Alters screenplay

[dianneordi.livejournal.com]

I don't have MPD / DID, but I've had two close friends with DID and have known several others.

I'm currently working on a screenplay which I'm hoping will cast multiplicity in a favorable light, and would love to get some input.

The log line: A college student with multiple personalities must make a choice between the boy she loves and the alters who've kept her safe since childhood.

Although there's no explicit sex or violence, I've tried to be very straightforward, so there may be some triggers.

The screenplay can be downloaded it at www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/5/350846/Alters.pdf

Comments can be directed to dianneordi at excite dot com. Use "Alters" as the subject.

Thank you!
Dianne.

Comments

[dianneordi.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I didn't know it was pejorative, or I certainly wouldn't have used it. How would you describe it so that people who are not members of this community will understand?

[mirrorbrothers.livejournal.com]

It's not even the terminology, really. It's like you wrote the tag line before you did the research and the play afterwards. The whole "protected her since childhood" thing just doesn't have anything to do with the plot. It doesn't describe the system. Heather is, as you say, with it and functional and doesn't need protection from anyone, even if anyone else in the system was the sort to provide it. And the choice it talks about doesn't exist, either. Integrating ended the relationship with Tyler (whatever may have happened after) and didn't save the one with Matt. You may not be able to describe what's going on without terms like "alter" or "multiple personality" but you can certainly avoid stereotypes that don't actually obtain to the story.

Meanwhile, we've finished reading. I confirm what I said earlier - except for the Julie thing, which was weird but an interesting plot twist, you did a great job capturing the experience of being multiple. Zoe turned out to be much cooler than we thought at first. B.J. was neither annoying nor saccharine. Suzanne wasn't my favorite, may be droppable, but at least you used her to get in a line about taking responsibility.

But it doesn't finish what it starts. Your protagonists are vertiable poster girls for real, functional multiplicity. And then when Matt acts like an ass and dumps her, Heather blames it on her headmates - when Zoe was the one actually dating him to begin with - caves in to prejudice and Dr. Prescribes-A-Lot, and integrates, over the angry, tearful protests of her loving headmates. And for some reason, this makes everything come out okay. And then the headmates show up at the wedding, apparently to symbolize the old theory about how the post-integration personality is the sum of the others, despite the evidence of the lost skills.

Your portrayal is extremely good - but the plot betrays the principles implied in your characterization. Un-PC terminology won't kill me, and one-dimensional characters have been around for a while, but there's one thing you absoultely need to remember.

We're. Not. Sick.

Being a multiple isn't bad. Being a singlet isn't better. Integrating isn't the solution to every system's problems - it usually isn't even possible. A story that shows a real, likeable, basically happy system and then rewards the main character for destroying it... I appreciate the effort of your research, and I respect the technical skill, but you're not helping. You're really not.

Rob, Johnny