there was a girl who...
just kidding, maybe you've noticed i've been gone awhile? i've just completed the 3 week intensive screenwriting class at the film school in seattle, a course that ran from 9-9pm, mon-fri, and most of the day on saturdays. my boys got a good long dose of no mom around, lots of video game time, and a consistent diet of cereal and macaroni and cheese apparently! ha ha! and i was in overdrive. i got three weeks of information input overload, a heavy dose of perspiration and inspiration, a notebook full of notes, friendships forged, lessons learned, emotions raked over the coals, oh yes, it was a bucket of laughs! (and tears.) now i'm sitting here, back in my usual quiet, trying to ignore the laundry and the dishes, and wondering how to implement all that i have learned. i'm gonna be sitting here for awhile, i'm thinking. we have been poked, prodded, implored: taught not to wait for inspiration to strike (which has always been my preferred method of composing) but to be dutiful in our writing habits: write everyday. practice practice practice. of course, easy advice can be handed out any day of the week, but after enduring 3 weeks of this onslaught to all the senses (i hear habits are formed in 2) one would hope we get the message. that artists don't become artists by picking up paint and splashing it onto the canvas. (alas, also my preferred method... what is this saying about me?) -that before you can break the rules and go all abstract, first you must learn the rules. there is a method to the madness. and there are is a TON of stuff to know about writing a screenplay, none of which involves just sitting at the computer with an idea and typing. ah, crap. "ideas are a dime a dozen, but execution is everything." it comes down to HOW to create and tell a good story, how to create interesting complex characters. process process process. hard discipline. acting is rehearsing. writing is re-writing.
now i have lots of little voices in my head.
let's see if i can get anything out on paper...
3 comments:
Hip-hip!
what fun - that class sounds amazing! I look forward to hearing more about it and your future works. my brother in law is in the film business, currently writing episodes for a sitcom and working on some movies, it seems like very interesting work... along with the awful hours... miss ya xoxox
Tell you what. Come June, you can be my writing buddy. I'll work on my novel, and you work on a screenplay. :-)
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