Interview: Elijah Bynum (2013 Black List) — Part 6

The Black List is a pretty exclusive club, especially so for those writers who manage to land two scripts on the List in a single year. That’s what Elijah Bynum did in 2013 when two of his original screenplays — “Mississippi Mud” and “Hot Summer Nights”. I sought out Elijah to see what sort of creative mind could manage that feat. He was kind enough to give me an hour of his time in what turned out to be a great conversation about storytelling and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 6, Elijah discusses the craft of screenwriting and lays some advice on aspiring writers:

Scott: How about developing characters? Are there any techniques or tools that you use to develop them?

Elijah: I have a very distinct idea of who this person is, but the first third of the script is always the toughest to write character‑wise, because I’m still getting to know this person.

Then as the story unfolds, their dialogue and their actions becomes much more natural, because this person has become, in my mind, fully realized. I have to take them down several different paths and then delete all the ones that don’t ring true. After enough times the character really starts to take place. Even when I’m not writing, I walk around thinking about who these people are and what they are doing at that moment as if they really exist. It’s sad, I know.

I always write a little bio on them before I write the script. Their back story, their personality, some of their character traits. I know what food they like, what kind of cigarettes they smoke — but there’s a difference between characteristics and character. It’s not until you really throw yourself into the story and throw your character into the story that you can genuinely understand who they are.

Scott: What about dialogue? You said you had an ear for it, ever since you were young, you’ve been able to notice details and whatnot.

Do you feel like writing dialogue is one of things that you can learn how to do? Or is it just an innate talent that some writers have and others don’t?

Elijah: There’s always going to be people like Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet ‑‑ who are just wired in a way that makes them incredibly good at it. But I think it’s definitely something you can learn.

The trick is when you’re writing dialogue for the screen, it’s an illusion, because it’s not really how people speak. It is crafted in such a way that it appears to be how people speak. But it’s not really how we speak. People talk in non sequtiur and they ramble and what not.

That was the learning curve, for me, at least. My first crack at “Mississippi Mud,” the dialogue was terrible. It was way too verbose. It was on the nose. It was meandering. Those screenwriting books explained what it means to “cut the fat” and how important “subtext” is. Some of the most powerful moments between two characters come when things are being left unsaid.

I always keep that in mind when I’m writing. What are the characters not saying?

There’s this great scene in the movie “Drive” when Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan’s characters are getting to know each other. What’s actually on the page is very, very mundane and straightforward. They’re in the kitchen. She gives him a glass of water, asks him what he does for work. He says he works at a garage, and that’s about it. But the scene is charged with the sexual electricity. Of course a lot of it’s the directing, the music and the acting, but it all works because of what’s underneath the surface, what’s not being said.

Scott: What do you think about when you’re writing a scene? Do you have any specific goals in mind?

Elijah: Yeah. Before I write any scene I outline the scene. I pull up Microsoft Word. I have about four or five bullet points on what I want to accomplish in the scene. I realized when I was first starting to write, and I think it’s a mistake a lot of first time writers make, is each only accomplishing one thing per scene. I realized great scenes accomplish many different things on many different levels. They’ll move the plot forward, they’ll reveal character, they’ll introduce another problem, etc.

A really well‑written script doesn’t seem like it’s trying too hard to do this, but, believe me, whoever was writing it was bleeding by the ears by the time they finished the scene because it is really hard to do all of that. When I go into each scene I outline it and I have bullet points of what absolutely must be accomplished in this scene.

As often as possible I try to set the scene in a place that somehow reflects the mood of the scene. There’s this very intense scene in “Mississippi Mud” where Luther, who’s the father of the missing girl, confronts the two police officers. Now Luther is the kind of dude who has the wild light in his eyes. The kind of guy who can snap at any moment. So I set the scene at a firing range. There’s this inherent danger there with shotguns and rifles blasting off and that sound, that loud, punctuating sound, which hopefully makes the scene all the more ominous.

Scott: What about scene description? I was struck, you have such a nice balance there. It’s almost like poetry. A lot of vivid descriptors, strong, active verbs, vivid adjectives and whatnot, and yet it’s spare. Spare writing. Would you have any thoughts about how you approach writing scene description?

Elijah: I think that goes back to my idea of trying as hard as I can never to be boring. The scripts that I’ve always been drawn to are the scripts that have a very strong sense of voice. I decided I was more comfortable really painting the image for the reader so it felt like they were fully immersed in the world. Every story I tell I try to have a strong sense of time and place. I like the reader who reads “Mississippi Mud” to smell the humid air and feel the dirt under their nails.

I felt like I couldn’t accomplish that without getting very vivid in my description. I’ve faced criticism for it. I’ve been told that I overwrite and that directors don’t like when the writer does their job for them, which is true to an extent. It’s about finding that balance of breathing life into your world while, at the same time, not overwriting your script and boring your reader with too much context, too much description.

It’s something I still struggle with, to be honest.

Scott: I always tell people there’s some latitude. There’s a selling script and there’s a shooting script. A selling script, we’re just trying to engage that reader and pull them into that story universe and entertain them. Yes, the standard is now we don’t do camera shots or whatnot, but, like you do, you can suggest them with separate lines and whatnot.

Don’t you think we have a little more latitude with what you call a selling script?

Elijah: Absolutely. You’re right. As often as the old screenwriting books, which you called, for the most part, bullshit, they tell you not to do that. The scripts that people seem to connect with are scripts that pull them in and that make the read visceral and make the read enjoyable. I’m going to keep doing that as long as I can until someone forces me to stop.

Scott: What’s your actual writing process?

Elijah: I like going to a coffee shop. I like being able to watch people. I spend probably the first hour that I’m there just sitting listening to music on my headphones and watching people. When I’m writing a script I write every day because I’ve found that creativity is an elusive little bastard and 9 times out of 10 you sit down to write you’re not going to be able to find it.

It’s just a numbers game. If you sit down every day and force yourself to sit in a chair and force yourself to write something sooner or later you’re going to come up with something that you like. You might wake up the next morning and read it and hate it, but at least it was something you got down on the page and you can work off of.

On top of that, when I’m writing a script it’s intoxicating. I want to write. It’s the times between scripts that are difficult. When I’m writing a script I don’t sleep very much. I disappear from the world. I’m so focused and enraptured in the story and characters that it’s all that I’m really interested in doing at the moment.

Like you said, music is a big part of my inspiration. I always try to find a piece of music that is thematically in tune with what I’m writing at the moment.

Scott: One last question for you. What advice can you offer to aspiring screenwriters about learning the craft and breaking into Hollywood?

Elijah: As a writer, we try as hard as we can to avoid cliche, but my piece of advice is going to be cliche. It is to keep writing because that is the only way you’re going to get any better at writing. Keep writing, keep reading good material, and as you do that you will learn to trust your instincts. I really think that’s all writing is about, trusting your instincts. If you write something and think it’s bad it’s probably bad. If you write something that you think is good, you have at least a 50 percent chance that it is good.

Also, stay curious. I think the worst kind of writer is the kind of writer with nothing to say. Writers have to be curious by nature. Curious about life, curious about human beings, curious about what makes the world go around. As long as you’re curious, there will always be something to write and you’ll always be raising the right questions.

As far as breaking into Hollywood, I think everyone has a different story. I was fortunate enough to be working at a big agency so as soon as I had a script I could just give it to a buddy that sat next to me.

I’ve heard stories of people who were working at a factory out in Pennsylvania and they were able to get their scripts into the right hands and now they’re a big working screenwriters. I don’t think I’m in a position to tell you this is the one way to break into Hollywood. Stay persistent, stay hungry, stay curious and something will happen.

To read Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Part 5, here.

Elijah is repped at Verve and Kaplan / Perrone.

Twitter: @BynumElijah.

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