1st Person: Kelly Fremon Craig

The writer-director of “The Edge of Seventeen” talks creative process.

The Edge of Seventeen is a wonderful teen comedy written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig. If you didn’t catch it in movie theaters, check it out once it hits VOD. Definitely worth a watch.

In this Los Angeles Times first person article, Craig discusses a key fork-in-the-road in her creative process in writing the script for the movie:

There are only two drafts of “The Edge of Seventeen,” but the second one is so wildly different from the first you’d have a hard time believing they’re even the same project.

My first draft was slick, heightened, ironic, each scene squeezed for every last joke I could wring out of it. I was proud of that script, and I was proud of those jokes. I was even prouder when we sent it to my comedy idol, Jim Brooks, and he agreed to produce it and let me direct.

I had no idea that when we sat down for one of our first meetings, he would give me a piece of advice that would so radically, permanently change my perspective as a writer I’d want to chuck everything I’d ever written into the ocean and start over from scratch.

Here’s what he said to me:

“The most important thing you have to figure out is what you want to say about life in this story.”

It was simple and maybe even obvious, but it rearranged my entire universe.

Another way of asking a similar question is this: What do you want the audience to feel when they walk out of the theater?

Craig reflects on how she spent weeks writing “long, rambling stream-of-consciousness journals” as she dug into her story:

It’s not about laughs, Kelly. Write what matters to you, write what gnaws at you at night, write what you’re scared of, write what hurts.

Check out these clips from the movie and you’ll see where Craig ended up:

Takeaway: What do YOU want that story you’re writing to say about life? What do YOU want an audience to feel when they see your movie?

Good questions to ask. Good. Damn. Questions.

For the rest of the L.A. Times article, go here.

Twitter: @KFremonCraig, @EdgeOf17.