Writing A Screenplay | The Athletic Nerd

For any Screenwriter who has ever typed FJAOIWEJFEHGS!!!!!

December 1st, 2011 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Featured Posts | Screenwriting - (1 Comments)

FJCKSAHSDVKJHASFVJNEF….
A PAIN WE HAVE ALL FELT AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER

If you’re a screenwriter, you’ve no doubt found yourself staring at a blank screen with frustration boiling over in your mind. You’re stuck… We’ve all been there. It’s a feeling we all work tirelessly to avoid.

Stop me if you haven’t experienced this before: It’s late… All you want is progress and so you start a pivotal scene but something is wrong. It’s not working. You can’t put your finger on it but you don’t like the direction the scene is heading. So you start over and before long it happens again. What you wrote doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t fit.

You take a deep breath and start again only this time the screen is blank… And it stays blank… You’re stuck. You type half of a sentence but quickly delete it. You try writing dialogue but lines don’t seem to connect to each other.

At this point, you take a look at the clock and note the time. It’s later than you think. You feel like sleeping and starting fresh might help but you can’t get the scene out of your head. If you could just figure out a place to begin the pieces will eventually fall into place. All you need is an idea. You give yourself a moment to regroup…

You take a deep breath and start again but the words just aren’t there. The pressure mounts and you feel lost…

FHOAEHASKFHSAOURFH…

I think it’s important to note the difference between lost and hopeless. There is a big gap between being stuck and reaching a dead end.

THERE IS HOPE!

Moments of frustration are unavoidable but they are NOT impossible to overcome. That’s why writers thrive on cracking the tough scenes. It’s a sense of accomplishment we work tirelessly to achieve. We are all problem solvers after all. So take a step back and really think about the scene and the story you want to tell.

Are you an outliner? Do you have index cards? Is there a detailed treatment you can refer to?

XTRA | What’s an OUTMENT?

Go back and read your notes.
Write new notes.
Tackle a different scene.
Rewrite the scene before it.
Rewrite the scene that follows it.
Write something else entirely to get kick start your imagination.
Take a break.
Have a snack.
Brain storm new directions for the scene.
Isolate what’s bothering you and discard it.
HAVE FUN WITH IT!

One strategy I employ is to keep writing if I don’t like the results. Even if the scene is full of cliches and moments I wanted to avoid, I keep writing. Sometimes it’s easier just to get it out. That way, you can take a step back and really analyze what works and what doesn’t.

Change the location.
Put the scene in a different place.
Try eliminating the scene completely.

At the end of the day, if a scene is giving you that much trouble, it may not have a place in your movie… Having said that, some scenes HAVE to be in the movie so you have to work harder.

Challenge yourself.
Don’t let a frustrating moment snap you out of the zone.
Try again.
The pressure makes solving the problem all the more satisfying.
Persevere.
Evolve.
Write!

Above all else do not stop trying until it works. I guarantee you’ll sleep a lot better knowing you cleared the road block and cracked the scene.

Every screenwriter has to be a skilled problem solver so don’t stay frustrated too long. It’s a challenge. Kick the crap out of it. You have to take everything into consideration and do what’s best for YOUR story. This is your passion so don’t let FHADLFFHSOJHDS beat you tonight. Who cares if it’s late. You’re a screenwriter and you’re passionate about movies and the skillfully crafted blue print behind them.

Get back to work!

NOTE: I’d like to mention that this post was written just after I found myself stuck recently. As I wrote the post I came up with a better way to write the scene.

My final tip for overcoming writer’s block and FHADLFFHSOJHDS moments? Write a blog or keep a journal. It’s one of the best ways to get your mind working in a pressure free environment.

A creative way to inspire creativity.

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Short Screenplays: Making Them Up As You Go Along

July 5th, 2011 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Featured Posts | Screenwriting - (0 Comments)

I came up with a concept for a short film one morning last week. It wasn’t spectacular or ground breaking by any means but it scared me and even made me laugh a little bit. The premise was based on an event that happened to me a few weeks ago and I simply wanted to play with the idea of making it a movie.

Normally, I develop idea, write outlines followed by a first draft. For this project I decided to skip all the development work and take my concept right into page one. I had no scene ideas, no characters and no real approach yet I began anyways.

I just wanted to make it up as I went along. Pressure free. That’s exactly what I did. I just started writing and little by little a story emerged. After I reached the third page I created a twist that required a page one rewrite…

So I began editing as I went along too. Changing details and adding crucial elements I just made up. Slowly the story began to take shape and my poor main character was going through hell on a stormy night. (It wasn’t a stormy night at first. I made that up on page 4.)

It’s a nice change to simply sit down and write a story based on a tiny idea. I honestly think it’s been years. It’s like I had become accustomed to writing only when I had planned most of the story out. Either that or I was afraid to begin without developing first.

This new short film was a nice change. An afternoon experiment that led to a nice little 6 page screenplay. A horror story based entirely in one location with 2 main characters and a lot of creepy moments. Who knows if it will ever become a short film. For now, it will join the other shorts in my file. Another script completed. A fun afternoon.

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Rookie Screenwriting Mistakes

May 17th, 2011 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Featured Posts | Screenwriting - (0 Comments)

EXT. GARAGE

That’s what I wrote… The main character in my short screenplay leaves his house and enters the garage to talk to his father. The scene takes place INSIDE the garage.

To be clear about my embarrassing mistake, it should be INT. GARAGE. Ouch.

As you can see, I’m highly critical of myself and every writer should be to some extent but rookie mistakes make me crazy. Absolutely crazy. Virtually every single book about screenwriting has a section on avoiding amateur mistakes. These simple beginner errors cause your hard work to end up in the garbage or set on fire.

I’m both an aspiring screenwriter and a human so I’m no stranger to mistakes. I’m not perfect. It’s one thing to mess up their and there (so long as you catch it) but it’s quite another to mess up the simple things like SLUGS!

INT. GARAGE, INT. GARAGE, INT. GARAGE…

I think the reason I’m so hard on myself in this case is because I sent the draft containing my mistake to family and friends. I had done my revisions for grammar, spelling and format and was confident it was typo free. Then I spotted it. To be fair, none of them read screenplays on a regular basis so the error won’t stick out but readers and producers will spot it just by glancing at the page.

It’s like my job as an editor in television. Every element I cut and send to air HAS to be perfect. Every so often, something sneaks by me and it drives me nuts. 9 times out of 10, audiences won’t catch these tiny blips but I do. I catch them on other channels all the time. I’m paid to be a perfectionist.

The point is, if your draft is good enough to send to family and friends it should be good enough for the pros as well. It should be perfect. You may not catch every single mistake you make but these types of errors can be avoided with proper patience and dedication to every single word. Actually, I kind of like the sound of that.

DEDICATE YOURSELF TO EVERY WORD

Your screenplays are calling cards and should display every ounce of your talent. Nobody wants to have a reader distracted by simple grammatical errors. Those should be easy to spot but don’t stop there. You never know where rookie mistakes like EXT. GARAGE are hiding.

Let your story shine through. Don’t cloud it with mistakes.

READ THIS BOOK NOW!

How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make is one of my favorite books about screenwriting. It holds nothing back and shows you countless rookie mistakes you can easily avoid. It’s the most influential book I’ve read in terms of format and structure.

Check out my full review of the book here.

XTRA | Rookie Photoshop For Movie Nerds

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A Screenwriter In A Car Accident

May 11th, 2011 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Featured Posts | Screenwriting - (2 Comments)

A SUNDAY IN THE LIFE OF AN
ASPIRING SCREENWRITER

I recently wrote about the influence that massive world events can have on your writing choices. Events like The Royal Wedding, The death of Osama Bin Laden or a federal election. They may not affect you specifically but when the world changes, often your perception of it changes as well.

What about personal life experiences? They don’t have to be epic world altering events but they are crucial in order to evolve as a writer. These events can range from life changing moments to seemingly insignificant personal encounters. Every moment affects your writing. Think about it this way:

How much would a story you wrote 10 years ago change if you started from scratch today?

Is each word you write influenced by your experiences? I think so.

The following is the tale of a single and completely bizarre day in my life. How will these events shape my writing from now on? The answer remains to be seen but they are a part of me now. Lets start at the beginning…

I WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT

It’s amazing how a tiny decision leads you to a certain moment. Is it fate? Or coincidence? What you believe can affect your writing too…

My girlfriend woke up and told me she felt off… She hadn’t slept well. Our plan for the day was to join some friends and head downtown to sell some DVDs and shop for the afternoon. The DVD store opened at noon as opposed to the 10 o’clock start time promoted on it’s website so we had some time to kill. We were left with a decision. Head to the east end, visit a kitchen store and grab some wings or wait.

It’s hard not to think about what might have been if we would have left then but we decided to stick around…

When we finally dropped off our movies we were told it would be another 2 hours before we got our cash. (Vendors have to check each disc for scratches and such.) We finally decided to head east. After lunch the plan was to head back downtown, pick up our money and call it a day.

We weren’t prepared for busy Sunday traffic. We were stopped when a man in an old truck slammed into us like we were the concrete wall in a crash test. My girlfriend was driving and was the only one who saw it coming. She shrieked a mere milliseconds before we were jolted forward. All of the sudden, the fact that she felt ‘off’ took on a whole new meaning. In a strange way, did she subconsciously know something like this would happen? It’s an interesting thought isn’t it?

Thankfully everyone was okay but I could tell instantly that she was shaken up. She had never been in a car accident before. We exited the vehicle half expecting a sincere apology but it wasn’t meant to be. Even now I can’t decide if the man was in shock or if he just didn’t really care.

“I hit you. There’s nothing we can do about it now so that’s that.”

I’m paraphrasing of course but if it were me, I would have apologized 38 million times before anyone else could utter a single word. He came across as smug and unsympathetic. If I may quote a famous line from Seinfeld:

“Smugness is not a good quality.”

We distanced ourselves from him while we waited for the police to arrive. Yet still, I couldn’t help but try to get into his head. Did he feel bad? Couldn’t he tell how upset we were?

At this point, we were all sore from the effects of our muscles tensing up when he hit us. We gave our statements to the police, hopped in a rental car and went home.

Little did I know, this bizarre afternoon was just getting started…

Once our nerves settled, the four of us decided to be cautious and find a medical clinic. We learned quickly that it’s pretty difficult to find an open walk in clinic on a Sunday evening. Fortunately, we found one that was right around the corner from the DVD store. The plan was to finally pick up our cash and head to the doctors.

Who could have predicted we would find ourselves in the middle of a war over a parking space!

“F*$# THIS. CALL THE COPS!”
THE PARKING WAR

When my friend and I emerged from the store we realized very quickly that someone was waiting for our parking spot. As we began to pull away, the guy pulled in front of us and started backing in.

Before we knew it, another guy had pulled up behind us. (Which made us nervous enough considering we were rear ended earlier that day.) Both of the men thought our space was theirs for the taking and a battle erupted.

We got out of the car and the shouting began. Someone had to move or we weren’t going anywhere. The guy behind us was furious and eventually made the following statement:

“F*&# this, call the cops because I’m not moving!”

Are you kidding me! Over a parking space? We just wanted to go home…

All the yelling eventually attracted the attention of a nearby cop. As he approached I became fascinated. Which one will he focus on? Who is wrong here? Who will have to move? We supported the car in front of us because he had the spot first. I’m not sure why he decided to pull up and back in when he was behind us already but it was his.

In the end, the car in front of us moved just enough for us to get out without giving up the space. We got out of there before the situation was resolved. Mainly because we just wanted to get checked out and go home.

Was the confusion finally over for us? Nope.

A STRANGE VISIT TO THE HOSPITAL

Waiting rooms always make me nervous when I’m waiting for a check up. You never know who is going to walk in. I feel terrible when I see people in pain. I wouldn’t wish pain on my worst enemy so you can imagine how I felt when an old woman wandered into the hospital in tears…

She looked lost. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so destroyed and inconsolable. It sounds like I’m exaggerating but it’s true. She was absolutely devastated. Immediately, a nurse and a doctor rushed to her aid and she began to explain what was wrong.

“I haven’t seen my daughter in a long time. She is a lawyer and she works really hard.”

Her words were difficult to hear as she was crying uncontrollably. We were all thinking about what could have possibly happened. The woman didn’t appear to be injured so was it her daughter?

“She came to visit me today after so many months… And she has gained so much weight! What do I do?!”

What!? Her daughter gained weight? I can’t even imagine what this woman’s reaction was when she was standing in front of her daughter. Her daughter gains weight and this woman, her mother, is so upset that she goes to the hospital?

Then I started thinking about the mental stability of this woman and I felt even worse. What must be going through her mind? She was so upset. To us, the situation was strange and sad. I’ll never know if she even had a daughter or what type of help she received but I’ve been thinking about it every since.

This was right around the time I was called in to see the doctor.

X-RAYS X3

Still pondering the fate of the old woman, I waited patiently for the doctor to arrive. When he finally did, I became nervous again. I was stiff and sore but I was positive that all I needed was rest. To tell you the truth, I was more worried about my girlfriend than anything. Her neck was really bothering her. Still, I have a history of neck problems so they decided to take some x-rays to be sure. Fair enough.

I had to change into a gown, walk out of my room, across the lobby (where my friends were waiting), ascend one floor in an elevator and walk down a lengthy hallway. The lady took 3 pictures and the entire time I was thinking about the evolution of x-ray technology. I had no idea it was digital. I still thought they took a day or two to process. It’s been a while since I broke my nose years ago.

Back in my room, I waited nearly 20 minutes for the doctor to arrive. When he did, I was instructed to go BACK up to the x-ray room for more pictures. Clutching the back of my adorable little hospital gown, I walked back across the lobby where my friends snickered a second time and made my way up to the x-ray room.

More pictures.

After 10 MORE minutes in my room, there was a subtle knock at my door. It was the nurse. I had to go back again! They forgot one final pose. Of course this led to more snickers as I traveled all the way back for more x-rays. More snickers.

Finally, they had everything they needed in order to determine that I was completely fine. All I needed was rest. Unfortunately, my girlfriend suffered whiplash. We were finally free to go home for good.

FINALLY HOME

Our bizarre day ended 5 seconds after we got home as we passed out almost right away. Our action packed day was full of encounters with interesting characters. Each of them handled stress in different ways and each of them fascinated me.

The smug man who felt no remorse after hitting us with his truck.
The woman who couldn’t bare to see her daughter because she gained weight.
The embarrassed technician who needed 3 attempts to get my x-rays right.
One of those two men missed out on a prime parking spot. I wonder who it was.

THE POINT?

Perhaps, one or more of these character traits will pop up in a screenplay someday… Each of them has been stored in my mind’s character files. You never know when a particular character will come in handy. Like virtually every screenwriter out there, I collect stories. We all do.

All in all, it was a crazy day.

XTRA | A Year In The Life Of An Aspiring Screenwriter

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The Best Time For The Big Reveal

April 26th, 2011 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Featured Posts | Screenwriting - (0 Comments)

HOW LONG DO YOU HOLD BACK
BEFORE UNVEILING A BIG MOMENT?

I finished a short screenplay yesterday and I’m extremely happy with the story but there is something bothering me about the overall structure. After reading the 10 page script, I questioned my decision to put off the big reveal until the very end. It’s an easy decision if the story element in question is a killer twist ending or a character moment like a betrayal but mine is neither.

I think I sometimes fall into the trap of waiting TOO LONG before revealing something huge.

XTRA: All Time Best: Twist Ending

I’ll break it down without getting into specifics. My big reveal is all about showing off something mysterious that the main character has built. It’s a scene that I’m hoping a production designer will drool over someday. It’s a visual moment that I originally thought would be a perfect ending. However, my ‘big moment’ is the emotional connection between a father and a son and that connection HAS to end the story. Balancing the two felt clumsy and lessened the impact of both moments. Not to mention I wanted to spend more time with this ‘creation’. It just made sense to rethink things a bit.

So I broke down the story and decided I didn’t really have to hold back at all. It is a short screenplay after all. So right away, I establish my big reveal. I don’t show you everything but the script now begins with a very direct hint as to what this item actually is. That way, I was able to build the story around revealing more and more information. In doing so, I was able to really take my time with the emotional storyline and the ending essentially wrote itself. It felt natural. It was better.

Establishing a brand new story structure AFTER it’s been written can be tough. It’s hard to break it down and rework the big reveal because you fall in love with certain elements. But that’s why rewrites are difficult, challenging and fun. You have to make tough decisions for the good of the script. I still have to rewrite a couple scenes that aren’t fully functional yet but overall, the script is better off. As for my original question?

XTRA: It’s Time For Another Awesome Twist Ending

There Is No Answer.

How long do you wait before unveiling a big moment? It’s different for every story and it depends entirely on your instincts. When I first began my script, I was positive that my big reveal belonged at the end. But the more I thought about it, the more the emotional story took over. I was focusing on the wrong moment.

Not only that, it gave me an opportunity to truly build up my reveal which gave it more of an impact. So now, I have a finished screenplay with a big reveal right in the middle and an incredibly tense and emotional scene at the end.

This new structure is definitely the best way to go but does it provide my script with a big enough ending? You see how these questions can make your brain explode? Now I have to make sure that final scene lives up to the way I imagined it. There are tears but there is also forgiveness. I plan to scrutinize every single word until it’s right.

Big decisions await.

Love writing? Check out great writing degrees.

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For any Screenwriter who has ever typed FJAOIWEJFEHGS!!!!!