Dispatch from The Quest: Jordan Earls
The Quest participants have been hard at work pounding out a first draft of their original screenplays, but Jordan has found the time to compose a dispatch for us:
I’ve missed the weekly podium and rambling about whatever pops into my head. I was recently diagnosed with ADD by a friend who wants to become a nurse someday (so, obviously, it was a serious prognosis). Looking back through my script journals of yester year it would make a lot of sense. That’s sort of how my brain functions, like a slightly more focused episode of Family Guy with less musical numbers.
Anyway, these last six weeks have been crazy. I’ve busted out almost all of my script. I’m only two movements away from writing FADE OUT. I don’t know how the time flew by so fast. Writing this script has been a revealing process for me.
After the first week, I wrote the first fifteen pages and it was rough. Writing felt rigid to me. I wasn’t giving myself any room for fun. It was at the end of that week that I added a stunt to my long list of awesome awkwardness. I had just clocked off from my glamorous job as a sales associate and was waiting for the max to take me home. If you’ve ever been to Portland, the max here is notorious for being late.
On this particular night, I waited almost eighty minutes before transportation finally arrived. To spare myself from total boredom I started talking to this guy who I noticed had a Green Lantern ring. Of course, Green Lantern isn’t my favorite of superheroes, but I figured he must be at least kind of cool (although my definition of cool can be questionable). Turns out, he was a really interesting dude. We had a long conversation on the max and I decided to do something I literally never do and made a move — I invited him to a party that weekend. It was my stop so after exchanging numbers, I wanted to seem smooth and enigmatic and left with, “Maybe I’ll see you this weekend.” My friends can tell you I’m neither. Like ever. I proceeded to the exit, but it wasn’t my stop. My stop wasn’t for another two minutes. So I stood by the exit doors, literally ten feet away from this guy, and waited for two whole minutes. Being the awkward fuck I am, I looked away, shook my head and tried to not laugh. Did I say anything else or even acknowledge him? Of course not. Smooth, right?
After that, I went home and sat down to write. Instead, I re-read the fifteen pages I already had. I kept going back and forth between the pages and rehashing the max scenario. Then, it hit me: if you were to ask any of my friends how they would describe me, it would probably be awkward. In fact, I would give someone $100 if they could prove they were more awkward than myself because I simply can’t fathom that it’s possible. Writing those first fifteen pages, I was glued to my outline. I didn’t give myself any room for expansion, exploration or fun.
That night, I rewrote those first fifteen pages, embracing my awkwardly hilarious point of view. And that night the script came alive for the first time. Characters and dialogue started jumping off the page, my voice started coming through and all I had to do was embrace my unique point of view. It might be advice you’ve heard over and over, but I think writing is the most fun when you’re most yourself — for the writer and the reader.
This speaks to tone. This speaks to narrative voice. This speaks to finding a synergy between you, your characters, and your story universe. But as Jordan notes, a critical aspect is you. As it happens, Jordan is writing a project where awkward is a premium, so in embracing her own “awkwardly hilarious point of view,” she has found that synergy.
How about you? Have you found that synergy? Hopefully you will. And that does make the writing more fun.
About Jordan: Portland based writer. Connoisseur of film with an affinity for Nolan, Boyle and Jackson. Twitter: @jordanpaige00.
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