Are you serious or plastic? Care to share?

[peakbeach]

Most serious writers, including myself, donâ€TMt just sit around one sunny day or winter's night and search at random for an idea to click about what theyâ€TMre going to write and sell during the next several weeks or months. :\ :rolleyes >: |I :b :lol :smokin

First of all, they became writers because they were ALREADY (for years, probably) consumed by thoughts and memories about several things so important and meaningful that it was only a matter of time before they got around writing about them. The PASSION of writing about something is what makes a writer.

That something must be very special. And the more you think about it, the more youâ€TMre convinced youâ€TMre the ONE to do it. Itâ€TMs your calling. Youâ€TMre the CHOSEN ONE. Itâ€TMs as close to your heart and soul as it is real in your mind. And if you donâ€TMt do it, itâ€TMll be lost (you think) forever!

Others might one day approach the subject, but it wonâ€TMt be the same. Your vision about it has a special dimension, a special tension… a subtle or vibrant or even violent intimacy… that no one on earth will ever see or duplicate. You cannot afford to let it go… just like that.

So you do it… and thus a screenplay (or short story or novel) is born.

Now, I donâ€TMt know about plastic writers. What makes them write and sell? Iâ€TMve never met one. But I know there are plenty of them out there. Writing for fame and money only... I imagine. :hat :hat :hat

[kojled]

peakbeach

it's pretty clear who's plastic around here


zilla

[Manilow in Blue]

And what is a plastic writer? Buck Henry?

[Harry Ellis]

Ooof.

[Vigorish9]

that is just a meandering, near-sigthed, no focus post.

i think if you ask most writes, to much of the time they sit in that seat, say here we go again, and nothing goes. house gets clean, you pulled the weeds from the driveway, whatever, but nothing got written.

writing is a job.

this is what i think, if you're serious about writing, and what is more serious than your entire livelyhood based on what you write. your worth, in the market place, hinges on what you write. that's really serious.

let's add to that, throw rocks at our protag in the tree, if you have a family and you got to pay for your kid with your writing... forget about it. It's a job, you may love it, but make no mistake it's work.

it occured to me not three months ago that when you sit down in that chair you're working. it relative terms, it may not be like other work, to other people, but writing six hours a day, for three months, you can get three first drafts, two in pretty good shape and one on the verge of one.

so in six months you can polish two scripts and have one almost there if you actually wrote six hours a day.

writing, for anyone who thinks they are going to make coin, is discipline. refer to my sigline.

vig

[Revisionist]

I agree. It's work. It's full of the highest highs and lowest lows and everywhere in between. It's a job. You both love and hate it...

The key is you have to do it. Your brain can't seem to contain all the ideas and you have to let them out... Or go crazy. So you release the little demon...

...And the work starts.

[noh1]

good lord... (shakes head)

[Revisionist]

BTW... I'm seriously plastic.

[UnappreciatedDramaqueen]

What's plastic?

Do you mean as in a credit card writer? Then yes M'AM! I really don't care about the holier than thou writer attitude, I get paid to write, and to be "inspired" enough to crunch those storylines and treatments into dialogue. If that's plastic, fine, I have no problem with that

[sarajb]

Re: What's plastic?

Plastic.

I tried a lot of different creative outlets, before screenwriting. Drawing, poetry, painting, novels…they were fun diversions. One day, after watching a favorite show, I had an idea for an episode, so I researched basic format and wrote it. That was the feeling I didnâ€TMt know I was searching for.

I spend many sunny days and winter nights coming up with random story ideas. Once a plot gels, my brain latches on like a pit bull. Night and day the basic frame rattles around picking up scenes, feelings, purpose. Sometimes hyper-consciously â€-til my ears bleed, other times the flow is natural and effortless (preferred).

Then there are times, when Iâ€TMm frozen, holding picnic utensil talent over the big meaty story in my head, afraid Iâ€TMll never do it justice.

[peakbeach]

Re: What's plastic?

I should bang my head against the wall for always forgetting the word MARKETABLE.

To succeed in Hollywood you've got to have both PASSION for what you write and a MARKETABLE story to magnetize your audience (starting with the reader). No way around it!

Preferably, your story must derive from what you know - what you've seen or experienced in your life. Not what you read in books. That's already there! You must add your own blood to it... to have any value. Otherwise you end up recycling the same shitt... over and over. Books are good to fill the gaps only.

No, I don't view story writing (that is both passionate and marketable) as a JOB - unless it becomes a boring routine or a pain in the ass.

People don't quit a promising teaching or banking job to take a screenwriting or novel writing job. They do it to become writers. There's a definite upscale glamour/importance/seriousness/dignity to it... and a bunch of hard sacrifices to endure. Your writing projects, not jobs, might influence millions of people around the world.

Think about it.

It's not about the financial rewards that might come from it - and that's always a mystery, not a possibility - it's about self-fulfillment. Oftentimes you'll have to take small, idiotic jobs in other fields around town to make ends meet. But in your heart, if you're both passionate and marketable, you'll know you're fine and prosperous. Someday you'll get that phone call!

You know you're not a plastic writer when you write with passion... when you're your own person, not somebody else's puppet. In short, when you're true to yourself.

Think about it.

[Optimus Maximus]

Most serious writers, including myself, donâ€TMt just sit around one sunny day or winter's night and search at random for an idea to click about what theyâ€TMre going to write and sell during the next several weeks or months.

Really?

That's...an interesting POV to say the least.

However, if that is what separates "serious writers" from "plastic ones," then I'd say a good majority of working writers out there fall into the plastic category.

I'm plastic all the way.

Never leave home without it.

[Revisionist]

Opty...

Hey, Maximus...

You're gonna hate me but I had three quarters of the script done and somehow lost the file on my computer... I don't think I saved it to disc but I was going to forward what I had and now I can't find it...

Sorry dude... I'm hoping I still have the copy in my inbox. Things have been hell around here.

[captain bligh]

i just write because i like to make things up.

[Salazkin]

And the captain sums it up in ten words or less. Ditto what the captain said.