A lot of people I know are not writers. They think I'm supremely gifted and talented and boy, how do you come up with this stuff?
I wish I knew. That said, in a way, I have some idea.
Everything I see--every event, every collision of people and acts, every minute observation--sends me on a pathway in my own mind. For instance, while stopped at a traffic light a couple of weeks ago, my son and I noticed a beat-up bed pillow at the base of a pylon sign at the bowling alley. There was also some shrubbery on the little parking lot island. That's it. I asked my son what he thought about that? I asked him, Do you think maybe a homeless person spends his or her nights there? Or, Did some guy smother his wife with that pillow and then chuck it out of his car? That kind of pathway.
If you're a writer, you probably do the same thing. You see something mundane to most; but to you, it's a story, and you get to make it up. I don't even know if I like that about myself. But there is no way out of it. I've been this way since early childhood.
Now, after half-dozen novels, a few pieces of non-fiction, hundreds of blogs and newspaper columns, I'm finally zeroing in on that story-making thingy in my mind. I'm now a screenwriter. Ugh, who isn't, right? And every one of them (us?) want's the same thing, to a degree: Get our words magically transformed into something people just might want to watch.
But it's more than that, really, isn't it? We have something meaningful to convey about this life and this world and its inhabitants, replete with lessons and head-scratching moments and laughter and tears. It touches us. And we want it to touch others in either the same way or in a way that stirs an emotional response in them, whatever that amounts to for them. Right?
So, after a year and a half of working with a splendid script coach, I have Ridin' On The Rim, a dark comedy that pits a teenager, somewhat psychopathic short-order cook against the observed injustice in his tiny realm. Okay, the log line is more like this:
"An idealistic teenaged short-order cook, in denial over the suicide of his pregnant girlfriend, snaps during the breakfast rush and slaughters a complaining diner. Four years in the psyche ward--and a teacher who won’t give up on him--promise an optimistic future. But an arrogant lawyer and the lad's own naive sense of justice stand in his way."
It came to me--mostly--in a dream, and I wrote the short story by pairing my dream with an actual event that occurred in Florida nearly 20 years ago. People said it read like a movie. Of course, it did; it's a dream, and a dream is nothing more than a movie. One observer who read the screenplay said it's like Slingblade meets Natural Born Killers. I'm glad somebody can be that succinct.
We've done a table read and I've had a dozen or more people read the work. If it ever gets made into a film, the services of scores of other people will be required. Many of them will have to embrace the story as I do. The end result will likely look somewhat different than the film in my mind, and even though that thought initially brought consternation, I'm good with it now. In fact, I'm kind of excited to see what talented people who "get" the story will do with it.
Somebody once said that you can do anything, but you can't do it alone. I think it was a ballplayer, probably a pitcher. I can't remember. But it's good advice for those of us in the creative arts, you ask me.
So now I have this idea that's become a bunch of words on an actual page. I feel like I did when I was coerced into writing the story into a screenplay in the first place. I opened up the template in Final Draft--even gave it a name--and then took a deep breath--and stared at the screen. Where the hell do I start? Well, that's how I feel now. I have some potential investors and that's it. Where does one begin to assemble a team of talented people to make this film?
I've reached out to a number of people, both locally and in the target-rich environments of New York and Hollywood. I know it's an uphill climb and I know it's a serious long shot. Meanwhile, I'm working on two more, because screenwriting is seriously the most enjoyable writing I've ever done.
Which means that, no matter what, I'm going to keep on doing it. My friend Doug would utter the word "persistence" at this point.
That's one of the reasons I like him.
I wish I knew. That said, in a way, I have some idea.
Everything I see--every event, every collision of people and acts, every minute observation--sends me on a pathway in my own mind. For instance, while stopped at a traffic light a couple of weeks ago, my son and I noticed a beat-up bed pillow at the base of a pylon sign at the bowling alley. There was also some shrubbery on the little parking lot island. That's it. I asked my son what he thought about that? I asked him, Do you think maybe a homeless person spends his or her nights there? Or, Did some guy smother his wife with that pillow and then chuck it out of his car? That kind of pathway.
If you're a writer, you probably do the same thing. You see something mundane to most; but to you, it's a story, and you get to make it up. I don't even know if I like that about myself. But there is no way out of it. I've been this way since early childhood.
Now, after half-dozen novels, a few pieces of non-fiction, hundreds of blogs and newspaper columns, I'm finally zeroing in on that story-making thingy in my mind. I'm now a screenwriter. Ugh, who isn't, right? And every one of them (us?) want's the same thing, to a degree: Get our words magically transformed into something people just might want to watch.
But it's more than that, really, isn't it? We have something meaningful to convey about this life and this world and its inhabitants, replete with lessons and head-scratching moments and laughter and tears. It touches us. And we want it to touch others in either the same way or in a way that stirs an emotional response in them, whatever that amounts to for them. Right?
So, after a year and a half of working with a splendid script coach, I have Ridin' On The Rim, a dark comedy that pits a teenager, somewhat psychopathic short-order cook against the observed injustice in his tiny realm. Okay, the log line is more like this:
"An idealistic teenaged short-order cook, in denial over the suicide of his pregnant girlfriend, snaps during the breakfast rush and slaughters a complaining diner. Four years in the psyche ward--and a teacher who won’t give up on him--promise an optimistic future. But an arrogant lawyer and the lad's own naive sense of justice stand in his way."
It came to me--mostly--in a dream, and I wrote the short story by pairing my dream with an actual event that occurred in Florida nearly 20 years ago. People said it read like a movie. Of course, it did; it's a dream, and a dream is nothing more than a movie. One observer who read the screenplay said it's like Slingblade meets Natural Born Killers. I'm glad somebody can be that succinct.
We've done a table read and I've had a dozen or more people read the work. If it ever gets made into a film, the services of scores of other people will be required. Many of them will have to embrace the story as I do. The end result will likely look somewhat different than the film in my mind, and even though that thought initially brought consternation, I'm good with it now. In fact, I'm kind of excited to see what talented people who "get" the story will do with it.
Somebody once said that you can do anything, but you can't do it alone. I think it was a ballplayer, probably a pitcher. I can't remember. But it's good advice for those of us in the creative arts, you ask me.
So now I have this idea that's become a bunch of words on an actual page. I feel like I did when I was coerced into writing the story into a screenplay in the first place. I opened up the template in Final Draft--even gave it a name--and then took a deep breath--and stared at the screen. Where the hell do I start? Well, that's how I feel now. I have some potential investors and that's it. Where does one begin to assemble a team of talented people to make this film?
I've reached out to a number of people, both locally and in the target-rich environments of New York and Hollywood. I know it's an uphill climb and I know it's a serious long shot. Meanwhile, I'm working on two more, because screenwriting is seriously the most enjoyable writing I've ever done.
Which means that, no matter what, I'm going to keep on doing it. My friend Doug would utter the word "persistence" at this point.
That's one of the reasons I like him.
You can find Wendell on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2972958.Wendell_Whitney_Thorne
or on his website at http://www.wendellthorne.com
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