Daily Dialogue — November 6, 2015

“To begin… To begin… How to start? I’m hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana-nut. That’s a good muffin.”

— Adaptation. (2002), screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, book by Susan Orlean

The Daily Dialogue theme for the month: Writers and Writing.

Trivia: Based on writer Charlie Kaufman’s struggle to adapt the best-selling book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean. Kaufman quickly got into a writer’s block, since the book lacked the dramatic structure needed for a movie. So he decided to write a screenplay about himself struggling to write a book adaptation, exaggerating many of the story elements and characters, and making up new ones (such as a non-existent twin brother, “Donald Kaufman”). Knowing that the producers would reject the idea, he did not tell them about the new direction he was taking the story in, and simply handed in the finished script. Although this move was supported by Spike Jonze, Kaufman himself believed it would end his career (it didn’t).

Dialogue On Dialogue: In my view, this is the paradigmatic writer’s scene. Ass successfully deposited in chair. And then the voices in our head start their insidious efforts at stopping us from writing.

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