Stumbling and Bumbling Your Way To Success - by Richard Walter

Today we have a special treat for readers of the Screenwriters League - a guest post by Richard Walter, the chairman of UCLA’s graduate program in screenwriting. Richard has a new book hitting shelves - Essentials of Screenwriting - and he has generously offered to provide a little bonus insight to League readers. 

Stumbling and Bumbling Your Way To Success 

by Richard Walter

Neil Simon guest-lectured in my UCLA screenwriting class. One of the students asked him, “Do you laugh at your own jokes?”

His reply: “Yes, I do, the first time I hear them.”

I love this notion that Mr. Simon ‘hears’ his jokes, as if the characters create them on their own. I’ve never known a writer who wasn’t surprised by lines his characters seemed to create by themselves, by twists and turns in the plots that seem to evolve without serious planning by the writer.

I argue in my book Essentials of Screenwriting and elsewhere that creating a dramatic narrative is not so much an act of construction as it is of discovery. The tale and its inhabitants are dis-covered, that is, the cover is withdrawn and they are thereby revealed, as if they were always there just waiting to be found.

Stories and characters and dialogue arise often without calculation. I am, myself, a strong advocate for outlining, but this does not mean that writers shouldn’t stay open to the surprises. Indeed, to do otherwise, to over-plan, is to rob a script of its spark and sparkle and sense of spontaneity.

This is true also for life narratives.

Who has a better job than I? I write and I teach writing. In the former instance, I get paid for what others are scolded for: letting my mind wander. Like all writers, I traffic in my own imagination; I swap my dreams for dollars.

In the latter instance, I work with the best and brightest new writers, who butt heads with me and my colleagues, compete with us and keep us fresh. Our students help us to avoid the ruts and routines into which freelance writers too easily fall. I never planned for an academic career. My position fell into my lap at a Hollywood party (actually it was in Malibu). I arrived at the party and was introduced to the then-head of the UCLA screenwriting program who promptly invited me to join the faculty.

The lesson: You can’t find a job like mine; the job has to find you.

Likewise, often you cannot find your story but have to let it find you.

Planning, calculating, designing are activities that are in their nature left-brain oriented, that is, they are intellectual and analytical. They are about the brain, the mind. Art, however, is not about thinking but feeling. It’s not about the brain so much as the heart, the belly, the groin.

One of the biggest mistakes a writer can make is to try and haul back to some preordained notion a script that has run off the rails. Rails are, after all, constricting, limiting. Sometimes it’s a good thing to let a story run off the rails.

Years ago I was deep into an assignment writing a feature length script for Warner Brothers. I had gotten fairly well stuck about two thirds of the way through the story and became thoroughly distressed. The last thing I wanted was to go on vacation, but I had promised my wife we would head up to the High Sierra come August. All I wanted to do was stay at my desk and struggle with the story issues that vexed and befuddled me. How under such circumstances could I enjoy any kind of vacation?

Grumpily, I got in the car and we hit the road. Within about a half hour, once we were beyond the urban scene, I suddenly relaxed. I told myself that once we were settled in our mountain cabin, I would set my mind to working on the script. As the week unfolded, however, I gave not a thought to the script. I enjoyed the pine-scented outdoors, the glorious mountains and lakes and sky.

On our last day before heading home I suddenly realized that I’d forgotten about the script. I set my mind to calculating how I could finish the tale, and promptly became depressed. I couldn’t come up with even merely a fragment of a thought that would help me with the script. Instead of hurling myself from a cliff, I resolved to stop thinking about the screenplay and simply enjoy the little bit of vacation that remained. I told myself that the following day I would give myself over to the enjoyment of the drive through the Central Valley, and the day after that I would plunk myself down at my station before my desk and struggle once again with my creative issues.

At that very moment, precisely the moment I totally stopped thinking about the script, the end of the story revealed itself to me as if a tunnel had opened, leading me precisely to that place where I needed to go.

When I settled into the chair before my desk two days later, I knew just exactly what I had to do to finish the script.

Because writers work with language, and because language is first of all a left-brain enterprise, it is all too easy to try to think our way though our stories. In truth, based upon my own experience and also upon that of hundreds of writers with whom I have worked closely in Westwood and elsewhere, writers’ best bet may very well be to stop over-thinking their tales, suppress their planning, and stumble and bumble around blindly. They might just find that among the things they bump into will be precisely the character, the line of dialogue, the narrative they’re seeking.

About the Author: Richard Walter

Richard Walter is a celebrated storytelling guru, movie industry expert, and longtime chairman of UCLA’s legendary graduate program in screenwriting. A screenwriter and published novelist, his latest book, Essentials of Screenwriting, is available in stores July 2010. Professor Walter lectures throughout North America and the world and serves as a court authorized expert in intellectual property litigation.  For more information and to order the new Essentials of Screenwriting, visit www.richardwalter.com. 

Is your screenplay ready to sell? Enter the Richard Walter Online Review Program to win a chance to find out!

Richard Walter asserts that one of the biggest mistakes writers make is to market their scripts before they’re truly ready. If you read Richard’s new book, Essentials of Screenwriting, and post an online review of it on Amazon.com, your own blog, Facebook page or favorite user review site (and send the full review and the link to where it appears online to richardwalterreviews@yahoo.com ), you will be entered into a weekly drawing to win a free read of your script by Richard. If he deems it ready, he’ll refer it to a potential representative or directly to a production company. If he feels it is not ready, he’ll send you a letter in which he cites its essential strengths and identifies those issues that in his view require further consideration.

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 131 - A Writing-Heavy Week

We're nearing the end of the tunnel - the light's getting brighter, and we're getting closer to being done. A week ago today, I launched myself into what should, for all intents and purposes, be the last real round of re-writes for the post-Apocalyptic spec (at least for this phase of the project's development, that is). Two minutes before midnight on Friday, I sent the script off to my producer to get her take on the revisions. In the five days last week, I devoted almost all of my free time to working on the script.

Since this weekend was the 4th of July - Happy Birthday, USA - I knew that it would offer a perfect opportunity for my producer and I to go over the script one more time without the pressure of work days ticking away. So I set an informal but concrete deadline for myself that I would have the script to my producer by Saturday morning. I averaged probably about 2.5 hours a night (or more) that week working on the script, often staying up until about 2am to make sure certain things were ironed out. Then, of course, after I pulled myself away and climbed into bed, I would spend another half hour or so just thinking about the script and jotting notes down while trying to fall asleep.

All in all, I'm still very pleased with the product. It is undeniably and intensely different from the first draft I churned out. Improvements in my writing aside, the story is completely different than what I first set out to do. However, the fundamentals - characters, setting, and underlying goals - have remained constant throughout, which means the project is still mine and, more importantly, still feels like mine. And, as often happens, the larger, more immediately daunting notes didn't seem so bad once I actually implemented them this week. They work in the context of the script, and I think they continue to elevate the work. 

The next step - after I get a few notes back from my producer - involves a tiny bit more waiting. But it's something quite possibly worth waiting for. Once my producer and manager OK the script, it goes back to the production company for (hopefully) the final time, and from there, it goes to the whole team for a read. Then, it's just a matter of finding out if they want it or not. Hopefully I'll have some answers in a few weeks.

Logline Central - Lego

Logline Central is an irregular segment that takes a deeper look at loglines of scripts or projects that have just been purchased, as listed on DoneDealPro.

Well, they've done it again.

Title: Lego

Logline: No details given.

Writer: Phil Lord, Chris Miller

More: To be based on their pitch, which was based on Lego's building blocks toy. Dan Lin and Roy Lee will produce. Doug Davison and Lego's Jill Wilfert will executive produce. Lin Pictures' Seanne Winslow will co-produce. Phil Lord & Chris Miller will also direct. The film will live action and animation. Project was last announced in August 2008.

No comment, other than "Ugh."

Come on, INCEPTION...

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 130 - Overlapping Projects

I managed to accomplish a few things last week, even while on vacation. For one, I discovered just how out of shape I've grown living an idle life in New York. More encouraging, though, was the fact that I got a rough, three page outline of my next project idea (the firefighter script) to my manager by the end of the week. Sometimes, I guess knowing how to sit sedentary for a few hours at a time can in fact pay off. 

After last week's post about trying to work with pen and paper more, I had to make the transition over to typing up my ideas in Word. Over the course of the week, I got all my original notes transferred over, and then built upon them, ultimately generating the outline. I guess it's a little strange, but my process generally involves creating an initial document that has both notes and the majority of my outline. When holes appear in the outline or I discover questions that need to be answered before I can move on, I open a new document and paste a copy of the outline into there. Then, I continue to work on filling in the plot holes in the more note-filled first document, ultimately collecting the full unadulterated outline in the second. Something about having a scrap document for notes and questions and problem solving helps (and replaces the earlier pad of paper).

Right around the time I was getting the outline prepped to send off to my manager, I got a call from him. The executive that we've been working with on the post-Apocalyptic spec had another round of notes - the final round, I'm told. She essentially had five points that she wants us to take a closer look at. At first, one of them seemed to really jump out as not a minor change. I called my producer and manager pretty quickly, and they both talked me down, making me see that it's really just a question of adding a beat or two to one part of the script, and removing a couple from a later one, to shift some of the focus around. Not too bad.

Still, though, the prospect of more notes to address - even though I think they'll only take me a week - was not so hot. At this point, we've been working on the script with this particular production company since October. My manager assure me that, barring any glaring problems that we've all managed to overlook by being too close to the material, the fixes I do now will be the last one before the script goes out to the rest of the team at the production company (including the head producer). One last round of tweaks, and then it goes out, out of our hands and into all of theirs. From there, it's only a matter of a couple weeks before we should know whether they'll be moving forward with the project or not. And in the meantime, I'll be working on the firefighter spec, getting ready to answer the question we all hope to hear one day: "so what's next for you?"

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 129 - Pen and Paper, When Tried is True for a Reason

I gave myself a week off. Friday marked a week since I sent the most recent version of my script into the production company that we're working with. (I just heard from my manager today that we're hoping to get notes by end of day tomorrow - and we're hoping the notes are little more than very minor tweaks and finesses.) Any one out there could easily argue that waiting a week before writing again - especially at a time when we're hoping I'll have to go to LA and take meetings soon - is incredibly bad planning. I won't argue with you there. However, I was feeling a little bit like I was running on fumes, and I was having a difficult time cracking the new project open. So, I took a week off.

On Saturday, I started actively writing down ideas for the new script (let's call it the "firefighter script" here on out). Sure, I'd jotted things down here and there, but that was the start of blocking out the time and really making myself work on the new idea. Sunday followed with more work, including a few revelations that helped really crack the thing open. Then today, I spend five hours on a bus heading back down to Arlington, Virginia. In between naps (more than I should probably have taken), I got more work done. The general story arc is slowly starting to congeal; I have a fairly stable foundation for each act and where many of the big beats fall. Soon, it'll be time to put all this down on the computer and get it out to the manager. But not yet.

I'm constantly going back and forth on the merits of writing on the computer versus with pen and paper. Recently, though, I find it increasingly satisfying (and easier) to begin outlining on a notepad, where no blinking cursor can remind me that I'm not putting new material down. To avoid that nagging reminder, I find myself re-typing the same info over and over again - everything I already know being put down in my notes with little or no actual progress coming with it. Pen and paper, though, is so basic. It doesn't actively remind you that another word should follow. Yes, the page remains blank until you fill it, but it's patient. It allows you to work  through your ideas as they come. And when they do come, it's glorious.

One more day with the notebook - I think that's my goal. Maybe by the end of tomorrow I'll open Word and try to make that cursor blink as little as possible. Until then, though, I'm doing just fine without it.

This summer's movie releases... explained

Following up on Cakeman's post earlier this week about a possible glimmer of hope in the spec market, I thought I'd share a link with you guys.

Joe Mathlete runs a great blog called "Marmaduke Explained", where he posts the daily Marmaduke newspaper strip and then in very plain language explains the jokes in them. It's pretty hilarious, actually - two good examples of what he does are here and here.

Understandably, he's been getting a lot of questions about the recent Marmaduke film, which he finally answered in the form of a pretty damning article about the lack of originality in Hollywood releases for 29-95.

His article includes the below list of summer releases and their source material, which is, well, more than a little disparaging (if hilarious) when written out in one place like it is here:

Look what movies are coming out this summer: Sex and the City 2 (sequel to a movie based on a TV show based on a book based on newspaper articles), Iron Man 2 (sequel to a movie based on a 2nd-tier comic book), Jonah Hex (based on a 5th-tier comic book), The A-Team (based on a campy 80s TV action show), Macgruber (based on a series of TV comedy skits based on a campy 80s TV action show) Robin Hood (beyond being basically a Bible story in terms of freshness, it’s also for all intents and purposes a sequel to the film Gladiator), Step Up 3D (sequel to a sequel… in 3D!), Toy Story 3 (sequel to a sequel… in 3D!), Shrek Forever (sequel to the sequel to the sequel to a movie based on fairy tales and fart jokes), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (based on the sequel to a computer game), The Karate Kid (remake of an 80s movie that spawned several sequels, starring the sequel to Will Smith), Ramona and Beezuz (based on children’s books which have already inspired filmic adaptations), The Last Airbender (based on an animated TV series), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (based on a graphic novel), Nanny McPhee Returns (sequel to a movie based on a series of books), Piranha 3D (remake of a movie that was based on ripping off Jaws), Predators (you know, like the movie Predator, but plural!), Dinner for Schmucks (remake of a French film from a decade ago), Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (sequel to a movie called Cats and Dogs that I’d never heard of until I Googled it so I could write this). That’s not counting films whose plots are just lazy retreads of previous films. And that’s also not counting the Marmaduke movie.

The whole thing's a great read. You can check it out here. Before you fellow aspiring screenwriters reach for the cyanide tablets, I'd also urge you to check out Cakeman's more optimistic post about the spec market Cakeman's post earlier this week">here.

Are Things Looking Up?

If you're anything like us, you're starting to get a little (well, maybe more than a little) fed up with the current state of development in Hollywood. It was bad enough that most blockbusters seemed to be sequels or lackluster adaptations of books, graphic novels, or other movies. Then the video game movies came out in full force, most pretty forgettable. With board games (and Magic 8 Balls) being developed into feature projects, it seems like Hollywood has hit a new low, digging at the bottom of the bin, when there's so much original material being cast aside for want of something that's an established property. 

Writers are being told to set their more interesting ideas aside - I even posted second hand advice to this effect here yesterday - so that they can instead write a (quite possibly) less intelligent, easier-to-sell script. And the "original" ideas making it to screens this summer have been less than tantalizing, to say the least. Most releases are opening under prediction and dropping off quickly. The long and short of it - fans are losing interest. And, according to this article by Nikki Finke, producers are taking note. And they're worried.

As they ought to be. I'm working on an original idea now, and the production I'm working with has been great. However, it's not lost on me how difficult it is to sell a spec right now, especially a high-concept, high-budget one. (I've had numerous discussions with my manager on how to best plan for my follow-up project, and there are a number of ideas we both like, but feel that the timing is not right on... due in no small part to their being a bit more out-of-the-box.) Finke's article, though seems to hint that the times might be shifting... at least a tiny bit. 

Intensively over the next few days, extending even for the next few weeks, a gaggle of studio moguls and/or their executives have scheduled a series of meetings with top agencies in Hollywood. Yes, the movie gods are coming down off Mount Olympus in order to soak up the wisdom of the mere mortals who rep the talent... That's how seriously this Summer of Discontent has unsettled the studios who are beginning to admit being relatively clueless what to greenlight next now that so many movies aren't clicking with moviegoers.

A little later, she adds, "So what are the agents going to tell the studio swells? Here are our writers, here are their scripts, here is the original material you should be making instead of numbing predictability."

I have to say, Chris Nolan's INCEPTION - due to land July 16 - is a glimmer of hope already. A high-budget, original film with a large cast and a lot of good speculation already, Inception could be the film that reminds Hollywood that good things can come without history. Then again, if any of us made a film that grossed over half a billion dollars domestic, I'm sure we could finagle something, too. Let's hope that we're seeing a new age of original material, as Finke suggests could come. Wouldn't that be great for all of us?