The assigned excerpt of The Blank Page dealt with the idea of how to begin writing a screenplay. As I well know with even my limited creative writing experience, coming up with ideas and starting to write is perhaps the most daunting part of the writing process. I’ll have this idea in my head that, after just a few minutes of building and visualizing to turn it into material that I can construct a story out of, I will grow attached to. When that happens, there is nothing I want more than to see my ideas come to life on a page, to see the world and characters and adventures I’ve imagined play out in full detail. However, as soon as I touch the cover of an empty notebook or open a new google doc, I get scared. I stop writing because I feel that there’s too much to write and what’s the point if nobody will ever read it, or see it, or enjoy it? And even if I do complete the story, what if it isn’t good?
That’s why I strongly related to the phrase, “The hardest thing about writing is knowing what to write.” No matter what genre of creative writing is involved, there’s always a formula that begins with knowing how to structure the work and having an idea of what subject to write about, and this connection between the practice of actually writing and the philosophy behind writing spoke to me because it’s something I struggle with every time I write. That being said, I also greatly appreciated the introduction in The Blank Space to the best methods to use when beginning a screenplay as it helped me to see that I don’t actually need to be anxious about it. Instead, I can relax, enjoy the process, and gradually build on my characters, subject, and action to create a screenplay I am happy with.
Throughout my read-through of “The Blank Page” by Syd Field, I found myself captivated by a question he asks within the reading— what is the subject? So often, this is something that challenges writers to answer. How do you sum up feelings in a one-sentence plot summary? I’ve struggled with this question myself, particularly in high school as I tried to turn a childhood game and its characters into a comprehensible trilogy of novels. The final book structure was solid, but I could not sum up what my plot was for the first two books beyond “Teen girls stranded far from home fight evil in order to return home,” as well as a few plot points. This question was also one that has also been asked in several of my writing classes here at UNE: what is it? We’d break down the poem or short story into components that made it up, much like we did last class with what a Western is, and determine what it was about.
The other thing from “The Blank Page” that caught my attention was the idea of starting with a character and an action. Though screenwriting requires much more rigor in planning than novelistic writing— though that admittedly varies from novelist to novelist— when I write novels (or rather drafts, at this point) I start from this same place. I’ll come up with a character or two and a scene, usually of a darker tone and emotion, and then I play with it from there. I ask myself who these people my brain came up with are, and then it quickly spirals out from there. Sometimes it’s a small spiral, a partial idea I’ll shelve for later. Others become novel ideas. Out of my many characters, I currently have four big ones that have stood the test of time, as well as a couple of smaller ones. All in all, I think “The Blank Page” really sums up a lot of what I’ve learned in the past year and a half of writing classes at UNE, which makes me really excited for what we’ll learn this year.
What spoke to me in the reading was how structured writing a screenplay really is, making it an outlier when compared to other, laxer, forms of storytelling. The idea of knowing absolutely everything about a story before writing it seems hard. I like to think I am in a good spot for the current story I am cooking up. I have a well fleshed out plotline in my head, with a major theme, character development, plot, and set genre, but to know all my plot points before putting pen to paper is a daunting thought. The reading helped me differentiate between how I have always engaged in my creative processes, and how structured and professional screenplays are. I cannot just start writing and see where my mind goes and call it a story, I must plan, I must be meticulous and view my story as formulaic rather than organic. It is not my intention to harp on the author, as I enjoyed this section and found it educational, but it challenged some of my personal ideas of the creative process. Writing this screenplay will be a challenge, but one i look forward to as opposed to dreading.
Another aspect of the reading that stuck out to me was the emphases on how common it is for writers to fear a blank page, it can be daunting, sure, but i find getting through the middle sections of a story and continuing from where you left off to be far scarier. It is easy to start, but it is hard to continue once you have gotten out of a groove, it is scary to try and maintain a writing style and forward motion after I have left something for a few days. Some new stuff to chew on for this next exercise in journal #3.
In the passage for “The Blank page” by Syd Field, something that really resonated with me in the reading was this idea of the process of a screenplay. The fact that, as Syd puts it, a screenplay should follow a “definite, lean, tight, narrative line of action,” made me realize how much movement a screenplay is actually trying to represent and how structured it is. The fact that a screenplay is following a path, leading the viewer to a certain destination is also a part of that, with this idea of following a “singular line of action,” as it is constantly trying to move you forward in the visual narrative, taking you to some sort of destination, whether that be the ending or just the next scene. Syd also talks about the premise of failure when it comes to writing. In the little story he tells of his female student who is attempting to write a screenplay for the first time, at the end of it he plainly says that she gave up, “shelved the project.” But he goes on to explain that it happens all the time, to expect failure, to embrace it.
The thing that spoke to me the most in this reading was the idea of not knowing what to write. I think that this is a really common thing to struggle with as a writer, but its role in screenwriting is much different than other creative writing. Fields explains that, due to the nature of screenwriting and films, there is no room to “find” your characters through the writing. You have to know and be certain of the characters that you’re writing since you are not writing filler. Screenwriting is intentional and must be done with purpose, otherwise this makes the movie boring and loses the attention of viewers. Knowing what story you want to tell, and who specifically you want to tell it about is important in driving the action in your screenplay. Sticking to one character’s story is crucial to keeping a solid storyline and making relevant choices for the actions that the characters take, and the outcome of the story.
What stood out to me in the handout, was the acknowledgement of the fear of “messing up”, or even the fear of the blank page. It is a very real fear, or rather block, one of which I struggle with often. If you can’t figure out your story, then others can’t comprehend it either. People have a great idea, however they don’t know, or want to put it in a small, understandable summary.
In my opinion, I agree with the motion that screenwriting is basically an art. Like art, it takes time, and patience to come full circle into a final piece. If a piece is rushed, it can end up looking (or sounding) messy, or all jumbled to where it’s unrecognizable because the artist/author wanted to get everything onto a canvas or paper in a little amount of time.
I think it can take some time for a well developed screenplay to come from a very long, and developed story. (Like what I have) However, I am semi-confident that it can, and will be worked out.
The Blank Page reading somewhat captivated me. I liked the idea of writing in stages and revision. The idea that today’s work may not look like tomorrow’s work and that today’s idea may offset yesterday’s let me know screenwriting is a journey. I loved the concepts portrayed and ideas eas given to help write a screenplay as well. Some of the main concepts drawn towards at the end had to deal with formulating a plan and an idea and then breaking that down into a character and an action. I think this helped me grasp the idea of how writing a screenplay differs from a story and how to make it interesting as well. In a story, I use descriptive language and alliteration to try and get my point felt and visualized in the mind of my reader. Here in the screenplay play however I want my audience to be captivated by the environment the sounds and the visuals must be placed to depict my story first. All in all, I liked the reading.
7 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 2”
The assigned excerpt of The Blank Page dealt with the idea of how to begin writing a screenplay. As I well know with even my limited creative writing experience, coming up with ideas and starting to write is perhaps the most daunting part of the writing process. I’ll have this idea in my head that, after just a few minutes of building and visualizing to turn it into material that I can construct a story out of, I will grow attached to. When that happens, there is nothing I want more than to see my ideas come to life on a page, to see the world and characters and adventures I’ve imagined play out in full detail. However, as soon as I touch the cover of an empty notebook or open a new google doc, I get scared. I stop writing because I feel that there’s too much to write and what’s the point if nobody will ever read it, or see it, or enjoy it? And even if I do complete the story, what if it isn’t good?
That’s why I strongly related to the phrase, “The hardest thing about writing is knowing what to write.” No matter what genre of creative writing is involved, there’s always a formula that begins with knowing how to structure the work and having an idea of what subject to write about, and this connection between the practice of actually writing and the philosophy behind writing spoke to me because it’s something I struggle with every time I write. That being said, I also greatly appreciated the introduction in The Blank Space to the best methods to use when beginning a screenplay as it helped me to see that I don’t actually need to be anxious about it. Instead, I can relax, enjoy the process, and gradually build on my characters, subject, and action to create a screenplay I am happy with.
Throughout my read-through of “The Blank Page” by Syd Field, I found myself captivated by a question he asks within the reading— what is the subject? So often, this is something that challenges writers to answer. How do you sum up feelings in a one-sentence plot summary? I’ve struggled with this question myself, particularly in high school as I tried to turn a childhood game and its characters into a comprehensible trilogy of novels. The final book structure was solid, but I could not sum up what my plot was for the first two books beyond “Teen girls stranded far from home fight evil in order to return home,” as well as a few plot points. This question was also one that has also been asked in several of my writing classes here at UNE: what is it? We’d break down the poem or short story into components that made it up, much like we did last class with what a Western is, and determine what it was about.
The other thing from “The Blank Page” that caught my attention was the idea of starting with a character and an action. Though screenwriting requires much more rigor in planning than novelistic writing— though that admittedly varies from novelist to novelist— when I write novels (or rather drafts, at this point) I start from this same place. I’ll come up with a character or two and a scene, usually of a darker tone and emotion, and then I play with it from there. I ask myself who these people my brain came up with are, and then it quickly spirals out from there. Sometimes it’s a small spiral, a partial idea I’ll shelve for later. Others become novel ideas. Out of my many characters, I currently have four big ones that have stood the test of time, as well as a couple of smaller ones. All in all, I think “The Blank Page” really sums up a lot of what I’ve learned in the past year and a half of writing classes at UNE, which makes me really excited for what we’ll learn this year.
What spoke to me in the reading was how structured writing a screenplay really is, making it an outlier when compared to other, laxer, forms of storytelling. The idea of knowing absolutely everything about a story before writing it seems hard. I like to think I am in a good spot for the current story I am cooking up. I have a well fleshed out plotline in my head, with a major theme, character development, plot, and set genre, but to know all my plot points before putting pen to paper is a daunting thought. The reading helped me differentiate between how I have always engaged in my creative processes, and how structured and professional screenplays are. I cannot just start writing and see where my mind goes and call it a story, I must plan, I must be meticulous and view my story as formulaic rather than organic. It is not my intention to harp on the author, as I enjoyed this section and found it educational, but it challenged some of my personal ideas of the creative process. Writing this screenplay will be a challenge, but one i look forward to as opposed to dreading.
Another aspect of the reading that stuck out to me was the emphases on how common it is for writers to fear a blank page, it can be daunting, sure, but i find getting through the middle sections of a story and continuing from where you left off to be far scarier. It is easy to start, but it is hard to continue once you have gotten out of a groove, it is scary to try and maintain a writing style and forward motion after I have left something for a few days. Some new stuff to chew on for this next exercise in journal #3.
James Terault
09/05
WRT-214-A
Jesse Miller
Journal 2:
In the passage for “The Blank page” by Syd Field, something that really resonated with me in the reading was this idea of the process of a screenplay. The fact that, as Syd puts it, a screenplay should follow a “definite, lean, tight, narrative line of action,” made me realize how much movement a screenplay is actually trying to represent and how structured it is. The fact that a screenplay is following a path, leading the viewer to a certain destination is also a part of that, with this idea of following a “singular line of action,” as it is constantly trying to move you forward in the visual narrative, taking you to some sort of destination, whether that be the ending or just the next scene. Syd also talks about the premise of failure when it comes to writing. In the little story he tells of his female student who is attempting to write a screenplay for the first time, at the end of it he plainly says that she gave up, “shelved the project.” But he goes on to explain that it happens all the time, to expect failure, to embrace it.
The thing that spoke to me the most in this reading was the idea of not knowing what to write. I think that this is a really common thing to struggle with as a writer, but its role in screenwriting is much different than other creative writing. Fields explains that, due to the nature of screenwriting and films, there is no room to “find” your characters through the writing. You have to know and be certain of the characters that you’re writing since you are not writing filler. Screenwriting is intentional and must be done with purpose, otherwise this makes the movie boring and loses the attention of viewers. Knowing what story you want to tell, and who specifically you want to tell it about is important in driving the action in your screenplay. Sticking to one character’s story is crucial to keeping a solid storyline and making relevant choices for the actions that the characters take, and the outcome of the story.
What stood out to me in the handout, was the acknowledgement of the fear of “messing up”, or even the fear of the blank page. It is a very real fear, or rather block, one of which I struggle with often. If you can’t figure out your story, then others can’t comprehend it either. People have a great idea, however they don’t know, or want to put it in a small, understandable summary.
In my opinion, I agree with the motion that screenwriting is basically an art. Like art, it takes time, and patience to come full circle into a final piece. If a piece is rushed, it can end up looking (or sounding) messy, or all jumbled to where it’s unrecognizable because the artist/author wanted to get everything onto a canvas or paper in a little amount of time.
I think it can take some time for a well developed screenplay to come from a very long, and developed story. (Like what I have) However, I am semi-confident that it can, and will be worked out.
The Blank Page reading somewhat captivated me. I liked the idea of writing in stages and revision. The idea that today’s work may not look like tomorrow’s work and that today’s idea may offset yesterday’s let me know screenwriting is a journey. I loved the concepts portrayed and ideas eas given to help write a screenplay as well. Some of the main concepts drawn towards at the end had to deal with formulating a plan and an idea and then breaking that down into a character and an action. I think this helped me grasp the idea of how writing a screenplay differs from a story and how to make it interesting as well. In a story, I use descriptive language and alliteration to try and get my point felt and visualized in the mind of my reader. Here in the screenplay play however I want my audience to be captivated by the environment the sounds and the visuals must be placed to depict my story first. All in all, I liked the reading.