SPECIAL EDITION WRITING TIPS

SOLE SURVIVOR has come to DVD from the crew at Code Red (http://www.codereddvd.com/), and while that may not mean much to today's audiences, trust me: it's a good thing.

A loose remake of David Hemmings' THE SURVIVOR from a couple of years earlier, SOLE SURVIVOR tells the story of an advertising executive, who walks away unscathed from a plane crash that kills every other passenger. Unfortunately, Death is not content and decides to come after her. Sound familiar? If you're thinking FINAL DESTINATION, you're good at making connections.

Unlike that trio of highly successful horror films, gore is kept to a minimum. (There's a tad.) But the tension? Nearly unbearable.

Also unlike the FINAL DESTINATION films, SOLE SURVIVOR never made any serious money in its heyday. But it did make an indelible impression on my young mind, scaring me into many sleepless nights where I was positive those zombie-eyed corpses calling for young Denise Watson's soul were standing over me, knives-in-hands. It also accounted for a few nighttime accidents when I was too terrified to negotiate a dark house for a bathroom.

(Who knew what was hiding there?)

Needless to say, I love the film. In the home of my horror movie madness... and, guys, I'm a nut for the genre... this is one of the strongest pieces of foundation. It reaches a level of tension I vainly hope each new horror film will aspire to; and in the years before and after, there haven't been many to move it from its perch.

So when I set out to write this column, I was shocked to find how difficult the ideas came. How could a film I love so much offer so little in writing fuel? I asked myself: what is the best part of the movie? What drew me to it? What portions do I declare, in book terms, as "unputdownable"?

Scanning the film in my brain, I think about how well tension is built. Time moves with so little effort we hardly realize because we're too busy wondering what is behind us... if the bad guys will catch her... who will die next... the list goes on. The realization occurs to me that SOLE SURVIVOR is good at what it does because it accomplishes visually what a writer must perform through words. It establishes a foreboding mood through the absolute dread and paranoia of its characters.

And therein lies the definition of what mood is: the way your characters read the events around them. How do they see things? While SOLE SURVIVOR is able to use creepy music to heighten tension, it understands that without characters to feel, to think, to sweat and dread, there's little reason for the audience to care about anything. Yes, music plays a part in draining every drop of tension from the proceedings, but that tension is only possible through first establishing the characters.

What are their likes? Their dislikes? Their secret hopes and dreams? Their views on life, the world, God, etc.? Think about the characteristics that will be important to the story you're telling. Create a character with a "real" way of looking at things.

For Denise Watson, she states how she's always felt lucky... things always seem to work out in her favor, even under less-than-favorable conditions (such as a plane crash). While I'm of the "without bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" camp, I can relate to Denise because of her paranoia. She knows this is uncommon. Most people aren't privvy to the same strokes of luck. She acknowledges it. And she continues with her view by stating that she fears it will come back to her. The scale is tipped in her favor, and something must be done to balance it.

How many times have you felt uneasy because things were going too well? You knew, just as sure as you committed to the feeling, someone would call the house with layoff news, a death notice, or the cancellation of your favorite TV show. This hypochondriac mentality consumes our ability to enjoy anything.

While I'm not always like that, I can relate to the feeling. And it's from this relatable sensation that the seeds of tension are sewn.

When mysterious people shadow Denise's movements, she starts to connect the sightings with a phenomena known as "Survivor's Guilt," in which the survivors of a catastrophe follow their fellow victims into death within a few months of the initial occurrence. In Denise's mind, a more sinister possibility comes with the phenomena... the possibility that Death has sent its victims back to collect her soul. She's the one that got away, and that just can't happen.

The character's viewpoint brings us in, and adds dramatic weight to the dangers that soon follow. But it all starts with an outlook. Your characters are your story. This edition -- and the blog itself -- harps on that fact so much because it's through your characters that mood and, subsequently, tension (or the feeling that something is about to happen, and you just can't wait to find out how it ends up) will grow.