WRITING ACTUALLY

In the diverse world of screenwriting, it appears that there are three distinct personalities:

1. THE PART TIMERS - are those who dabble but never take it too seriously.
   
2. THE CONFIDENT AMATEURS - are those who have great ideas and have decided to take it seriously, but who haven't learned the entire craft just yet.
   
3. THE PROFESSIONALS - are those who have good ideas, have learned the craft, have mastered their techniques, and have been optioned, published or hired on as a staff writers.

I was a part timer for most of my life. I have recently become a confident amateur who writes constantly and performs lots of research. I NOW STRIVE TO BE A PROFESSIONAL.

This blog aims to document my journey towards becoming a professional, but it may also be a useful resource for the other confident amateurs who also strive to be professionals. If you are a part timer looking to take it to the next level, may the words on these pages have just as much significance for you.

As a part-timer, I didn't have the confidence to publish, so I just dabbled. Sure, I had a few good concepts and a few half written scripts, but then I lost interest. When I lost interest, my work suffered and eventually, I stopped writing. I settled in to the real world and became content with the mediocrity of a non-creative career. But I was never really totally content.

When I became unemployed, that interest reemerged. I found that because I had more time on my hands, I could allow myself to be creative, and I decided to take the craft of creative writing more seriously. I have now become, because of great amounts of research and consistent levels of productive writing, the person who feels that they REALLY CAN write for film or television. I have decided, because of who I've become, that I want to be the person who sees their talent, learns the craft, and then carefully applies that knowledge to their talents. I now strive to be a PROFESSIONAL SCREENWRITER. I want to write, I want to write well, and in order to do that, I need to write often.

So, I opened a blog, and now, I'm actually writing, for others to see.

I've read numerous articles and blogs discussing the formats of screenwriting, the ways to get into the industry, the success and failure rates, and the surprise stories that inspire even the most doubtful of souls. The advice that seems to crop of most often, the one suggestion that almost every professional scribber will offer, is to write; plain and simple. Write and write often.
Sure you can come up with ideas and they should be coming at you from all angles if you plan on writing, but if they aren't written down, if you re not transforming the ideas in your mind into stories on paper, then these ideas can and almost always will be forgotten. They may still exist in memory, but they won't feel the same as when you were first inspired. So, the first advice I have accepted is to write it down, write it often, and then keep writing more. The more that I have written, the more concise my style has become, and the more confident I have begun to feel.

The problem with a person who lacks the confidence needed in this industry, is that they may have difficulties in sharing their work with others. I for one, always shrouded my writings in mystery; hording them to myself like some sort of word junkie trapped in a post apocalyptic world where only information gets you by. But what I have learned is that trapped stories are like caged birds; they can't fly themselves to Hollywood.
Stories that are trapped, go unread by objective readers. These stories can not be critiqued and therefore may not get tweaked. Tweaking a story encourages the search for perfection. And perfection, which may be an unattainable goal, is still a major goal of a writer. When you perfect a story as much as you feel you possibly can, then you will feel confident in shopping it around. And in order to achieve that perfection, you must tweak it over and over again, until you are satisfied.
This leads me to the second most suggested advice I have heard: SCREENWRITING IS REWRITING. If you don't rewrite, you aren't done, and half-ass written scripts are rough drafts. When you are trying to get your work noticed, rough drafts are not the drafts that will get you in the door. This is why it is important to REWRITE your works, sometimes several times, removing unwanted blemishes from the body of your story; creating something that you are willing to share with others.

As you share, you will get feedback and as you get feedback, you can tweak and alter and your writings. Objective criticism of your own work is just as essential as another persons opinions, so re-read your work and correct what you find to be correctable. Write, rewrite, share, accept criticism, and rewrite; these are the key ingredients that I have learned so far. It is these ingredients that when mixed together, seem to provide professional writers a recipe for their success.

I start out this writing, and this blog, with only one piece of advice pertaining specifically to screenwriting. That one piece of advice, is to read screenplays. Read them whenever you have time, and critique them as you read them. Find mistakes, admire beautifully crafted visuals, and most of all, learn format. Find films that you have seen and know well, and see how words on paper were transformed into visuals on a big screen. I learned to play music not by reading music, but by listening to songs that I liked and playing along to them. In theory, this is what I suggest; learn how to write by example, not just by reading textbooks that express terms and explain structure. Structure, I find, can be learned by looking at things already built. Read and see first what something should look like, then go and study the key elements; these terms will make more sense when you can apply them visually in your mind. As you read more and more screenplays, both classics and rubbish, you will see what a successful screenplay should look like, and this will help you realize what to look for when rewriting your own works.

That is what this blog is going to be about; sharing some of what I learn along the way, accepting constructive criticism, and utilizing available resources to benefit my growth as a writer and perhaps to offer insight that may benefit your own success. That's it for now. I gladly accept comments, suggestions, critiques and compliments. I'm gonna try and update this frequently, and share information that may be relevant to the experience of growing as a screenwriter. Thanks for stopping by; may you find success as a PROFESSIONAL SCREENWRITER!

TIPS TO TAKE OR LEAVE FROM THIS ARTICLE: Write everyday, be objective with your work, rewrite and then rewrite some more, share your work when you've become comfortable sharing, accept and utilize constructive criticism, learn the craft, and read lots and lots of screenplays of films you know and from shows you have seen. FADE OUT-