#writing scripts

[survivetoread]

The Bengali script always looks so tantalizingly similar to Devanagari and yet juuuust different enough that I can't read it easily (unlike, say, Gujarati).

Might try learning it sometime.

[thelingering]

hmmm okay so in follow-up to my last post, there's another thing I've been up to this Lent: I made another silly phonetic writing script for English! (very long explanation below the cut)

so they way it works is: I sat down one say and was like, "Okay it's really easy to make something that works atrociously, but what about something at least somewhat helpful?", which led me to write out the alphabet and try to simplify it!

what I came up with is a couple definitive changes, that are thus:

1. Voicedness!

I decided that all voiced consonants were to be removed and replaced with their unvoiced relatives but with a little apostrophe mark above them to indicate their said voicedness :>

2. Vowels!

I realised that if English is to be made simple, that's essentially to say it's been made intuitive, so I wandered very rapidly into the problem of consonants being extremely straightforward, and vowels being equally as extremely not

my solution? was first to simply look up all vowel sounds and plot them accordingly, which resulted in the main 5 (diacriticless) corresponding to more or less their original short vowel sounds, with the inclusion of omega (Ω,ω) in representation of what the IPA denotes as an upside-down omega (hm i wonder why i chose omega XD), and the schwa!!!! oh how we love the schwa, it's the same both lowercase and uppercase

and so now that all the short vowels were mapped out, I moved onto the long sounds, to which I originally corresponded with doubled-up versions of the og vowels, to then be shorthanded into the original vowel with the upside-down triangle diacritic on top of them; The vowels themselves are a weeeee bit unintuitive to native English speakers, so they would take some getting used to *nod nod*

and then, those out of the way, I finished with diphthongs! these were relatively simple when I realised that in the IPA all diphthongs but one are a predetermined vowel sound paired with either and "i" or an "Ω", so I just used diacritics over the paired vowel to indicate as such! for the omega-paired vowels, a squiggle equivalent to the one in "ñ", and for the i-paired ones, a dot like a lowercase "i" is over them :D the one diacritic that didn't follow this pattern was, conveniently, an e paired with a schwa, so I just combined 'em into an o with a horizontal like through it lol

all in all, you have 7-ish short vowels that don't contain diacritics, 5 long vowel sounds that are marked with an angy-brow, and like 9 or so diphthongs that are almost unanimously marked with either a squiggle or a dot!

3. Little changes

I also took it upon myself to use an "m" marked as voiced to represent the letter "n", since they're both nasal consonants and I liked the compaction XD

and to represent "L" with the rhotic-consonant-voiced, since it can't be unvoiced and L is literally just some of the r-sounds pushed further into your alveolar

so! that's about it! this was delightful to think up one night, and I do use it sometimes when I'm making short notes on my whiteboard, so I can confirm there's somewhat of an air of intuitiveness surrounding it! I hope you all have enjoyed, and now enjoy the rest of your day :DD

[djwaglmuffin]

aah AAAAHHH!! And it looks good, despite being so simple.

Go to your Google Drive and check it out!

[improvewithtutorials]

[contagiousgrace]

There is a huge part of me that wants to write fiction. But I just can’t seem to get myself started. What would be some advice?

[thesememoriesmakemecry]

I find it incredible how there's never a dull moment following Tarjei's career. There's always something going on, always news coming out. I honestly know more about the things (worth knowing about) he's up to than any other celebrity I follow. All of this, even though he's not on any social media himself and I think that says a lot!!

[howtofightwrite]

Im having a huge problem that you might be able to help with, I'm writing a fantasy film script for my university coursework, but they've never taught us to write fight scenes in any context and I'm totally lost. Have you got any advice or tips for fight scenes in scripts?

Unfortunately, I don’t know much about writing film scripts but, as an English Major, I’ll give you the advice that has always helped tremendously in the past when I didn’t know where to look especially when it came to specialized structure. Start with the source material.

The best place to learn about the proper structure for describing a fight scene in a film script is from other film scripts. Look at film scripts and you’ll figure out what the format is whether it’s for a fight scene or just regular direction. Usually, if I remember right, it’s similar to stage direction. So, if you can’t find scripts or get stuck waiting for one your professor or the university’s librarian could procure for you, you can find dozens of plays available at the university’s library. Shakespeare is generally helpful, especially the dueling scenes.

The second thing to do is ask your professor to see if they have any ideas, or go down to the drama department. Someone there will have experience with stage fighting and may be able to show you a mock up on what stage directions for the fight scenes look like. The theatre people are going to be the ones with the most experience for putting fight sequences on stage.

What you want is to find reference material, as much as you can get your hands on. Once you know what the structure and format are, then it’s going to work much the same as every other type of written fight scene. Keep in mind the film time is equivalent with length, and go from there.

You can write the sequences you have in mind first and restructure them later, full in the knowledge that whatever you put down would eventually be torn apart by the director and fight scene/stunt choreographer as they built on the idea or substituted their own.

Don’t freak out. Write it. Think about the imaginary actors who’d have to perform it, and work from there. A lot of figuring out fight scenes is going to be self-taught, that’s just the nature of the business. The worst thing for a writer is to be stuck second guessing themselves, and writing fight scenes is just like writing anything else.

Personally, the best films to watch for figuring out how to write, structure, choreograph, and film fight scenes are Jackie Chan’s. He’s the best. For large scale battles, I’d start with Lord of the Rings and then expand into historical films known for their accuracy or film scripts known for their fight scenes.

If any other screenwriters want to take a crack at this, be my guest.

-Michi

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