ideas

Vamoose! Amscray! Skedaddle! Rampaging thesaurus on the loose!

Maximum Z creativity, Go Into The Story, ideas, research, screenwriting, thesaurus, writing
Egad! A gargantuan leviathan extirpating a metropolitan conveyance venue!

I read this the other day and loved it.

It’s too easy to rely on everyday verbs while you’re putting a script together.  The more picturesque a word, the more visual it becomes.  It makes the script that much more exciting and interesting to read.

I usually have two minimized windows running while I’m writing. Pandora for creativity-inducing background music and Thesaurus.com for when I just can’t think of a solid alternate verb. It might take a little effort to find the one that fits, but oh the satisfaction when you do.

Not sure if  a verb works? Follow the example in the quote and read the sentence aloud. Try it with different verbs. Which one sounds spot-on? Does it not only convey action but mood as well?  If somebody storms into a room, you can probably guess how they feel.  Compare it to somebody who slinks, sashays or (always a favorite) moseys in.

The writer’s job is to paint a picture of the story in the reader’s mind. And you want to hold their attention by using words that will do just that. A compelling story with fleshed-out characters helps too, but dull writing makes for boring reading.

I can’t remember the exact wording or who said it, but there’s this great quote that says something like “There are a million words in the English language. Use them.”

Sound advice indeed.

What? It’s been done?

Maximum Z 36 dramatic situations, creativity, ideas, screenwriting, scriptshadow, story
Similar, yet different

My work schedule has been all over the map lately, so not only has my writing time been limited, but also my script-reading time as well.  Nevertheless, I try to read when I can.

(*If you can, I highly recommend getting an iPad. It’s perfect for reading scripts. Apparently this is also now the industry standard.)

A few weeks ago, Martin Helgeland’s SLAYER was among the selection of that week’s Scriptshadow offering.  “This is the dragon slayer in modern day script that just sold for a boatload of money.” How could I resist?

My immediate reaction: I can see why it sold. It’s a solid, action-packed story loaded with lots of cinematic images that muscles its way forward and jams the action down your throat with a vengeance.

I wasn’t crazy about the writing. It seemed a little too showoff-y. “The sword KEENS.” Huh?

But what really got my attention was how similar the story was to one I came up with about 2 years ago. Obviously, some of the details are different, but they share some basic story points.

This isn’t a big deal because the story itself isn’t completely original. You’ve probably seen or read ones just like it numerous times. Helgeland has his version; I’ll have mine,which isn’t even written yet. It’s still in the outline stage, and I can use this as a guide for how to make mine more different.

This happens all the time, and has been going on for quite a while, as evidenced here. Most likely, everything you or anybody else has ever written is in there somewhere.

So stop worrying about someone stealing your ‘original’ idea and focus instead on how your work can stand out from all the other ones just like it.

It may not be as hard as you think.

Always room for improvement

Maximum Z editing, ideas, Radioslot.com, rewrite, Richard Walter, screenwriting, The Script Adventurer!
Some minor fixes can make all the difference

When it rains, there are more problems out on the roadways, resulting in more work for us already heavily-burdened traffic reporters. End result – I’ve worked a lot of hours this week, so not as much time to write as I’d hoped.  A couple of pages a day at best.  Positive spin – nearing the end of Act Two.

Even though I’m working off an outline, sometimes a new approach to a scene will pop in.  Will this work? Does it impact the scene better than the original? Is there conflict? Does it move the story forward?  If it involves the main character, is he the one driving the action? (important questions all).  If I can say ‘yes’ to these questions, then I give it a try.  Lately, it’s been working out.

Case in point: the current sequence.  The way I had it was good, but thought it could be better.  I wanted to expand on it a little.  Keep the tension going.  What would be the most effective way to accomplish this?  I came up with a few different scenarios, finally picking the one I thought worked best. The reshuffling of and minor rewriting of the involved scenes wasn’t as bad as I expected, and I liked the end result.

-My guest on The Script Adventurer! this coming Monday will be UCLA Screenwriting Dept Head Richard Walter.  If you have a question you’d like to ask him, email it to me and I’ll try to ask it during the show.

-Movie of the Moment – JOHN CARTER (2012). This was not the debacle I’d been led to believe; it was actually pretty good. Although I didn’t see the need for the 3-D.

For the most part, I liked it, but some of the story details were a little confusing.  I remember that from the book as well.  If I really like a movie I see in the theatre, I’d consider planning ahead to get it on DVD. I didn’t get that vibe, but I’m more likely to read the book again.

I was surprised Michael Chabon had a hand in the script. I can see that, especially after the great job he did on SPIDER-MAN 2.

Disney’s marketing department completely messed up.  You’d think they’d know better.  A sci-fi adventure story with romantic elements.  How can you not sell that?

I thought Taylor Kitsch did an okay job in the title role, but he looks too generic. A character like this needs more than just a pretty face and muscles.

What, again?

Maximum Z ideas, Rossio & Elliott, screenwriting, The Lone Ranger
There wolf, kemosabe

I try to come up with original ideas for my scripts. Maybe something entirely new, or at least slightly different from something else.  Example – how many scripts have you seen about a Jewish cook in a Chinese restaurant? See?

A few days ago, it was reported that THE LONE RANGER had been scrapped due to a bloated budget, not to mention a ludicrous storyline involving werewolves(?!) and that it would focus more on Tonto.  I don’t have time to go into why all of these are WRONG to begin with, but I just found out that the new draft is going to feature three major sequences involving TRAINS.

Hmm.  A Western where a whole lot of the action takes place on trains. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? (not to slight the efforts of this guy either)

Apparently Mssrs Rossio and Elliott are tapping into my mind and extracting the ideas.

Yes, I know there are only so many ideas floating around out there, but this isn’t the first time there’s been a weird connection between me and them.

A few years ago, I came up with what I thought was an original idea  story about zombie pirates terrorizing a coastal town.  Just as I’m finishing up my initial outline, I read that Disney’s tentpole release for the following summer is PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (the first one).  I sally forth and get a draft done. By now, their movie has come out and is a huge smash. Knowing there will be a deluge of similar scripts, I change my villains from pirates to cowboys.  I crank out a draft, create a clever query letter campaign, but no interest.  That script is in a virtual filing cabinet now, waiting to be retrieved and rewritten at some later date.

Once I’m done with my DREAMSHIP rewrite, I’ll get to work on LUCY, even though it may now be an even harder uphill climb.  But I still like the story, and think it would make for an impressive script.

And just think, maybe someday in the future, you’ll catch the latest hit from Rossio & Elliott and be able to say “I bet that was Paul’s idea first.” And chances are you could be right.  Especially if it’s THE 3 STOOGES: UNDERCOVER G-MEN!.  Then all bets are off.

Off and running

Maximum Z ideas, screenwriting
Well, look what I found...

After much deliberation whether or not to keep tinkering with the outline, I opted to just delve right in.

I typed ‘Fade In’, and about half a page worth of the opening scene before having to deal with family stuff.  Better to get a little written than none at all.

I’m always guilty of too much self-editing, so I may try to just steamroll through this draft without looking back until I type ‘Fade Out’.

The key word here is ‘try’.  Sometimes I get too caught up in rewriting during the rewrite.  We’ll see.

Still feeling confident about the whole thing. Check back in a week or two to see if that’s still the case.

-I save each script on my hard drive, and have a backup on a flash drive.  I dug up the flash the previous draft was on (having since erased all previous drafts a while ago) and noticed there was a file marked ‘Story Ideas’. This was from about five years ago.  In fact one of them was five years and a day. Wow.

Each one was the super-basic outline of a different story. I remember coming up with one or two of them, but the rest were totally new.  It was amazing to see how much I had written. While one may have just been a logline and five single-word subplot ideas, another was three solid pages of potential scenes.

Again, I couldn’t remember writing some of these whatsoever.  In fact, I wasn’t even sure I was the original author of one of them (which I was).  I thought it was an outline, but it was a lot of possible scenes.

Basically, this was a quite a nice surprise I had provided for myself. When I’m not working on pages, I’ll have to remind myself to put together a folder of hard copies of the ones worth keeping.

No Movie of the Moment today, but I finished EATING RAOUL. Loved it.