Week 3: Review/Preview
Reflecting on progress for the week of January 17 through 23, and previewing goals and tasks for the upcoming week.
What a crazy week! I didn’t get accomplished what I had hoped to, but I’m super happy with what I was able to get done.
I explained in a previous post about what I was up to this week, so I’ll save the mindless regurgitation and talk about something else I learned this week. And that is the power of voice.
In my accountability group we have access to an online course from ISA (International Screenwriter’s Association) as a roadmap, if we need it, as we work on our projects. The first lesson is all about voice, specifically the work a writer needs to do to release their voice and put everything they got on the page.
My big takeaway from the lesson was looking at voice through the lens of the life experiences I’ve had and really think about how those experiences changed and shaped my worldview. Yes, I know this is sometimes called perspective or point of view. But, I’ve always thought about voice as word choice, syntax, structure, etc. A language-focused approach to voice. This approach was more personal, emotional, honest.
One part of the lesson that really stuck out to me was a concept called Voice Pressure Points. I don’t want to take credit for this, so Voice Pressure Points was thought of by Max Timm. Fantastic guy and great screenwriting teacher. But the gist of a Voice Pressure Point is to identify a moment (or moments) that really changed how you viewed yourself and the world. And when I mean changed, I mean LITERALLY changed; as in, I thought “this” way and then “this” happened and now I believe “this” to be true.
These “pressure points” should be positive and negative, and they should have a profound impact and influence on your psyche. The exercise asks you to write down the moment in as specific detail as possible. Don’t leave anything out. Then, you explain exactly how the moment changed your thinking.
I spent the entire morning listing all the negative and positive “pressure points” in my life as a recall exercise to see what’s made me who I am today. A lot of personal stuff, obviously, rose to surface, and it made me look at past experiences that I think I’ve been purposely trying to hide or run away from. Sure, it was a form of therapy, but thinking about my life and how it could influence my writing and how I write is incredibly freeing, and I think, essentially, that’s what writing and being creative is all about.
I didn’t spend time actually writing about any of the moments I listed, but I will…soon. My intent is to take a few days, revisit my list, and then think about which moments connect with the main character of my new pilot. I want to make sure I’m being clear about how my personal experience and voice fits in with the story I want to tell - I want a very general story to sound specifically like me.
Maybe I’m explaining something that everyone else seems to get, but it was a big takeaway for me this week. My goal when I write something is for a reader to say - “Yeah, only you could write that.”
Successes for the Week
Revising and submitting THE NOISE WITHIN to a management company was HUGE. And a great way to start 2021.
Started writing character biographies and sketches for my new pilot. It’s coming along a bit slowly but progress is progress.
Missess
Honestly, I’d probably have to write another blog post detailing everything I wanted to get done this week but didn’t.
Goals/Tasks for the Week
Prep feedback for two writers in my writer’s group, which meets Wednesday.
Continue working on my online course and wrap up Week 1 material, which is on loglines. I suck at loglines.
Revise my logline for my new pilot and send it along with my character bios to my accountability group, which meets Thursday.
Read at least 1 script and prep it for analysis.
If possible I want to tinker with this website and add a home page as well as upload some of other writings - Fiction, Script Analysis, etc.
Review and adjust my goals for January. I have to push back some tasks I wanted to accomplish this month so I can focus more on my new pilot, revising another older pilot, and add some stuff to this website.
Readings for the Week
If you count how many times I re-read the same script I was revising over-and-over, then I read a shit ton; otherwise, not much.
I did find a great ebook by Carole Kirschner, who worked with CBS’s Writer’s Program and leads (or did lead) WGA’s Showrunner’s Training Program. The ebook is called “Telling Your Story in 60 Seconds” and it’s meant to help writers and other creatives write a personal logline that’s used to market yourself. The book has some great exercises and leads you step-by-step on how to craft a statement that really describes who you are and what you can bring to the table. I found there was a ton of overlap between the personal logline ebook and the lesson on voice.
