if you’re like me, one of the things you’re really interested in is, how do real screenwriters work?
what’s their process? where do they start? what “elements” do they develop first before moving on to the next “element”? and so forth and so on …
this is not, I hasten to add, in search of THE PROCESS – I don’t believe such a beast exists – rather it’s in search of various “tools” or “sub-routines” that may be of use … stuff I can borrow and try to see if they work for me
now there’s a lot of stuff out there – blogs, videos, books etc where writers explain how they work and gurus explain how you should work – but i find them all a bit sanitised – I mean they’re all useful to some degree, but most have a similar vibe to Michelangelo’s explanation of how he carved David … “I simply removed all the bits of marble that were not David!”
we can all understand why – I mean these are professional people – they have a rep to protect – fortunately (?) I have no rep, so, in a small effort to bring some balance to the discussion, i thought i’d give you a glimpse into part of the “creative process” (for want of a better term) that lead to Rain Dogs
it doesn’t cover a lot of the process, in fact it focuses on just one thing i tried along the way:
keeping a writing diary
at some point during the writing of Rain Dogs, i read how keeping a writing diary or journal could be beneficial to the process … so i thought i’d give it a go
i’m not sure why – i mean, i guess i may have genuinely thought it might help ... but i suspect it was more the lure of being able to write, to do writery stuff, without the pressure of actually, y’know, producing anything that might one day be read by someone
so, for a short time i kept, or attempted to keep, a “writing diary”
as you will see, it didn’t really work for me – why? – well, i think it was because, released from the need to be concise and focused, i just waffled on and on and on ...
and it wasn’t good waffling – it wasn’t the sort of free association of ideas and observations that (sometimes) lead to a breakthrough or a brilliant insight
no, it was mostly self-indulgent reminiscing – me writing down stuff i already knew, justifying my insecurities, mythologising my struggles, making excuses ...
MY WRITING DIARY ENTRIES
the entries reproduced below, cover about five months during the writing of Rain Dogs – there were other projects “on the go” at the time, that were also covered in the diary, but i’ve removed any references to them, because, IP
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first entry
the script has been “resting” for a couple of months
my main issue is the need to punch up the emotions/conflict/humour ... build on the characters’ humanity – while shortening its length
part of me thinks (feels?) that these elements are already there, implied within the characters and the situation they find themselves in ... BUT i’m worried that it may be possible to read the script without seeing them – that the drama i see in the screenplay may not “come off the page”
a week later
alrighty then – i’ve been working through the screenplay – first making notes, jotting ideas etc on a hardcopy – and then working through the draft on screen
this screenplay has been churning for a while – the first notes were put down 15 months ago! when i jotted down an idea i had about a “nightmare” i had as a kid ... well, nightmare may be over-egging it a bit – it was a weird dream that has stuck with me, despite its lack of action etc ... i guess i remember it because of that one image
the story then arose when i tried to rationalise the image – trying to explain how that scene could exist in our world
the first outline-beatsheet thing was started about a month later and i’ve been playing with it ever since
so, this screenplay has been “being written” for a while and a lot of stuff has been tried and discarded – originally, i was worried that (like my dream) there wouldn’t be enough incident in the story, but that proved to be a non-issue
instead the process has been all (mostly?) about KILLING DARLINGS – characters, set pieces, arguments and cute lines have been thought of, developed, written and abandoned
evidence that i didn’t spend enough time on outlining the screenplay, or a normal part of the process?
the first act and the final act haven’t changed that much – although i have struggled to keep things tight, particularly at the end – it was the second act that got a bit (a lot!) bloated
so today my plan (hope) is to finish a tidy-up draft and then spend as much time as i can looking at the script through various lenses – theme, character arcs, setups and payoffs, dialogue tweaking, etc and so on
as noted above, this has been bouncing around for over a year so there shouldn’t be too many issues ... famous last words
another week later
well i managed to get the cleaned-up draft done and down to a reasonable length – i was hoping for something shorter, but we’ll see how we go
in the last couple of days i’ve been keeping notes as they occur to me
notes on what should/could be cut – notes on what might need to be added – questions around whether some “bit of business” (BoB) needs to be included, or if the reader/audience will infer or assume that the BoB has in fact happened, and so don’t need to be spoon fed – questions re the theme and the characters’ relationship to it, and to each other
[the above was followed by OVER 800 WORDS! of navel-gazing, time-wasting bullshit which I won’t burden you with]
and another week later
well, to be honest, i’m not sure how well the last session went – i remember ending on a kind of a mild high – things were looking positive-ish ... but then i began wondering if it’s my lack of experience, talent, smarts, work ethic etc that’s blinding me to the HUGE MESS that is my screenplay
only time will tell, i guess
i’ve sent out an email to friends asking if any would like to read my screenplay and ‘promised’ it would be ready in a week or two – so i have a deadline of sorts
the response has been good, but while some are professional creatives (including a writer), none of them are screenwriters – i’ve tooled around looking for (Melbourne- Australia-based) online writing group but without success – i may have more luck if i was on fascistbook but ...
back to writing! i have a huge list of ideas/tweaks that will help add zest to the proceedings without adding length ... and some ideas on what to trim or cut – LET’S DO THIS!
four months later ...
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
so it goes – where are we? FUCK!
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still here? – see?! – a complete waste of time
of course this is NOT to say that diarying is not useful … it was just not useful to me … at the time
surprisingly, two months later i DID have s script i was “comfortable” with and distributed a draft of Rain Dogs to my readers
it got generally favourable reviews and the readers (bless ‘em) were as blunt as they could be about the script’s many shortcomings – encouraged, i dashed back to the keyboard to fix the issues and get it done!
... or at least, that was the plan
still, here we are – a little over a year later and RAIN DOGS is now out in the world and i’m working on getting my NEXT SPECS ready for launch
behind them are more specs in various stages of development – which, i guess, is part of MY PROCESS – roughing out ideas and revisiting them from time to see if they’re still “worth doing” and, if they are, adding ideas and notes to them as they occur to me … which, even as I write this, doesn’t sound particularly productive
but at least i won’t be pissing away any more time on writing a diary! ... that’s what these blogposts are for
;-)