The Screenwriter's Workbook

So, when we were last together, gentle reader, I had fifteen pages and a severe case of writer's block, not exactly how I had hoped my first attempt at writing a feature length screenplay would wind up.  But, truth be told, it was exactly what I had always feared would happen if I made an attempt to write something other than a short.  Now that fear was proving to be a reality and every other form of fear and self doubt was beginning to find its own voice and shout from the rooftops.  It was a discouraging place to be, but all was not lost.  Help was on the way, via the United States Postal Service.  Help was also taking its sweet time in arriving due to my desire to have everything shipped to me free of charge, but it was on the way nonetheless.  One afternoon, five to nine days after I had placed my order, I was rewarded when opening my mailbox with not only two utility bills and an offer to get cheaper car insurance, but a small key.  Oh yes, Christmas had arrived again.  That small key would open the larger receptacle used for holding packages too large to place in my normal mailbox.  It was my sincerest hope that inside that larger receptacle there would be another key.  The key to my future!  Dum-dum-duuuuuummmm!

Okay, the key to my future may be a lot of pressure to put on a paperback book that was purchased, at least in part, to avoid paying the shipping cost of some movies on dvd, but The Screenwriter's Workbook had arrived, and I was excited by its arrival.  As had been the case with How to Write a Movie in 21 Days, I was once again ready, if not eager, to actually dive into the book and begin to put into practice the instruction within.  I was moreover pleased to read in the "how to use this book" section, that author Syd Field recommended reading the book all the way through, then going back reading it a second time and doing the exercises.  Since I was clay to be molded by his hands, I set off with that goal in mind and began to read.

I have read a few different screenwriting books over the years.  I do not consider myself, nor represent myself to you, gentle reader as, an expert on the subject, but The Screenwriter's Workbook was far from my first book on the subject.  It was however, the book that I had been looking for all along.  Even in the  early chapters, things that previously might as well been the mysteries of the universe, began to make more sense.  For the first time, I was able to understand what I needed to do to make an idea into a screenplay, and how to make that screenplay work.  I wasn't just reading this book, I was understanding it, and I was seeing how to do the things written in it.  Now to be fair, there may be a couple of different reasons for this seemingly sudden revelation.  It could be partly due to all of the previous reading I had already done.  I had been introduced to a lot of the same information a few different ways, so it may just be that Syd Field was the author I  just happened to be reading when this information finally got through my thick skull and into my gray matter.  I'm sure this played a part.  But, another key element of the book was its use of structure.  Like I mentioned last week, a lot of people dislike structure and find it kills creativity.  I, on the other hand, really need some structure in order to create.  I've always been one to assemble my pieces before trying to put them together.  I like to see all of the elements separately, and then try to put them together to form the whole.  In reading The Screenwriter's Workbook I could begin to see what pieces I would need to tell the story, create them as pieces, then put them together as a screenplay.  Previously I had been trying to create the pieces while creating the screenplay.  I would get stuck on one piece and find myself blocked, not knowing what to do, or what should happen next.

So needless to say, when it came to The Screenwriter's Workbook, I was a believer.  It wasn't long before I had finished reading the book and was going through it a second time doing the exercises.  It had transformed the way I saw the world.  What I had learned in the book was always on my mind.  I would make mental notes of different plot points as I watched movies, testing the book's theories, and pretty much worked Syd Field and The Screenwriter's Workbook into every conversation that I had with anyone.  Yep, I was one of those people.  I had found something new that worked for me, and I was gonna tell the world.  My writer's block was lifted, and my fifteen pages began to multiply and started to look like they might actually grow into a feature length screenplay.  The words weren't exactly pouring out like magic, but I could finally at least see the potential of conquering this particular mountain.  As I continued to work on my screenplay, little did I know that just around the corner was an event that someone actually described as "Your Big Break".