A story stalled

The screenplay idea I stumbled on and believe to be a good one worth telling is sort of at a stand still. As I mentioned before, my bff John asked me to write a screenplay about his life so I bought some books on screenplay writing as I have no idea how to do such a thing. To go through the exercises in the book I decided to pick some random thing to write about and it ended up being something I think could be interesting as a movie. The exercises in the book are at the stage where I need to delve a bit more into the story and to be frank, I’m afraid to. It means pulling back the scab off a wound that has barely begun to heal. I’m not sure I’m ready to examine those painful feelings yet…to pull them out and scrutinze them, relive them and translate them into this story. I think it’s just a little too real and raw right now but I’m afraid I might lose touch with the truth and reality in those feelings and for the story to be good it needs to be real. :sigh: If you haven’t figured it out yet, the story parallels what Matt and I recently went through.

Ponderings 2 feedbacks » •

Permalink 2008-08-11

2 comments

Comment from: Michelle [Visitor] · http://www.mygrandpasgarden.com

This really closely parallels something I tell my acting students. To use material from our real lives it's so important to make sure that we've dealt with those issues and moved on from them. If you try to use them too soon you'll be consumed by them truly. You have to be in a place where you can control them and use them for your own ends and if something is still fresh (and your analogy of a scab is very telling) the emotions may consume your work and take control of the process. You need to wait until your wounds are scars instead, so you can take your experience objectively and channel it toward this new project without fear that the power of the emotions will warp your intentions.

2008-08-12 @ 17:55

Comment from: Dae [Member]