The Writing Week part 22

I know what you're thinking: "Where's Cake Man's writing week? I sure do hope he's ok." (In all seriousness, I know none of you are thinking that.) Other than a few impressive scotch induced hangovers, I''m still here. I actually spent the better part of the last Writing Week in Colorado visiting a friend of mine. The break - during which point I read two Leaguer's scripts but did no actual writing of my own - was exactly what I needed.

I came back feeling refreshed (if not a little leery of being back in a metropolis after spending days with mountains being the only things taller than the trees). I've since started tackling my post-Apocalyptic spec again, which is a great feeling, because I was off of it for so long. In fact, I'm going on vacation again tonight (gotta use those vacation days before I lose them to a new fiscal year), and am bringing my computer with me. I normally tell myself that a notebook will suffice for writing when I'm on vacation, but I'm not letting myself use that lie anymore. I don't write in notebooks. At least, I seldom do. I tend not to like doing it and get far less done. Bringing the computer, lugging it 240 miles back to Arlington, Virginia is proof positive that I plan to work on this script again. If the computer's there, I have to write, right?

I'm excited to get back into this (and any) project again. Being in Colorado was a jolting reminder that the great outdoors are where I'm most comfortable. City life has its perks, sure, but I prefer expansive sky and endless greenery. The only way I know to attain that is through success as a writer. Sure, it's probably a long way off, but it's even longer if I'm not, you know, writing.

Trimming The Delicious Fat

I recently finished a draft of an action script, and after receiving notes I am seeing what should have been obvious at the time. My sidekick character has a habit of overshadowing my protagonist. It’s not the worse problem to have. At least I have a protagonist, and you better believe that there are scripts floating around good companies that barely have one. Anyway, I don’t think my problem is that my protagonist isn’t interesting. It’s just that my sidekick is a real bad ass, probably the first supporting character I’ve had that I might write an entirely new script around. But until that script comes, to the chopping block I go.

Take away from my sidekick, add to my protagonist. Add a little muscle, trim a little fat. But what if the fat is delicious and chewy and flavorful? We’ve all been there before, pondering the fate of a line that we cherish, considering where else we might put that half page of golden wit. Sometimes we ponder and consider so much that we make the wrong decision.

I confess that I have recognized in past and current scripts solidly written lines and pages that did not benefit my script, and rather than cutting these tumors I forced them into a draft. I even tweaked small scenes around them for the worse in the hopes that it made the fat seem more like muscle. This is always a terrible idea. It doesn’t matter if your buddy really digs your scene. It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be the line that makes the trailer. It’s hard enough in screenwriting to recognize what isn’t needed in our scripts. When you see something in your script and you know it shouldn’t be there, chop it off. You can put the trimmings in a separate file like Zombie does and eventually use all the scraps to create a screenwriting abomination.

Screenplay hard drive clutter

Last week I talked about the document I keep of cut passages from each of my screenplays and the nega-writing process. While I'm on the topic of peripheral files for a screenplay, I may as well touch on the other things that I accumulate during the writing of a first draft.

I keep a folder on my desktop that share their names with different writing projects I'm working on. In each of these folders I collect various pieces of media that are either inspired parts of the screenplay, are referenced by the characters, or are in some other way related. My current alpha project (a thriller that the fellow Leaguers are all familiar with) is no different, and its folder contains the following:

1) Locale photographs. Several are taken by myself, of locations I have in mind to use as reference when describing a character's surroundings. (For example, several scenes take place in a diner that I've modeled after one I used to eat at often in Ohio.)

2) Miscellaneous images. I have various jpegs that I stumbled over during the formative early months of my screenplay's life; a poster that hangs on a character's bedroom wall, and photos of strangers found on the internet who resemble the appearance I visualize for certain characters in my head. (Is that creepy? Maybe.)

3) MP3 files. Two songs are referenced in the screenplay, and there were a couple songs that helped me get into the right frame of mind for certain scenes. I keep these nearby in case I ever need to fall back into that mood.

Part of me is tempted to include this folder on the CD along with the PDF file when I hand the draft to a friend to get their take on it, but I'm afraid that offering that type of guidance would distract them from giving me an unbiased reading and an unhindered feedback session.

The Writing Week Part 21

It's a hard thing to break out of a slump, and if you've read in between the lines of my past few posts, you'll know that's what I've been in recently. Onyx offered encouraging words, reminding me that I had written a lot in a very short amount of time, which is true. But the pace I was writing at is the one that I like to maintain, and I've just not been doing it lately.

However, I think that's attributable, primarily, not so much to a "burn-out" but to the fact that I'm in re-write mode (another "experiment" of sorts for me, because I hate re-writes). I said it before that in the next year, I want to polish drafts of 4 scripts I've been working on. Especially for me, that's no small feat, since I have a really difficult time with re-writes. I just never quite seem to know how to go about doing them - where to being, what to cut, when to begin a fresh draft, or how to distance myself enough from the original material. I read through my post-Apocalyptic spec again, and though I'm more ready to cut and change things now than I was before, I still really like it and am lukewarm about doing too much to it.

I don't know why the re-write process is such a deterrent to me. Perhaps it's that I relish new material so much more. Or maybe it's impatience on my part. Who knows, maybe it's ego. There are so many mediocre movies in the cinemas these days, I often feel that my first, rough drafts are just as good as half of what people pay $12.50 to go see on a Friday night. (That's a bit of an ego-trip, I know. But I'm sure that many of you out there can relate. It can be frustrating at times to think how much money gets poured into movies that, if the scripts were ever good, lost all of their substance in production.)

All that aside, I knwo that until people are spending their Fridays watching the movies I've written (and hopefully not wishing they'd decided to stay in and get take-out instead), I just have to keep working.

Screenwriting on the Web II

Danny Stack, a brother screenwriter/blogger in the UK, was recently ask to share what revelations he's had since starting his writing career.

He goes on to list these revelations, which are all very worthwhile reading for anyone early in their screenwriting career. A few examples:

- It doesn’t get easier. It gets more difficult. You always have to raise your game, dig deeper, work harder.
- The system doesn’t care about writers. It’s a bit like Mother Nature: it has the capacity to be beautiful and nurturing, and we couldn’t exist without it, but it will also cut you down without any reasoning or judgement.
- You have the capability of writing just as much shite as the stuff you mock on TV or at the cinema every day. It will help if you recognise this, otherwise you’re in trouble.

The rest of his wise words can be read here. This post also outlines how Danny began his career, and is very encouraging to all of us who are trying to follow a similar career path.

(Another recent post that ALL beginning writers should check out: Danny's description of the 'Three P's' that all writers should live by.)

Danny's blog, Scriptwriting in the UK, [http://dannystack.blogspot.com/] updates very often with boatloads of great advice, and really deserves to be on any aspiring writer's RSS reader.

It's Cold Outside Eden

Growing up, movies weren't a major influence in my life. As a kid I mainly read mythologies, then middle school it became Japanese manga, by high school it was poetry and contemporary Chinese literature (and, who am I kidding, Asian pulp fiction). Up until then, movie watching was serious entertainment. No matter it was in the theatre or at home, movies are watched in complete silence, no lights. Absolute trust is given to the film. The fact that heroes can jump off trains or be dragged behind a car unscathed was never questioned. If a character declares love or hate toward another character, that must absolutely be what he/she feels. When the music turns soft, I automatically feel sorry for the characters. My sister cried at the end of Con Air.

When I attended the dramatic writing program in college, most of my new friends were horrified that I've never seen...well, apparently, anything. I was immediately dragged into dorm rooms to appreciate all the cinema I've missed out. One of such event that stuck with me was the viewing of Wizard of Oz. As the movie started and Dorothy ran down the black and white screen with her dog, I heard my host, MWS, say behind me, "Run bitch run."

We had to pause the movie. It was a sacrilegious and utterly wonderful moment. Not too long after, MWS became my roommate for three years.

During that time, I did some major cram work on movie watching, and I think I spoke through most of them. I remember trying to guess who and in what order will the characters die in Alien and Seven Samurai. Discussing with my sister detailed historical accuracy in (several) Elizabeth films, down to "no, she was under a tree reading a book when she heard that news". Being taught what would actually happen in action movies by a nursing friend.

Some of my favorite memories of MWS was when we pointed out each physically impossible moves, or the inaccuracy in how to escape immanent death while the movie was still running. I distinctly remember the triumphant feeling when I guessed the twist in Old Boy (and doubt my sanity). And then, there are times when I remember how it felt not being able to guess or criticize. The ability to suspend disbelief without a conscious effort. Back when there was no little voice saying "ah, here's the exposition, here's the twist, here's the mid-point..." Those times when while a movie played, I wasn’t able to make any judgment, because I knew without a doubt that when the lights turned off, I will be too swept off my feet to talk.

Cigarettes: Cancer Sticks or Instant Cool

At this year’s Tisch graduation writer/director Amy Heckerling (Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) was invited to say a few words to the class of 2008. She cautioned the next generation of struggling screenwriters about smoking and the portrayal of smoking in their films, among other things. I didn’t attend the graduation, but from what I hear she touched on how quick many of us writers are to put a cigarette in a character’s mouth because it gives them something to do or it just provides instant cool. The tobacco execs aren’t complaining, and upon thinking back to some of my writing they’d probably give me a big pat on the back. The kind of pat fitting of a large, well fed Carolinian.

I recently finished the first draft of my action/horror western. I’ve got one character who might as well be the Marlboro Cowboy, except cooler and deadlier. After thinking about what Ms. Heckerling was saying I wanted to see if I could trim down on the smoking. I mean, we’re intelligent writers. We can make our characters do other things right? But after reading over the script I didn’t touch a single cigarette/cigar. For draft two I might have him aggressively smother a cigar under his boot, but that’s as far as I go for now. I don’t smoke, nobody in my family smokes, and I hate being around cigarettes, but I can’t seem to cut those pesky cancer sticks.

Let’s face it, cigarettes are kind of cool up until the lung cancer part. Google Clint Eastwood and you don’t have to look past the first page for the rogue gunman image with the poncho and the small cigar that lives in the corner of his mouth. Let’s go for a different kind of cool (googling as I write) and check out Humphrey Bogart. Man, he sure looks cool. And what do you know, he’s smoking in the first three pictures. Let’s try Frank Sinatra. Ha! Sure enough, ol’ blue eyes is lighting up. So it’s settled, the tobacco companies own cool, and probably google.

Back to our characters and smoking. Sometimes you can’t avoid it. Sometimes you have a character that just smokes. I don’t feel so bad because my script is set in the wild west, and as the film industry has shown me, everyone smoked in the wild west. Actual writing aside, what can we as writers do to provide new cool habits? I always thought the guy twirling the pen in Top Gun was pretty cool. Was that Slider or Hollywood? Anyway, any of you guys ever struggled with this sort of thing?