March 2008 Archives

I love it when a new set of eyeballs reads my script. But, like anyone, when that person offers criticism the ego takes a knock. After all, what do they know? They didn’t stay up all hours writing the damn thing!

Criticism is an essential part of any writing process, but more important is the ability to deal with this criticism effectively. Many times I’ve come across an amateur writer who dismisses criticism as a misunderstanding on the part of the reader. If the reader wasn’t completely won over by the script, they simply didn’t get it.

The amateur wants to debate the criticism, hopelessly attempting to turn the reader’s opinion around. “Don’t you see? In Act 2 Fred does this, so that’s why Jemima leaves home. It’s obvious. I’m not changing a thing!”

It may be obvious to you, but if the reader misses it, it isn’t the readers fault – it’s yours. No one knows the story in your head better than you. But the script is the tool by which you convey that story inside you to someone else. If they don’t experience what you hoped they would, your script hasn’t done the job.

Checking my website statistics, I have been amazed recently at the number of visitors who come to the site mistakenly believing it contains discussions on copyright law.

Google searches such as ‘How to copy write a movie’ and ‘The law behind copy write’ persuade me that there is some confusion between copyright and copy write. On clicking back through to one of these Google searches I was even more amazed to find a high number of forum posts, web articles and more that talk about ‘copy write infringement’, ‘the difference between copywrite and trademarks’ and other similarly misguided missives.

We can all name the worst films currently in distribution, but why do we keep rewarding them with box office success?

“Meet the Spartans” topped the box office around the world, despite every review decrying it as a serious misuse of celluloid. British film critic Mark Kermode blasted the film with one of his most vitriolic rants after summing up his feelings by banging his head repeatedly against the desk. (Listen to the podcast. Everyone should subscribe. Now.) Although he didn’t apply to the film his famous catchcry that forms the title of this post, his inability to comprehend how it entered the UK box office at #1 deeply pained him.

Empire magazine gave it a woeful one star. IGN awarded the film only half the Empire score, continuing to say how they were “flabbergasted that a studio probably passed on making so many other more worthy projects instead”.

Douglas Adams once said “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

This week is crunch week on my monthly deadlines for Nett Magazine. Every month, no matter how much planning and scheduling I put in place, I always seem to find myself two days before deadline panicking and frantically trying to piece together articles.

Seeing as the deadline is the same every month, you’d think I would have found the right rhythm now. Yet many writers admit to procrastinating for much of the time and scribbling their work in a frantic panic as the deadline looms. Whether this procrastination can be justified as creative thought or whether writers are inherently lazy is up for debate, but it seems to work.

Let's just get one thing straight - Aaron Sorkin is a god amongst scriptwriters.

If you disagree, then this post isn't for you, 'cause you obviously lack taste and I don't think I want to be seen with you any more in case it rubs off...

To me, The West Wing is a masterclass in scriptwriting. I'm not saying it's the best show on telly - that honour has to go to the stupendous Doctor Who - but watching an episode of The West Wing is like mainlining scene structure and dialogue.

I’m currently in the planning stages of launching into another draft of my vampire script, ‘Nightfall’. With a strong performance in both years of the Project Greenlight Australia competition, and plenty of positive and constructive feedback, I continue to work with this script in the hope of finally getting it to a saleable condition.

The good thing is that every time I read the script, I identify improvements to be made. And I’m not talking about changing a line here or there either. This latest rewrite (draft #8) promises to be one of the biggest and most radical overhauls as I am returning to the basic scene structures, characters and story arcs to recraft the script from the bottom up.

Comic book scriptwriting has come a long way since the days when a dime got you 22 four-colour pages of smash bang pulp superhero action.

Comic scriptwriting has become far more sophisticated over the decades, reaching the heights of modern literature with writers such as Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis and many more. But there are still plenty of comics that have not progressed that far from those golden and silver age days of simple superhero fiction.

After decades of reading comics, there are certain clichés I really think have had their day and should automatically disqualify a comic scriptwriter from ever entering the lobbies of Marvel or DC again.

The room is like any other church hall or community centre. Plastic chairs scrape across lino as the circle of nervous and twitchy group members form a circle of desperate hope. As the strip light flickers with an annoying him, a stressed and agitated figure rises slowly.

“My name is Jonathan Crossfield and I’m a techno-whore. It has been 48 hours since I last bought a gadget.”

Batman Syndrome

Yes, I’m addicted to technology. My daughter refers to my ‘utility belt’ as I walk around with an ipod, camera phone and pda strapped to my body in nice leather pouches.

Not that I use everything continually, you understand, but I like the comfort of knowing that wherever I am, I can fire up a Word document or listen to my entire CD collection or view a video; whether I actually do any of those things or not!

Recently, I was asked to provide feedback on a logline by a fellow Storylink member. Benjamin Ray's script 'Marcus and Faith' recently won the Thriller category of the 2007 Pacific Northwest Screenwriters Contest and now, Benjamin is doing everything he can to put his script in the best position while he enjoys twelve months of agency representation. You can visit Benjamin's website to follow his progress.

My professional role as a copywriter allows me a different viewpoint on how to write a strong logline. Most scriptwriters are used to writing for length, not brevity, so producing a logline can be counter-intuitive to many, but copywriting is about distilling a message down to its most economical form.

I love writing, always have. But there are days when the mental process of forcing words onto the illuminated screen in front of me causes my forehead to bleed from the pressure as my brain begins to liquefy into puddles inside my skull cavity.

My day job as an Online Editor / Marketing for NetRegistry in Sydney involves writing any copy requested by our customers. I can be spruiking business software in the morning, selling the virtues of aged care by lunchtime and spending the afternoon injecting passion into copy on Latin dancing.  

Today is one of those days where the part of my brain that wanted to be a professional writer seems to be lying in the foetal position as it is repeatedly kicked by my boredom threshold. Today, the juices aren’t so much flowing, as congealing in a sticky mass at the base of my cerebral cortex.

Recently, I read a blog post on Piggybankpie.com about the use of humour in blogs, that contained the following example of a witty misquote.

“Show me a successful blogger and I’ll show you an unsuccessful writer.”

This got me to thinking. Sure, many amateur writers turn to blogging to fill that gaping hole in their creative soul when they realise no one wants to pay for their work. But, as Diablo Cody recently showed us, blogging can be a powerful way to attract attention and avoid the random chance of all those studio slush piles.

The Naked Blogger

Diablo Cody has blogged since 2001. Relaunching her blog under the now infamous name Pussy Ranch, Diablo began experimenting with material of a more salacious nature. But it wasn’t until she blogged about her experiences trying out for a job at a strip club that her readership soared.