writing insecurities - don't be bashful

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  • writing insecurities - don't be bashful

    my biggest writing insecurity was trying to sound like a writer. no matter how hard i try, i know that i'll never be a great writer. that's disturbing in so many ways.

    there is a talent to screenwriting, and it's not as much as being able to write, cause's it's really not, it's about being able to write cinematically which is not writing, it's like learning a language.

    i hate the fact that i know plenty of guys on this board who are better writers than me and no matter how much i try, or how much i work at it there's a ceiling that i'll never get to, that level of prose that is not monologue, or dialogue as much as it's pov elaborated for six pages. that's writing. i'm angered that i can't do that.

    BUT

    screenwriting is about characters and the spoken word and the ability of a person to assimilate, rationalize, manipulate scenarios in character. i'm great at that.

    so, it boils me that i can't write; and i can't. but it makes me happy that i can at least bullshaite my way through a script.

    when i started writing on my own, just vig, i had to take into account what i'm good and do that. so, it turned out that all the flowery stuff was impossible for me to pull off.

    some of the scripts i read have two elements to them. the prose was telling a story within the story and then the characters spoke and that was good as well. .

    i was always worried that, that part of the story (prose) had to be as good as the story, and that was main goal - when i first started writing my objective was to 'sound like a writer' the story was just after thought hinded in my attempt to sound like a writer.

    but when i realized that you only have to create the world of the story, you don't need to be a great writer, per say.

    so, that's why i'm empowered, that's why vig, is vig cause stories are the lifeblood of a story teller and have them - so i really don't consider myself a writer.

    i'm not a writer. i'm a storyteller. haskins is a writer. my buddy esdavis is a writer. ere is a writer. whiskey, shuster, even dclary.

    dclary pissed me off when he said i can't write. hell, i can't write, but i can do is tell a story. i kind of like the fact that i'm happy with knowing what i know about my liabilities.

    anyone else like to purge? don't be fearful, your enemies will use your weakness against you and that's just how it's gonna be.

    vig

  • #2
    Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

    I'm also a storyteller first Vig and a writer second...whether that has a detrimental effect on my screenwriting career we'll see.
    One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it. - French Proverb

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    • #3
      Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

      i hate the fact that i read your usage of effect and not only can i not discern if it's the write affect, but why the two effects should mean different things and why this effect is used that way, while other affects are used differently and if you in fact know when to use the proper effect, to illicit an affect and if i'm going there i'd like to talk about illicit. is it ellicit as in a response to something to do with porn, or is it soliciting? or in fact is ellict a completely different meaning?

      this is the kind of garbage i have to go through just to get to the thing i need to be getting to. lot of faucking traffic upstairs.

      vig

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      • #4
        Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

        Your storytelling ability is valuable, Vig. Why not collaborate on a script with someone you consider a "writer". You should spin gold.

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        • #5
          Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

          i did,my brother, that got me to stage one. probably two and three. the rest is now in my hands. i'm a little worried about captaining that boat solo.

          not that i'm not ready for it, but i'm always looking for a write to smooth out the edges. you and sooner should be able to write a pretty good script i'd hasten to say. if i don't mind outing her, sc11 helped me on a script i've kept close to my heart and the script reads so well it's criminal.

          i'm like granite. looks nice, it's edgy. you put a writer with me, to bullnose those edges and at the end of the road you can gurantee yourself a pretty crafty script with some off the hook characters and scenes.

          i'm brutal. but i'm a gem. and i car. but i'm alergic to animals, so i've never been attached to anything.

          vig

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          • #6
            Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

            Sooner and I wrote our script in under a month. She came with the story and we put the whole thing together pretty seamlessly in no time. We simply played to each other's strengths, and, I have to say, never once disagreed about the others revisions. Very smooth sailing, my friend.

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            • #7
              Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

              that's awesome jack. that's the stuff i've been trying to preach. do what your good at, find other people who can do what you're not good at and package the deal.

              scriptwritig should be no different. this is a business and when i make it, that's what i'll do, i'll pay people to write with me. end of story. you can create a script with a good writer in a month with no problem.

              i bet you,your script has a chance of selling.

              vig

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              • #8
                Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                Thank you, Vig. I appreciate your faith in me and Sooner. And may you have a successful New Year.

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                • #9
                  Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                  vig. Nice post.

                  I feel almost the exact opposite. I've been a writer nearly my whole life. It's always come naturally to me. I'd knock out 10 page term papers 3 hours before they were due and get A's or A+'s. I'd write letters to my friends and they'd keep them for years, saying they'd go back and read them occassionally because they loved my use of language. My first letter to the editor was published in a national magazine when I was 19. At my first real job I had physicians asking me to write their medical journal articles for them. Within a year of finishing school I had a magazine approach me to write articles for them.

                  What's my problem then?

                  Story.

                  Story's my problem.

                  I know plenty of writers on this board who come up with simply amazing stories and can't tell the difference between they're/their/there. When something lays or someone lies. Brilliant storytellers who have difficulty with spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word choice.

                  My best scripts always end up "character driven". My own original spec scripts will always be indies, because that's where my sensibilities lie and where my strengths are. I might find an interesting twist or unique way of telling my story, but at it's heart, it's a character piece. The story is secondary to the people in it.

                  Just today I was emailing with a writer on this board about cowriting a script. I've got an idea based on a largely forgotten foreign film from the 1960s. I'd like to update it, make it fit today. Set it in NYC so I can shoot it cheap. It'll be unrecognizable from the original to all but cineastas and they'll just see it as similar or an homage. I've got this global idea of what I want.

                  The writer responds with a genius high concept twist on the story. I never would have come up with this idea even if I had let the story simmer for years. And if I had thought about it, I probably would have dismissed it, because it seemed too Hollywood. But now I have to sit and think if that's the script I want to write or if I want to stick with my modern interpretation of a surrealist drama, circa 1962. I know that sounds ridiculous, but since this is something I'll be shooting myself, I'm not worried about its quality as a spec. I'm also not worried about getting investors, because it will purposely be a cheap film. But now there's that inkling of doubt in my head ... why not make the high concept idea and get noticed? But when it comes down to it, if I'm pouring my time, energy, and money into a feature film, it had better be something I love. Will I love the high concept story? I'm not sure ... and that's what I'm pondering now.

                  There ... some hairy insecurities.

                  I feel naked.
                  Last edited by Hairy Lime; 01-11-2006, 08:11 AM.
                  http://confoundedfilms.com

                  http://www.myspace.com/confoundedfilms

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                  • #10
                    Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                    well think about it. writing to me is like sports. you have some great talent in positions that you can't play. hey, you're great talent, but you're the point gurard. you know as the point guard you'd love to be able to windmill jam it like a 6'6 swingman, but as the point guard you know you're roll.

                    sports teaches you how to be persistant while trusting people around you.

                    the thing that blows my mind is i have what most writers lack, and never will have ever, never ever -- never in a faucking million years --but what most writers have, i lack. go figure.

                    vig

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                    • #11
                      Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                      Edited, so as not to sound like a d1ck...
                      Last edited by TATAM78; 01-10-2006, 09:34 PM.
                      I wanna tell you about the time I almost died....

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                      • #12
                        Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                        there is a talent to screenwriting, and it's not as much as being able to write, cause's it's really not, it's about being able to write cinematically which is not writing, it's like learning a language.
                        That's very true. And it kind of hurt me a little after realizing that shortly after I started writing. I worked so hard on learning what to do and what not to do in terms of story and structure, subtext and subplots...that when I came to the actual 'making words with letters and putting those words into sentences' part of writing a script, I wasn't good at it.

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                        • #13
                          Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                          My insecurity?


                          That I'm doing too much. That I'm hitting the reader over the head with it, that I'm tromping it up and down and damn we get the picture already move on! You're boring me!

                          That I'm doing too little. I'm being too sublte. I'm not clueing the reader in enough. That I've left some little bit undersaid, poorly shown. that I didn't show them the picture long enough and now they don't know what's going on and don't really care anymore because it sucks sucks sucks!


                          that there are too many incomplete sentences. That the words are spelled right, but they're the wrong words. Their for there for they're.

                          That someone will comment about a semi-autobiographical piece and say "Well, I suppose it could be considered good in some circles. but it really doesn't have anything to say, and it's not very orginal, poignant, or indicative of the human condition."

                          That W.H. Mallock is better than I ever could be.

                          That no one will ever say to me "Hey, that was a good story. I really liked it. Thanks."

                          That no one will ever like my work, or by extention like me.

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                          • #14
                            Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                            I think good writing is easier to learn than good storytelling. Both are equally important, but my aim now is to master the latter.

                            My insecurity is that my draft simply won't be good enough. Am I fulfilling the fiduciary duties I've set forth? Am I unfairly giving my American Pie - type script Annie Hall expectations? Read interviews with scribes and many of the most talented ones confess tons of insecurities. It's hard to repeat success when you have to exercise different muscles with each script.
                            "I ask every producer I meet if they need TV specs they say yeah. They all want a 40 inch display that's 1080p and 120Hz. So, I quit my job at the West Hollywood Best Buy."
                            - Screenwriting Friend

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                            • #15
                              Re: writing insecurities - don't be bashful

                              Not being funny. Being dramatic instead of being funny. Not commiting to a detail in my scenes or characters because it reminds me of the past. Never satisfied with good work, it must be perfect, which is never the case. I have bad hand writing so sometimes I can't read my own notes. Coming to realize I'm good at action and not in comedy, although maybe in a few years, my comedic timing will improve. Sucking at grammar. I would go on but i need to finish my outline tonight.

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