The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 128 - Asked for Advice

After a frantic week of getting last minute notes and making revisions - finally leading to turning in the draft at 8pm LA time on Friday - I had the weekend to relax. Well, "relax" is a relative term. The company that I work for (another ally in the writer's universe - Day Job) received a TONY Honor for Excellence in Theatre this weekend, so Saturday was spent at the cocktail reception accepting the award with my coworkers. I decided, to provide a bit of a change of pace - and to spare you yet another post on how I made revisions for another consecutive week - I figured I'd share some advice I gave via email to a Screenwriters League reader.

A fellow writer emailed the League asking for some opinions on his next move. For the most part, the questions asked had to deal with choosing between two ideas (especially if one is grander, while the other seems much more typical Hollywood fodder) and how to get the drive to sit down and actually write a script. I figured that the questions were broad and general enough that they would benefit more than this one reader - I know I wondered the same things many times - so here is my paraphrased response. I hope it helps some other aspiring writers, as well.

It sounds like you have a few ideas for scripts, so at least that's a good place to start... Don't be ashamed of you ideas, and if you are, then don't write them. After you've become an established writer and are taking assignments, then you can write trash under a pseudonym to support your gold-plating habit. Until then, the rule I go by is that, if I don't want to see it or I don't find it a worthwhile idea, then why would I spend possibly two or more years working on it? So no shame...

As for where to begin... unknown writers can't break the mold until they've mastered using it, so pick up a couple intro to screenwriting books. Read them. Then read scripts. Lots of scripts. Drew's Script-O-Rama has a ton for free download. Study the movies in the same genre as yours, study the scripts, and take a close look at the pacing, story structure, and arcs.

Outline your scripts before you write them (I didn't always do this, but it's proving increasingly useful). You have ideas for scenes here and there, but those don't necessarily add up to ideas for movies. By outlining, you'll discover whether you have the foundation for a movie and all the requisite parts... You'll need to know your protagonists, antagonists, and everything about their world. You might even want to write out character histories. Study story structure and the three-act format, and think of your script in those terms. There's a formula to writing, which means that the buyers are looking for that. Learn what it is and stick to it (and then when you've mastered it, feel free to break it).

Regarding your two ideas, as I said, Hollywood wants a quick sell now. If you think one of your ideas is either too out there or too complex at this point, start simple... That's your training wheel script. Always write something you're willing to devote the time and effort to, but realize that some ideas are beyond your current scope. I'm sitting on at least three myself now, because I know I can't pull them off the way I want to yet. And when you do start writing and showing people the pages, listen to their feedback... this first script won't land you an Oscar. The first draft especially... Listen to everyone. Even if you think their notes are crap.

...If you don't yet have the drive to write, then make a routine out of it. Like going to the gym, if you sit down at the computer for an hour a day - no internet, no tv, just you and the blinking cursor - you'll start to write, if for no other reason than to pass the time. And soon enough, that hour will become part of your routine. When you miss a day, you'll regret it.

Final bit of advice - don't get ahead of yourself. First write the script. Then be patient, listen to notes, rewrite it (possibly a few times). [Everything else] comes only after all of that is done.

Coming In on the Sly

I recently started a new job, which is amazing in itself considering all the shit that has been hitting the American flag lately. What is even more amazing is that this job is the job I wanted: It’s an assistant to the Executive Producer of this really cool kids show, “The Electric Company.” (www.pbskidsgo.org) It’s produced at Sesame Workshop, which means I get to spend my days walking through the brightly colored, stuffed animal clad hallways of Sesame. Of course being an assistant means all of organizing someone else’s life – but my boss is so cool and zany that I am really into it!

I’m on week two of my job. Last week was nothing but fast paced and exciting. From a writing stand point, also really inspiring. I was not only asked to read a few short scripts and give my boss my notes on them, but I was allowed to sit in on a script meeting! I am trying to let everyone in the office know that I am and want to be a writer and am good at it – without being a dick about it. I have fared well so far:

One thing I learned from being in the Dramatic Writing program at NYU is that if you’re the newbie in a room full of people who have been working on a show, you have to keep your mouth shut. No one wants the new person to be cocky or loud mouthed, because everyone else in the room does know more than you do. I failed a little and said three things total during the script meeting. Interestingly, the script coordinator, who is the official note taker of the meeting, wouldn’t even write down what I said. That is, until the third time when the head writer told her to.

We were done reading this first draft, and the script supervisor was going page through page, asking who had notes. We came to page 10 and I asked a question, “I was wondering why x wasn’t in the script,” (which is a better tactic instead of saying, “this is wrong but I know how to change it”). Everyone paused and told me to go on with my thought. I did, and the head writer said, “That’s really smart. Put it in the notes!”

So wahoo! I got my note in the page of notes to be given to the writer, which he’ll use to revise. Of course, who knows if he’ll do anything with it – but being called smart by the head writer was totally a thrill! Now the next hurdle would be to be invited back to the meeting. I don’t want to seem too entitled and assume I get to go back. But I would love recognition that I have smart things to say, and that I could be of use to the show. Because I would be! But who knows…

Amazing advice/rant from Unk

If you haven't read The Unknown Screenwriters rant/post on original concepts, get on it. It's long and full of swears, but some of the best screenwriting advice I've read in a while, well worth reading no matter how many scripts you've written:

If you’re going to go ahead and write a spec about something we’ve basically all seen before, you might as well stand the fuckin’ thing UPSIDE DOWN. Instead of giving us the direct to DVD version, go the extra mile and do something with it we’ve never seen before! Make YOUR VERSION the new version by which this genre will forever be measured! And, if you can’t pull that off — that’s okay — as long as that’s what you’ve been striving for.

I mean go ahead and pull that spec out right now. Got it? Good. Why is it DIFFERENT than the plethora of movies within the same genre? Is it differerent? Is it good different? Is it the same as everything we’ve seen before? Even if it’s well written, is it the same old tired thing we’ve seen a hundred times before?

Check out the full thing here. If you're not already subscribed to Unk's blog, jump on that right away.

Worst writing advice ever?

Literary agent Nathan Bransford asks an important question: What's the worst writing advice you've ever gotten?

Some of the highlights, from the comments section:
• Remove all your commas. Editors don't like commas and they pull the reader out of the story.
• If it's not coming easily, put it down. You aren't meant to write if you have to try.
• From a creative writing teacher at my first college: "I get one like you in every class. You're a promising writer, but you're wasting your time on genre fiction that'll never be worth anything."
• "War and Peace - now that's a good book. Why don't you write a book like that?"
• "The first page of your novel MUST include the protagonist's sex, age, physical description, and location. Preferably, this is all revealed in the first paragraph."
• Beginners shouldn't start out writing novels.
• Genre fiction is on it's way out, and stories with twist endings won't sell.

I'm not surprised at most of these. I've gotten my fair share of crappy advice. I think one of the challenges of interacting with people during the writing process is that you need to learn to filter the notes and feedback you get. It's something the Leaguers discuss with regularity. Only you really know what you want to accomplish with your work, and only you can decide which pieces of advice will really help move your work forward. You have to also realize that the people reading your work don't have the notes, background info and/or mental cues that you've created while working on your screenplay/story/novel. That's a plus and minus. The plus is, they're looking at it as a normal reader would, so their reaction is much more natural and in tune with how Joe Reader would react when picking up your book off the shelf. The minus is, since the book isn't finished, they're going to have questions about where it's going or what certain things mean. Questions you've probably already answered internally. Still, overall, the good outweighs the bad, as long as your confident in your peers.

One of the biggest benefits of the League, I've found, is that we're a group of competent writers all coming from different directions. So, when I bring something up for comments, I'm getting a wide array of feedback from six very different people. If you believe in the skills of the people you're handing your work to, then you've cut down on the advice filtering process.

What's the worst writing advice you've ever gotten? The best?

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