Day 08 – Write What You Know

I know a silly man who has been working on a script for over 10 years.  Oh, he’s left the project off and on to crank out some other stuff, but he keeps going back to that one idea.  I believe he’s now into the 4th complete overhaul of the story.  It’s exhausting just to hear him talk about it.

What’s his problem?  The dude won’t research.  He wants to sit in the confines of his stinky little home office and let his imagination run wild in an area that he has very little expertise in.  And it’s not working.

“Write what you know!”

This is a phrase passed down from Cro-magnon Screenwriters thousands or millions of years ago.  Probably Grog was talking to Thag about his idea for a script about Internet Piracy.  But he didn’t know thing one about Internets or Piracy and Cave-Google was very limited at that point.  That’s when Thag told him “Oog Woggy wog tatonka woogy” which we all know means “stick with what you know, kid.”  And he did.  We now have a gazillion cave drawings of Wooly Mammoth with arrows sticking out of them.  Kinda like a tv with one channel.

“What’re you watching, honey?”

“It’s Shooting Wooly Mammoth!”

“You mean Shooting Saber Toothed Tiger?”

“No, this is a spin-off series.  Shooting Wooly Mammoth!”

“New Shooting Wooly Mammoth?   Shut the front door!  That Grog is unstoppable!”

If you ask me, Grog was kind of a one-trick pony.  Sort of the Michael Bay of his time.  But he was successful because he wrote what he knew.

As a screenwriter, we are painting a picture of a story on the reader’s mind.  The less you know about that story world, the fewer color choices you have in your palette.

For example, say I wanted to write a police crime drama in Thailand, I could just sit down and start writing.  I could probably take an interesting American police crime drama plot and make it all Thailand-y and stuff, but it’d be like painting with only primary colors.  It would lack authenticity.  For my characters to come alive, for the world to become 3-dimensional, I have to immerse myself in research.  I’d have to research a specific city, talk to people on the Thai police force etc to be able to get the nuance of the setting, dialects and traditions so that it will inform the script.

Oh and one more thing, research for your Crime drama doesn’t mean watching CSI.  CSI has done their homework.  You go do your own research and find your own stories.  Again, watching TV is NOT RESEARCH!

I know another scriptwriter who spent 2 years bartending in an Irish Pub.  At the end of it, she decided she had enough material for a feature film script and wrote a very compelling story.  Did she have to research much at that point?  No.  Because she had been steeped in it for a long time.  She knew the characters because they were her actual friends.  She knew their responses, their catchphrases, their achilles’ heels, what motivate and drove them…right down to the brand of cigarette they smoked and the shoes they wore.

A lot of times you will find that these type of scripts that you have lived out will “tend to write themselves” meaning the material flows magically from your fingertips because there was a literal progression of a narrative that already played itself out in front of you like a film.  It’s more like you’re a court recorder at that point.  Yes, you may need to combine a couple people into one character to streamline the plot.  You may need to embellish a little here and there or re-order some events to fit more neatly into your dramatic retelling.  But, the point is, your research has been 95% accomplished by writing what you know.

Again, if you don’t know about a particular subject, you’ve got to research the bejeebies out of it until it IS what you know.  Tom Clancy is a novelist whose first book was “The Hunt for Red October”.  Bazinga!  How cool is that for an opening work?  One thing he is known for, though, is his “dogged persistence and deep research.”

“You learn to write the same way you learn to play golf,” Clancy said. “You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work.”

In fact, he was SO well researched that after the book came out, Soviet Intelligence accused him of getting insider info from the CIA.

“That’s a lot of crap,” Clancy replied.

In fact, his basic sources were hundreds of books with dry titles like The World’s Missile Systems, Guide to the Soviet Navy and Combat Fleets of the World. Clancy also learned a great deal from a war game called “Harpoon”, which the Navy used as an instruction manual for ROTC cadets.

However, Clancy claims that most of his research involves talking endlessly to the types of people he wants to write about.

There’s a great article on Tom Clancy and The Hunt for Red October over at AMC.

Why am I telling you this?  Because I am the silly man!  I’m the screenwriter who is on overhaul #5 of a 10 year old story.  Yes, I have completed 4 other feature film scripts and had one of them, Masquerade, actually produced.  But I haven’t given up on that one script.  It’s due for another draft.  This time an informed draft.  A well researched draft.  Because Lord knows this world could use a good, laugh-til-milk-comes-out-your-nose burgle comedy.

Let’s write a movie!

###

Day 06 – The Logline and Logline Quiz

Picture this…

You’re in L.A. running an errand.  You’re downtown in one of the big buildings, possibly to deliver your darling beloved script to a Reader who is a friend of a friend of an aunt’s second cousin twice removed.  You step into the elevator to ride up to the top.  The door’s about to close when you hear, “Hold the elevator!”  So you do.

Low and behold, who should step into your world all of a sudden but J.J. Abrams.  Or Tom Hanks or Jerry Bruckheimer or Brian Grazer or The Ralph Winter.  (Those are all big-time Hollywood Producers whose names you should at least recognize, btdubs…and if it’s The Ralph Winter, well he actually, physically glows like Xanadu so you have to shield your eyes a bit).

Anyway, you hold the elevator, they step inside very grateful.  As they wrap up their phone call, you hear them complaining about the “same old tired, worn out stories” from the same “tired, worn out studio hacks” and how they wish they could find a darling little script to Produce.   After they hang up, they notice the script you’re clutching in your sweaty palms.  Then the second miracle happens.

“What’s your script about?” they ask, turning toward you, generally interested.

Based on the speed of the elevator and frequency of the stops.  You realize you’ve got less than 60 seconds.  60 seconds to communicate your darling beloved to a perfect stranger.  60 seconds to win them over.

This is called the elevator pitch.  And every writer should have one for their script.  If someone asks what your story is about, you should be able to push the play button on your iBrain and spew 60 seconds of verbally interesting wonderfulness that gives a very clear picture of your story and makes the person want to know more.

If you’ve finished your script before you have a decent elevator pitch, then you’re writing backwards.  Because every script begins with a pitch that we call a Logline.  A Logline is 2 or 3 sentences long or less and answers 3 vital pieces of information.

1. Who is your main character?

2. What is the problem they face?

3.  What are the dramatic stakes?

Interestingly enough, these three things you HAVE to know before you start writing your script.  More on that later, but these are the 3 story anchors. For example, try this on for size:

A boy bonds with an extraterrestrial who’s been stranded on earth; the boy defies the adults to help the alien contact his mothership so he can go home.

That’s the logline for E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  It’s also kinda the logline for Super 8, but I digress.  Let’s look again at our questions:

1. Who is the main character?  A boy (Elliot)

2. What is the problem they face? Found an alien that can’t get home, hunted by Adults

3.  What are the dramatic stakes? Get the Alien home before the Adults close in

Loglines are a screenwriter’s necessity.  They’re a great exercise and they keep you narratively nimble.  It’s a good idea to jot 2 or 3 of them down every day.  As a class exercise, I would always have my students come up with 20 or 30 loglines.

It’s an interesting exercise because most of us can rattle off 8 to 10 ideas that we’ve been thinking of for years.  But you get past 10 and you start having to dig deeper.  Past 20 and you’re straining brain muscles you haven’t strained in YEARS.

Back to the students, what I also found was that the first 5 or 10 loglines were just lame rehashes of whatever top 10 films were in the box office at the time.  They were all about Vampires, Gangsters, Superheros, Serial Killers, Zombies…every single writing cliche you could find.  But the further down the list I got, the more personal and interesting their stories became.

Professionals talk about cranking out 100 loglines just to get to maybe one decent one.  As you look over your loglines, you may find that a couple of them have similar themes and on their own, they may only represent half a good idea, but by combining two of your loglines, you come up with a really good story idea.

Now that we’ve gotten through our first week of Screenwriting in August, I think it’s time for your first quiz.  It’s a logline quiz.  Identify the following films by their loglines.  No cheating, keep your eyes on your own paper, and no Googling!  (Answers to follow tomorrow!)

POPULAR LOG LINES QUIZ

__________In 1984, the USSR’s best submarine captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the USA. Is he trying to defect, or to start a war?

__________Bob Munro and his dysfunctional family rent an RV for a road trip to the Colorado Rockies, where they ultimately have to contend with a bizarre community of campers

__________A group of Earth children help a stranded alien botanist return home.

__________Two men who keep an eye on aliens in New York City must try to save the world after the aliens threaten to blow it up.

__________A best man stays on as a houseguest with the newlyweds, much to the couple’s annoyance.

__________The cross-country adventures of two good-hearted but incredibly stupid friends

__________An ambitious ex-con and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.

__________A workaholic architect finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices.

__________A dysfunctional family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.

__________When a regular guy dumps a superhero because of her neediness, she uses her powers to make his life a living hell,

__________Berated all his life by those around him, a Friar follows his dream and dons a mask to moonlight as a “Luchador” (wrestler)

__________On New Year’s Eve, a luxury ocean liner capsizes after being swamped by a rogue wave. The survivors are left to fight for survival as they attempt to escape the sinking ship.

Answers are HERE.

###

 

The Writer’s Group – Day 03

A basement.  Non-descript.  Sparse bulbs cast interesting shadow puppets on the walls.

I stood nervously to address the small handful of misfits and scallywags mounted on metal folding chairs around me.  It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon, yet a betting man could wager that half of this group had just rolled out of bed.  And not changed clothes for 2 days.  Now I wished I hadn’t eaten that 3rd stale Krispy Kreme donut and chased it with a mountain dew at the start of the meeting.  But this was a brotherhood.  Even with the emo chick in the corner and the soccer mom clenching the tissues.  A brotherhood who needed support for their addictions.

“Hi, my name is David.  Oh, this is so difficult. Okay, here goes…I….I….write screenplays.”

“Hi David,” the brotherhood responded in full force.

I shifted my feet, gathered my confidance and continued.

“It all started innocently enough back in college.  Back then I didn’t know a slugline from a midpoint.  Simpler times, I guess.  And then a friend of mine asked me to write a skit…”

The room is peppered with disapproving grunts.  A single tear rolls down soccer mom’s face.  I’ve hit home.

“..but skits…they’re just the gateway to the heavy stuff.  Soon I was writing short films and brainstorming loglines…it was only a matter of time before I picked up my first Syd Field book.”

Okay, that’s probably the writer’s group we all NEED to be in…but it’s not actually what I had in mind.  Think about this…

“On September 19, 1931, Jack [C.S. Lewis] invited J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson to dine with him at Magdalen.  After dinner they went outside…and the conversation turned to myths.  Jack could not suppose them to be true, although he admitted his love of reading them and thinking about them.  Tolkien differed.  In his view, myths, like everything else, originated with God, and they preserved, sometimes in a disguised or distorted form, something of God’s truth.  If this is so, Tolkien continued, then writing myths, telling or retelling myths, might well be a way of doing God’s work.”
                                                                  ~The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia
                                                                     Edited by Jeffrey D. Schultz and John G. West, jr

THAT’S the kind of writer’s group I’m talking about.  C.S. Lewis and the Tolkien got together with a group on a regular basis to discuss their stories, air out some plot points and get down to the nitty gritty…

“I was thinking they’d enter Narnia through a magical Stove,” Lewis spitballs.

“I dunno,” the Tolkien replies thoughtfully, “for one, that could inspire some copycats among young readers and be rather misfortunate.”

“Attic,” Lewis attempts again.

“Overplayed.”

“I got it…a Wardrobe!”

And then they’d high-five and go write their fiction novels that would change the face of sci-fi/fantasy literature for the next 100 years.  But if they hadn’t had the writer’s group, history could have been very differently.  I mean, instead of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” we could have ended up with “The Gerbil, the Bad Lady and the Magical Stove.”

So, writer’s groups are essential for the serious writer.  But every writer’s group needs to remember the Golden Rule of Feedbacking:

“Feedback unto others about their darling beloved script as you would have them feedback to you about your darling beloved script!”

That means for every negative criticism you fire off, precede it with two positive notes.  Also, it’s THEIR story, not yours.  Keep the feedback relevant to their writing style, their story world and the rules of their story’s genre.  And, take the sum of all feedback.  Opinions are like bellybuttons and everyone’s got at least one of them.  So you’re going to get some crazy, out-there stuff.  You can generally ignore those things.  But if every one of your group touches on the same exact plot point problem or the same character issue or lame joke…then you should listen, cause maybe your darling beloved script does have a problem.

You want to know a startling writing statistic?  When you’re finally finished with your script, you’re only %70 of the way there.  If that.  I know we like to think our finished scripts are perfect, but we’ve still got a ways to go.  Writing is re-writing!  And that is what a writer’s group is all about.

###

Disney-ABC Writing Fellowship Seeks Talent

Okay, Writerly-Person…Disney/ABC is gearing up for their annual contest to find some Talented Writing Fellows for their program.  The doors open the first of June and will seal tightly shut July 1.  So save the date!

Created in 1990 in partnership with the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), the Disney|ABC Television Writing Fellowship is based in Los Angeles and is widely recognized as one of the entertainment industry’s most coveted writing programs.

A Fellow actually becomes an employee of Disney/ABC TV and paid a weekly salary totally $50K/year.  Not too shabby.  Plus applicable benefits, etc.

The program is designed to expose aspiring writers to key executives, producers and literary representatives – all essential in the pursuit of a writing career. Additionally, while in the program, fellows have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a current programming or development executive to create spec scripts of series from the current broadcast season.  The ultimate goal is to prepare and nurture the fellows for a writing career.

What’s not to love?  Click HERE to go their site and learn more about it.  Also, below, from that same site is a list of writing resources they lumped into the “Recommended Reading” category if you’re interested in upping your game while you wait to hear back.  This is no time for procrastination so go apply NOW!

RECOMMENDED READING

	Aristotles Poetics for Screenwriters By Michael Tierno Hyperion
	Creating Unforgettable Characters By Linda Seger Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
	Hello, Lied the Agent By Ian Gurvitz Phoenix Books
	Making a Good Script Great By Linda Seger Samuel French Trade
	Successful Sitcom Writing By Jurgen Wolff St. Martin’s Press
	The Art of Dramatic Writing By Lajos Egri Simon & Schuster, Inc.
	The One-Hour Drama Series: Producing Episodic Television By Robert Del Valle Silman-James Press
	The Power of Myth By Joseph Campbell Doubleday
	The Script is Finished, Now What Do I Do? By K. Callen Sweden Press
	The Sitcom Career Book By Mary Lou Belli & Phil Ramuno Back Stage Books
	The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers By Christopher Vogler Michael Weise Productions
	Story By Robert McKee Harper Collins
	Wake Me When It’s Funny By Garry Marshall Newmarket Press
	Writing Down the Bones By Natalie Goldberg Shambhala Publications, Inc. ###

Advice From the Inside: Robert McKee

Robert McKee is one of the premiere Hollywood scriptwriting gurus.  He is studied by writers and wannabe’s from coast to coast and around the world.  He has a 3-day seminar which is also condensed into his must-read book, “Story” which explores the roots of narrative and myth.

In a recent interview, he had some great nuggets for writers.  For starters, a little timesaver I like to call weighing your idea’s worth and merit.  

Q: What are the critical questions that a writer should be asking prior to crafting a story? 

Robert McKee: Beyond imagination and insight, the most important component of talent is perseverance-the will to write and rewrite in pursuit of perfection. Therefore, when inspiration sparks the desire to write, the artist immediately asks: Is this idea so fascinating, so rich in possibility, that I want to spend months, perhaps years, of my life in pursuit of its fulfillment? Is this concept so exciting that I will get up each morning with the hunger to write?  Will this inspiration compel me to sacrifice all of life’s other pleasures in my quest to perfect its telling? If the answer is no, find another idea. Talent and time are a writer’s only assets. Why give your life to an idea that’s not worth your life? 

If it sounds like writing is hard work and requires a lot of blood, sweat and tears, it’s only because it is…and it does.  Otherwise you end up with subpar work.  How do you recognize subpar work?

Q: What are the typical weaknesses you find in scripts?

Robert McKee: Three that jump to mind: 

Dull scenes.  For reasons of weak conflict or perhaps the poor shaping of beats of behavior, the scene falls flat.  The value-charged condition of the characters’ lives at the tale of the scene is exactly what it was at the head of the scene.  Activity never becomes story action.  In short, nothing actually happens, nothing changes. 

Awkward exposition.  To convenience the writer, characters tell each other what they all already know so the eavesdropping reader/audience can gather in the information.  This false behavior causes the reader/audience to lose empathy.    

Clichés.  The writer recycles the same events and characters we have seen countless times before, thinking that if he or she writes like other writers have, they too will find success. 

There is also the temptation, especially amongst the God squad, to feel like our God-inspired first draft is the 10 Commandments, set in stone and nothing can be changed or rewritten because “that’s the way God gave it to me.”  

In truth, the first draft is usually about 60% where the final story needs to be…if you’re a seasoned writer.  Welcome to the creative process.  The story may be God-inspired but it’s poured through an earthen vessel so there’s much work to be done, to reshape it back into perfection.

Q: How important is the process of rewriting?

Robert McKee: Rewriting is to writing what improvisation is to acting.  Actors improvise scenes countless ways in search of the perfect choice of behavior and expression.  The same is true for writers.  All writers, no matter their talent, are capable of their best work only ten percent of the time.  Ninety percent of any writer’s creative efforts are not his or her best work.  To eliminate mediocrity, therefore, fine writers constantly experiment, play with, toss and turn ideas for scenes tens of different ways, rewriting in search of the perfect choice.  The perfect choice, of course, is dependent of the writer’s innate sense of taste.  The unfortunate truth is that most struggling writers are blind to their banality. 

Ouch.  Blind to our own banality?  What is he saying?  That we don’t realize our own work is boring stuff?  Not MY script!  My script is gonna change the WORLD.  It’s gonna set the bar by which all other scripts are written.  That’s why I write in Courier 20 font….because Courier 12 just can’t contain all the goodness.

Right?  Riiiiiiight.  Now hop down off the pedestal and go rewrite!

Q: In the Story Seminar you say the best way to succeed in Hollywood is by writing a script of surpassing quality. If you have a great script, how do you get past the Hollywood system so that your script ends up in the right hands? 

Robert McKee: If you write a lousy script, you haven’t a prayer.  But if you create a work of surpassing quality, Hollywood is still [a longshot].  Because unless you can network a back pathway to an A-list actor or top-shelf director, you must sign with an agent.  And the first thing to understand about literary agents is that although they may or may not have taste, they all have careers.  Selling scripts is how they put gas in their BMWs.  What’s more, like everybody else, they want their gas money today.  So they have little or no patience for spending months or even years submitting your work, one submission at a time, to dozens of production companies, and then waiting forever to hear back.  They want to read work they can sell and sell fast.  So the quality of the writing absolutely matters, but what any particular agent feels is fresh vs. clichéd, arty vs. commercial, hot or cold, who can say?  Luck is a big part of a writer’s life. 

[But] to get started, first rent every recent film and television show that is somehow like your script.  Write down the names on the writing credits.  Call the WGA, ask for the representation office and find out who agents these writers.  This creates a list of agents who have actually made money selling scripts very much like the one you’ve written.  Next, go to Amazon.com and buy The Hollywood Creative Directory and find the addresses of these agents. Do not call them.  Instead, write an intriguing letter about you and your story and send it to every agent on your list.  Wait, God knows how long, to hear back.  If your letter captivates curiosity, and if you send out enough of them, the odds are that a few agents will actually want to read what you’ve written.  When that happens, pray that your work is of surpassing quality.     

And actually this is sage advice whether you’re knocking at Universal or Cloud Ten Pictures, Fox Faith or Sherwood Baptist.  Do your homework.  Find the right person.  Ask if they want to read it.  If not, don’t send it.  If so, there’s a door that has just opened up by a crack….not enough for you, but just enough for your script of AWESOMENESS that’s going to change the world and redefine filmmaking forever.

And then what?

Q: What’s the best advice you can give for emerging screenwriters today? Is there one thing that you could say is most important when trying to break in?

Robert McKee: Go to the gym and work out.  Writing burns you out, but then you have to get up off your tired [butt], put your script under your arm and knock on every door ’til your knuckles bleed.  That takes the energy of a five-year old, the concentration of a chess master, the faith of an evangelist and the guts of a mountain climber.  Get in shape.

Find out more about Robert McKee’s STORY seminar on his site.

###

« Previous Page