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I thought it only fitting to start any blog about writing with a nod to Shakespeare, the great English master.
My point is this: when you're writing (prose, not a script) is it best to use adverbs? Great writers like Hemmingway suggest that the verb should say everything it has to, so there should be no need to embellish it.
I;m finding it quite difficult, somethimes when I write, I try to be quite purple in my prose, verbose, if you will. Other times maybe I try too hard to copy Ol' Ernest and feel like I'm trying to force the simplicity.
Put it this way: simplicity is what I want but I don't want to sound amateur. Every time I write some dialogue and then just say "he said" or "she said" it feels like I'm a 4th grader without any imagination. yet that's the way they do it, those timeless authors. There's an art to it and I want to discover what it is.
Who knows what I'm talking about? How do you go about it?
I have mixed opinions on the internet. On one hand I love it. It gives me access to all kinds of crazy stuff or things that I always wanted but could never get.
There's quite a few of those things let me tell you. One thing I have never done, and probably never will, is buy something of the Net. I don't know whhat it is but I've got some issues with it. I think it just must be that I like dealing with people in person. Maybe I have a better sense of whether or not I'm getting ripped off. Not that there's not things I want that you can only get on the Net. As an Australian Dave Matthews fan, there's heaps of cd's I can only get off the net but I never will. And I think that's a shame...
I also defer to the internet when I'm bored too. It's way too tempting. And I'm always bored. It's like chocolate, you know it's bad for you but you keep eating it because it tastes so good.
I'll admit this now, I love peanut M&Ms. My girlfriend can;t eat peanuts so when I'm by myself I chow down on them, they're fantastic. This isn't product placement or anything but if something's good it deserves some credit.
It's one of the mysteries of the universe for me. I can't work it out. Something funny happens to you and you remember it vividly because it is one of the highlights of your life so far but as soon as you go and try and tell it to someone they come out with "i guess you had to be there".
It never fails. The response is always the same, regardless of the material. I could maybe understand it if you try and recount something funny that happens during one of your drunken adventures but I'm talking about things that happen 6 minutes previously, someone late comes up and joins the group, you've all just stopped laughing about it, they say: "What's funny?" and you give them a play-by-play perfect recollection but it's still not funny. And I'm talking about things that are HILARIOUS on the first time, not just so-so incidents.
I guess it is just a particular frustration for me because I want to be a comedy writer and at the start you kind of think, oh yeah I'll just rewrite funny stuff that's happened to me over the years and you put it on paper and it just sits there, lifelessly. Then you realise you have to reconsider your whole career plan and that you've just lost 98% of your joke material and it has to be replaced with sight gags. 25 mins of men in wigs or getting hit in the groin accidentally. It's just not fair- Comedy should be timeless.
I'm sure if you are reading this you are appreciating the inrony of the title now,but let's ignore that for a minute. I'm having some real issues when I receive an Orble email that says I've had a hit count of 7 people. What's the deal?
What can I do to entice people to read? Reading is generally not popular in modern culture and just because I'm at uni studying English teaching I know people don't share the same love of reading as me
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It's pretty hard to crack the BUSINESS it seems, in terms of becoming a screenwriter. That's my dream. I'm working on stuff but at the back of mind I'm thinking "I'm on the Central Coast of NSW, what chance do I have?" (Mind you, it's a lovely place to live and I imagine many people would gladly trade) but still, for what I want to do it seems like you need to live in L.A. That wouldn't be out of the question either, but it is hard to justify the huge move without any guarantees. Any other Australian filmakers out there feeling my pain?
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Continuing my great filmakers thread I've got going here I have to make special mention of Charlie Kaufman. Although he is not a filmmaker per se he deserves notice based on the strength of his scripts alone. As an aspiring screen writer myself I really have to say I respect his work a lot. The three movies he has done are all fantastic and innovative which is rare in the modern days.
Being John Malkovich is a great movie, although arguably less refined than his two successive efforts. The whole concept is wonderful in its originality and ingenuity. Who would've thought of an actually good movie involving puppeteers bu8t there you have it
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If there was any cosmic justice or Karma going around I think I’d like to be reincarnated as George Lucas. The man is a freak…in a good way! It’s not that he is a particularly fantastic script writer (at least not for dialogue. Look at the first 3 episodes of Star Wars for proof) or a timeless director. His strength is in his story telling: the man is an endless reservoir of great ideas. He has also made some wise alliances with Spielberg and John Williams who could be said to make his movies. But look at the stories…:
Star Wars – you can’t argue with that. There’s more fans than non-fans so if you start getting hassled for being a Star Wars nerd you have safety in numbers
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I love Christopher Nolan. I think he is a fantastic filmmaker. As far as I’m concerned he’s 4 from 4 and the person responsible for my favourite ever movie: The Prestige. I don’t know what the deal is, whether Christian Bale is advantaging from Nolan or the other way round but this pairing has me salivating. The Prestige is probably the best cast movie I have ever seen and as for the absolute genius of the script and direction, I can’t praise it highly enough! Hugh Jackman too, fantastic!
Nolan has made the superhero movie the way it should be made with Batman Begins. The dark brooding atmosphere fits perfectly with the dystopic Gotham City. The script is top notch as well and rewards re-watching unlike most superhero movies. Just compare it to the Fantastic Four, X-Men or Spiderman to see how much better it is a film, it borders on the artistic which is unheard of for a comic-book action blockbuster. Maybe my only complaint could be the underwhelming music which may just hold this back as a classic but bring on The Dark Knight! It is no mean feat to eclipse Tim Burton but I think Nolan’s version of Batman has the intricacies and atmosphere to pull it off
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Expectation is a killer. It ruins lots of things that might have been good. For example, Peter Jackson was on a hiding to nothing making King Kong, after the Rings trilogy there was no way anyone was going to be happy with his next movie. He came out of virtually nowhere (though the Frighteners was excellent) to stun the world with all 3 magnificent Rings movies and I kind of feel bad for him with the reception Kong got. Looking back at it, it’s not that bad. Apart from the awkward Jimmy character I don’t really know what I would cut.
Expectation is the reason I am hesitant to see Bee Movie (being such a huge fan of Seinfeld) or Bender’s Big Score (again, Futurama = Excellent show). How could they possibly live up to want I want? The same could be said of the Dark Knight but with Nolan rolling a 4 from 4 and Christian Bale starring I’m not too worried. Expectation seems to have killed Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, two of my favs, so my advice is to try and go into movies with as little knowledge as possible, no discussion! A negative anticipation doesn’t work either, because you always end up trying to hate the movie
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Comments (9)
Comment by Thomas Cox
on ipods suck. Yeah, I said it!
Idle Hands Are The Devil's Playthings
thanks for your comment and your advice, very soothing to my restless soul. But you're right I here you on the iPod, nothing but trouble. And its a shame too because the concept of portable music is SOOOO good but it never works out as easy as you want. I have, however, got a Creative Zen and I must say it is excellent, highly recommended...but then i did get it as a present.
T