Blog One - What It's All About
August 30th 2006 13:18
Are you seeking a life of fame and fortune, the chance to rub shoulders with TV and movie stars? The chance to win an Emmy, Logie, BAFTA or Oscar?
Then this isn’t the place for you. You may achieve these things in time. But before that happens, there’s a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights wrestling with ideas and dialogue, doubts about decisions made, frustration trying to find the right words or make a meaningful contact in the industry. And if that doesn’t worry you, if you don’t mind putting the hard yards in, then maybe we’ll both get through. What you need most, startingh out, is a passion for telling the story.
The aim of The Scriptwriting Blog is to provide you with some the basic tools to take you from someone with an idea to at least being able to produce a readable script: books, practises, concepts, websites. Maybe this can be a crash course in what you need to have before you enter the halls of academe, orbefore setting out along your own path. Right off the bat I’ll tell you that it seems to me the best way is still to get the piece of paper from college or uni, even if it’s only to have access to production facilities. Doing it on your own, like I’ve been doing, is a much slower road, and most of it has to take place in your head. But at least you set your own agenda.
We’ll look at the basic ideas behind where you write (what space is yours?), where ideas come from (an ideas factory in Schenectady, New York, according to Roger Zelazny and Harlan Ellison, among others, so it must be true), what to write (which genre, which stories that you’re passionate about), review famous scripts that are available online (for educational purposes, not for you to copy)., and other arcana from the dark arts of scriptwriting.
I’m not here to read your scripts (see the post soon on Readers), I’m not here to tell you about competitions or agents. What we'll do is get the basics organised, to at least get a script right – one complaint that I read often on the net from writers, agents and competition organisers, is how often the so-called writer has no apparent idea about format, story structure, and other necessities in scriptwriting. Here, you’ll hopefully get enough information to at least get a fair hearing. Hell, I’m even going to watch bad movies so as we can figure out what not to do! And, at the end of the day, give you a feel of what it’s like to struggle with the muse day after day.
And by the way, while the tools will be in this blog, in the ‘personal’ blog also attached to this page I’ll detail some of ‘a writer’s life’, or the ‘what it’s like to deal with people’ stuff, the trial of trying to do it while nearly everyone around you is saying, “Yes, very good… but when are you going to get a real job?”
So, come back again, see what’s on offer. What do I get out of it? The old saying, to teach is to learn twice, and while I’m not exactly teaching, I hope I'm at least organising what I know into something clear and readable. I might figure out what I’m actually doing. And maybe soon I can share some highs, lows, and insights, as something I’ve written finally gets some recognition. Or is disastrously trashed in some way and crashes and burns. Whatever. Either way, it’s a lesson.
Next: Why Write?
Then this isn’t the place for you. You may achieve these things in time. But before that happens, there’s a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights wrestling with ideas and dialogue, doubts about decisions made, frustration trying to find the right words or make a meaningful contact in the industry. And if that doesn’t worry you, if you don’t mind putting the hard yards in, then maybe we’ll both get through. What you need most, startingh out, is a passion for telling the story.
The aim of The Scriptwriting Blog is to provide you with some the basic tools to take you from someone with an idea to at least being able to produce a readable script: books, practises, concepts, websites. Maybe this can be a crash course in what you need to have before you enter the halls of academe, orbefore setting out along your own path. Right off the bat I’ll tell you that it seems to me the best way is still to get the piece of paper from college or uni, even if it’s only to have access to production facilities. Doing it on your own, like I’ve been doing, is a much slower road, and most of it has to take place in your head. But at least you set your own agenda.
We’ll look at the basic ideas behind where you write (what space is yours?), where ideas come from (an ideas factory in Schenectady, New York, according to Roger Zelazny and Harlan Ellison, among others, so it must be true), what to write (which genre, which stories that you’re passionate about), review famous scripts that are available online (for educational purposes, not for you to copy)., and other arcana from the dark arts of scriptwriting.
I’m not here to read your scripts (see the post soon on Readers), I’m not here to tell you about competitions or agents. What we'll do is get the basics organised, to at least get a script right – one complaint that I read often on the net from writers, agents and competition organisers, is how often the so-called writer has no apparent idea about format, story structure, and other necessities in scriptwriting. Here, you’ll hopefully get enough information to at least get a fair hearing. Hell, I’m even going to watch bad movies so as we can figure out what not to do! And, at the end of the day, give you a feel of what it’s like to struggle with the muse day after day.
And by the way, while the tools will be in this blog, in the ‘personal’ blog also attached to this page I’ll detail some of ‘a writer’s life’, or the ‘what it’s like to deal with people’ stuff, the trial of trying to do it while nearly everyone around you is saying, “Yes, very good… but when are you going to get a real job?”
So, come back again, see what’s on offer. What do I get out of it? The old saying, to teach is to learn twice, and while I’m not exactly teaching, I hope I'm at least organising what I know into something clear and readable. I might figure out what I’m actually doing. And maybe soon I can share some highs, lows, and insights, as something I’ve written finally gets some recognition. Or is disastrously trashed in some way and crashes and burns. Whatever. Either way, it’s a lesson.
Next: Why Write?
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