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So how does this affect your writing process?
23 March 2012
CommentsIn the first blog entry, I stated that our job as spec writers is to dream up the movie in our heads and then we write it down with the detail and specificity we need so that the READER – because it’s all about the reader – can understand and see what we already see.
So what we need as writers is a rigorous eye for detail, telling the reader exactly what we want them to know, exactly what we want them to see, and no more than that. And this is especially vital in the first first 10 pages of your script. Believe me, you can tell a huge amount about the quality of a screenplay by reading the first 10 pages. This is because from the very beginning we get a clear sense that of whether or not the storyteller is in firm control of her or his story. When we sense that everything we’re being shown is important, we pay more attention and this draws us in. Conversely, when the storytelling seems unfocused, filled with random details, or immersed in the well-worn cliches of whatever genre it’s written in, we back off. Boredom sets in. Pass.
I read a script recently in which – on about page 3 – a young boy in the 1970s is asked by his mother to empty his pockets. The writer tells us that the boy takes out a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches. Busted, he’s in trouble. At the same time the boy is also shown to take out a rabbit’s foot and I immediately flagged it. It’s the 70s, he’s 10, and it’s kind of a rural area he lives in. So sure, he might have a rabbit’s foot in his pocket. But it’s a detail that I suspected would go nowhere, that has no relevance to the rest of the story (which is not about luck or anything like that) and this was, indeed, the case. It’s a small example but very important. It’s just the beginning of the story and this writer is showing me (the reader) this rabbit’s foot very deliberately, telling me it is important, and it is not.
This is what I mean by having a rigorous eye for detail. Be specific and be ruthless with yourself. Write as much as you need – overwrite shamelessly if it helps you find the meat of your scene – but when editing time comes and it’s not part of your story, dump it, cut it out. Set up your story by telling us what we need to know and that’s all. Never tell us what we already know or can guess. Audiences are smart, despite what you may have heard. And we’ve all seen a million movies so the more obvious generic cliches have to be avoided at all costs if your script is going to rise above the clutter.
More on this next time.
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