I dilly. I dally.
Me, on Monday (4 days ago…) “Yeah, I think I’ll be done by the end of the weekend.”
Me, today, Friday, 4 days later “No. Not so much. I don’t know what I was on when I said that.”
Here are a few random things that have occurred to me lately…
1) Sci Fi scripts are generally a little bit longer. Why? It’s much more about painting pictures of the future, things people haven’t really seen before, things that haven’t been invented yet.
2) The script is 65 pages, heading for 120. Not bad for a sci-fi script. Certainly not the 130 page “epic” territory. Generally, fairly early on in the process, I’m hooked by my own story and the story pulls itself along — the things that happen have to happen as a sort of natural order of the stories’ universe. But not so much in this one — until yesterday. I wrote a scene I really connected to and I suddenly really wanted to know more. All along, I had the sneaking suspicion I was writing without heart, and I wondered if it would come through.
All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open hearted.
Not so coldly charted, it’s really just a question
of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.
Huh. Deep. And apropos. I have the most modern story telling tools around me. Literally at my fingers. Spare no expense. And even with these cold factory-like tools, my writing still needs to be open hearted — accessible. And how do you make the writing open hearted? Honesty. Good writing is many things. Telling the truth. Not cheating. Using clean, simple lines. Finding the complexity and texture within those clean, simple lines.
3) Another song…
Well those drifters days are past me now
I’ve got so much more time to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out.
Good lord am I getting slammed on time commitments. Like I said at the beginning, I way over-committed on saying I would be done this weekend. But, to some extent, it motivates me. I set a deadline and I’m gonna work like hell to meet it.
4) I’m frequently approached by people who want to write screenplays. Frequently. Some of them are well spoken with good ideas. Most of the time, all they have is a semi-hook and want to know how to expand on it. Most of these people, though good-intentioned, will never finish. And I think that, as you try to break in, that’s the key. CAN YOU FINISH? The first time you finish, the script will be pretty bad but you’ll have a huge sense of accomplishment. That’s OK (the script being bad) because, as much as you want to write the next MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, you’re not going to. But IF YOU CAN FINISH the first one, you’ll suddenly realize you can do it again… and again… and that’s called “practicing your craft.” So, more than “writers write” — real writers… FINISH.
M A R K