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This week's Answer: Be
A "Developer"
Just a second, Theo. I have
quite a bit to tell you (dialogue to you), but,
first...................................................................................................................
Sorry. I had to think about what I was going to say,
then outline it, and then make a beat sheet before I was
ready to actually write it down in this E-mail
table. It took me about a month before I was
prepared to properly answer you, hoping that the E-mail
Oscars Award Committee (EOAC) would perchance visit, read
this e-mail, and nominate me for the category of Best
Script Consultant's Reply To An E-mail From A
Screenwriter. I've been wanting this ever since I
started my script consulting career in kindergarten when
Carl Gander needed some help on his "I Saw Tom Run
With Dick Who Ran With Sally And Spot Wasn't Anywhere To
Be Seen" book report.
Actually, that's not exactly
true. There was no outline or beat sheet or even any
time at all between seeing your e-mail and starting to
write down my reply, which I'm still doing now.
Isn't that amazing!? Here I am typing a reply to you
and I don't really know what I'm going to write or where
any of this is going. Ever. More like scary
than amazing. But that's the only way I know how to
do it. I know it sounds odd, but my answer to you,
Theo, is to just
WRITE
Right? That's all. Don't
second-guess yourself. Or third-guess (which can end you right
back where you started: single-guessing yourself. And you
can guess what that would be like. I guess.) Don't
edit yourself before you let yourself gush it all out like a
geyser. Think of yourself as Old Faithful and you're just
spewing out your creativity, your imaginings, your brilliance.
It sparkles in the sunlight. It fluidly utters its own
existence. It gets tourists wet. Even your mist revives
all that it touches. I ask you: Does Old Faithful, the
most famous geyser in this land, spend time thinking about spraying
before it sprays? No, I say to you. No and no again.
(I may have overdone it with the "no's." But at least
I'm not just some "yes" man.)
Now what this all has to do with
your question escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure you'll see a
connection if you look hard enough. Don't think of the story
development as tedious. Instead, think of your story coming
forth like a geyser that-- Sorry. We already used that
metaphor. But you know what I mean. And if you don't, you
will eventually. Or not. Either way, you get my
point. Or you don't. But I get my point and that's what
really counts. What counts is that screenwriters, all writers --
all artists -- all the inhabitants of this lovely planet whirling
through the cosmos -- get their own points. You have to enjoy
letting your story, your characters, your style, your "you"
come through. As enjoyable as writing dialogue may be (although
some screenwriters can't stand that process and would much rather have
all their characters be mimes -- Marcel Marceau, for one), it's the
story that is the backbone, the very foundation of your
screenplay. As one well-know producer once told me and I
quote: "Don't ever tell anybody that I talk to
you." No, not that quote.. This one. He told
me, and I paraphrase here -- because I don't choose to directly quote
him because I don't want to be sued...
Once
you have the story, the screenplay writes itself.
Think how wonderful that is!
Once you work out your story, know who your characters are, their
unique traits and voices; recognize your premise; establish your
theme; prepare your structure, the act breaks, the inciting incident,
the mid-second act moment, the third-act confrontation and denouement;
locate your emotional and thematic resolutions; make
sure your... You know, on second thought, you might just
consider forgetting the whole thing.
Or... I like the well-known
producer's (I purposely am not going to drop a name here -- because he
said he'd drive me to Mulholland Drive and personally toss me over the
edge if I ever mentioned it) encouraging words better. So this
is what I advise:
Once you have your general story,
one night, type it in your computer and leave the computer on when you
go to bed. When you wake in the morning, the first thing you do
is run with all your hope and dreams to that computer, and look at
that monitor...
and see if the screenplay wrote
itself.
DcH
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