Good words from screen writing Guru Richard Curtis.
I thought 6 days and nights on a train, think about the huge amount of time I will have to write. Well I did write a bit here and there, but not the stuff I was supposed to. How could I, I was sharing my compartment with an Englishman remember. My train adventure made me miss 3 writing classes and this Monday, which is less than 48 hours from now, I need to deliver a completely finished script (for a 10 minute short film) and an essay. So guess what my weekend looks like.
The script is, well it has a life of it’s own. I can probably spent the rest of my life making changes to it and it still wouldn’t feel finished. So I have to give it my best shot and that’s it. It is after all the very first script I have written, so I can’t expect it to be perfect, even though I want it to be just that. I just really want to pass this course.
The other thing I need to deliver is an essay. That is more difficult as I don’t exactly know what an essay is, and I have never ever written an essay before in my life. I know what the essay needs to contain, it needs to have things like:
- a paragraph synopsis of my screenplay (I know that, and I promise that if I pass, I will put the synopsis here somewhere so you can at least get an idea what I have been working on)
- Where do I get my ideas from (I think I know that, I just imagine what film I want to see him in and a story pops up nearly automatically. Or I keep my ears open in a New York cafe)
- How do I structure my ideas (I don’t think I know that)
- My writing strengths and weaknesses (Ehrm, am I supposed to have strengths? …)
- And how my weaknesses can be improved (Well courses the rest of my life maybe?)
So unfortunately I need to get back to all of this now, and I will probably need the rest of my Sunday to finish it off as well.
I have one really serious problem when it comes to writing, I am so easily distracted when at home that I don’t get anything done at all. I need to be (lap)topless and disconnected from the internet otherwise I just waste my time on reading weblogs, checking the weather broadcast and looking at pictures of Bill Nighy. Yeah, I have no problems admitting it.
So now I have printed my script on paper, I’ll take it with me tomorrow to the Cafe, I will sit there and will drink tea the Milky Way until I have completed it.
Do you know why I like Richard Curtis so much, again (apart from his undeniable writing and directing talent, and from casting Bill as Billy Mack and Lawrence)? Because he says things like this:
In the face of all the other stuff, injustice, violence and hate, it’s important to remember and celebrate the great counter forces of love and friendship that many, many people experience every day of their lives.
And he’s a man! His words (also see above) are the exact reason why I want to write about Love. Actually.
My best friend had a true Love Actually moment last week. And I had one reading here email about it with (coincedentally) the soundtrack -Dido- on the background.
At San Fransisco Airport the world dissappearred as she was saying goodbye to the man she loved. She couldn’t kiss him because he is not her husband and she has one actually. But they held each others hands, rubbing them with their thumbs, standing body to body, gazing in each others eyes for minutes until one backed away until the hands had to let go.
She walked away and didn’t look back until she was almost at the exit. There she turned around crying and they waved at each other for one last time. How’s that for Love. Actually.
That’s what’s Dan (the main character) in my script is calling:
“the concept of human agony”.
No one said that Love is always fun. This example shows it. It’s not. Actually.