No Passion = Lousy Writing
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
No offense intended, but I can't relate AT ALL.
"Passion", or the lack thereof, is too often used as an excuse for poor effort.
I have personal projects and I have projects where I'm a writer for hire -- I've never noticed any difference in the zeal with which I approach the various scripts.
I'm a big proponent of that old concept "bloom where you're planted". There are certain subjects I'm not good at but I find that motivation (or that word, passion) comes after immersion in a subject I'm not familiar with.
It's good, though, that you've got a handle on your limitations.
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
This is all well and good, but if you want to make screenwriting your "career" you have to learn to work when you're not passionate or inspired.
I mean, is that a requirement for any other job? The banker who says a particular mortgage wasn't done correctly because he/she didn't have any "passion" about it? A chef who gave up half way through cooking your meal because he/she wasn't "inspired?"
I'd understand more if he focused on the fact that this wasn't his genre or area of expertise, but blaming it on not being passionate seems like a cop out.
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
I agree with this article 100%.
Hollywood is full of lunch-bucket 9-5 writers whose blogs and Twitter accounts are full of aphorisms about minimum daily page requirements and butts-in-seats cliches about 'writers writing', but IMO passionless assignments and deadline writing are the reason for 90% of the crappy movies released.
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
Originally posted by DayJobWriter View PostI'm a big proponent of that old concept "bloom where you're planted". There are certain subjects I'm not good at but I find that motivation (or that word, passion) comes after immersion in a subject I'm not familiar with.
But that's the thing. You find it. It's not always obvious.
But to make a not-totally-fair comparison, I think part of the reason "John Wick" was a runaway hit while "Run All Night" was a flop is because it felt like the creators of the former loved what they were doing, while it felt like the creators of the later were writing to the market. Now, that may not actually be accurate about those writers and directors, but it's certainly what both films feel like.
If I can't fall in love with a project, at least a little bit, I'm not sure I can bring it to the level of my best work.
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
I think you always have to be passionate about the idea. If you're not passionate about the idea/story there's no way you will write a good script. But I think that ending up with a good script, in the end, and getting through all the rewrites, just comes down to hard work.
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
It's a nothing article. The guy says at the end that without 'passion' you are ripping off the person you are being paid by, yet he went into the Poe script thinking he would find it interesting (despite it not being his usual subject matter). Really, who is going to turn down a check in this business? It's the producers fault if he didn't do his research and picked the wrong writer.
If Hollywood scripts relied on writers who have passion for the material, there would be hardly any movies produced.
And I'd say if you don't have passion for your blog, wait until you get excited about a subject before you write a filler.TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
Well, if you can't find any passion for Poe -- a writer who will be studied long after we're all dead, the vast majority of us forgotten -- I don't know what to say.
Well, that's not true, I do know what to say -- a writer can usually find something to hang their hat on with a topic like Poe. A dilettante cannot.
Let the fur fly.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.-
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
Originally posted by sc111 View PostWell, if you can't find any passion for Poe -- a writer who will be studied long after we're all dead, the vast majority of us forgotten -- I don't know what to say.
Well, that's not true, I do know what to say -- a writer can usually find something to hang their hat on with a topic like Poe. A dilettante cannot.
Let me add to this: NO PASSION FOR POE = LOUSY WRITER
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Re: No Passion = Lousy Writing
Originally posted by sc111 View PostWell, if you can't find any passion for Poe -- a writer who will be studied long after we're all dead, the vast majority of us forgotten -- I don't know what to say.
The guy was incredible. Even people who didn't completely like him were at least intrigued by him. Aldous Huxley said that his writing was "too poetical - the equivalent of wearing a diamond ring on every finger".
His bizarre work, life and death should interest anyone who takes even a casual glance.
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