Screenplay update

www.dreamstime.com  Dean and Dee Dee Knight would have looked like this about the time their mother died in a car crash.

I just spent 15 minutes writing an excellent blog that I accidentally erased somehow.  Sometimes, I hate technology.  Sometimes, I love it.  I had an old girlfriend like that.  When we weren’t fighting, we were awesome together, but otherwise … well, no reason to dwell on the past.

Why was I writing my blog you might ask.  Well, two reasons.  I wanted to give an update on how my screenplay was going.  I just finished page 53, so I am close to the midpoint, which will be a shocker.  I know that what I’m writing is not all sunny and breezy, but the subject matter is insanity and residential care facilities for children.  It isn’t a pretty world sometimes, and we tend to forget that.  I don’t know if anyone would ever want to produce this movie.  It is a dark, psychological horror film with forays into the world of illusion and reality all centered in the realms of insanity and state custody – if that makes sense.  It has some good parts in it, especially for younger performers.  It is contained for the most part in one locale so it wouldn’t be expensive to produce.

The second reason I’m writing is to talk a little bit about revision when you are writing for publication.  I have been to some writers’ conferences where critique sessions were part of the agenda, and when I have been in a critique session I put on the role of editor and consider what I would say if I came across the papers people read.  Some folks just won’t listen to constructive criticism and become very defensive.  If I say that your dialogue seems stiff, I’m not saying that you’re the scum of the earth, I’m saying your dialogue is stiff.

Pretend I am an editor – even for a small publishing house.  It’s like that I get several hundred submissions a year.  Say I get just one or two a day.  I have many duties besides reading unsolicited manuscripts (Good luck even finding a publishing company that will read unsolicited manuscripts).  If I pick up your paper and I find several grammar errors in your first paragraph, guess how much of your novel I will read.  One paragraph.  Even if you have a clean paper and you don’t catch my attention in the first ten pages, guess how much I’m going to read.  Ten pages – if you’re lucky.

Unfortunately, as a college writing instructor, I have to read my students’ papers from beginning to end.  (Well, mostly.)  Sigh.

Now, I don’t mention editing just for any of my readers’ benefits.  I often think of editing my own papers.  This screenplay, for instance.  When I get finished with the first draft, the easy part will be over.  I have to start my revision process.  I know my two biggest weaknesses as a screenwriting.  First, I need to tell more of my story with images.  I need to cut down on some of my dialogue.  Secondly, I am too “On the nose”;  I need to work on subtext a lot.  This is a lot of work in itself, but if my story has weaknesses, then I’m really in trouble.

You want to write for publication?  You have to work hard.  If you want to write just for yourself, then have at it.  Enjoy.