Apologies for my absence. I've been moving and I thought somehow I would be able to keep this going in the midst of it all and that was crazy and also the story of my life. I am convinced that Past Me is an evil genius in a war with Future Me, and he is winning.
I'm going to go back to PARKS & REC on Monday. But today I just wanted to mention this great comics writing seminar I attended led by Kieron Gillen, who I've mentioned here and think the world of. A list of much of his work, which you could download right this second.
Go ahead, I'll wait...
While it's definitely true that comics writing is not TV writing is not novel writing is not that thing you wrote in your diary that you secretly hope people will discover after you die because it's really that good, it's also true that you can learn a ton about writing from writers who do things you don't.
Kieron is always a worthwhile read/listen. For his fantastic THE WICKED + THE DIVINE book, which he co-created with artist Jamie McKelvie, he did reams of notes for every issue, and they are filled with good writing ideas that I have/will be stealing/writing about here. Find the start of them here.
Here are three big takeaways from the online lecture he did yesterday that I think are useful for us in screenwriting as well:
1) Rather than worrying about how to break in, spend the time working on your craft so that when you do break in, you're ready. Look, breaking in is important. It's the quest, baby. We're Gawain, it's the chalice, let's do this.
But Gillen's point, which resonates so hard with me, is that you wouldn't want to get your shot and then not have your skills to the point where you can actually nail it and land the next gig, and the next gig.
It sounds incredibly condescending to say, Don't worry about breaking in, it'll happen. So let's not say that. Let's do say that your hustle has to be matched by the hours spent at the keyboard writing writing writing.
2) If you want to write for X, spend time reading/watching X and outline the hell out of how they do it. This is in a sense the premise of Craft Service. You want to write/be on a cop show. Cool cool cool. Now go watch all that/the cop shows.
And don't just watch them--outline them. What are the main storylines -- A, B, C, D, E, F?
How many scenes do each of those storylines get, and in what acts (if there are commercial breaks)?
How many scenes do they have in each act (again, if there are acts)?
What's the flow of the story? Are there patterns to what tends to happen at the end or beginning of certain acts? Like, just about every episode of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA starts with the "problem" of the episode, the thing or things that's going to be most pressing. If you were going to write on that show, you'd want to know that.
Outline three, four episodes and suddenly you've got a structure of your own to work with. And you'll see the show in a whole new way, too. This is not always great for enjoying a show, but it can create a different kind of pleasure. It can be exciting to see a pattern get broken or played with. It's like you're suddenly getting to hear jazz.
Outline outline outline.
3) ICYMI:
I'm sure you're a wonderful person. Just the best. Yeah, you!
Now, have you confronted the fact that you are also a parasite yet?
For me it happened during a five minute conversation with a Very Famous Person (sort of) -- if I told you his name you'd go, Wait, did he do--? And I'd go, Yeah. And you'd probably go, Oh cool. What's his deal?).
I was trying to convince him that the stuff he's known for would make an amazing story, and I really believed that I had an appreciation of what he was up to that is more than most. I've watched every interview, read the books, that kind of thing.
But as I was making my pitch and seeing his almost total disinterest I realized, Oh God, I'm not John the Baptist, here to prepare the way for the teachings of Jesus, I'm that disciple you never heard about, because he was just there for the free dinners and maybe help with his lumbago.
Whether you're working in TV, film or some other form of writing the truth is the same: They--the artist, the director, the showrunner, the audience--do not need you. Even if your stories are shiny and amazing (which if they are, congratulations for that), there are other shiny and amazing writers and shiny and amazing stories to read/watch/play/do. wah wah
So proceed from humility. And, if you can, from a place of generosity. Be a nice human and let the karma flow.
Which is sort of what PARKS & REC is about, see this isn't off topic at all, yeah, that's the ticket, but I promise I'll be back Monday with more anyway.
