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@davewritesmovies
Hello
Still here. I've been working on a giant day job project since August, so that's been fun. I have a hard time backing off a challenge, no matter what it is. Sometimes that works in my favor and sometimes it does not. I'm actually working right now. Also I loaned out my laptop to a family member who needed it for work. She gets paid to be a writer so I think that takes precedence. Oh and I was not a finalist at Austin this year...so yeah. Things are great!
I really hate it when my real job gets in the way of my 1-in-a-million-likely-to-never-pan-out-as-a-real-career hobby.
Have you ever written an outline that takes on a life of its own and then holds you hostage way past your bedtime until you finish it?
Nope? Cool, me neither. I was just asking for a friend.
Places Between Screenwriting and Life
A few years ago I was wandering through a small bookstore near my apartment in San Francisco.
I’ve never considered myself a huge science fiction fan or nerd or whatever the term is this week, but while I was browsing that day “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” caught my eye.
I snatched the book off the shelf and flipped through the first few pages. Amused, I decided to give it a shot.
After perusing a few magazines I was never going to buy and a self-help book or two (or three), I shuffled over to the register and plopped the book on the counter.
The woman behind the register took one look at the title and shot me a smile.
“This is my favorite book,” she said, “It’s so much fun!”
…it’s so much fun…
Statistically I’ll likely never be a paid, working screenwriter. Certainly my chances of having a film produced or nominated for an award of some type are very, very low.
But – fuck – if anyone ever summarized my writing as “so much fun” I think it would make all the hard work worth it.
I need to write a horror film script because no matter how ridiculous and convoluted the premise, no matter how generic the characters and plot, no matter how predictable the whole damn thing is...
THEY ALL SEEM TO GET MADE!!!
(see, e.g., The Purge: Election Year, The Conjuring 2; Lights Out)
New Years in July
How are everyone’s 2016 New Year’s Resolutions going?
Good?
Did you keep up with whatever you promised yourself you were going to do while in a drunken stupor at a party you really didn’t want to go to anyways?
I’m gonna finally run that Triathlon! I am. You don’t believe me but you never believe in me. I’ll show you...I love you why do we fight?
*********************************************
Mine fell by the wayside.
I’ll admit it. I’m secure enough in my own abilities to admit when I’ve failed at something.
So what was it again?
Ah yes - a page per day for the year. That’s a solid writing goal that would translate to 2 features and a short (or hour long pilot).
How’d I do?
One feature - 108 pages...and we’re at day 189.
For those bad in math that means I’m 81 pages short.
But wait - the year’s not over yet, there’s still time!
So where do I stand?
The outline for my next feature is almost done. I have 27 scenes outlined so far with at least another 5 needed to finish the story (probably realistically 7-8 to fully develop B- and C-stories).
So, you know, don’t call it a comeback and stuff.
And if you were going to run that triathlon just fucking do it - I believe in you.
I was starting to think I was the only person who has the song-to-scene thing going on because no one ever understands when I explain it to them, but then here you are.
I seriously thought that was something that only happened to me, and figured I'd never really write about it because it's kind of weird when you try to explain it on paper.Aside from the general "I write what I see" you never hear working screenwriters talk about their process or inspiration in this way.
Story Time
Kind of.
I finally broke the main story line for the feature I’m writing! Woo.
This is a big deal because - for me - wrapping up the story is the toughest part of writing a script.
Here’s my writing process:
1. I start with a song...usually. This doesn’t happen on purpose. I don’t pick a song and then craft a story around it. Instead, I’ll hear a song and a scene will immediately flash before my eyes, I’ll see it in incredible detail: people, locations, actions -- everything.
That’s normal, right?
2. I listen to that song on repeat until the scene in my head becomes crystal clear.
3. I ask questions: what’s going on? where are the characters? why are they there? what are they doing? what are other people doing? what do they want? where are they going? and on and on and on.
4. I outline. From that scene I usually get a few story lines. I spend some time (usually while commuting) thinking through the story lines. I start to take them places and develop them.
I place these ideas on paper. Short summaries only. I put placeholders in where I know I need a scene to advance the story but don’t know what it will contain.
5. I get to the end of the second act.
6. I then spend WAY too much time trying to tie all those different developing stories together.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes I need to change or abandon story lines.
Sometimes things tie up too easily.
Passing step #6 is where I go from planning/outlining to writing.
And I’m there, people! I’m there.
Scenes I Have Had Enough Of
Getting the kids out the door in the morning on pg 1
Arbitrarily mean boss fires protag on pg 3
Ambitious girlfriend dumps protag on pg 4
Protag spills coffee in lap while driving on pg 5
Super: Twenty Years Later on pg 9
The protag decides to win a contest on page 10
Slutty Girl #1 propositions the protag on pg 15
Going out to lunch to chat about the plot on pg 20
Hanging out on the couch to chat about the plot on pg 30
Slutty Girl #2 propositions the protag on pg 35
Grabbing a Starbucks to chat about the plot on pg 40
The Prize Girl completely misunderstands and leaves on pg 50
Talking about the plot until pg 74
The actual main conflict appears on pg 75
Super: Two Years Later on pg 100
Challenge accepted.
A PSA, from Dave:
Punk’s not dead, by the way.
Just thought you should know.
There’s a massive resurgence going on right now and I’m getting in on the ground floor.
I’ll now return to my regularly scheduled posts about writing and film and stuff.
Day to Day
I don’t know what other aspiring screenwriters’ schedules look like, but here’s mine:
7:00 AM: wake up (I get to sleep in, I’m lucky. I live close to work just so I can sleep an extra hour each night)
7 - 7:35 AM: shower/get ready
7:35 - 8:15 AM: hang out with my daughters while my wife gets ready
8:15 - sometime before 9 AM: commute to work via train
9 - 5: work in an office like a grown ass person
5 - 5:45 PM: commute home
5:45 - 7 PM: hang with my daughters and get them down to bed
7 - 8 PM: make and/or eat dinner (sometimes I cook, sometimes I don’t)
8 - 10 PM: WRITE*
*If I have more work to do that was not finished between 9 and 5 OR that came up since leaving work at 5, I do that here instead of writing. Unfortunately, this happens a lot.
10 - 11 PM: finish whatever cleaning, ironing, laundry or whatever I didn’t get to earlier and get ready for bed.
11 PM: go to sleep
*******************************
2 hours writing is what I get max per day. If you get more than that please promise me you take it. If you aren’t chained to a career due to student loans or are still in your 20s and can make a serious push to write full time fucking go for it.
If you can move to LA and commit to it then do it, It’s not that hard. I’ve picked up and moved 2500 miles away MULTIPLE times. If I can do it you can, too.
If it can’t be me then I’d like to see one of you people succeed.
Seriously.
I really hope my dialogue and story are slightly more coherent than an AI-written sci-fi short.
Or maybe this is true art and I’ve been way off the entire time.
Characters are people, too
I’m a little obsessed with my character descriptions:
And this...
These aren’t even my best ones, but it’s late and I didn’t feel like converting an older screenwriting file format (trelby) into something I could screenshot.
Writing characters are fun because it’s a little game to me: say the most about a person with the fewest words.
Also, you may have noticed that I try to ensure my voice comes through in everything I write. That’s because no one has paid me yet to write a script so I’m still allowed to have integrity.
It’s also more fun that way.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the opening slug line for the feature spec I recently finished. I had a blast writing it:
Sometimes I curse a lot.
Choices Choices Choices
I can’t make up my mind so I’m now outlining three different specs at the same time.
I’m through Act I for all of them.
Act I: get your hero in a tree Act II: throw rocks at your hero Act III: get your hero down from the tree*
I’ve got three different heroes in three different trees and I’m sitting here with a pile of rocks unsure of where to lob them.
*I don’t know who made this up but it certainly wasn’t me and I don’t want the internet to think I’m taking credit for it.
Stuck
Stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck
Stuck
Stuck stuck stuck
Stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck.
STUCK!
Shifting Priorities
I’ve been trying to not write my next feature spec.
I’ve been trying really hard to avoid it. It’s much darker than anything I’ve previously written and it’s a genre (thriller) in which I have no prior writing experience.
So I focused on writing a short.
The short is a fantastic idea that has a lot of potential to say a great deal while not saying much at all. It’s an important story that I think needs to be told. It’s a story that has no clear correct interpretation that leaves the reader/viewer with more questions than answers.
It’s pretentious as hell and it was my excuse to avoid writing the feature.
The problem is I’m just not excited about the short right now.
And I’m 1/3 through the feature outline after less than 2 hours work.
So, fuck it. Feature it is.
