Right now, I’m working my way slowly through the great book Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe. This book would probably bore most people to tears, but I like it so much that I am actually pacing myself and letting it soak in just so that it will last longer.
I was just procrastinating a little bit and found the above clip on YouTube. In the video Wilder discusses his approach to screenwriting (which involves the brandishing of a riding crop). Wilder always works with a writing partner and the thing I like about their approach is that they show up every day, they sit down and DO IT. They treat it like a real job. Some days are non-productive, but on other days:
“Sometimes… the muse does come and kiss your brow…”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Allan 08.26.08 at 11:31 pm
It is a great book and I can’t definitely understand your desire to absorb slowly rather than bolt it down whole.
And it truly is amazing what a person can do when they treat writing like a job rather than vague artistic pursuit. At the beginning of the year I decided to write 2000 words a day everyday until I completed the first draft of a novel. I would get up, unhook my modem from my computer (this I found was key) and stay at my computer until I had finished writing my daily quota. Forty-five days later I had completed my first novel. Looking back, I probably would have been better served not making up the story as I went along, but it definitely proved to me that all it takes to finish any project is the willingness to sit down and actually do it.
Allan 08.26.08 at 11:34 pm
Sorry, the above should read, “…and I CAN definitely understand your desire to absorb IT slowly…”
I really should proof read before I submit….
Christopher 08.27.08 at 8:23 am
Hey Allan - Thanks for the comments and welcome to the blog.
I know what you mean about having a structure planned out. Right now I have a whole wall covered with index cards. My workspace looks like a war room. This is the first time that I’ve worked on a script that was pretty meticulously planned out. And what a surprise: my scenes are hitting at all the right beats.
However, I’m don’t know if I’m hitting 2000 words a day, but I haven’t been keeping track. Either way, this one is almost done and then I am going straight into the next one.
One of the interesting things about the Billy Wilder book that I didn’t mention in the post is that a lot of those movies were in production before the end of the movie was even written. Many times they were writing the third act at night after shooting all day.