Cinematic storytelling is often focused on getting to the next thing, but sometimes the right choice is to let your characters (and your audience) relax for a moment.
In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne creates an unlikely space for a group of prisoners to find a moment of peace, turning the rooftop of the prison license plate stamping facility into an oasis. This peace is short-lived, a momentary break in the narrative between one string of conflicts and another. Yet because the story lets Andy have the win, however fleeting, it creates a hope that he can overcome the suffering he’s endured in prison.
In Barbie, Stereotypical Barbie gets to literally stop and have a cup of tea in the middle of a chase:
Not only does this break up the rhythm of the narrative with a slower, more intimate scene, but it introduces Ruth Handler into the story and gives Barbie a moment to think about why she’s running. Lauren Puckett-Pope looks at the use of Ruth Handler as a guide between worlds, eventually giving Stereotypical Barbie the choice between remaining an undying idea, or becoming mortal. Miriam Higginbotham sees these scenes with Ruth as a space to heal from her religious trauma, looking at the way they show a Creator who allows their creation to set their own path.
Bringing your hero to an oasis doesn’t mean the story has stopped, or that the stakes have dropped. In The Matrix, the action slows down to allow Neo to meet The Oracle in a place that’s considered safe, but there are plenty of reasons to call into question the motives of The Oracle:
Like she says with the vase, would he have become The One if she had told him directly what was going on? It’s not a trap or a dead end. It’s a place that provides another puzzle along with a warm cookie. Brett Seegmiller unpacks the subtlety of this conversation with The Oracle and “the difference between knowing a path and walking a path.”
But sometimes sanctuary is long gone, like in Mad Max: Fury Road. Furiosa lead an escape from Immortan Joe’s Citadel on the promise of making a new home in The Green Place. Unfortunately, things are not as she remembers them:
It’s a failure of the mission, and a failure to find a promised oasis in the wasteland. But it does offer a chance to regroup and pursue a new direction. Arriving here allows Furiosa to see the mirage she had in her mind about the destination, and to replace it with a concrete goal. Kate Rae Davis talks about this scene, and the ways Fury Road categorizes different types of hope.
It’s worth asking some questions: Does your story have an oasis for its characters? Should it let them heal, or set them up for a trick? What would actually give comfort to your characters in the midst of the story’s conflict?
👋 Are you new here?
Inneresting is a weekly newsletter about writing and things that are interesting to writers. Subscribe now to get more Inneresting things sent to your inbox.
Based on a writing prompt
This issue of Inneresting is based on the Writer Emergency Pack XL card “Oasis:”
A surprise source of water can mean life for someone lost in the desert, but this isn’t the only type of oasis. Any unexpected place that lets your hero heal, regroup, or take shelter can do the trick.
The Writer Emergency Pack XL deck was made with one goal: Help writers get unstuck when something stalls in their story. You might even say they’re a kind of oasis for writers in trouble.
To find out more about the writing prompts on the 52 cards in the XL deck, check out the Writer Emergency site.
⏱️ An oasis of time
Each week we post a comment thread for writers to meet up, cheer each other on, and put some words on the page with a Write Sprint.
What’s a Write Sprint?
John wrote up an explanation, but here’s the short version: Set a timer for 60 minutes, close down all distractions, and do nothing but write until that timer goes off.
Sometimes that’s all it takes to get some momentum going with your writing: You set aside this time for writing and nothing else, so you’d better use it!
Shout out to Mark Leiren-Young, Elyse Moretti Forbes, and Aimee Link for sprinting with us last week!
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link Jason Hellerman sends his script to an AI coverage service and gets back over 200 dense pages of feedback telling him it’s better than Schindler’s List.
What else is inneresting?
I refuse to apologize for enjoying each and every pun in Glen Weldon’s Oscar Party Menu.
Paper Will rounds up entertainment made by cults, including L Ron Hubbard’s jazz fusion album and the Church of Euthanasia.
Jessica Hagy with a set of questions to ask yourself and others, with accompanying Venn diagrams.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
Are you enjoying this newsletter?
📧 Forward it to a friend and suggest they check it out.
🔗 Share a link to this post on social media.
🗣 Have ideas for future topics (or just want to say hello)? Reach out to Chris via email at inneresting@johnaugust.com, Mastodon @ccsont@mastodon.art, or Bluesky @ccsont.bsky.social
Post-Credits Scene
