Screenwriting

I like screenwriting because it's so visual.

I haven't done much of it, of course; three (short) scripts for class last semester (four if you count the revision) plus some bits and pieces that I wrote for the hell of it. I signed up for the class thinking that it would be an exercise in dialogue (not my strong point). Turns out screenwriting is all about the description, not the dialogue; plays are about the dialogue. The class made a lot more sense to me because of that - description I can do. Visuals I can do. Dialogue... dialogue I can sometimes do. It's a challenge: making the dialogue sound natural, not giving the characters monologues, making sure the characters stay in character, showing rather than telling... like I said, it's a challenge. Challenges are nice, of course, but, well, so's writing something semi-decent without expending a lot of effort (thus saving the effort for the revision).

Anyway, screenwriting was a good class for me. I run on visuals; I think in pictures. It was occasionally difficult to come up with an appropriate topic - I tried a couple of things that were definitely too abstract - but eventually it all worked out. They weren't the best screenplays of the class, perhaps, but they were decent.

Now there's a scene in my head. I can see it, but writing it's harder. It's not the dialogue - there is none - it's partly the actual description and partly the follow-up. If I knew what was supposed to come next, it might help.... imagine a movie in which there is an opening scene, then a lot of T.V. snow, then a closing scene. That's what I've got, and something tells me that that's Not Enough. It's not just that, though; the opening scene itself isn't clear enough. What I'm seeing isn't translating into what I'm writing - it needs some serious work.

Oh, how I enjoy three-day weekends when I can put off the work actually assigned for class :)