The road map in screenwriting...getting it right

The other day I had the follow exchange with a script client that went something like this:

Client:  I'm desperate to get into draft, but I know I need to be dead sure I have a plot outline that
really holds together.

Me:  Absolutely.  Screenplays are so dependent on action, on story structure, on a plot that, as you say, really holds together.

Client:  Yeah, I know.  I need a clear vision of where I'm going.

Me:  Exactly.

Client:  But it's been such a struggle...

Me:  Welcome to the club.

Entering the scriptwriting wilderness...

There comes a point in the development of a project when your research, pre-draft exploratory backstory and character work, and your plot outlining reaches a point that you know it's time to plunge into draft.

When you reach this threshold, it's like you're standing on the edge of a vast wilderness, an unknown domain that you somehow have to cross to reach the other side--your distant and often somewhat hazy destination at the far end.

On your back is a pack you've carefully prepared filled with supplies and other necessities for the journey.  And in your hand is your road map that you've carefully developed that hopefully will see you through to the other side.  So, being as prepared as you can be, you take a deep breath and set forth.

Using the "pause" and "silence" in scriptwriting...

Probably the most important nonverbal element in scriptwriting, especially playwriting, is the pause, or silence in the middle of a line or between lines of dialogue.  Often the most potent moment in a scene is during the silence that ensues after a poignant line, that moment when a profound decision or realization is made.  The audience witnesses this happening during the silence.

These moments are very much part of the writing.  You are creating a script that includes both verbal and nonverbal elements, and it's how the two interplay with each other that determines the shape and rhythm of each scene.  All nonverbal physical actions influence how your characters relate to each other and what they say and think.  And this is especially true for silences.

Screenwriting resources: scripts and competitions

There are numerous channels open for writers regarding getting your hands on actual screenplays of produced films at no cost--something every writer should be checking out on a regular basis.  One of the most helpful sources for this can be found at the New Hampshire Institute of Art library where you can find a list of links to the best places you can download scripts for free.  It's a great resource to have at your fingertips without having to plow through pages of Google entries.

And when it comes to a good and accurate list of screenplay competitions, you can quickly get buried in various lists and advice when you start to Google the topic.  There are hundreds of contests for features, shorts, tv pilots, you name it.

The plot treatment--an exercise in story structure

My wife recently shared with me a wonderful piece from Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.  It illustrates the degree to which any good piece of fiction writing, whether novel, play, screenplay, or teleplay, needs to have a structural framework if it's going to lift off and soar.

Another script writing secret: keeping it to yourself...

It's about that time in the current term of our MFA program when students are pushing through their first drafts.  I'm currently mentoring two student writers and I ask them to send me pages as they begin to accumulate just to keep them on schedule or at least close to their own predetermined timeline.  However, I find myself also having to point out an often overlooked truth when it comes to a writer sharing his or her work others and when it's best to do so--a point I've made before in this blog, but is worth repeating.

A scriptwriting secret: taking it one step at a time...

I'm currently working with a script client who is agonizing over his strong sense that he's missing something critical in his plot outline for a screenplay--something that will be a key to his story lifting off and really hitting the bull's-eye.  In fact, it's been stalling progress on his project and has pretty much left him walking in circles around his writing room with little forward movement at all.  He wants to have as complete a road map as possible before plunging into draft (and rightly so), but is stuck as to how to make that happen.

A scriptwriting challenge: fighting the negative voice

So you're finally plunging into your first draft and all is going nicely for several pages when all of a sudden a little devil appears on your shoulder and whispers in your ear "this is stalling out...the characters aren't coming to life...who do you think you're kidding?...this is a disaster..." and suddenly you're frozen and everything grinds to a halt.

A scriptwriting tool for plot invention

My last blog post centered on the process of plot invention and a practical approach to accomplishing that end--namely using index cards (or the equivalent) and building your story one heart beat at a time.

To add to this, I recommend you take a look at a very interesting and well-written book by Daniel J. Levitin called The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.  Among many other things, Levitin breaks down the index card technique and advances the reasons that successful creative people use this method of organizing their lives or, for our purposes, how writers come up with their stories.  What he presents reads like a textbook for how to invent the plot for your story idea.

Plot outlining--a scriptwriting key

The other day I walked back into the modest guest wing of our home that serves double-duty as my wife Kris's writing office.  Kris was not there and a part of me felt like I was intruding on her private world.  But I couldn't help but notice that on the quilt covering one of the single beds was an impressive array of 3 x 5 index cards with hand written notes on them.  The cards were arranged in three columns, each of which was identified with its own card at the top that read Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3.  What I was looking at, of course, was the beginnings of the plot invention for the novel she's working on.

An insightful book on playwriting...

There's a wonderful and rather unique little book that's been floating around for a number of years now that every writer should take a look at.  It's called Playwrights Teach Playwriting, edited and compiled by Joan Harrington and Crystal Brian.  It includes insightful essays by ten contemporary American playwrights including Chris Durang, Maria Irene Fornes, Tina Howe, Mead Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Donald Margulies, Marsha Norman, Jose Rivera, and Mac Wellman.  Quite a line up.

And don't let the title fool you.  Certainly, each of these successful writers talks at length about how they teach the art and craft of playwriting.  But what is really special about the book is that in every case, as they explain how they approach teaching the subject, they at the same time are revealing a great deal about their own writing process and the spirit in which they approach their own work.

Well worth the read.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant. 

My play SISTER CALLING MY NAME to open in Minneapolis...

Here's a little personal horn tooting...

My play Sister Calling My Name opens October 16th at the Open Window Theatre in Minneapolis.   I thought I'd announce the production in case there's some readers of this blog who are within striking distance and who might be interested in seeing it.

For a full description of the play and for reserving tickets go to the theatre's website.

The play won the National Play Award several years ago and has been produced all over the country and Canada in productions large and small.  What makes this staging special is that the play is set in Minnesota (my home state) and this will be the Minnesota premiere.

I also appreciate that the theatre has brought me in on early production meetings and are flying me out for rehearsals the week of the opening.  I'll be doing Q & A's with the audience opening weekend, October 16 and 17.  I would rate Open Window as definitely playwright friendly.  

If you manage to catch the production, I'd love to get your feedback.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

Your private scriptwriting world...the first draft

So you're ready to plunge into your first draft.  You've done your research and extensive character and other backstory exploratory work and have come up with a plot outline that you think has real shape and punch--a structure that delivers.  All you're lacking is the script itself and you're eager to start turning out actual pages.

My one caution as you start into your first draft is to KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!  Every writer naturally feels the urge to share work as it's being written.  Or at least talk about the discoveries and progress being made as work proceeds on the draft.  We're in this business because we want to communicate ideas to others, right?  However, this is not the time for that.  In fact, it is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.  Resist the urge.  Do not, under any circumstances, show your work or talk about it to anyone while you're working on your first draft.  Keep it totally to yourself.  This is your private world, your virgin soil.  It should be written as a personal and solo experience.

As Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman once told me, "Plays are not written by committee.  They are written by single voices.  They are products of a single vision."

At this phase in the writing process your job is to protect this private world from all outside influence, whether it's a play, screenplay, or teleplay.  Think of it as contamination, even if it comes from a trusted friend.  Nothing can destroy a first draft faster than to show pages to well-meaning people in your life.  They'll want to help you, even feel obligated to give you feedback.  As Norman added, "People love to get in and tell you what to do.  Isn't that true in life and of writing?  Everybody knows what you ought to do." 

And, of course, the moment someone gives you input, you won't be able to get it out of your head, whether it's positive or negative.  It's contamination either way. 

Resisting this urge to share your first draft-in-the-making can pay huge dividends by building an increasingly stronger and more intimate connection between you and your material.  What's happening in the developing script becomes yours and your characters' own secret and your unique source of strength.  This, in turn, produces an energy which helps propel you through to the end. Even when you're stuck on something and go through a few days or even weeks of feeling lost, the experience remains a private one, shared only between you and the people inside the play.

The time will come soon enough when it's necessary and useful to share your script with others and hear what they have to say. Now, however, it's just as critical that you don't.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

The script writing conundrum--when to plunge into draft?

There are many theories floating around out there about when it's optimal to plunge into writing your first draft.  How much prep work, backstory exploration, and other character work is really necessary? How detailed does one have to get regarding the story structure and coming up with an extensive plot outline, treatment, and/or beat sheet?  At what point do you stop all the prep work and let the actual journey begin?  When do you allow yourself to head off into the wilderness and see where it leads...?

Some writers let their scripts evolve almost entirely in the actual writing of a preliminary draft. They make their discoveries pretty much exclusively as they turn out pages--lots of pages.  My dear friend N. Richard Nash, author of The Rainmaker and many other plays, once told me that he often accumulated hundreds of pages in his first foray into draft in his search for the actual play he wanted to end up with.  Horton Foote worked in a somewhat similar way, discovering the inner workings of the story as he went along, whether it was a play or screenplay.

At the other end of the spectrum--the one I recommend, especially if you are early in your writing career--is the commitment to extensive pre-draft exploration of the characters' backstories which in turn triggers the invention of a workable story/plot structure of your script-in-the-making.  For most writers, young and old, this approach seems to be favored.  And for good reason.

As I've said before in this blog, writing a viable script is like building a solid house.  You start with the foundation and slowly build upon it.  What the buyer eventually sees on the outside is the finished edifice, with its siding and trim, its color and overall design.  Inside they experience the layout of the rooms and the interior "feel."  What they don't see is the infrastructure, the framing, the plumbing, the wiring, the foundation below the frost line, etc.  But there would be no house to live in if these hidden elements weren't securely in place.

An MFA student of mine recently put it nicely:  "It's always a good idea to go into the first draft with a strong sense of story structure rather than try and fix a mound of problems later."  I couldn't say it better.  You want to begin the journey into draft with a pretty detailed road map of your chosen route within reach. Of course, surprises will happen once you're on your way, but these should be welcomed and explored.  But you always have your map on the seat next to you when you get lost and need to find your way back to the main highway.

                                    *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

The script writer's secret weapon...

I was talking to one of our advanced MFA students the other day, a writer who I'm mentoring this semester and who will graduate from our program this coming January.  We were discussing the story development of his latest project, a play with interesting and complicated character relationships.  He was frustrated by certain elements that weren't falling into place quite yet even though he was already deep into his pre-draft exploratory work.

I found myself telling him something that I tell fellow writers all the time.

What I shared was that often elements of a developing story simply need some time to emerge and fall into place.  And to help this along the writer often has to hand off the problem area (or areas) to his or her subconscious for a time and let that part of his or her brain sort things out. When ideas for a solution are formulated down there in that subterranean part of the mind, those ideas will be pushed up to the conscious mind and the writer can take it from there.

The key to having this work is to totally believe that this is exactly how script problems get solved. In other words, you have to literally talk to your subconscious as if it was a separate person running a powerful think tank installed deep down there in your skull.  Give this "person" your issue or problem areas to mull over and mediate on and request that when they have found possible solutions to send them back up to you.  And remember, this think tank is fully aware of all the work and thinking you've already done on the project--every shred of it.

Give a time limit--maybe a day or two, maybe when you are going to the shore or the mountains for a week with the family to relax and take a break from your writing.  And trust that this part of your brain has heard you and indeed is going to work hard while you float off thinking about anything but your script.

As I say, the key to success with this simple little game you play with yourself is trusting that it will work.  Any rolling of the eyes or skepticism that this is too easy or simplistic or only wishful thinking will short circuit the process.  Just believe that this is the way writers solve many of their most difficult story issues and it will work.  Promise.  Every successful writer I know uses this as a central part of their process to one degree of another.

                                    *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

Pre-draft exploratory work: a key to successful scriptwriting

I know I keep hammering on this, but taking the time and effort to do extensive backstory exploration on your characters, the milestone events in their lives, and their timelines pays huge dividends when you begin serious work on structuring your story.  This is the one area that the better books on screenwriting and playwriting tend to short change and sometimes ignore altogether, good as they are at dealing with story structure and how to construct a viable script.  And my strong belief--based on my own experience as a writer and the consistent positive results achieved by my many clients and MFA students--is that taking the time to thoroughly explore the backstories of your characters is an important key to successful script writing.

Granted, when you first come up with a new story idea it's important to pin down the basics of what might motor the script in terms of central character, his or her external want and internal need, the other potential major characters and how they might put up barriers and create the tension and conflict in your central figure's arc or journey, and finally, giving some thought as to where the story might land and what kind of statement that ending is leaving with your audience. This is the way you initially test a new idea to see if it might have the "stuff" needed for you to begin to dig deeper.

However, it's at this point that many writers make a mistake.  If they're still excited by the idea, they're eager to push ahead and immediately attempt to invent and develop their plot in some detail, following one or more of the many structural paradigms commonly used in our field.  The problem is that they're skipping a critical step in the process, namely stepping back at this point and taking the time to thoroughly explore the backstories of the characters, their voices, and the baggage they bring with them into the story that's going to be the script itself.  In other words, getting to know the major players as real people with real pasts who bring to the story unique personalities with powerful emotional memories.

Because it's doing this exploratory work that arms the writer with a rich understanding of that nine-tenths of their story that's going to always be hovering there under the surface.  And there's no better way to enter into the plot invention phase of the process than with this exploratory work at your disposal.

                                    *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.   

A new book on screenwriting well worth a read...

There's a new book on screenwriting published this past January that I recommend you take a look at if you haven't already:  Notes to Screenwriters: Advancing Your Story, Screenplay, and Career with Whatever Hollywood Throws at You written by Vicki Peterson and Barbara Nicolosi.

The authors both live and work in Los Angeles and in addition to being screenwriters themselves run their own script consulting firm called Catharsis.

What's special about this book is its detailed focus on craft.  Not just the craft elements and mechanics involved in writing a viable script, but also on the craft of launching, building, and sustaining a successful career as a screenwriter.  This is a clear, practical manual written by folks who have been and are currently in the trenches of this oftentimes frustrating and seemingly impossible business.  And as the title points out, the book covers just about everything the biz can throw at you.

One of the special and unique aspects regarding this book is that co-author Vicki Peterson just graduated in June with her MFA degree from the Writing for Stage and Screen program I run out of the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  It's been wonderful having Vicki as a student in the program over the past two years. She was able to walk the line with ease between being a student and an established working professional and needless to say her contributions to the program were considerable.  We'll miss Vicki as a student but welcome her as an alum and as a permanent member of our growing network of working writers.  And, of course, her excellent book will remain on our reading list far into the future.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

A book on screenwriting worth a review...

This summer I'm spending some time taking another look at a number of classic screenwriting books. Last week I reread Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You'll Ever Need.  First published ten years ago, it's a quick and easy read and although some writers have objected to his more "commercial" approach to tackling the development of a story idea into a viable script, what he lays out in basic, no nonsense terms still pretty much holds up.
 
Snyder focuses on the common sense basic dramatic ingredients that one way or another need to be operating in your story if it's going to work.  He uses the Hollywood insider lingo and even has a long glossary of terms at the back of the book he's labelled "From A to Z, a review of every slangy expression and Hollywood-inside-the-310-area-code term."

In my opinion, his Chapter 4 is one of the most valuable.  It's titled "Let's Beat It Out," presenting a simple, easy to follow breakdown of how a story in one way or another needs to be structured for a screenplay.

You may find his overall approach too "Hollywood" for your own approach to the writing process, but the book still serves as a good and concise review of the basics--something I find useful from time to time.

p.s.  Snyder also has two companion books that have appeared since.  They are Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told (2007) that breaks down structurally fifty successful films of the last forty years and Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get into...and Out of (2009) that further refines his approach to developing viable stories for the screen.  Both are also well worth a look.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

 

Script writer rejuvenation in ten days...

Late last month, I headed up our latest MFA program in Writing for Stage and Screen residency in Peterborough, New Hampshire.  It was an extraordinary ten day affair--a non-stop intensive in all aspects of script writing and then some.  We all left the residency exhausted, but stimulated and fully charged for the semester ahead.

This low-residency approach to earning the MFA degree in our field has proven to be highly successful for us.  Our students arrive from all over the country (plus Puerto Rico and Canada) for these intensives twice a year, in June and January.  Each ten-day gathering offers classes on various elements of the craft and the "biz" taught by our faculty of established professional writers as well as by special Visiting Artists who are invited to give talks and meet with students.  Students pitch their new ideas they're considering tackling for the upcoming semester and there's a tremendous amount of one-on-one give and take between students and faculty, who also serve as mentors during the semester.  All of our students leave each residency ready to launch into their next major script project.

At the heart of each of these ten-day gatherings, however, are the script readings with professional actors (SAG and AEA) of new student work written during the semester just ended--an indispensable and unique aspect our program.  Feedback from all the professionals involved is invaluable.

This residency was special for us in that we had our first three students graduating from our program (from left to right below: Steve Ashworth, Edmonton, Canada; Vicki Peterson, Los Angeles, California; and Jared Eberlein, Santa Barbara, California). And their final thesis projects were given several hours of rehearsal and their readings were staged for a public audience as opposed to the more in-house table readings given to the other student scripts.

 
It sounds like a lot to cram into ten days and it is.  But these intensives, among other things, remind us all--both students and faculty--as to why we are in this crazy business to begin with.  We are storytellers working in a highly collaborative art form.  And coming together to work, study, share ideas, and gain new insights about our work is what we all need and embrace throughout our careers.  

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant. 

Preparing for a script reading marathon

I'm currently in the midst of casting and scheduling twelve full-length script readings as part of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen that I run out of the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

A major feature of the program is to offer our student writers the opportunity to experience their scripts (both plays and screenplays) come alive and given voice for the first time by professional actors--an initial test of their new material written during the semester just ended--and to get valuable feedback from faculty (all professional writers), fellow students, the actors participating, as well as other invited professionals. We are committed to this aspect of our program because it's the only true way for writers to learn what works and what doesn't and to become a part of the collaborative process that our industry embraces.

But pulling all this off is not an easy task.  Our residency is ten days long and two of these days are taken up with other aspects of the learning process--Visiting Artist talks, special elective courses, and talks by graduating students.  And in the eight days remaining, the readings have to be fitted in between intensive classroom work where various elements of the craft and business of script writing are explored in-depth.  Not to mention having to work around actor schedules.

So "marathon" is a pretty accurate word to describe this cornucopia of new work being released for the first time, all of which takes place in various conducive venues in our beautiful Peterborough, NH homebase.  Our residencies have become a glorified script writers' camp where students and other artists from all over the country and Canada gather to celebrate and study our art.  Crazy as it gets at times, it's where our students learn how to be successful storytellers in a field that turns their stories into living performances bound for the world's stages and screens.

We may all leave the residency staggering home from sheer exhaustion (coupled with a large dose of inspiration), but we wouldn't have it any other way.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs June 19-28 2015.  We are now considering applications for starting the program in January 2016.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

The importance of backstory in scriptwriting

I was sitting on our porch last night with my wife discussing a character that plays a prominent role in the novel she's preparing to write.  The character is the grandfather of the heroine and we were talking about the wisdom the man has gained in his long life and how he will impart aspects of this wisdom to his granddaughter as she faces major obstacles in the story.

But what was most interesting in our discussion was my wife's understanding of how critical it is to have fully explored the backstory of this grandfather so when she gets to writing the actual draft of her novel--with all it's twists and turns and surprises that suddenly pop to the surface--she is armed with this man's rich life's history and all the lessons learned along the way.

We both agreed that writing a piece a fiction, whether it be a short story, a novel, a screenplay, a stage play or anything in between, the writer needs to approach characters as if they were real people with real pasts that have shaped who they have become.  Then when they enter the story and engage with the circumstances that the plot throws at them, they draw on this accumulated experience and respond to the situations facing them in a way that rings true and consistent with who they are.  Just like in real life.

Pre-draft backstory work, in other words, is one of the keys to good writing.  A writer may have an abundance of talent--even be overflowing with it--but if he or she begins writing the actual pages of a story without thoroughly exploring the backstories of the characters who will populate the tale, chances are good that the effort will end up stillborn.  Because it's the people in the story who must ring true and the only way for that to happen is to know intimately who and what has shaped them and to have an exhaustive knowledge of the life they have led before first walking into the story.  Much of the details of this exploration might not ever be fully revealed in the actual pages of the finished work, but in a very real sense it will be there all the same.

                                    *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs June 19-28 2015.  We are now considering applications for starting the program in  January 2016.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

Pre-draft story development work in script writing...

The biggest issue regarding the script writing process that keeps coming up with writers I work with is their lack of thorough and exhaustive pre-draft exploratory work.  So much so, in fact, that I'm writing a new book on the subject.

The book will dig into how to initially test and develop new story ideas from a structural standpoint and also lay out a process of inventing vibrant backstories that bring characters fully to life.   The overall goal will be to help writers discover, explore, and illuminate the nine-tenths of their stories that will lie submerged under the surface of the script itself.

I can't count the times that a play or screenplay is sent to me for analysis that clearly was written without this pre-draft work being done thoroughly.  The characters remain largely two-dimensional, there are few surprises that turn out to be organically central to the story, and the audience is not consistently invited to "lean into" the unfolding tale and be asked to connect the dots themselves.  In other words, the subtext of the script--the underpinnings of everything your story is attempting to accomplish--is not brought fully to life because it hasn't been adequately explored by the writer before getting into draft.  I would say that this is the biggest single mistake most script writers make.

My book The Playwright's Process begins to address this issue, but my hope is that the new book will lay out in detail how best to approach this critical phase of creating a successful script.  My approach is similar to a builder designing and constructing the plans for a new house, with a concentration on the hidden foundational elements that must be explored and in place before the actual house that's to be built on top of it can hope to stand and endure the load of the structure and the elements of time and weather.  And anyone who works successfully in our business knows full well that any script that stands half a chance of weathering the professional gauntlet it will face once released to the world will have to have its own sub-surface foundational elements solidly in place.

                                    *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs June 19-28, 2015 and we are still considering applications for starting the program this June as well as for a January 2016 start.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant. 

Flannery O'Connor on writer discipline

Recently a successful writer friend of mine sent me Flannery O'Connor's thoughts on discipline for the writer.  It was included in a letter O'Connor wrote to her friend Cecil Dawkins:

"I'm a full-time believer in writing habits, pedestrian as it all may sound.  You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows away.  I see it happen all the time.  Of course you have to make your habits in this conform to what you can do.  I write only about two hours every day because that's all the energy I have, but I don't let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place.  This doesn't mean I produce much out of the two hours.  Sometimes I work for months and have to throw everything away, but I don't think any of that was time wasted.  Something goes on that makes it easier when it does come well.  And the fact is if you don't sit there every day, the day it would come well, you won't be sitting there."

That pretty much covers the topic.

                                   *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs June 19-28 2015 and we are currently accepting applications for starting the program in June.   I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

A total immersion script writing experience...

Last month we held our semi-annual MFA residency for the program I run in Writing for Stage and Screen out of the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  It was jammed-packed with classes, one-on-one sessions with students and faculty and table readings of the eleven full-length plays and screenplays that students had written during the fall semester.

A large group of professional actors and other theatre and film professionals joined us for the readings and the lengthy feedback sessions that followed each of them.  

By all accounts, this was an extraordinary time for all involved.  We--students, faculty, and all the other artists who were a part of the residency--were given the special opportunity to live and breath our art, to celebrate what we do and to share new work in a total immersion experience.  All students in the program left the residency stimulated and charged to begin work on their new projects for the spring semester with their assigned mentors.  Our team of professionals who serve on our faculty and as guest artists were also recharged.  Everyone was energized and reminded of why we are in this business in the first place--to create good stories that have something meaningful to offer the world.    

The over-arching goal of our MFA program is for every student to explore and develop his or her own writing process--taking an initial idea and developing it through the many phases of creating a viable script, including finding the structural underpinnings, exploring characters and backstory, inventing a workable plot outline, and writing a working draft that is then given first voice by actors. And developing this process--a process that is continually refined over the creation of several scripts as each student develops a body of work--is the key to mastering the craft of writing for the stage and screen.

                                    *                    *                   *                   *

I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs June 19-28, 2015 and we are currently accepting applications for starting the program in June.   I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.