The wonderful "what if's..."

All day we play the "what if."

If you are a writer, that is what you do. If you are me - on the days you can balance your anxiety - and I swear - no more whining posts this week...(Even I can make it another two days...) you spend a lot of your time thinking.

What if...

My Favorite thinking places: In the car, driving anywhere - mind going far away. In the shower - scalding hot water - mind wandering while being completely relaxed. (sorry about placing that image in your head...) In bed - as I go to sleep - and first thing when I wake up in the morning. When I am at peace and relaxed - I can actually be creative...

The biggest trick of the What if is to find something new.

There is nothing new under the sun. But there are interesting and dramatic ways to build a scene. And finding the most dramatic and conflict filled way is the structural building block to start with. There is only one Charlie Kauffman. And there is only one you. Just because a story has been told before - doesn't mean it has been told by you. I have watched three bodyguard films in the last week - and they all have very similar elements. Some - because they work. Some - because they are lazy. I like to start by throwing out the main elements that people have seen and try to come up with alternatives....

But - as I always say to Blair - the reason why they are called cliche is because time and time again they work. How do you end a bodyguard movie without the bodyguard jumping in front of someone and sacrificing himself? It is the nature of what he does and you have almost no choice but to take the story to that point. And is it really any kind of story to not have him do it?

So the trick is to try to usurp the expectation while maintaining the expectation.

Each piece of the puzzle is built from a given set of problems. At first it looks too big to begin - the world of choice in front of you is almost crippling. But like a sculptor - you slowly begin chipping away at the building blocks - narrowing the choices down - putting into play set up and pay off - problem and solution - everything having its place - and the puzzle starts to take shape.

Each and every choice of a screenplay has to have purpose and meaning. And then it needs to resonate. Scott the Reader at Alligators on a Helicopter said that there are really two kinds of movies: Ones that want to be good and ones that want to be cool. Know which kind you write and find ways to tell those stories.

Eventually you will have a story. Then you start to write it and it will all change. And then you rewrite it because you see you made really bad choices. Then you see a movie that has the exact same scene you have - and you throw it out. Then your agent reads it and tells you it doesn't work... (whoops... Bordering on whining...)

The cool thing about this - it is the life of the mind. Sure - its hard. Sure - it takes a lot of time. But it is like the guy sitting up in his room making wee figures of the people that pass on the street. We have entire collection of Star Wars figures. We can make them do whatever we want. They talk really smart. They are funny. They get the girl. The bad guy loses. They reach deep within their heart and act when all the rest of us stand still. They do what we wish we could do.

In essence - you get to use your God-given creativity to play God.

When I watch my son pick up his myriad of Transformers and start to play - he doesn't look angry. He doesn't seem disgusted. He doesn't need to clean his room or get something to eat or look up a hundred things on the Internet. He just starts to play - talking out loud and smashing them together with joy. And he saw that it was good.

Yes. It is work. Yes. It is hard. But yes. There should be joy.

Go forth. Create.

And on the seventh day - you rewrite.