The thought occurred to me the other day to give writing a screenplay a go. Now this idea has come to me before, and I have researched it, but I dropped it and now here it is again. Should I take on the task?
I think it would be fun to write a movie script, and if I do this, I'm going to of course do it my way, which is going to be not exactly like those books I researched said was the way to do it. I'll use their pointers as general guidelines, but I'm also listening for inspiration inside my mind, which is where the little promptings come from to do this or that that lead to bigger things, such as Thought Of The Day. That started as an inner urging.
Far as plot goes, I haven't a clue, but then I didn't have a plot when I wrote The Book either, and that turned out better than I thought it would. It was the day by day, moment by moment stuff that steered the ship there, and since I don't have any plot currently in mind, maybe that's the way I should go with this screenplay idea. Kinda feels right.
However, if a plot should suddenly surface twenty pages or so down the road I could incorporate that and view what I have already put down as background or what I THOUGHT was gonna happen and then something totally different came to pass, which would make what I wrote totally untainted by any foreknowledge of what was about to occur.
At the premier
Photo- Kilyan- Unsplash.com
Put a book of rules in front of me and I'm liable to fall asleep. Place a tome where those that have gone before show me how to do it and I'll be comatose after briefly scanning through the pages. I have to do my thing organically because if I try to follow any rules I'll just freeze up and find myself turning back to page 56 or something, scrolling down to paragraph 3, and asking, stumped, "Exactly HOW did he say to do this part?"
I've tried all that. While some people might swear by it, it doesn't work AT ALL for me.
There are going to be some definites though. The script is going to have a love interest. Gotta have that. It's going to have a sidekick- for sure. The hero is going to go on a journey somewhere, and where he's going ain't gonna be a cakewalk. There are going to be many, many other characters but they'll probably appear only briefly. But who knows? I'll figure it all out when the time comes. The key for me is just to start.
Another thing is, it's not going to be the typical Hollywood fare of the times, where there is so much going on that you can't track it and your brain becomes numb, like you're in a bombardment. There's going to be action aplenty but there is also going to be pacing.
And when those credits roll, if they ever do, it's going to say "Written By..." followed by my name up there on that silver screen and being steamed around the world. Yeah. I like that. Big Time. Feels appropriate. Now- what the hell am I going to put down? Today?