The Writing Week part 20

Not much progress to speak of this week.

I guess you could say I’ve been in a bit of a rut. A funk. A dry spell? Anyway you put it, it’s been a few weeks now, and I haven’t even re-read all of my post-Apocalyptic spec, which is the next thing that I’m going to pounce on again. Despite the lack of reading/writing recently, I have been doing a lot of thinking. Like Zombie mentioned in a post he made a little while ago, I feel like I’ve done nothing, but then I reassess the situation, and know that’s not entirely true.

For one, I can feel myself growing more and more distanced from the first draft of the post-Apocalyptic script. This is a very good thing. I don’t know the exact time frame, but if I don’t have at least three months in between finishing a draft and re-working it, the changes are few and far between. I can sense a slowly heating desire to scrap entire scenes and make drastic rewrites, a fire of productivity growing slowly within me, more than a spark, but far from an inferno yet.

Also, I’ve been playing with a character in my head. This is some of the most extensive character development I’ve done. Not to say that I know everything about him—quite the opposite actually. He’s in some womb between my ears, slowly but surely evolving, growing arms and feet, fingers and toenails. He’s got a name and a few mannerisms, but not much more yet. It’s a slow process, but one I’m enjoying a lot, since I often find my thoughts turning to him, encouraging him to grow and, hopefully soon, step out into the world.

Joining the dark side

Around two years ago, I interned at a small but fairly well-known (and well-funded) production company. My main duty was script coverage. I passed very little scripts along, but the ones I liked I pushed and followed along and asked every once in a while to see if my bosses would do anything with them. I was always happy when I get a “we’ll consider him for our new TV show team” or “his current projects don’t fit what we want to do, but we’re keeping him on the list of writer-for-hires”. Not much meat on the bone, but it’s a bone.

One of the scripts that stuck with me was a dark comedy about anorexic girls. The script was littered with logic potholes, and the transitions were as rough as a washboard (when there was any attempt of transition). Despite all that, I still recommended it. The idea was marketable but not generic. The pitch was catchy. It was entertaining but “about an issue”. When I left the company, that script was green lighted. I don’t think they took my in caps note about needing rewrite.

Right now, I’m employed at a foreign, independent and/or documentary film distribution company. Our acquisition one-man department is gone for two weeks, so I’m covering his work. Among the films I’ve screened, the one by far the best was a documentary about solar car making. Yep, you heard me. Grad students making a solar car. I thought I would change to the next film after it has its fifteen-minutes-chance. I became really sympathetic and involved with the team in 10 minutes, and watched to the bitter end. I was personally saddened when they didn’t win the race, and called my sister to tell her. Am I going to suggest the film to our VP or President, even just the regular acquisition guy? I have no clue. Solar car making. I can’t figure out a way to pitch it without it sounding incredibly boring and geeky, and worst of all, market-less.

Perhaps all I need is a little more faith that its goodness would shine through to our president like it did to me. But all I feel are doubts, and a little, calm voice saying “even if we take it on, it’ll just be a dust-gatherer on the shelf”. Am I one of the soulless system bitch that beats down actual good artists and promote lesser works for the sake of money? Or am I just realistic?

Funny to feel like one of those people who are keeping me and my peers from having a chance.

How many crazy people can they fit on a soundstage?

Hollywood Reporter is reporting from Cannes about two newly announced David Lynch-related projects:

David Lynch and Werner Herzog will be co-directing a horror film, and Lynch will be producing a new Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain, El Topo) mobster film starring Nick Nolte, Udo Kier, and Asia Argento.

Looking through the names listed above, is there a single one that's not notoriously, well, a little nuts? I have the high, high, highest of hopes.

The story (with full details) is available here.

Screenwriting Link of the Week

Ken Levine recently posted his summer movie preview up on his excellent blog. My favorite bit:

THE PROMOTION – Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly are two schleppers vying for a promotion at a Walmart type store. Comedy in aisle five! More fun: wait till it’s on cable, gather your friends, and play the drinking game every time there’s a pratfall.

Ken's entertaining take on what will be this summer's winners and duds can be found here: Part I and Part II.

Ken Levine is a veteran television comedy writer, having worked on many of the most successful sitcoms of the last 30 years, including M*A*S*H, Frasier, and The Simpsons. (Check out his impressive IMDB listing.)

His blog, By Ken Levine..., updates daily with his views on the television and film industry.

Nega-writing

Over the weekend, I believe I may have actually nega-written.

After two solid, drawn-out sessions in front of Final Draft, I came out with a lower page count than I went in with. The fruits of the weekend's labors amounted me taking out two already-written scenes and replacing them with entirely new ones.

In the course of writing any first draft, I fall into a pattern of compulsive self-editing. I wouldn't be surprised if every page I write is composed of the chopped-up remains of three others.

I keep a separate document for every script where I keep copies of all of the scenes that I cut for one reason or another. In many cases there may be something I liked in them that just wasn't right for the overall story, or it was an early idea that was later pushed out of the way for something I thought of later and just liked more. I keep copies of these scenes in case I can use them elsewhere, either in another place in the same screenplay or for a different project altogether.

I noted today that the "deleted scenes" document has just passed 30 pages for my current project, and I've yet to finish my first draft. Should I be alarmed?

Voices in My Head Put Me to Sleep

Like Onyx Enforcer, I don’t have a set writing process. While most times I like to write out an extensive beat sheet before I begin, the script I’m currently working on went through little to no planning, and is so far the smoothest writing I’ve done in years. I also find inspiration from very different places for each scripts, and while music is always playing when I write (I can’t stand writing to silence), it doesn’t really influence what I write.

I think the only consistent writing process for all of my scripts is character building. While the scripts always start with an one-line idea, it’s when I figure out what kind of person the main characters are do the story come together. Psychology fascinates me, and I like giving characters different conscious, subconscious, and unconscious goals, or conflicting/ hypocritical desires. Most of the time if they stay in my head for too long they become pretty broken and twisted, but to my delight the people in my two recent scripts are staying very healthy.

While the script is under construction, I like to let my characters run around in my head and do whatever they want: Meet another character, go to a new town, admire a knife, stalk a kill, eat some breakfast, go camping, get upset, be happy. It’s basically day dreaming, but without me. I also play the scenes I know I want to write over and over and over until the moment I write it (that’s actually how I put myself to sleep every night).

I suppose it is because I revolve around character rather than plot, if I don’t know the ending to a script I simply can’t begin to write, not even the rough draft. This is because without knowing exactly how it will go down, my characters would (like normal humans) simply drag the conflict out as long as humanly possible until it simply die anti-climatically, or suddenly ends with an abrupt burst of violence.

The Writing Week part 19

I’d say “this was more of a reflective week,” but that would be cheating. This was really just more of an unproductive week. That lull that I mentioned in my writing process post is still clinging on for dear life, and I’m just starting to shake it off my leg, like an unwanted dog about to break out the “lipstick.”

All of that isn’t to say that I’ve accomplished nothing this week. I got feedback on my pages from the League, which was all very helpful. This psychological thriller I’m working on, the former Screenplay X, has a lot of work to be done on it yet. However, I am proud of the draft that I have, and after I take a breather from it, I’ll eagerly dive back into it.

I also came up with ideas for a couple future projects this week. Truth be told, something (though now I can’t remember what) happened a few weeks back, and had me worrying that I was dry, in a rut, out of ideas. Well, like the figurative dog humping my leg, that’s something I can’t quite fully shake, either. But, the fact that there are a couple ideas bouncing around in my head again is comforting, even if they’re just as experimental and not as complete as the ideas I developed since January.

Another step forward was that I finally started working on my post-Apocalyptic action spec again. What I really need to do (and will do tomorrow and/or Wednesday) is re-read it. The timing’s a little poor, because I’m going on vacation for a long weekend beginning Wednesday night, and most likely won’t have my computer with me. Not that I can’t write without it, but when I finally commit to diving back into a project, it’s best to have my laptop within reach.

Lastly, I realized something. If I devoted this next year—from now until the end of April, 2009, when my lease expires—to completing all of the projects I’ve written in the past year and a half and currently have at least a first draft of, I would have an additional four scripts under my belt. That’s not counting the projects that are only an outline, or a first act, or a messy blob of random ideas. I know, four scripts might not sound like a lot to you (perhaps), but I would love to add finished drafts of each of those to my portfolio.