maskedmarauder said:
i appreciate your opinion icerose, however my 10% skeletal logic flawed concept's are way more thought out than you know.
i'm not looking for a handout, secretary, or someone who feels that they have more creativity because they labeled themselves a professional.
to prove my point i have already decided to let the forums themselves be my guide if noone is interested. this will easily be accomplished through the critique topic. all i have to do is post ten pages at a time.
so if you want stop by there every know and then so that i can get your professional help. your opinion is highley regarded.
just out of curiosity. how many of your books, poems, screenplays, and whatever else you may write has been published?
your friend,
mm
peace
MM --
I think your choice to write and post some pages up is a good one.
You are sort of stuck between that rock and a hard place many bright minds find themselves stuck between when, after enduring the battles of early life, reach a point at which they realize they have some urge to tell stories at the very same moment they realize that owing to poor early education and the struggles to survive ...they cannot write, or write well.
This is a horrific situation to be caught in. I know this from my own experience. I flunked High School English and though I graduated from High School and even went on later to gain a science degree, when I was 20 I didn't know a verb from an adverb or a noun from a pronoun or what the heck ever "conjugation" meant or the implications of "subject-predicate."
The fellow who mentored me in screenwriting had a Master's in English Literature and had taught High School honors English for some years before becoming a professional screenwriter. His command of English was stupefying ... but also inspiring, because he seemed like a regular guy and if he could learn it, then maybe I could too, or at least enough to get by. His mantra was "screenwriting is an apprehendable craft," something I have come to believe as well, now that all these years later I've learned a good deal of it and have even taught classes in it.
Most folks who can write do indeed have their own ideas and that's what they wish to pursue. Guys like you (and me) come along with minds that are overflowing with good ideas and concepts and premises and story notions and, knowing we can't write, seek a good writer with whom to collaborate, as you have done here, and as I did when I tried to convince my mentor to collaborate with me. He was far too busy for any of that, but he did take me under his wing and teach me screenwriting, and nearly everything I know about English grammar and composition.
First thing my mentor did with me was turn me onto a small book titled "The Elements of Style," by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, a book that was first published way back in the 1920's and remains in publication to this day, having been revised and updated a couple of times in its long and enduring life. It's only 92 pages including its index, in a 4" by 6" format. I have the Third Edition, which is copyright 1979. The ISBN number is 0-02-418200-I for the paperback. This book is available form booksellers everywhere and should cost less than five dollars.
You can learn all you'll ever need to know about English from this one little book and therefore I urge that you get it in hand and make it a habit for awhile to read a little bit of it every day. The authors treat composition in the form of 22 principles; and teach an approach to style using 21 basic principles.
I have recommended this book to every writer and wanna-be writer I've ever met, and when I was teaching computer tech and programming at our local comunity college, I required my students to read and study it.
Okay, that's first.
Second, go out on the web and find five or ten screenplays and download them to your machine. Print them if you can afford the costs. Read them, study them, analyze them, see what you can figure out from them about this thing we call screenwriting. See if you can't find a copy of Robert Towne's "Chinatown," one of the better scripts to learn from.
Third, take one of the tales you'd like to write as a screenplay and outline it. This can take the simple from of just lising the events as they occur,
Robert gets fired from his job in Cleveland
Robert moves to New Mexico
Robert fall's in love with Gina
Gina's father hates Robert 'cause he's a "bum."
Antagonism between Robert and Gina's father flares.
This antagonism becomes a battle royale.
A developer threatens the town's water supply.
Robert and Gina's father join forces to defeat the developer
Robert and Gina's father lead the charge, and defeat the developer
Robert and Gina's father have now become like-minded friends.
Robert and Gina live happily ever after.
There, you see? Not so difficult.
Work on your outline for a month or so, making sure it reflects a three-act stucture, has a clear cut protagonist and antagonist and conflict, and possesses at least the potential for some surprising twists and turns. Decide what movie genre your story falls into.
Now, start screenwriting, using your outline as your guide for "what comes next," and applying everything you've learned from Strunk and White and from reading those four or five or six or ten screenplays you've studied.
If you're flush, go out an get one more book, "Screenwriting 434," by Lew Hunter, and study that mother to death.
Now you're on your way, and within a short period of time you'll have ten pages to post up here, and then ten more, and then ten more.
Within six months you will have a first draft of your first screenplay.
And from there, it's all just so much work, writing every day and continued learning.
Check?
Check.
Best to you in this great adventure!
And peace to you too, brutha!
Well, that's a fair enough answer.
