! – Carmen O.

Chris Eboch: www.chriseboch.com
The Eyes of Pharaoh: a mystery in ancient Egypt
The Well of Sacrifice: a Mayan adventure
Advanced Plotting
 Writing romantic suspense as Kris Bock: www.krisbock.com

Character Interview - Chris Eboch

I'm going to continue my series of interviews about character development with my sister, novelist Chris Eboch.  I thought it might be interesting to see if a novelist approaches character differently than a screenwriter.


Chris Eboch's novels for ages nine and up include The Eyes of Pharaoh, an ancient Egyptian mystery; The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure; and the Haunted series: The Ghost on the Stairs, The Riverboat Phantom, and The Knight in the Shadows. In Haunted, a brother and sister travel with their parents’ ghost hunter TV show and try to help the ghosts, while keeping their activities secret from meddling grownups. Read samples at www.chriseboch.com. 


Chris also writes for adults as Kris Bock. Rattled launches her new romantic suspense series featuring treasure hunting adventures in the Southwest. Read the first three chapters at www.krisbock.com or visit the Chris Eboch author page on Amazon for info about all of her books.


Q. What is required for a compelling character?

I think the best characters are fresh, real, and individual. Writers sometimes try to make a character more "universal" by avoiding specifics about their appearance, background or whatever, but that just makes the character vague and unknowable. Or writers try to make somebody wildly unique, and wind up with a character that doesn't feel real. But some of the best and most beloved characters are fairly ordinary, with perhaps some quirks. They're the kinds of people you would want to have as friends, because they are interesting and fun, but not so crazy that they are exhausting.

Of course, it depends on the genre. A wacky comedy may need wacky characters, while a romance needs characters you can like and care about, maybe even characters who remind you of yourself, so you can imagine you're sharing those adventures.


Q. What is your approach to building a character?

I tend to start with plot, a situation with inherent drama. Then I think about the best character for that plot. It has to be somebody who can handle the situation, but only with difficulty. In other words, the situation cannot be so far beyond the character that their success is unbelievable, but it shouldn't be so easy that we never doubt their ability to succeed.

The character should be someone who will change over the course of the story, who will learn and grow from the challenges. Sometimes the character will just pop into my head and start talking. Other times it's more of a struggle and I may tweak a character a lot before I get her right. I've learned not to start writing until my character feels real to me, or I just get in trouble. If you feel like you're moving your characters around like little action figures, that's probably a bad sign. If your characters occasionally dig in their heels and refuse to do what you want them to do, because it's out of character, you've probably created someone real.


Q. How much back story do you create for your main character before you start writing?

I have a long list of questions you can ask about your character, covering every detail of their childhood, family life, and favorite food, color, etc. But if a character feels real to me, I don't need that list, and if the character doesn't feel real, I'm not sure the list would help. I focus more on a few major events in their background that influence who they are and what they want.

For example, in my romantic suspense novel, Rattled, Erin has always been a "good girl" who studied and worked hard and followed the rules. But she's not satisfied with her life, so she's trying to be more adventurous. That's her basic personality. Her last long-term relationship was with a guy who undermined her self-confidence, so she doesn't see what a catch she is. That affects how she deals with the hero. She's a history professor who started investigating legends of lost treasures for fun. That leads her into this particular adventure, when she find the clue to a great treasure. Those are the big things I needed to know to start the story. All the little things fell into place as I wrote. Because she felt real to me, I knew how she would react in each situation that came up, even if didn't know everything about her past.


Q. What is the most important thing(s) you need to know about your character before you start writing?

You need to know what your character wants and what she needs -- or what she thinks she wants and what she really wants. If that want and need are opposed, you'll have more conflict and a more interesting story. As an example, in my middle grade novel The Eyes of Pharaoh, the main character is a temple dancer in ancient Egypt who wants to win a great dance contest. When one of her best friends disappears, she has to choose between preparing for her contest and finding/saving her friend. Making that choice helps her figure out what's really important to her. At the start of the story, she would have said winning the dance contest was the most important thing in the world. But is it really?

You can write a story where a character wants something without needing anything else, and that can work so long as the struggles to get it are hard enough. (Witness James Bond.) But if you make a character choose between two things, or struggle to get something only to realize it's not what he really needs, you'll have a more complex story and most likely a deeper theme. Plus, there's often an opportunity for comic relief -- in The Eyes of Pharaoh, while the main character is spying on soldiers and princes, some of the other temple dancers are spying on her to find out what she has planned for the contest. The subplot with the dancers adds some levity to the more serious mystery.


Q. Do you base your characters on people you know?

Generally my characters aren't like anyone I know, except perhaps in small details here and there. In Rattled, I did base the best friend on a good friend of mine, but I changed the real-life man to a fictional woman. And once I started writing, I didn't really think of the character as my real-life friend anymore. She became her own person.

Sometimes a friend will read one of my books and say, "Oh, that character is based on so-and-so." Or "That character is like you." Usually I'm surprised by the connection, but I suppose there are parts of me in everything I write. For my Haunted series about a brother and sister traveling with a ghost hunter TV show, I write in the voice of a 13-year-old boy. I don't even know any 13-year-old boys. After the books came out, one of my friends suggested that I could write about the brother/sister relationship because of my own experience growing up with an older brother. Huh, who knew?




Thanks Chris!  Next I'll interview Eric Heisserer, writer of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the upcoming Final Destination 5 and The Thing.  He'll also soon be directing a film from his own script called Hours.