The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 142 - How to Use Slugg Lines

I really can't tell you how great it feels to be working on something new after so much time dedicated to my post-Apocalyptic spec. Not that I disliked working on that script - in fact, the complete opposite is true. I loved writing (and re-writing) it. After a while, though, my "new script" muscles were beginning to atrophy, so a change to an unexplored project was a welcome one. 

While I was writing this week (almost to page 50 of an intended 90), I got to thinking a lot about slugg lines and the way that they're best utilized. I'm pretty content with the way I handle them, but considering this blog is primarily intended to share our experiences and discoveries with other aspiring writers, I figured it couldn't hurt to talk about them a bit this week. After all, we all use them every day in our writing, and I certainly have a number of them in my week's pages, so why not.

To recap quickly in case you're not 100% sure what I'm talking about, the slugg line is the heading that appears before each scene, usually formatted like this:  INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- DAY (or something very similar). The "INT." or "EXT." offer the environment (i.e. inside or outside). "HOSPITAL ROOM" is the specific location, with "DAY" being the time of day the scene is set. It's generally understood that the time of day be written either as day or night, with few exceptions leaning either way between or outside those general markers (afternoon, morning, evening). You can also use "LATER" or "MOMENTS LATER" or "CONTINUOUS" in place of day or night. For more on Continuous, check out this earlier post.

The reason that Day and Night are the most typical time indicators is that, for the most part, there are other people who will go through your script and prep it for production, a task that involves determining the shooting schedule. Unless it is absolutely imperative that a particular scene occur in the wee hours of the morning or at sundown, unnecessarily adding anything other than day or night makes planning the shooting schedule that much more difficult. The last thing you want to do as a new (or any) writer is make other people's jobs more difficult. Sticking with those two should not hinder your writing in most cases. 

As for Later, Moments Later, and Continuous, these are a bit different. In theory, all action is "continuous" (the movie doesn't just stop between scenes), so you do not need to use it all the time. If things are happening at the same time, you can do it - or "SIMULTANEOUS" if you want. For Later and Moments Later, I like to use them as such: both are used to denote a scene that takes place on the same day as the previous one. For example, something occurs during the day, and the following scene is still during the day, only a bit later on, I would use Later. If it is within the same 24 hours but now it's dark out, go with Night. If something happens during the day, and the following scene is a continuation of it that we have jumped to (perhaps set up to fifteen minutes later) but the locale, characters, and beat are the same, instead of writing in JUMP CUT TO, I go with Moments Later. There can even be a change of location here. If action is the next day (i.e. two "day" scenes back to back with 24 hours between them), I would use Day again in the slugg line, but specify "The next day" at the beginning of the description/action.

Your last option - and one that I like a lot - is to use Secondary Headings, especially in cases where action continues in the same location. Basically, these are modified slugg lines, which contain neither the interior/exterior designation, nor information about the time of day. You don't have to bog down the page with extra text to describe a scene set in a house, for example, in which the characters go from room to room. Rather than constantly typing INT. BILL'S HOUSE, [SPECIFIC] ROOM -- CONTINUOUS for each subsequent room, start with an overview - INT. BILL'S HOUSE -- DAY - and then follow the characters into the... DINING ROOM and then into the... LIVING ROOM and so on and so forth. "DINING ROOM" stands alone on the slugg line, followed by the action or dialogue, and then LIVING ROOM taking us into the next chunk. It reads quicker and looks cleaner. Some writers even use secondary headings almost exclusively. I like them quite a bit myself.

Remember, slugg lines are malleable. They involve words that you still have to type out, and therefore, you can change them as need be. However, there's also an accepted format to them, which you would do well to work within for the most part.

Fall and Oscar Movie Preview - 2010

Fall is here, and in movie land, that means Oscar season. The following three articles are definitely worth reading if you're trying to track what's coming out between now and the end of the year and which - if any - of the releases are potential Oscar fodder.

Ken Levine does his annual fall movie preview in two parts here and here. Always good for a laugh, Levine's previews offer a good-natured (I think), usually well-deserved mocking look at what Hollywood has lined up for the final months of the year. When he lists them all out side by side that way, it's baffling to see just how many are remakes, sequels, three-quels, and adaptations. Count the original stuff. I doubt you need more than two hands.

While Nikki Finke is on vacation, Pete Hammond sums up the potential Oscar nominees at Deadline Hollywood. Granted, you don't have to care or buy into any of this if you don't want to. But lists like these are always useful as tracking devices (at the very least) for me. Regardless of how much stock you put in the Academy's decisions each year, knowing what's getting a lot of buzz at the festivals is generally pretty important for anyone looking to break into the industry, as being able to speak about what's hot (and understand the references when producers or agents make them to you) is crucial.

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 141 - Positive Response from Agents and A New Approach to Writing

Three weeks ago, my post-Apocalyptic spec went out to a handful of agents at some of the largest agencies. Two weeks ago, all I knew was that one had passed. My manager didn't expect to hear much until after Labor Day, as most people were out of town for the end of the summer then. Last week, as expected, we got word from the other two we went out to initially.

I was thrilled to hear that both responses were quite positive. While I can't say who or where (though obviously I know both), I can say that these are agents at companies that any emerging writer would love to wind up at. If anything, they could be considered too big - in the sense that they would have other clients earning more and therefore more "important" right now - but that doesn't seem to be a concern in either case. The agents have teams working with them, and it's likely that there would be a few people handling the material. Of the two, we're still waiting to hear from one who liked the script, but recently signed a client writing similar work (which could be a conflict of interest). Either way, two people interested in the work and a few others we're hoping to hear from this week - some of which have La and NYC offices, which could be really nice. 

As the post-Apocalyptic spec slowly moves along, I've been getting further into the firefighter one, as well. It's been an interesting writing process for me, unique in many ways. I almost immediately cast my outline aside. Sure, I still open it each day and work by it - loosely - but it's definitely not guiding my daily writing. Rather, each day I sit down to the computer (which regrettably was not every day this week), I find myself carefully crafting the day's scene(s), unsure exactly what will come up in the action or dialogue. It's a much more painstaking process than I'm used to. Normally, I can produce 4 to 5 pages per hour-long writing session; with this script, my average has dropped to somewhere around 3. I'm not complaining by any means. At the same time, though, I can't say if that change in pace and approach is affecting me positively or negatively or differently at all. Nor am I sure quite where the change from. 

Last Thursday, I reviewed Richard Walter's Essentials of Screenwriting. Perhaps the lessons emphasized in that book are governing the new writing tactics. Maybe I'm subconsciously working from a place where I'm reminded of all the re-writes I had to do on the post-Apocalyptic spec and am trying to preempt them by being more careful in my first draft. Maybe it's a combination of both. Maybe it's neither. Either way, I'm eager to see how the draft turns out. It feels much more like I'm crafting a story now, fitting the puzzle together while at the same time allowing it to evolve as it needs to, as it organically should. I like it. I'm slower now, but hopefully, even if this draft isn't solid, this new method will prove to be.

Book Alert - Essentials of Screenwriting by Richard Walter

If there’s one thing that can be said about screenwriting books, it’s that there are a lot of them. It seems as though most people who sold a screenplay once in the 1970s have since written a “definitive” guide to screenwriting. So the question for those of us seeking out the rare few books that are worth our time and money obviously becomes, how do you know which book is good?

I recently had the pleasure of reading Richard Walter’s Essentials of Screenwriting, and while I read it, the answer became very obvious to me. Unlike many of the “how-to gurus,” Richard Walter is in an undeniable place to dole out advice and instruction. A long-time educator, he is the head of UCLA’s graduate program in screenwriting. His years of overseeing emerging and eager talent are credentials enough, but they’re not what make the book worth reading.

I cannot deny that Walter’s style can at times be repetitive – and I truly mean this in the most appreciative way possible. In fact, it's the most valuable thing about his book. He hammers home that the beginning (of a script, a scene, a line of dialogue) is the point before which nothing else is necessary. The end, on the flip side, is the moment after which everything else is gratuitous. These basic tenets help form the foundation of his guidance; get them down, and you’re on your way to a successful (at least structurally) screenplay. And by the end of the book, you will most certainly have them ingrained in your mind, as they are mentioned time and time again. The same with many other key points to craft: write more with less (no novels, please), show your skill by bringing elements back throughout the script (i.e. don’t explain everything right when it happens), and above all else, present your script in a professional format (no illustrations, industry accepted font and spacing, proper tense-usage, spelling, and grammar).

As I read the book, encountering the same reminders again and again, always building upon one another with other tidbits offered in later chapters, I really got a sense of Richard Walter’s style. I felt as though I was in the lecture hall hearing him speak. He wasn’t repeating points because he had nothing else to say; he was repeating them because they were crucial; they were, not to get cheeky, essential to remember. They warranted saying more than once. And you know what? They quickly started to sink in.

I was still working on re-writes for an action/adventure script I was writing while I was reading Essentials of Screenwriting and I was amazed to find that – mid-sentence sometimes – I would often stop and think back on something I had just read in the book. Was I starting my scene in the right place? Was that last line of dialogue I just wrote a bit too long – did it need to end where it did, or was it really over sooner? Richard Walter had, over the course of 400 pages, so firmly rooted certain tips and guidelines in my mind that I could in no way deny that I was using them. His advice to me, the reader, was instantly incorporated and appreciated.

So how do you know which screenwriting book is good? It’ll be the one that offers suggestions and instructions you immediately begin to implement in your writing, not because you have no other guidance, but because they make perfect sense and, more importantly, they make you a better writer. After seven years of screenwriting education (both during and after school), I was not sure how much I could glean from another how-to book. Essentials of Screenwriting proved that I had a number of lessons yet to learn, lessons that have proven invaluable in my writing since. Even after all my years of writing, I found I could still benefit from a few “essential” reminders from someone who truly knows.

Essentials of Screenwriting is on sale now.

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 140 - New Script and Agent Updates

It feels good to be writing something new again. I mean, really writing something - not just jotting down a few random notes here or typing up a rough outline there. No, I mean actually sitting down, opening Movie Magic 2000, and putting words to the page, working my way up from a blank page one all over again.

I haven't gone through this process in quite a while now. Most of my time the past two years has been dedicated to my post-Apocalyptic spec. However, as it's now in the hands of the creative exec at the production company in LA and out to agents, there's not a whole lot I can do for it these days. Not until some decisions are made by people who aren't me. And, if I'm at all serious about trying to become a working, career screenwriter, I know that I can't just let the time pass and not use it to produce other pages for a new project.

Time's too valuable to waste right now - if, (knock on wood) I have to take some meetings in the coming month, I certainly don't want to show up at them empty handed. It's all well and good to have the post-Apocalyptic spec open the door to that meeting for me, but I know that one of the very first questions (once the basic "tell me about yourself" stuff is done with) is going to be, "So what else do you have?" The thing is, I don't necessarily have to have a library of scripts ready to be messaged over right then and there. What I will need, though, is the ability to talk about other ideas in specific details. The more I have written of a script, the more I should know about it. And even if I don't have pages, the more I've worked an idea out, the better able I'll be to talk about it in a meeting without getting flustered. It just so happens that I do have pages for this new thing - the firefighter script - and while I'm just at page 18 of a first draft, that's better than nothing.

So on the writing front, you could say that it was a pretty good wee. Regarding the post-Apocalyptic spec, it was just so-so. We still waiting to hear back from one of the two agents that we initially went to with the hopes of finding me some representation. Unfortunately, the agent that we did hear back from passed. I'm not 100% sure why, just not for them, I guess. Still, I don't know whether that says more about my writing or the state of the industry. I'm hoping it's the latter, of course. This agent was brought a script that a production company is already basically behind, which people want to go out and try to sell very soon. We just want the agent behind it. Even having an A-list producer's name behind the project didn't seal representation, which just goes to show that you never know what will work. 

Far as I know, we're still waiting to hear back from the other agent, and - in light of the one's pass - have gone out to a few others. My manager didn't expect we'd hear anything before Labor Day, so hopefully this coming week will bring news from a few of the others we've reached out to. And, more hopefully, one of them will like it and like me. I think we can still go ahead if I wind up being un-repped (those very same agents could come knocking if I make a sale without an agent behind me), but it would be nice to land some representation now that we're actually putting the script out there with that intent. No one likes to come away empty-handed. We'll see what this coming week brings.

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 139 - Started a New Script

It's been a long, loooonnnng time since I've sat down to begin working on a screenplay that was anything other than the post-Apocalyptic spec. So long, in fact, that it feels a little strange. (Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. But a year or two ago, I was used to starting a new project every five or six months. An outline aside, it's been closer to a year now, I think.)

On Saturday afternoon, as I've been doing a lot this summer, I took my laptop into my back yard and sat down to get an hour of work in. (Yes, you can have a back yard with real grass and trees and everything in New York. It's crazy to get home grown tomatoes and grapes from someone in New York City, but that's what my neighbor hands me over the fence with regularity.) Tanning while working, I set my playlist to accommodate the right kind of air-drumming music and got to it. 

About a half an hour later, I had two shots and a total of about 3/4 of a page down. Not my best pace. However, in that brief time, something interesting, important, and unusual happened. I realized that the outline I was working off of was in need of change, major change. The protagonist is a fire fighter, but I never thought to include the other members of his engine company in the script. Well, the chief's there, but the other guys never factored in. Half way through the second shot, I realized that they'd have to play bigger roles. Instantly, the script had changed - for the better, I hope.

Outlines are supposed to be flexible. A script can change organically while being written, rendering certain things unnecessary or outdated (compared to in the outline). Having a malleable outline also allows for more fun while writing, inviting surprises to creep onto the page and provide a fulfilling writing experience - versus one that is, more or less, an exercise in transcribing from outline to screenplay. Still, despite all my awareness of an outline's flexibility, I've never had one change so early into the writing. 

To be honest, I wasn't 100% satisfied with the outline. It was workable, sure, but also seemed a bit too linear (a common first draft problem) and lacking in pizazz. The realizations that I had within that first 3/4 page will hopefully breathe the new life into the outline that I needed. I look forward to getting back to it tonight and seeing how the story evolves. 

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 138 - Went to Agents

Last week was a big step forward. I got the final approval from the executive we've been working with in LA to go forward with the most recent draft I turned in. (By final step, I mean going out to agents and the producer whose company we've been working with.)

Of course, before we could show it to anyone else, we had to do a final typo check. The exec and I each went through with a fine-tooth comb to make sure every "t" was crossed and "i" dotted. Combined, I think we found a grand total of 15 to 20 instances of a missing period, missing "s" at the end of a word, or word reversals where we had to flip two. Not too bad, all things considered, but more than I'd like anyone to find. And, if nothing else, the final edit also gave me a last chance to double-check my word usage and tweak blocks of dialogue or action in which I might have used the same word (i.e. "station" or "chance") twice in the same section. 

I got the script in late Thursday night - after hours LA time. On Friday, we went out to agents at two of the biggest houses (specific agents who knew to expect the script for their weekend reading). Whether either looked at it this weekend is as good your guess as mine, but at least they had it in hand. A friend popped into town unexpectedly for the weekend, so I didn't have much chance to get anything else done. On the other hand, what had been accomplished was pretty good, so a weekend off wasn't completely uncalled for. 

Finally, the production exec mentioned a lawyer she thinks could help me, so I got the opportunity to look over his client list. All of the news - the lawyer, the agents, the progress we're hoping for in the coming weeks - is quite encouraging. Granted, nothing's a guarantee, so there's absolutely no reason to get ahead of myself. The best thing I can do now is to focus my attention on another project while I wait (and do my best not to actively wait at all). Would that we all get here - and beyond - someday.