April 6, 2011
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EEKWALIZR…
Finished my third screenplay this morning. I woke up at 4 am with the problem spots visually dancing in my brain, so I got up and wrote until the sun came up. If I can’t see the scene, I can’t write it. I knew exactly what was wrong with the climax (there wasn’t one- everyone stood around talking… ok for a play- bad for a screenplay), but I couldn’t see how it was supposed to go down. The Love of My Life (TLOML) read it and had a few suggestions but I couldn’t figure out how to make them work. I had specific things I needed to accomplish and I was missing the mark.
The hardest part about this was making it feel real. A friend who read it talked about the world I created, but I don’t want it to feel like I created a world. I want the world to really exist (ah yes… the Creator factor… most writers have the feeling that they are playing God when they write).
EEWALIZR is an adaptation of my first novel (the one that will never sell- not unless I rewrite it completely- it’s that bad!) and it’s a different story. That’s the thing most writers/readers forget.
A screenplay and a novel are different formats with different goals. Once you treat a screenplay like you’re just retelling an old story, you lose that which makes a screenplay powerful. In order to write a good screenplay from a novel, you have to figure out what is the best way to SHOW the story (not tell the story). Novels are rich in details, descriptions, thinkings and ponderings. The characters have pages and pages to naval gaze and the story can be multilayered. In a screenplay, you have 119 minutes to tell a story from beginning to end- without the navel gazing, thinkings and ponderings. This is why it’s hard to like a movie if you loved the book. We think it’s just a visualization of a favorite tale, but it has to fit into the new format.
For this one, I switched main characters. I made a secondary character the lead and let the story become revealed through his eyes. It meant leaving out huge chunks of my favorite scenes, but it’s a richer, more powerful tale- more intense and visual. When I was stuck, TLOML said that I needed to let go of how I wrote it in the book and rethink it in the new context. He was absolutely right. In the book, having people stand around and talk about their feelings of betrayal worked. The screenplay required action. Letting go was difficult. I’d come up with the original scene in the book after much personal naval gazing myself. I was attached to it. But it was no longer “real”. It was holding back the new story.
Off it goes… to the Nicholl competition (with the reworked screenplay #2 that no one wants to read) and to a young California Christian hip hop artist (and his team) who is looking for the perfect vehicle. It might not be what he wants, but at least someone is reading it!
And me??? I should be working on marketing this week, but I think I’m painting things red and sticking stuff in the paint… at least for a day or so!
Comments (6)
Good luck!
@ItsWhatEyeKnow - thanks! no telling what will happen. i just keep trying different things
I’m glad you’re writing about what you’ve been up to writing-wise. The combination of your wisdom and self-knowledge and M’s advice seem awesome! Good luck.
@BoureeMusique - i’m fairly happy with the newest screenplay and very unhappy about the condition of the first novel. the good news is that my writing continues to improve!
Keep on knocking isn’t it? I’d love for this to take off for you.
Ooh, good luck with everything! Yes, screenplays and novels are wholly different animals. It’s like, at a concert when they play something by Shostakovich and the audience complains because it doesn’t sound like Beethoven. You’ve got to take it on its own terms, like you just did.