I sympathize with the youthful desire to make a first screenplay read like PERSONA.  But the dream of joining the avant-garde must wait while, like the artists before you, you too gain mastery of Classical form.  Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you understand Archplot because you’ve seen the movies.  You’ll know you understand it when you can do it.  The writer works at his skills until knowledge shifts from the left side of the brain to the right, until intellectual awareness becomes living craft – Robert McKee, STORY

If you want to know all about classical form and Archplot and the other terminology McKee uses, then you need to buy STORY today.

Essentially, McKee brings up an important point; writers who are serious about their craft need to study it and not take the act of writing nilly willy.

Many people say writing is subjective; for the most part, this is true.  People can love or hate a piece of art based on their personal preferences.  However, I’m one that also believes writing is objective.  There are rules, structure – from the grammar to the mechanics to the style to the…on and on – that instruct writers on the WHAT and the HOW of writing.

There are many writers out there, by the droves, who want to break the mold, to be different than everyone else.

My question is how can you do that if you don’t fully understand what’s out there and how it’s done.

You can watch a million movies, but that doesn’t mean you can write a great screenplay.

You can read a million books, but that doesn’t mean you can write a great book.

Yes, we can debate the successful ones who have gone on and have never had training or never studied the craft or never took writing too seriously, but they are the exception…not the rule.

If you want to be different, then you need to know what the “same” is and understand it so that you can develop your “different” way.

If you want to, for example, write a stream-of-consciousness novel, then you should know how a traditional novel works, understand the nuances of a stream-of-consciousness work, and figure out how you can fit in to that mold.

In the end, serious writers take writing seriously, and if that’s you, it’s time to get to studying so that each work you write is better than the last.

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OH, and my update on Saying No to the Big O:  From last night to today, I’ve written 15 pages; I’m not up to 75 pages.  For ScriptFrenzy, have to write 100 pages by the end of April 30th.  Twenty-five pages in five days.  Can I do it?

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