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03/14/2006: Lying Down for Fun and Profit!


I got travel innoculations today, my friends, plus I had blood taken out. Stuff went in. Stuff came out. I'm woooooozy. So it's a perfect time to tell you about a writing secret that works goes really well with wooze.

We've been talking about getting past that horrible stage where you hate the script you're writing. It happens. Even to really experienced writers. Sometimes it's because the story is wrong. But sometimes it's that the dialogue isn't coming out sounding like the show you're specing. And you can't figure out what's wrong with it.

Here's a little trick I use. I take my fingers off the keyboard. I walk away from the computer entirely. I lie down. And I try to hear the character's voices. And, for once, when I talk about the voice of the character, I really am referencing the actual physical voice of the actor as well.

Try to just imagine them talking about the general concept of the scene you're working on. Don't try to make the conversation move from topic to topic the way it will when you write your scene. Instead, let them talk as long as they want, go off on tangents, change their minds, contradict themselves, repeat themselves. You can virtually write a lot of different versions of the conversation this way without having to actually type them.

Once you've heard all the characters have to say on the topic, you can start shaping the actual scene.
And somehow -- I guess since the process is more about the spoken word than the written word -- you end up with lines that sound truer to way the character talks.

This is an advantage you have as a spec writer over a writer of features. You know how your characters/actors sound, so you can "hear" them.

This can also be used really well as you wake up in the morning. (Not as well at night, because you fall asleep and forget it all.) In the morning, especially if you can wake up naturally, not with an alarm, and have time to drift there for a while, try applying this sort of "auditory imagination" to the next scene you're going to write, or to one that's giving you trouble. Your brain is free of stress, more open to fun and exploration, more creative when its defenses aren't up... give it a try!

Now I'm going to watch America's Next Top Model. Between that and the blood loss and the polio booster... wow. Woozy/creative.

Lunch: half a burrito from Baja Fresh and an enormous OJ from Jamba Juice. Love that Jamba!