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Looking for tips and tricks to the art of writing for television? Welcome to the blog of experienced television writer Jane Espenson. Check it out regularly to learn about spec scripts, writing dos and don'ts, and what Jane had for lunch! (RSS:  ) |
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Home » Archives » May 2008 » Learning From The Prose
[Previous entry: "Set Patterns"] [Next entry: "Why You Want It, Not What You Want"]
05/17/2008: Learning From The Prose
So did you see last night's new episode of Battlestar? This one, called Guess What's Coming to Dinner? was written by the amazing Michael Angeli, and I think it's one of the strongest episodes ever. Suspense, chills and singing!
In celebration, I'm going to use a line from his draft to demonstrate one of my favorite writing techniques. Check this out:
INT. GALACTICA - CORRIDOR
Athena, frantic, wild-horse eyes, bolts down another part of the corridor, no sign of...
ATHENA
HERA! HERA!
I've talked about this before, and this is a great example. And I'm not even talking about the stunning description of Athena's "wild-horse eyes".
See what he did structurally? By creating a sentence that bridges over the change in formatting ("...no sign of Hera"), he's making the inherently choppy structure of a script read more like prose, like a short story. This reader-friendly technique can be part of making your spec script feel enjoyable, not just as a description of a good potential filmed product, but in itself. Angeli's scripts are always literary objects in their own right and if the Battlestar scripts are ever published, I encourage you to devour them.
Lunch: Japanese noodle soup from a restaurant I hadn't been to before. Pork broth, cabbage, egg, noodles. Lovely.
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