Plot is people. Human emotions and desires founded on the realities of life, working at cross purposes, getting hotter and fiercer as they strike against each other until finally there’s an explosion — that’s Plot. I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide. People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it. If you wanna write movies, you can't stop when you get pissed on and rejected. There’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine. - Margaret Atwood One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off. Young writers seem to forget that people in the industry are desperate for good material. The business isn’t constructed to keep you out of it, but to bring you into it. More than ever now, there are so many contests and agents and producers. It’s a world that’s so desperate for good writers. So if you can build it, they’ll be there. If you write something great, and you know somebody who is even peripherally involved in the industry, like the assistant director’s brother-in-law’s niece, it’ll find its way to someone. It may not get green-lit and turned into a blockbuster immediately, but it’ll get read, and if it’s really good, it’ll start your career. I don't think screenwriting is therapeutic. It's actually really, really hard for me. It's not an enjoyable process. Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. The absolute base-level thing that you do as a new screenwriter is send out query letters. Literally, you just say, 'Hi, Mr. So-and-So,' and you give them a one-sentence description of one of your scripts. You send it out to a list of people you found on the Internet. Remember those deadlines you set yourself at the start of the year.
Are you still working towards them? Stay on target! ...as long as you edit brilliantly. Is A New Opportunity!
Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences. Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good. Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat. First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him! There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it with charges. Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up. I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly. I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book. The scariest moment is always just before you start. A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. |
Welcome to Russell’s website. A storyteller who enjoys writing screenplays for movies. Even though the process is hard. It keeps his imagination working overtime.
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