Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu What Are They? How Can They Be Avoided?

[putaro]

An interesting interview with Aaron Sorkin, the creator of "The West Wing."

It's a little long, I found a couple of really interesting points:

His goal is to write dialog (and I think he's pretty damn good at it). For him, plot is secondary to dialog.

And, relevant to our little discussion here, he makes the point that in every scene, someone has to want something, or there is no scene.

http://www.makingof.com/posts/watch/259 ... al-stories

[WarpGirl]

Thank you for this! Aaron Sorkin is up there with F. Scott Fitzgerald as my writing HERO! I mean he is utterly brilliant with words. THANK YOU!

Bradley Whitford! I think it's ironic that Aaron Sorkin finds plot so hard, he's got brilliant ones! But then, I feel character is the lifeblood of a story as well. Nobody will care about "plot" if they don't care about the characters.