Beginning Screenwriting: A New Perspective - Part I

In a world where everyone’s a suspect, the best thing a person can do is to come clean with the truth. One never knows when their trash is being pilfered through at midnight, or if they’re being photographed by the militant psychopath living across the street. I’m not being paranoid here, though I admit I have no idea how to tell if my phone is tapped or if my apartment is miked - instead I’m feeling guilty.

I feel guilty because I’ve broken the promise I made to you – you faithful subscribers, you sympathetic friends and family members, and you fellow surfers just trying to kill a few hours before work ends – of providing insight into the world of screenwriting minus the bull$%@#. But it came to me the other day that I dread writing these articles because I’ve written nothing but bull$%@#. I haven’t written you a single thing you can’t buy at your local Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore.

I’ve become an illegal professor over the Internet, filling you with information lesson planned on napkins. I have no business teaching you the fundamentals of screenwriting. Have you seen my name associated with any movie you’ve seen lately? No. Do you remember me accepting the Oscar for best original screenplay? No. Let me be honest and admit to you that I have not sold one screenplay. Not one. I have, however, indirectly portrayed myself as someone who knows the secret to screenwriting. Recently, after re-reading all of my previous articles, I realized that I was starting to believe my own lie. My subconscious was justifying to my brain that I was indeed qualified to write what I was writing. I don’t have that right.

Allow me a disclaimer moment – I have studied screenwriting with several different professors and have read numerous books about screenwriting. As with anyone learning to speak a second language, I have learned the grammar of screenwriting. Now, I, too, am learning to speak. I do know the structure of screenwriting and how to write a character biography and how to write out scenes on 3X5 cards, etc., but it’s nothing you can’t learn yourself on any of the links I’ve provided. It’s not that what I’ve been teaching you is wrong (in fact I think it’s all pretty sound and useful information), but I don’t want to teach you about screenwriting. If you want to be “taught” then enroll in a screenwriting class at your local University or an online course. I’m not going to do it anymore.

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