script frenzy

[miriam_e]

Yep, that spin-off from the NaNoWriMo madness, Script Frenzy, starts in two weeks. The challenge is 100 pages in 30 days. That's just 3.3 pages per day; a much more leisurely pace than NaNoWriMo, though probably still hard to reach. Scripts are a whole other kind of writing. Re-reading aloud is pretty-much required, and conveying as much as possible with minimum words is very important. It is almost impossible to tell what is going through another's mind without voice-over (which is a bit like cheating) so the writer is forced to show rather than tell -- a useful discipline.

Will I participate? Am I an idiot with masochistic tendencies? I guess we'll find out soon...

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Will I participate?

I'm guessing yes.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

[embarrassed grin]

I notice I'm spending more time than I should pondering the problem of how could a story idea I had recently could be turned into a script. It poses a tricky problem because the main character is pretty isolated and knows few others. How does a story featuring such a person get made into a script? Traditionally scripts show rather than tell. That becomes difficult when the main character is a bit of a hermit and doesn't interact much with others. I am acutely aware though, that the rule that scripts should be about actions, not abstract thoughts and ideas can be broken. Ever seen the movie "My Dinner With Andre"? It consisted entirely of a conversation between two people in a restaurant. There is no action at all! It is all tell and no showing.

[sigh] I should be working on a very cool programming project which could revolutionise the way we store and use talks and audiobooks and might actually earn me some money. :(

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

It's pretty common in modern plays to have people think out loud... To avoid too much of a narrative one person feel, sometimes this will segue into a fuller version of events the narrative character is describing with other actors acting out said events.

I'm thinking about doing it too. It's been so long that I have a hard time remembering too much about the formating of plays and I think without reading one or two I'll have a particularly hard time deciding how much set description and acting cues especially to put in. I loved A Man For All Seasons so may reread that as well as a play or two done by friends before attempting one of my own.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Good point about using narrative that way. Shakespeare did that too.

I was chatting to my Mum about scripting a lone person and she suggested that the main character have a pet. Brilliant idea! We all talk to our pets.

I haven't read A Man For All Seasons. Hmmm... just downloaded it now from
http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/classes/coreclasses/hss2/library/man_for_all_seasons.html
I'll try to make time to read it. Thanks. Always interested to read things other people like.

I agree it is a good idea to get a feel for writing scripts by reading some examples. I'm sure you're aware that different writers have different amounts of set description and direction, so that will tend to vary. One of the things I like about reading Joss Whedon's scripts is that he put humorous little nuggets in the non-dialogue stuff for the people he worked with.

If you want to see some scripts, one of my favorite resources is Scripts For You (http://sfy.ru). They have hundreds of scripts up there as web pages (they are actually ordinary text embedded in web pages). I also have many scans of actual scripts of some TV shows and movies. The advantage of those is that you can see the exact layout they have used. If you want any, I'd be delighted to send you some. Just let me know at mim at miriam-english dot org.

Script formatting is looser than "authorities" like to make out. I have a number of books on scriptwriting and every single one lays out the scripts differently and insists that theirs is the "correct" way. Also I've found a lot of sites that do the same thing, each one giving a certain layout that is the "correct" way. Not one has ever matched any other. I have to admit that there is a gradual gravitation towards a general look nowadays though.

Scripts for movies are often formatted quite differently from scripts for TV, and they are different from stageplays. I notice also that movie scripts from back in the 40s look a lot different from more recent scripts. Older scripts tend to use paper more efficiently. Modern ones keep all the dialogue to a column in the center of the page, wasting much paper, but making good room for scribbled additions.

So I worry a bit about poor writers who may be rejected out of hand by small-minded script vetters when their work fits perfectly the guidelines of other people's rules. In reality all these organisations are just making up these rules as they go along. There's nothing wrong with them doing that of course, so long as they are flexible about it.

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

I had to read it in high school... it's about Sir Thomas More, so the subject matter is a little heavy, but it is so well written.

I realize too that different script writers put in different amounts of set description, costume description, character description, and acting cues. I'm most interested in seeing a few examples of how people do it to get an idea of what might work for me.

I know what you mean about people having different expectations. I wrote a play for Lit in H.S. and the teacher didn't really tell us his expectations for it, but he docked me marks for not having enough description and direction when I'd deliberately left that minimal because directors will sometimes do whatever they want with that anyway.

I know scripts for different mediums are different and I've only read and written plays before. I'll stick to that unless I'm making it a group thing, which may or may not be feasible anyway as I might leave the country for awhile in April. But yeah, the advantage of plays is I have some small experience with them and also that I know a few people in the theatre industry so if I love how it turns out I might actually be able to get their advice both on editing it and getting it performed. Plays aren't my main interest, but I do remember enjoying the few I've written. And the possibility of getting it performed would be a major bonus as I'm trying to gradually make my name as a writer so I'll be able to at least make a partial living off of it and not go nuts in some soulless job I have no passion for.

Also, I am with you on disliking that people will reject things on format so easily. The only part of that I can understand is if they reject it because writers have ignored guidelines that make the reading process quicker... Some of that might be unfair to the work, but especially if things are in the slush pile the initial readers have a hell of a lot to go through.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

...might leave the country for awhile in April.

Visiting USA? Europe? I thought you'd be starting at Carleton Uni in Ottawa soon... or have I got that mixed up?

Any links to plays you've written? I'd love to read them and would be delighted to provide constructive feedback.

I hope you can make it as a writer. That would, in so many ways, be the dream occupation.

I'd love to, but am frankly not good enough. If I keep trying maybe I can improve to the point I can earn some little at it, but I'd probably be better off sticking with artwork and programming. [sigh]

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

My program starts in May, so I'm trying to arrange a trip first. I'm hoping Germany, but maybe North Carolina or Newfoundland if that won't work... It depends on the people I could potentially stay with.

I don't post much of my writing online and I haven't written a play since grade 9 which is why I feel I need a refresher... that's, OMG, 12 years ago... I would have had to be a serious geek to have been posting stuff back then. Which I'm not, although I enjoy serious geeks when they can converse in regular English rather than lingo. Poetry is what I am most successful at so far, which is unfortunate in one sense since it is probably the LEAST likely to pay the bills. Anyway, here's my one published poem (I mean other than me posting on a blog or something...) if you are interested http://www.bywords.ca/july2008/index.php?p=1 . The play experience was being forced to be in them in elementary school on a semi-regular basis, which at least gives me an idea of how things really could be arranged on stage...

I'd probably be better off sticking with something else. Hell, pretty much every author except perhaps J.K. Rowling and Nora Roberts probably would be, but I want to give it a go and work part-time in the publishing industry before moving on to be a writer/literary agent. That's why I chose English, of all things.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to say I'm not a big reader (or writer) of poetry, so I'm utterly unqualified to comment on it other than to say it prodded interesting images from my brain.

I think I've only got 2 examples up on the web. Neither of them terribly good I'm afraid. In my half century of scribblings and scratchings this is my sum total poetic output... which is probably a good thing. :)
Want (http://spacedoutinc.org/fanzine2002/Want.html)
and The Good Fight (http://spacedoutinc.org/fanzine2002/Defective%20Gene.html#fight) at the end of a short story written by a friend.

Good that you're going to fit in some travel while you can. It gets more difficult later, as the years seem to pour cement into one's shoes. [sigh]