Comments on Writing?

Here's the thing.

If you're a writer - you're always writing. It's not just when you sit at the table and make magic. Its in bed. On the road. In the shower. It's always coming.

And I find - in writing - that things are constantly coming back around on themselves. Screenplays are unique. They are formally structured beasts.

I've been reading Steven King's "On Writing." Great book.

But when it comes to plot - he thinks that plot is basically a bad thing. He likes characters and starting points - but then he says you just sit back and discover what the story is. The story is there all along and it is the writers job to discover it - like uncovering a dinosaur skeleton.

Screenwriting don't work that way.

Or - I guess they could - if you're willing to rewrite what you're writing about a hundred times. In a novel - one can afford to leisurely take their time getting to the point. Characters weaving in and out for no discernible reason and things happen slowly. In a script - not so much. There shouldn't be any wasted fat. No just for fun scenes. Everything and everyone serves the plot. Even in the slowest moving film - the slowness is supposed to be for a reason.

And that brings up the snake eating its tail.

When you're doing your job - everything is everything. Following your theme which is the gas of your plot - things start to circle. Why someone does something translates to action. And action fuels your character. And so on - till you are climactically racing to diffuse the bomb of audience expectations in a new and exciting way.

I love how something simple can open up so much to an audience.

And that's what makes writing exciting. Finding the key in the lock to key your script going.

And on that note:

http://www.thinkingwriter.com/

Go here and read today's post. It is all about what is gonna make you unique as a writer. Listen and learn. I know I am.


ON THE OTHER SIDE:

So I'm doing 60 days in SF till we both figure out if this is what we want. Seems like a good compromise. So we will see.

Here's the rub.

They want me to start Monday.

It all comes around.