My Personal Writing Class--Screenwriting

By Kate Phillips

The fun has begun. I picked the books I’m using as textbooks and I’ve read the two books I’m using as reference guides.

I read Story by Robert McKee a while ago so I could review it. It’s inspiring so in the back of my mind I decided I would try screenwriting at some point. I have it on my desk for reference along with The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby which I read recently. The overview information from these books helps clarify my thoughts as I complete the exercises in my textbooks.

I started my personal screenwriting class with 90-Day Screenplay: A day-by-day guide through the process of getting your screenplay onto the page by Alan Watt. (I enjoyed following his 90-Day Novel workshop even though I’m not a novelist.) He makes writing entertaining and challenging. All the questions he lists makes you dig deep and discover surprising things about your characters.

As Watt points out on Day 7 on page 39: We are less interested in our protagonist getting what he wants than we are in seeing how he gets what he needs.

The exercises on page 42 ask you to write as your protagonist from six different points. If you let yourself go, your character will “speak” telling you things you didn’t know, hadn’t considered, and/or that explain his/her motivation.

One of the prompts is “The last time I cried was when…” Well I had never considered my protagonist crying. As I started to complete the exercise, I realized he had teared up while driving on the main road back into his hometown after almost a decade away which is at the beginning of my screenplay, but he had cried when he left suddenly without explanation to some important people in his life then, people he wanted back in his life now. I may or may not put that he cried in the screenplay, but it gives me insight into a vulnerability of my character.

I will be honest and share that sometimes I do the 90-Day exercises for two or three days at a time in the beginning because they are short (20-30 minutes) and engaging. This makes me feel I’m immersed in my project quickly. As the exercises take more time, I may only complete the exercises for that day.

I have a notebook dedicated to this book so I can see my progression. It also makes it easy to refer back to my answers as I move forward.

I’m alternating reading chapters from Now Write! Screenwriting with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson and Writing the Romantic Comedy: From “Cute Meet” to “Joyous Defeat”: How to Write Screenplays That Sell by Billy Mernit.

I’m using one notebook for the exercises in these two books. Each entry is headed by the initials of the book and the page number of the exercise. I’m also using blue ink for the exercises in Now Write! and black ink for Writing the Romantic Comedy. This makes referring back to answers a bit easier.

My favorite section so far (I’m on page 38 on May 31^st when I wrote this post) from Now Write! is on pages 3-5. Mardik Martin, who wrote Raging Bull, discusses that audiences identify more with the conflict than the character. Observe people around you as they deal with conflicts. Collect anecdotes. But he also states on page 5: Remember, you can only steal so much from real life. The great writer uses ingenuity to combine characters and their situations.

On page 25 of Now Write!, Paula C. Brancato, who wrote Subterfuge, discusses that writers have many more ideas than they use. I enjoyed the exercise on page 27. There is a story setup then you are asked to jot down as quickly as possible 20 possibilities of what happens next. Find out how creative and clever you can be.

Writing the Romantic Comedy is more of a big picture viewpoint of your screenplay at the beginning. Lots of details and examples about screenplays: Point of View, Characters, Plot & Structure, Dialogue, Settings, etc.

Exercises start on page 29 and they are all about your screenplay so you need to have a good idea of your plot and characters by this page.

My screenplay plot and characters are taking shape.

I hope your projects are going well, too!

A few weeks after I wrote this post, I discovered Screenplay: Writing the Picture by Robin U. Russin and William Missouri Downs. This is the book you need for this class. See post dated 8/10/15.
 

 

Personal Writing Classes: Schedule & Preparation

By Kate Phillips 

          I’ve set up two personal writing classes for this summer—one for screenwriting and the other for songwriting—just for fun. I’ve never tried to write a screenplay before so new territory, but it seems a good summer-sized project. The earliest writing pieces I completed (age seven or so) were songs. I’m going to try and recapture that “magic.”

          First, my plan is to be in class 2 to 4 hours every day which includes reading my chosen textbooks, completing exercises, and writing. I hope to complete my work in the morning, but by midnight counts.

          I’ve chosen three books for my screenwriting class textbooks and two reference guides:

 

Now Write! Screenwriting with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

 

Writing the Romantic Comedy: From “Cute Meet” to “Joyous Defeat”: How to Write Screenplays That Sell by Billy Mernit.

 

and 90-Day Screenplay: A day-by-day guide through the process of getting your screenplay onto the page by Alan Watt.

 

          I’ll be using Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee and The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby as reference guides. I’ve read both of these books.

         

I’m using one notebook for the first two books in my sceenwriting class. I will alternate Now Write! and Writing the Romantic Comedy books after each chapter. The 90-Day Screenplay contains daily exercises so it has its own notebook.

In preparing for this class, I read two published movie screenplays to see how they are formatted. Pick one or two that appeal to you. Since my screenplay is for TV, I also spent several hours replaying a TV movie a moment at a time copying down all the lines so I could see how many words/lines fit into the time frame as well as understand scenes, settings, and characters.

                                                ************

          I’ve chosen two books for songwriting textbooks:

Songwriting without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice by Pat Pattison;

and Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting Second Edition by Pat Pattison.

          I’m using only one notebook for both books in my songwriting class. I’m going to complete Songwriting without Boundaries first then work on Better Lyrics.

          I'm always thinking of six-word memoirs. It is a useful exercise to distill thoughts so Six-Word Memoirs edited by Larry Smith is a great book for inspiration.

          I plan on writing with a pen most of the time. When I write on the computer, I’ll print out my work and either staple the pages into the notebooks or keep them in a folder nearby—depends on the number of pages.

          I’ve always believed writing in several genres helps improve my writing as well as strengthens my voice. I dabble in poetry (for my eyes only). I write articles and essays. I want to write a screenplay and songs. These personal classes help me achieve my goals.

          I hope you choose a genre and some writing books that appeal to you.

Have fun in class!

   

A Writer's Summer Plans: Personal Writing Classes

By Kate Phillips 

         If simply planning time to write isn’t enough motivation, if you are not going to Paris to write, or if you need some structured writing time, look into writing groups or classes.

If you cannot find any that work with your writing schedule, set up a class for yourself. Simply pick a genre. Find two or three helpful writing books in that genre that speak to you. Choosing the writing books will take some time and effort as there is no one perfect writing book for everyone so start looking now. Then decide on either one notebook for all your work or one notebook for each book.

         You can work with one book at a time or alternate after each chapter. I recommend at least two books to get different perspectives on the genre.

Here are some books I recommended. If I’ve written a review on The Writer's Crate blog (not this blog as many posts have the same published dates) the date appears after the author’s/editor’s name.

  

For overview:

The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction edited by Stephen Koch (8/5/13);

The Writer’s Home Companion: An Anthology of the World’s Best Writing Advice, from Keats to Kunitz edited by Joan Bolker, Ed.D., (12/3/12);

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg (6/2/14; 3/3/14; 9/17/12);

Lots of writing exercises:

The 90-Day Novel: Unlock the Story Within by Alan Watt (12/31/12; 1/7/13; 2/4/13; 3/4/13; 4/1/13);

The 90-Day Screenplay: A day-by-day guide through the process of getting your screenplay onto the page by Alan Watt;

The Writer’s Home Companion: An Anthology of the World’s Best Writing Advice, from Keats to Kunitz edited by Joan Bolker, Ed.D., 222 exercises on pp. 56-66, (12/3/12);

The five book series Now Write! with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers includes these topics:

Fiction edited by Sherry Ellis;

Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction edited by Sherry Ellis;

Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror edited by Laurie Lamson;

Mysteries: Suspense, Crime, Thriller, and Other Mystery Fiction Exercises edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

and Screenwriting edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

The Weekend Novelist: A dynamic 52-week program to help you produce a finished novel…one weekend at a time by Robert J. Ray (11/5/12);

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery: From empty page to finished mystery in just 52weekends—A dynamic step-by-step program by Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick (11/5/12);

 

Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse by Mary Oliver;

 

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron (Cheryl recommended it on 2/28/13);

Six-Word Memoirs edited by Larry Smith (9/10/12).

          Useful tools:

                   The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale (6/9/14);

                   The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus (6/9/14).

For novels:

The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt (12/31/12; 1/7/13; 2/4/13; 3/4/13; 4/1/13);

Now Write! Fiction with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis;

You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts;

You Can Write a Romance by Rita Clay Estrada & Rita Gallagher;

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Laurie Lamson.

For poetry:

Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge (4/7/14);

 

Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse by Mary Oliver;

Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry by Sandford Lyne (9/23/13).

          For memoirs:

Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart—who recommends many other books, (8/26/13);

Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis.

          For screenwriting:

Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee (12/17/12);

The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby;

Now Write! Screenwriting with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

90-Day Screenplay: A day-by-day guide through the process of getting your screenplay onto the page by Alan Watt;

Writing the Romantic Comedy: From “Cute Meet” to “Joyous Defeat”: How to Write Screenplays That Sell by Billy Mernit.
 

For songwriting:

Songwriting without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice by Pat Pattison;

Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting Second Edition by Pat Pattison.

 

I’m setting up two classes for myself. I’ll be writing a screenplay and several songs this summer. You can read all about my preparation as well as how my two classes are going and some recommended screenplays in my next four posts.

Pick your genre. Choose your books. Set a schedule. Time to write!