5 Screenwriting Skills: #3 — Experience
[Originally posted March 20, 2013]
During the nearly 5 years I’ve run this blog, I have been privileged to do one-on-one interviews with a number of screenwriters, especially this year as I set a goal to post a Q&A per week for 2013.
Over the course of those interviews, it’s been fascinating to learn the variety of approaches to the craft, yet at the same time how certain themes recur.
Recently I was struck by five personality traits and five skill sets that keep popping up. So I thought it would be helpful to do a series, a checklist if you will, of aspects of things we should be mindful of as we develop as screenwriters. Today:
Screenwriting Skill #3: Experience
Yesterday in reference to Knowledge, I mentioned my screenwriting mantra: Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. And I noted how the first two fuel one’s Knowledge. Today we consider how the last one feeds the subject of today’s focus: Experience.
Obviously a screenwriter needs to put a certain amount of time into conjuring up ideas, developing stories, and pounding out pages. Whether it’s 10,000 hours, 100,000 pages, or 1,000,000 words, there is a kind of experience we can only have by writing… and writing a lot.
Billy Wilder and long-time writing partner I.A.L. Diamond
In that vein allow me to veer down memory lane. Before I was a screenwriter, I was a stand-up comic. And before I was a stand-up comic, I was a musician. In that capacity, I had the great pleasure of performing for 2 years with Pat Flynn [we went by Myers & O’Flynn]. After many years performing with the incomparable New Grass Revival, Pat was voted into the Hall of Fame by Frets magazine as an acoustic guitarist. Here you can get a taste of Pat’s incredible musicianship:
How did Pat get so good on the guitar? In part because of this. We lived in the same apartment complex down valley. And when I’d stumble over to his place after waking up about noon, I’d almost always see him positioned in front of his TV, watching a soap opera, endlessly practicing scales on his guitar, a sort of mindless repetition for hours on end. Day after day. Week after week. Then he would take that muscle memory and put it to use in our gigs night after night. Week after week.
So here’s the story. In 1978–1979, one of the many gigs Pat and I landed was at a club in Snowmass Village (Colorado) called The Last Resort where we performed apre ski before heading off to our nighttime engagements in Aspen.
As it turns out, the owner of The Last Resort had a teenage son who wanted to learn how to play electric guitar. Just a few minutes watching Pat perform convinced The Kid this dude slashing mad riffs on his Ovation guitar was going to be his personal musical guru.
Wanting to keep the boss happy, Pat agreed to give The Kid guitar lessons. At their first session, Pat gave The Kid some scales to practice.
At the second session, The Kid shows up. Pat asks, “Did you do you scales?” The Kid replies, “Nah.” “Why not?” The Kid said, “Checked out my favorite band Wishbone Ash. Man, their lead guitarist learned how to play his wicked guitar totally by dropping acid.”
Two choices: Work hard and practice scales or take acid and become a rock god.
Trust me, if you want to succeed as a screenwriter, the whole taking acid route is not the preferred path.
In my interviews and conversations with screenwriters, pounding out scripts is one common key: John Swetnam writing 17 scripts before landing a gig. Michael Werwie with 9 before winning the Nicholl. Carter Blanchard writing 15 drafts of “Glimmer” which went on to sell in a bidding war. This same refrain: You need to write to gain the experience necessary to succeed.
Of course, experience is not just about what you write. It’s also about how you live. You need a certain amount of living life to feed your creativity, your emotions, your soul.
But mostly it’s about writing pages. Find a story. Commit to it. And writing the hell out of it. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
That’s the main way you get experience.
Tomorrow: Screenwriting Skill #4: Voice.
5 Screenwriting Skills: #1 — Talent
5 Screenwriting Skills: #2 — Knowledge
From last week:
5 Screenwriting Traits: #1 — Passion
5 Screenwriting Traits: #2 — Courage
5 Screenwriting Traits: #3 — Consistency