Bring yourself to your scripts

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  • Bring yourself to your scripts

    For some reason everyone was trashing Sorkin yesterday on social media... I don't even want to know... but I was watching Newsroom clips and something Sorkin loves to is talk about sports. Well his characters love to talk about sports. Because obviously Sorkin does.

    So I was just thinking today -- this is the stuff you should bring to your work. We all do it w/o realizing it -- but think of what makes you - you. What you love. You're hobbies. Your favorite band.

    Throw that stuff in, when you can. Bring yourself to the script.

    There was some Actor's studio moment, that isn't online but here is the transcript -- this makes me think of this same point. Actors do it. Writers should too.

    Jack Lemmon
    The legend appeared on Lipton’s show in 1998. While discussing the film Days of Wine and Roses, Lipton mentioned a scene where his character admits he’s an alcoholic.

    What happens next isn’t on YouTube, but even as just a transcript, it’s still one of the most powerful moments in the show’s history.

    Lemmon: “Which I am, incidentally.”
    Lipton: “Who?”
    Lemmon: “Me.”
    Lipton: “Are you talking as Clay [Lemmon’s character] now or as Jack Lemmon?”
    Lemmon: “No, as Jack Lemmon. I’m an alcoholic.”

    Lipton sat there in stunned silence. Lemmon’s wife Felicia later told the host that he had never told this secret to anyone but her.


    He was pretty much praising his performance and all he did was be himself. Same goes with writing. How did you think of that? Well, I lived it. That is me.

  • #2
    Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

    So in other words, write what you know?

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

      NOW YOU'RE WRITING CLEAR?????

      But yes.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

        If Gucci was here, this thread would already be 10 pages long. I miss you, BRUH!!!! Is that how he spelled it? I'm already starting to forget his avatar face...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

          I started my creative life as a musician, and while it took me several years to really understand that playing music was about conveying personal emotion (hey, who thinks about that stuff when they're 12?), it's something that I now naturally bring to writing.

          I'm still working on the technical skill to convey what I want, but it's at least second nature to attempt to put myself into what I write. I have some deficiencies with premise/story, but I think I have a voice... so there's that.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

            You do a voice -- and that's a great insight into what I was trying to say. Even more so -- I think I'd want to see you write a project with a musician at the helm. Or have one of your characters been a former band member from a huge band from 1985-1987. Take yourself and sprinkle it in.

            My characters don't always like the same things I like -- but if it doesn't matter -- hell yeah I'm picking the pop culture stuff I enjoy myself.

            But sometimes we forget what we have experienced in life or think that the 20 years of experience I have as a dog walker means nothing. But it can be everything.

            Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class once in college and he brought that to Apple years later -- stuff like that is what I'm talking about. It was uniquely him. And those quirks of character are what makes them great. Sometimes we just make it all up -- but I find a lot of the best writers steal borrow and interrupt their own lives and other people's lives around them.

            Was Indiana Jones afraid of snakes because SS or GL or Kasdan was? I don't know. But I do know that and his other imperfections is what makes it such a great character. So maybe you're afraid of flying and so is your character... you get it...

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

              Originally posted by Bono View Post
              He was pretty much praising his performance and all he did was be himself. Same goes with writing. How did you think of that? Well, I lived it. That is me.
              I know practically nothing about acting.

              For the sake of argument, it seems to me that a great actor should be able to perform the role of any character.

              Could be that a great writer should be able to, after some research and soul searching, write about a multitude of characters and emotions.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                Originally posted by jonpiper View Post
                I know practically nothing about acting.

                For the sake of argument, it seems to me that a great actor should be able to perform the role of any character.

                Could be that a great writer should be able to, after some research and soul searching, write about a multitude of characters and emotions.
                A handful of actors are chameleons, like Gary Oldman, but most are playing themselves in every role, just with superficial changes. Even character actors are the same, just with different clothes, accent, etc. Their speech patterns are almost always the same, they almost always do their own voice. Do you hire John C Reilly to see him act and talk like John Goodman?

                Writers can mimic different styles, but that wouldn't be very unique. They can also write characters that are different than themselves, but the thrust of what they write is generally a reflection of their own beliefs, perspective, and personality of themselves or people they know.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                  Originally posted by Bono View Post
                  You do a voice -- and that's a great insight into what I was trying to say. Even more so -- I think I'd want to see you write a project with a musician at the helm. Or have one of your characters been a former band member from a huge band from 1985-1987. Take yourself and sprinkle it in.

                  My characters don't always like the same things I like -- but if it doesn't matter -- hell yeah I'm picking the pop culture stuff I enjoy myself.

                  But sometimes we forget what we have experienced in life or think that the 20 years of experience I have as a dog walker means nothing. But it can be everything.

                  Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class once in college and he brought that to Apple years later -- stuff like that is what I'm talking about. It was uniquely him. And those quirks of character are what makes them great. Sometimes we just make it all up -- but I find a lot of the best writers steal borrow and interrupt their own lives and other people's lives around them.

                  Was Indiana Jones afraid of snakes because SS or GL or Kasdan was? I don't know. But I do know that and his other imperfections is what makes it such a great character. So maybe you're afraid of flying and so is your character... you get it...
                  That's a cool idea actually. I was just reminded about this guy who was in a very famous band in the mid-80s for about a year (but only public facing for about 3 months) before getting fired, and his life afterwards was sh*t (drug use, prison, early-ish death).

                  I could do something inspired by that kind of situation, his life after he gets fired. I could certainly bring my failed musician experience to the table!!!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                    Originally posted by megablahblah View Post
                    That's a cool idea actually. I was just reminded about this guy who was in a very famous band in the mid-80s for about a year (but only public facing for about 3 months) before getting fired, and his life afterwards was sh*t (drug use, prison, early-ish death).

                    I could do something inspired by that kind of situation, his life after he gets fired. I could certainly bring my failed musician experience to the table!!!
                    Right on! This is what I was talking about in this thread... sometimes we look outside ourselves to find ideas when the best ideas are the crap we have been through.

                    Even when we think of an idea that has nothing to do with our life experience, what I was trying to say, you may add a little detail on page 89 that only you the writer would think to do because it's based on your life and POV. That's what I was saying.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                      I hear ya and agree. I've always thought the phrase "write what you know," though solid advice, left a lot unsaid.

                      "What you know" also encompasses all the people you've known, from those closest to you or even the briefest encounters.

                      When I got reads on my first script, which was an adaptation of my own unfinished novel, everyone who read it made a point to tell me how much they loved a scene between the female protag and her grandfather when he was in the hospital.

                      The thing is -- the entire exchange was a slightly-edited transcript of a conversation with my own grandfather when he was in the hospital.

                      On one hand it was great to get a thumbs up on the scene, on the other hand, I couldn't take credit as if it was a purely original product of my "creative" mind. '

                      That was a great discovery for me. And I started weaving into my work people I knew and conversations I've had.

                      I think we as writers sometimes think we have to go bigger/better than life for a script to engage a reader. Life can be damn extraordinary in many ways.
                      Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                        Exactly.

                        In a way, the best writers are really the best editors. Because we absorb life and take the boring parts out -- leaving the best moments like a good trailer does.

                        We squirrel away these real moments to be used later in our fictional work.

                        So write what you experienced that you know would be meaningful to others. Take parts here and there.

                        When it goes bad is when a person thinks everything they do, including going to the mall is worthy of a movie. And trust me -- those were my first few screenplays. that's the other side of this. I took 99% of it from my life instead say 10%, 20%....

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                          Originally posted by Bono View Post
                          Exactly.

                          In a way, the best writers are really the best editors. Because we absorb life and take the boring parts out -- leaving the best moments like a good trailer does.

                          We squirrel away these real moments to be used later in our fictional work.
                          Agree -- life without the boring parts.

                          I'm big on eavesdropping and I make a point to observe details about people and places when I'm out -- in a store, in a doctor's waiting room, on the street, on public transportation, etc.
                          Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                            Originally posted by sc111 View Post
                            Agree -- life without the boring parts.

                            I'm big on eavesdropping and I make a point to observe details about people and places when I'm out -- in a store, in a doctor's waiting room, on the street, on public transportation, etc.
                            Yep. I just put some words I overheard in our own short script contest.

                            I still remember some poor girl, working as a cashier at Target, around Christmas, years ago. She was told to shut her till down and go home and there were still huge lines which obviously made her feel terrible, when she couldn't help. It took her about five minutes to close her till and while I waited in another line she must have said she was sorry at least a hundred times. Her politeness and patience amazed me.

                            "I'm sorry ma'am, I'm closed, sorry. I'm sorry, I have to close this till, I'm really sorry, sir...." And that went on for five minutes. That'll show up somewhere in something I write someday.

                            When I was a teenager and in my early twenties, I used to "invest in wrong numbers". I even called it that, back then. It was back at the time you would have to pay for long distance (yeah half of the people here probably don't remember that). For example: If I wanted to get a Brooklyn accent down, I'd call "wrong numbers" in Brooklyn and see how long I could keep them on the phone, but I would be polite about it. I talked to one girl for about 45 minutes, once. I think it helped the realism of the dialogue in my story and she seemed kind of cute. (Hey -- I mean aren't we all told how rude people are in New York?)
                            "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Bring yourself to your scripts

                              Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
                              Yep. I just put some words I overheard in our own short script contest.

                              I still remember some poor girl, working as a cashier at Target, around Christmas, years ago. She was told to shut her till down and go home and there were still huge lines which obviously made her feel terrible, when she couldn't help. It took her about five minutes to close her till and while I waited in another line she must have said she was sorry at least a hundred times. Her politeness and patience amazed me.

                              "I'm sorry ma'am, I'm closed, sorry. I'm sorry, I have to close this till, I'm really sorry, sir...." And that went on for five minutes. That'll show up somewhere in something I write someday.

                              When I was a teenager and in my early twenties, I used to "invest in wrong numbers". I even called it that, back then. It was back at the time you would have to pay for long distance (yeah half of the people here probably don't remember that). For example: If I wanted to get a Brooklyn accent down, I'd call "wrong numbers" in Brooklyn and see how long I could keep them on the phone, but I would be polite about it. I talked to one girl for about 45 minutes, once. I think it helped the realism of the dialogue in my story and she seemed kind of cute. (Hey -- I mean aren't we all told how rude people are in New York?)
                              Love the wrong numbers technique. Great idea. I eavesdrop a lot get down accents and regional cadence, word choices.

                              I recall a woman from the south at work using the phrase: Is John not there? Or, Is John not available? When calling people. Being from the northeast that threw me because I'd say: Is John available? So I used her approach in a character from South.
                              Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

                              Comment

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