Dispatch From The Quest: Meet Ben Odgren

Over the course of the 24 weeks I will be working with the writers in “The Quest,” I will be posting ‘dispatches’ from them to the GITS community. There are several reasons for this, the main one being educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers.

I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today I would like to introduce Ben Odgren:

Ben Odgren lives in Rockport, Maine — a little town almost smack-dab on the middle of the coast. He’s worked at a nonprofit organization for the past four years giving out scholarships to high school students who live on the Maine islands. He’s shown up seasick to at least one meeting. Huge screens, good sound, eager audiences, and wildly entertaining movies with heart and brains are a few of his favorite things.

Here is Ben’s first dispatch from his Quest experience:

It’s taken a while for me to realize this, but it’s crazy how important persistence is. I’ve been writing screenplays since I graduated college in 2004. In the eight years between now and then I’ve written about 20 scripts. A lot of them are terrible — especially the early ones. Overly descriptive. Too long. Too short. Characters who go nowhere. The list goes on.

But being persistent has taught me a lot of things, both about the craft of screenwriting and about myself. Part of being persistent is being patient. Two things that don’t necessarily seem to jive. Compared to my many attempts at learning how to play guitar (three days of practice trying to switch between D and C followed by six months of being frustrated I didn’t show immediate improvement), sticking with screenwriting for eight years seems like a downright miracle. Fortunately, improvement is all but certain after that length of time.

Persistence forced me to identify why I keep trying in the first place. For all I know not a word I write could make it to the screen. It comes down to this: storytelling is fun. It’s fun even when it’s not fun. The rush of scrawling that great idea on the nearest piece of scrap paper. When it’s two in the morning and you can’t stop writing, or when it’s two in the morning and you can’t decide what the next word should be. The idea that had me rushing for the scrap of paper is what got me into The Quest in the first place.

One week in and I feel incredibly lucky to be discussing the craft of screenwriting with writers who have their own aspirations and ideas about storytelling. It’s challenging, fun, and thought-provoking. It’s also probably pretty thought-provoking for the guy who hooked up my cable while I wasn’t here and had to walk by the cork board with all my script research pinned to it. It’s gotta make me look like a crazy, amateur scientist. Should hide that thing when I’m expecting company…

If you have any questions or comments for Ben, feel free to post them in comments.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

For background on “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” go here and here.

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