#cait levin

[bcwritersgroup-blog]

NaNoWriMo is here!

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to reach out to anyone who might be doing NaNoWriMo (which, might I say, is impressive as a full-time student. Kudos!). She Writes, an online community for women who write, is having their own little November writing challenge (SheWriMo). Basically, it's just a resource where you can chat with other people who are also doing the challenge, get support, advice, and whatever else you may need! So check it out!

[bcwritersgroup-blog]

Writing at Barnard: Explorations in Film

            By Cait Levin

One of the most beneficial things about being a writer at Barnard is having access to a multitude of classes across different forms. This year, I decided to finally take advantage of these options and brave the unknown waters of a Columbia writing course: Filmwriting for Non-Majors (FILM W3373). While my main interest is in fiction (namely novels) I have found that this course is really helping me to take my ideas, even the ideas I was working on for fiction, and flesh them out – give them more shape, if you will, and make it so that readers won’t give up on me and go back to the latest Stephenie Meyer.

            Last week our assignment was to take the story we had been outlining in class and write the first ten pages of our original screenplay (weird!). Getting used to writing in a new form was probably the most difficult part, but as it turns out there are programs you can download that do all the heavy-lifting for you. Before we even started the assignment, my professor told us to be prepared to throw away the pages.

            Now, before I go any further I think I should digress and say that another great thing about taking writing classes is learning to delete or throw away your work. I know you’ve spent months or maybe even years perfecting this one scene between your protagonist and her love interest and the chemistry is perfect and the imagery and the use of metaphor are a site to behold, but listen: stories are constantly changing shape and purpose, so if that perfect scene doesn’t fit anymore, it’s gotta go. Plenty of writers have made the mistake of editing something they like over and over again to try and make it fit into their larger work, but the truth is, sometimes the pieces just don’t fit right, and when your puzzle is broken, it’s time for a new one.

So when I got my assignment back and my professor had written "Good start, fun dialogue!" I thought to myself "aha! My first ten pages were masterful. No deleting for me!" But then, when I restructured the outline of my story I realized that the timing was completely off and it just wasn't going to work. So, to the recycling (eco-friendly failure) for me!

Alas, we can't all be this guy.