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March Miscellany Cynthia's Column March 2008 I keep a little list of things I want to share with you in my column. Sometimes they make a cohesive topic and sometimes it's just some cool stuff for writers. 1. Google this: Right Brain Ballerina. (Or Right Brain v. Left Brain Dancer.) The Herald Sun has posted a black and white two dimensional dancer who spins. If you're in your Right Brain (the creative mind) you perceive her spinning clockwise. If you're in your Left analytical (or for writers Critical) Brain, you see her spinning counter-clockwise. This is fascinating. They say if you can make her spin both ways you have a high I.Q. Try this. Just for fun. 2. I recently read a terrific new book on comedy. Steve Martin's Born Standing Up is not a traditional memoir. It's not the story of Steve's youth. It's the story of his quest to figure out what is funny. And how to create original comedy as a stand-up comedian. He says he was in stand-up for 18 years: ten years learning, four years figuring out how to apply what he'd learned and four years of success as a stand-up comedian. What is remarkable about this book is that it is the equivalent of a magician telling you the secrets of the illusions. Martin is remarkably generous in sharing his detailed knowledge and some of the difficult and funny ways in which he gained it. One of our big issues, in any form of writing, is originality. Grab this book and study up. 3. I just completed The Year of Reading Plays. Those of you who've been with me more than a year know that I set out in January of 2007 to read a play a day for a year. One year later I had read 372 plays, mostly American playwrights from the last hundred years. My theory was that you can learn a craft like playwriting without intellectualizing and analyzing it, but by ingesting the best of the literature, digesting it and then by some mystical process of osmosis, it becomes a part of your cellular make-up. Something you know and inherently understand. Something you can then do yourself. In that year, I have written four plays. The first of my new plays was read at JAW new play festival at Portland Center Stage last July. The second is under consideration for this year's JAW. The third was in collaboration with wonderful, funny Marc Acito. It is under consideration by a local company for next Christmas. The fourth is still in the polishing stage. But my own experience over the course of a year, confirms my thesis. You can teach yourself to write in a genre of your choice by diving into the literature and absorbing the best into your cells. This was so successful for me, that I'm going on into Year Two, the Brits. Having now read Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and David Mamet, I am now taking on Stoppard, Pinter and Ayckbourn in '08. I'll commit to reading up to number 500. 4. Speaking of self-taught writers, Ray Bradbury educated himself using the public library. His own life-long reading program includes reading one short story, one poem and one essay every day. I spent a few years using his reading plan and loved it. I want to add a personal opinion about this form of writer-training: Don't read the bad or mediocre stuff. Only the best. "Garbage in, garbage out" is true of writer's brains so reading junk or watching soaps is dangerous to your creative inner computer. 5. I am rereading my journal from 1975 which is the year I broke into mainstream Hollywood. I am grateful now that when I was 24, I took the time to write a page a day. What amazes me now is how much energy I had. I was obsessed with breaking into screenwriting or any kind of writing. My critique group met every Wednesday night for three, four, five hours depending on how much material we'd produced in a week. Seven of us dedicated ourselves to this group, and all but a couple went on to careers in film, theatre and television. I also saw around a dozen movies a week, which I kept a record of with one word reviews like "great" or "lousy." But I saw a lot of great films that year, which contributed to my own education and, by the end of the year, breaking in to Hollywood as a screenwriter. 6. This year for the first time in history, three of the Oscar nominees for Best Original Screenplay are women. Finally. We are half the population, but it's taken us awhile to get a foothold in any of the traditional guy categories (which is all categories which don't include the word "actress.") My money is on Diablo Cody who wrote Juno. In spite of what our Feb. speaker, Warren E. implied, she got successful because she has major writing chops. A fresh and original voice, vivid characters and she knows how to tell a story. It was NOT about having connections in Hollywood. Ditto for Mike Rich. Now that I've ended up here I need to voice some opposition. 7. A Rebuttal: If any of you were at the meeting at the Old Church on February 5, I have to rebut some of what Warren Etheredge said. First, the best way to get your film made is not to stalk movie stars and befriend them. Most actors are not producers. They are waiting for an offer with money attached. Not looking for scripts to take grab and charge up Boot Hill shouting "Make this movie with me in it!" Second, don't spend your ten minute pitch talking about yourself and not your screenplay. Agents and producers are not looking for A Friend in Oregon. They are looking for material they can sell. Keep your attention on your story. Hook them on that. Results do come from pitches. I've seen it happen many times. I've done it many times. If you want my point of view on selling to Hollywood (which I've done a lot) email me at cwhitcomb1@aol.com and I'll send you my book for $10. Thirty of my students have gone on to real careers in mainstream Hollywood. It is not winning the lottery. It is done with hard work and market strategy. 8. My Trans-Atlantic Writing Cruise scheduled for the end of this month has been cancelled. Not enough people signed up, but as it turned out I will be moving from Lake Oswego to north Wilsonville mid-March, so there is a God and he's helping out with the timing. I will do a Trans-Atlantic Writing Cruise in March 2009. If you are interested in coming along for 11 days of writing and adventures, let me know. In the meantime, we'll all keep writing, keep educating ourselves and keep our spirits up. Success is not only possible, it is where all our hard work is taking us. Cynthia Whitcomb is president of Willamette Writers, and has had 29 of her screenplays produced. She is author of The Writers' Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers' Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She teaches screenwriting classes at Portland State University.and through Willamette Writers. |