I've been perusing some of the various screenwriting message boards recently (well, really, just Done Deal and Wordplay) and have noticed something that, to me, is alarming. Well, let me back up a bit...
This trend has been around since I started visiting Done Deal and probably long before that (so, really, it doesn't fit the strict definition of "trend") and has always perplexed me, but for some reason it's just now driven me to start a thread about it...
I'm talking about people asking anonymous posters on an internet message board, people they don't know at all, for what amounts to "creative permission". Certified Instigator's response in another thread (about the structure of a ghost story) perfectly sums up what I'm talking about (kudos, CI).
Why on earth would you place BIG creative decisions about your spec script -- everything from story and theme issues to whether or not you should write it at all (jesus, what's THAT all about?!) -- in the hands of strangers who may or may not know what they're talking about and are most definitely not paying you a cent for your work?
Why would you ask questions like, "Must my protagonist be likeable?"?
How many movies have you seen? You've never seen a film with an unlikeable protagnist? Why would you ask that? You know the answer is "No, he/she doesn't have to be" if you've watched enough movies (or, hell, even if you haven't).
Or, perhaps, you're asking if your protagonist has to be likeable (just as one example) in a spec script you're trying to use to break into the business. Okay, fair enough. (I still think the answer is "No, he/she doesn't" btw, but I don't want to get into a whole thing about that.) But that brings up another question; perhaps THE question from which all of these others come from, and which is the true subject of this thread:
Why are you writing screenplays to begin with? Where is the impetus to do so coming from?
Is it coming from a deep, abiding, often painful love of film? Is it coming from a desire to "actualize" the movies you've been playing in your own head for months and years on end? To see your vision up on the silver screen?
Is it coming from a place of economic concern? Is it an ego thing? A "canoodling women" thing? A spiritual exercise?
Is screenwriting a hobby? A vocation? An obsession? Catharsis/therapy?
If you found out (for example) that you, as an aspiring screenwriter, absolutely could not sell a spec script with an unlikeable protagonist to a major studio, what would you do? Would you write another script... one with a likeable protagonist (perhaps hoping that if you sold that, you would be "in" and then could sell your personal project)? Would you rewrite your script so that it had a likeable protagonist, thus altering your entire creative vision?
Or, would you get out there and try to make the thing yourself?
Again, why are you doing this? What do you get out of it? What do you hope to get out of it?
This trend has been around since I started visiting Done Deal and probably long before that (so, really, it doesn't fit the strict definition of "trend") and has always perplexed me, but for some reason it's just now driven me to start a thread about it...
I'm talking about people asking anonymous posters on an internet message board, people they don't know at all, for what amounts to "creative permission". Certified Instigator's response in another thread (about the structure of a ghost story) perfectly sums up what I'm talking about (kudos, CI).
Why on earth would you place BIG creative decisions about your spec script -- everything from story and theme issues to whether or not you should write it at all (jesus, what's THAT all about?!) -- in the hands of strangers who may or may not know what they're talking about and are most definitely not paying you a cent for your work?
Why would you ask questions like, "Must my protagonist be likeable?"?
How many movies have you seen? You've never seen a film with an unlikeable protagnist? Why would you ask that? You know the answer is "No, he/she doesn't have to be" if you've watched enough movies (or, hell, even if you haven't).
Or, perhaps, you're asking if your protagonist has to be likeable (just as one example) in a spec script you're trying to use to break into the business. Okay, fair enough. (I still think the answer is "No, he/she doesn't" btw, but I don't want to get into a whole thing about that.) But that brings up another question; perhaps THE question from which all of these others come from, and which is the true subject of this thread:
Why are you writing screenplays to begin with? Where is the impetus to do so coming from?
Is it coming from a deep, abiding, often painful love of film? Is it coming from a desire to "actualize" the movies you've been playing in your own head for months and years on end? To see your vision up on the silver screen?
Is it coming from a place of economic concern? Is it an ego thing? A "canoodling women" thing? A spiritual exercise?
Is screenwriting a hobby? A vocation? An obsession? Catharsis/therapy?
If you found out (for example) that you, as an aspiring screenwriter, absolutely could not sell a spec script with an unlikeable protagonist to a major studio, what would you do? Would you write another script... one with a likeable protagonist (perhaps hoping that if you sold that, you would be "in" and then could sell your personal project)? Would you rewrite your script so that it had a likeable protagonist, thus altering your entire creative vision?
Or, would you get out there and try to make the thing yourself?
Again, why are you doing this? What do you get out of it? What do you hope to get out of it?
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