Where We’re At Thus Far
So it seems Larry and I took a brief hiatus due to the Thanksgiving weekend. He with his family, and me with my… well I live about 3,000 miles from my closest relative. So my family consists of my bevy of friends here on the West Coast. All of whom I wouldn’t be able to get by without.
Anyway, apart from the niceties about my friends in Los Angeles, we took a pretty long break from writing. First drafts tend to be pretty difficult, and when you couple writing on top of having to take up responsibilities like paying bills and rent… well… let’s just say – sometimes writing has to take a back seat.
The problem we’re having is that it’s really difficult to move on from about our halfway point in the film. I think I’m the one who’s more worried than anything. I guess what I’m most worried about is not getting the style correct in the first half, which I feel would dilute the last half of the script. Things such as set ups, character flaws which enhance the arcs later on, and even when it comes to metaphors and theme.
These things, I feel, must be established in at least the first half of the film to, at the very least, tie the second half up in a nice, pretty bow.
Now, that’s not to say we have a pretty ending, or that we’re following formula in any way, oh no. In fact, I feel like this film is really taking a guttural approach, apart from formulaic. That is to say, we seem to be writing based on how we feel each scene should happen.
I think this approach works really well when you’re trying to focus on characters instead of plot. You really get into each character’s head and tend to understand exactly where they – if they were you – would go to next in their personal journey.
Of course that means being a bit more of a psychopath than you may be willing to let yourself get to; but oh, isn’t it fun to pretend? Garret is a pretty interesting character to write. Conflicted, but passionate. He has an end-goal to his method, but that may not bode well for the remaining members of his crew, which causes a great bit of tension. The likes of these characters who are also fun to write.
But we seem to be having difficulty writing our female protagonist. Sure she’s smart. Sure she’s independent. But she just feels… I don’t know… kind of like a misnomer. A sort of misanthrope, but without actually doing anything to show for it. Initially she was supposed to be the unabated audience perspective. Silent, stoic, knowledgeable, but without hesitance to see everything for what it really is.
But when you write a truly knowledgeable character such as Seph – she tends to just sort of melt off of the page. She’s unengaged and without conflict. Larry and I had a discussion about that, and we thought maybe it was because we were trying to write the quintessential “strong-female-character” without giving her anything interesting. No flaws, no struggles, nothing that really gets her going. Sure we have her fears and her motives, but we see nothing from her that entails any kind of struggle or room for character arc; and that’s the last thing we want from our main character.
I guess, at the end of the day, we were too willing to create a completely new character without drawing from inspiration from the women we know in our lives. The truly strong ones who don’t rely on love or relationships to get by. Truly independents who don’t fit the mold of the classic girl who is only validated by others’ attention, nor did we want the totally badass chick who kicks ass simply because she has to “keep up” with the boys. We just wanted real, but we played it too safe.
Luckily we caught this now, instead of going further on in the story. At the end of the day though, it seems this story is really starting to flesh itself out in a really positive way. We’re giving credence to characters and their choices, all while trying to maintain a constant tension in the building (of which we never see the outside).
I’m pretty happy with where we’re at so far, and I think the next phase, aside from finishing the second half of the script; is to work on our style and prose. So far, we’re writing by how we feel each scene should go. Upon our second draft, I think I’d like to focus more on character choices, dialogue, and overall style of the film. Something poetic that really sticks out.
Until then, I guess we’ll just grind away. We’re looking to bring in a couple of our female cohorts (writers), and get their opinion on Seph and where she should go.
Other than that, I’m excited to get back on the writing train. Hopefully this time we’ll knock this baby out quick!
Till next time,
-Jamie
