Category: On Writing

The Social Network

No, not the movie (although I am a fan, put me on team Sorkin).  I’m talking about the act of social networking and why I’ve joined in.

Social networking is becoming more and more important for a writer.  Whereas, at least my impression was, you used to get published, go to cocktail parties, attend a couple of book signings, and accept any awards that come your way–this is now a fantasy.  Now you’ve got to market the hell out of yourself.  The most accessible way to reach lots of people is with digital new media.  And it’s all the easier for you, if you have that stuff set-up before you’re a tid-bit famous.

I have a screenplay optioned, which will hopefully find a studio home right around the new year.  My producer has tantalized me with a possible “Christmas present”–fingers crossed!  I also have a novel I’m doing one final polish on, before I begin steps toward publishing.

So basically: this website, this twitter account, all the networking, is happening now because I feel (hope?) I’m on the cusp of my writing career really taking off.  I don’t want to create a website the same day its URL gets printed on a book cover, right?  Gotta have some meat on it first.

Rather than have this post be merely a public diary entry, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned as I’m setting all this up.  It’s been a tough journey, as my friends and family don’t really tweet or blog.  And self-promotion doesn’t come naturally to me.  At all.  There was (and still is) a learning curve.

TWITTER
People follow non-public figures, whom they don’t know, for pretty much one reason: they also want followers.  So when someone follows you, and you just sit back and think, “cool, I have a follower!”, guess what?  They’ll most likely unfollow you in a couple of days.  What can you do to keep your new followers happy?  1) Follow them back 2) Send them a message, thanking them for following!

BLOG
If you want people to read your blog, one of the biggest resources is other bloggers.  First step here, read their blog.  Then post an intelligent comment, pertaining to what you just read.  DO NOT post your website in your comments, this just comes off as spam.  If you’ve written something sufficiently intriguing, people will check your profile, which should have a link to your own blog.

For anything and everything, you should have something interesting to say.  I got a decent amount of hits with my Screenwriting vs Prose post, because it was something I can speak to that not many people know about.  It was, in short, worth reading.

The world is changing for writers, and to use a screenwriting term, “Stasis=Death”.  You have to go with the changes, or get left behind.  It’s been proven that people who embrace change live longer, and I think the same can be said about our careers.

I leave you with a positive note: writers are now in commercials.  Perhaps taking our careers in our own hands is a good thing?  A power-shift?  Publishing houses own books the way movie studios owned stars in the 1930s.  If this changes, it could be the writers who come out on top.

by Categories: On WritingTags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Screenwriting vs Prose

As a writer who finds himself at home in both forms, I’m often asked what it’s like transitioning between the two.

Personally, I love it.  They’re both very different, and switching from one to the other is like taking a break, but without the lost productivity.  And my number one goal?  Be prolific.  So if nothing else, it helps me accomplish that.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me outline the fundamental differences between the two.  As most people are familiar with prose (you’re reading prose right now!), I’ll just speak to how screenwriting differs.

In prose, the writing is the finished product. In a screenplay, the movie is it’s final form.  So there’s no thoughts, no emotions, no asides–just action and dialogue. In a script, you’re only writing what will be SEEN or HEARD by the eventual audience.  And guess what?  No description either.  You want your lead in a blue dress?  Oh well.  UNLESS it directly influences the plot, but if you just envisioned her that way–too bad.  Why?  Because at this point you’re doing someone else’s job.  A movie is a collaboration.  There’s someone whose entire job is picking out what color dress your lead will be in.

The result leaves you the bare minimum of words with which to tell the story.  But that’s expected, because there’s one other very important job as a screenwriter: you dictate the pacing.  The general rule, is that one page in a script is equal to one minute of film time.  So much hinges on this (budget, blah blah blah) that a minute goes by quicker than you think.

So in a nutshell:  Writing a novel, your goal is to completely immerse your reader into your story, by whatever means possible.  There are almost no rules.  Writing a screenplay, your goal is to not get in the way of everyone else on the project, so they can immerse the audience into your story.  And there are lots of rules (I’m not going to touch on formatting), but they can be broken if you know what you’re doing and have a good reason.

Now to cover the initial question: what’s it like to switch?  It makes my writing, in both forms, that much richer.  I’ve learned to make my words count, to use subtext, to let a moment speak for itself.

As an exercise, I re-wrote a story that was originally a short script, The Tunnel, as a short story.  You can read the script here and the short story here.

Want more on the differences?  Check out the next post in the series, Scripts vs Novels.

by Categories: Fiction, On Writing, ScreenwritingTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments