Finding Soul in Screenplays

while back I wrote about how there seemed to be a lack of poetry/soul/beauty in screenplays - dialogue aside. As I spend more time writing and editing my screenplay, though, I'm finding places for soul.

First, where the scene is set. It's easy to go back to the same three or four sets, but a shift in setting can color an entire scene.

Second, the description of that new setting adds even more texture to the image.

Third, if the dialogue presents the foreground activity of a scene, slugs of description between lines can color the background. What I like about this is that it doesn't take away from the main action the first time you watch a scene, but when you watch it a second time it can add to the scene.

These are the areas I've been concentrating on lately as I finish up the screenplay for class.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is that writing fiction is like painting a large mural with long brush strokes while writing a screenplay is like painting with shorter, more poignant strokes. There's art in both, but they're painted in different ways for different audiences and media.

General Update

t's certainly been a while since I posted an update. My apologies. In general, the screenwriting course has been fantastic. I'm making good progress and getting good, constructive feedback. I'm handing in my second portion of work - the first half of Act II - this coming week and am moving ahead with the rest of the screenplay for full submission the week after. Once that's all done I'll address all the feedback and work on another full draft before considering submitting to contests, agents et al. Needless to say, more work to go.

Enjoying Rehab

ell, what can I say? Rehab is exactly what I needed. My screenwriting course through the Gotham Writers' Workshop has been great. I have an excellent instructor and have already received positive and even more importantly, constructive criticism on my screenplay's first act from my classmates. They have helped me address a nagging problem: Giving Josaya and Gibson their own voices and building up their characters. Now I have a better view of the way forward. And on that note, it's time to hit the books.

Grinding It Out

ince my last post, I've registered for an introductory screenwriting course through the Gotham Writer's Workshop, started writing my second screenplay (The Beer Flower Limited) and begun reading the course's textbook which has already given me some good pointers on screenplay structure. I've also landed a new job which will allow me to attend the night course and, hopefully, free up more time to write. I hope to read the textbook once all the way through before starting the course so it's not all brand new and then again in class. I've also requested from the NYPL the movies the textbook refers to so I can get a better feel for them before we discuss them in class.

All in all, I'm feeling good about this fall and the progress I can make. Yeah, I know, all ho-hum to-do list kinda stuff, but that's what it takes. There are a few folks out there who make it overnight, but for the rest of us, we grind it out day after day.

Banging it out

ith a little more time on my hands lately, I put it into adapting ACYW and on Monday morning I finished. Yeehaw! I can now put it aside for a spell, take a look at it before I start the screenwriting course later in September and for the time being move on to other projects.

I can think of three stories that have been on my mind of late; the story of a meal, a story about searching for one's lost sense of humor and a romantic comedy along financial-political lines. Each story challenges me in different ways and I believe each story holds a lesson for me to learn from simply taking the time to ruminate on the issues they explore.

On to the next...

Rehab

t the pace I'm on, I'll finish adapting ACYW in about a month; just in time to begin the Gotham Writers' Workshop screenwriting course at the end of September.

I'd like to write more, but to be honest I'm at the point where I feel that taking this course is like checking myself into rehab. I've overdosed on this project and now need to dry out, to see the essentials of it, to boil it down, to finish it up and to move on to other projects which I look forward to thinking about, exploring, developing, getting high on, riding that buzz and then moving on to the next hit.

My lack of productivity has also translated into a change of identity. I'm no longer seen by those who know me as a writer, but as a cook, as a baseball fan, as a softball player, as an alumni coordinator, not as a man of letters and that I miss. I've lost a step, I can feel it. I look forward to getting back in literary shape.

Given Lemons, I'll Make Sorbet

oly cow! It's been a month since I last wrote. No bueno. Sorry, folks. In general, progress on the screen adaptation of ACYW continues, but just not as fast as I'd like. I've been given a lot of lemons lately to deal with and just the other day figured out how to make lemon sorbet with them (which is particularly good with Prosecco). It's a new project I look forward to starting as it deals with the significant loss of my sense of humor lately. Hopefully in the process of writing, I'll get it back or at least find out where it's been hiding and try to coax it out with some other lemon-based good.