episode #422

Rhetoric

Have you ever thought of your script, book, or film as a persuasive argument? It is. Drama quite literally arises from two (or several) characters with very different, very persuasive points of view clashing with each other. That’s called rhetoric. And if our characters’ rhetorical skill can only ever be as strong as the person who wrote that character…well, maybe we all of us writers need to work on our rhetoric, don’t we? The better our rhetorical skills become, the more persuasive our characters become, the more compelling our stories become. We discuss that dynamic.

Also, Josh recommends Top Chef on Peacock, and Ira recommends the Shrek series of movies, also on Peacock.