Dispatch from The Quest: Brandon Cohen

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the subject of Time. Today’s dispatch: Brandon Cohen reflects on a different aspect of time in relation to screenwriting:

This past week was our final week of Core, and I officially graduated! Unfortunately, there was no throwing of caps, our group pact to lose our virginity before prom was an utter failure, and as of this writing I have yet to receive any graduation gifts (please forward this to my Mom as a hint). It was an exciting and enlightening couple of weeks to really immerse myself in all things screenwriting, and I think that the Quest has truly been a godsend for me. I anticipate that I’ll now be able to just sit back, relax, and wait for the checks and accolades to roll in.

If the script I end up writing doesn’t end up generating any heat, what I do have from the Quest, which nobody can take away from me (save some type of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind memory eraser), is a process. A process and a checklist of things I need to do before diving into the actual writing of my story.

I have a tendency to be very impatient when it comes to any activity. I remember when I was in 5th grade, I joined the hockey team at my school. I was so amped up to hit pucks with sticks I could hardly contain myself. To my extreme chagrin, we spent the first month not even touching a stick! It was all about the fundamentals of skating. “I didn’t sign up for figure skating I signed up for hockey,” is what I probably said to a friend with a cool choreographed high-five over an intense game of Pogs. I got so fed up with the not playing hockey aspect of learning hockey that I just straight up quit. I did the same thing with guitar. “Wait, I have to sit in my room and learn stuff?! But I want to serenade girls with The Verve Pipe’s ‘Freshman’ NOW!” So, I quit that too. My closet in my parent’s house is filled with tons of physical reminders of potential talents that were never realized.

The Quest is forcing me to really take the time to flesh out my story before diving in. It’s obviously a bit frustrating to have what you think is a great concept, and you know where you want to go with it, but for the benefit of the story you have to stop yourself from writing prematurely. Core has been like stretching before the warm ups. Nobody likes stretching. It’s boring, it hurts, and all your friends are already shooting around and you’re the only idiot still standing on the sidelines. But, I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older and my body begins to fail me, as much as I hate stretching, it’s a necessary evil. Core has been my stretching, Prep will be my shooting around, and then Writing will be my game. If I want to play as well in the game as I know I’m capable of, I know that I need to take the necessary time to stretch and shoot around. I’m sorry, I’ll stop with the sports metaphors, I just desperately want to prove to you guys that I’m a man.

While I haven’t received a huge check from Hollywood quite yet, I have a lot to show from everything we did during Core. Not every writing exercise lead to some big breakthrough, but that’s okay. I had a huge eureka moment this week while doing one of the exercises, and I couldn’t believe it took me eight weeks to come to this realization. I shuddered to think how much my script would’ve suffered had I started writing it before figuring this out. As much as the actual writing is the reason we like to write, the Quest taught me that everything you do before you type FADE IN matters just as much, if not more.

True that. When writers approach me for advice as they finish their first full-length screenplay — How can I get an agent? How can I try to sell this? — this is what I tell them.

Slow down. Learn the craft. Know how to work like a professional.

Let’s say you write that first script. It’s great. You get it to a rep. They sign you. They send your script around town. You have meetings. In one of them, a producer tosses out an idea. You pick up on it. Brainstorming out loud. Producer loves your ideas. Soon you’re pitching to a studio exec. They’re wowed by your take.

Now here you are. In your lawyer’s office. Reviewing a contract for a writing gig. About to sign your name on a contract in which you are expected to deliver a draft in 8 or 10 weeks?

Are you ready for that kind of pressure?

Have you learned your shit?

If not, you can be in way over your head.

That’s a big reason why so much of The Quest is not just about writing a spec script, but about learning principles and practices of a professional screenwriter.

And that takes time.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch from The Quest.

About Brandon: NYC native, fan of all things comedy. I cry every time I watch Big Fish, Forrest Gump and Marley & Me. Don’t judge me. Twitter: @brandandco.