The Grand Writing Adventures of Victor Chang

This one spilled out of me fast. The Little Miss Sunshine influence is obvious.

I disciplined myself into writing a <100 page story. Minot, ND got way out of hand (although I am very proud of it!) and I wanted to keep this one very focused. The basic building blocks fell into place quite quickly, and then I had to round out the characters and motivations. This one actually started out as an audio play, something that I thought that I could actually produce. Original drafts were all dialogue, no action, with sound and music cues, which is clear based on the music descriptions. I felt it really helped to sell the atmosphere.

(SPOILERS)

I always wanted to write an opposite gender sibling love story (not in that way!). A lot of stories nowadays focuses on platonic love, classic love, and brotherly/sisterly love. But not a lot focus on the brother and sister dynamic, which I love. That’s why I set this one up with Lori and Wes, and Wes being the younger brother made for an interesting foundation.

Stealing the body was meant to be the inciting incident. The road trip is the bulk, and I always knew Florida and the spreading of the ashes was the finale. I added a pit stop at Nancy’s because I needed some sort of confrontation between Lori and Mitch. I also fleshed out Margot, who initially didn’t play much of a role other than yeller, but giving her a bit of context helped. I also always knew Nancy was going to be a weird voodoo lady and that was super easy to write.

I also had to be very sensitive to not make Jojo, the mom, too much of a trope. She became basically a naive caregiver who clearly led the sisters when their Dad left and their Mom got worse from her illness, but then left for Maine, leaving everyone behind to fend for themselves. Nancy was fine, but Margot got bitter. But Jojo was too trusting, too nice, but she loved her children to death and was too loyal to Mitch. And Mitch, while being too strict, obviously loves his children but was too emotionally stunted to see what was going on.

(END SPOILERS)

This is the most focused writing I think I’ve ever done.

EDIT: I got nominated for a New York Screenwriting Award and was a semifinalist for the New York International Screenplay Awards. I even got to go to the ceremony, which was neat.