Dispatch From The Quest: Miranda Sajdak
Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one 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: Miranda talks about wanting to see more three-dimensional women characters and a trip to Nashville:
Once again, it’s been another eventful Quest week. This week, our focus was on brainstorming. We both felt like we’d been brainstorming for months — but it was actually really revealing to sit down and do a solid brainstorm on our own. We each came up with new/different ideas that hadn’t occurred to us in the past, and allowed us to really get a lot out there on the page. There are a number of things that we’re still unclear on — certain character archetypes aren’t fitting as organically as others into our world — but, that said, we’re peeling back the layers to see what might work in the context of our story.
I also had a creatively inspiring week in other arenas; one of the scripts that Sandy and I optioned had a really solid, fun rewrite. We enjoyed getting to look over the new pages, and were excited about the changes made.
I also found inspiration earlier this week, when my fiancee and I sat down to finish Season 3 of BORGEN. Talk about compelling female characters! I know Scott posted a Twitter tirade with Mystery Exec a few weeks ago regarding screenwriters needing to craft more three-dimensional women in their writing. Definitely something Sandy and I find when we read scripts, and it was really refreshing to see so many complex women in one series. I’m finding more and more inspiration from overseas in that regard, as Europe seems to have a greater grasp of how to create multi-dimensional women (who aren’t prostitutes). Some great food for thought. The series also reminded me a bit of Christian’s story this week, and it was nice to see some affirmation of one of his leads’ emotional journeys.
This week was also eventful in that I made a cross-country trek to Nashville for the first time. My flight fell literally at the time of our regular Quest call, so I was sad to miss the weekly recap/discussion, but glad to get to venture out of the usual LA confines and take in a new city. When Sandy and I work with writers, we always encourage our clients to explore new venues — to get out of the confines of solitary writing, and go try something new. This weekend was definitely that for me, and I’m glad I got to experience a region I’ve never explored before. Within the first day, I got to do lots of Southern-y things. For instance: we were driven to the airport by a shuttle service called “Driving Miss Daisy.” You guessed it — the driver was an older black gentleman. Don’t get me started on my reaction to that one. We also got to eat in cafes with guitars on every wall — and, of course, a restaurant with taxidermied animal heads all around. As a foodie, I was consistently caught between perplexed and intrigued — both by food and decor. The restaurant “Batter’d and Fried” seemed to sum up the options pretty nicely. I will say, though, that “southern hospitality” really is a thing. I haven’t had so many people ask how I’m doing in years — I keep expecting them to follow-up with a request for spare change. Tennessee really is its own world.
I’ll be glad to be back in LA, land of avocados-at-every-meal. It looks like next week is plot — and I’m sure to have lots of inspiring/strange stories on my return!
The post Miranda mentioned in which I aggregated a twitter rant by @MysteryExec can be found here. We absolutely need more multilayered, compelling female characters. Hell, we need multilayered, compelling characters of all kinds. And chances are about 99 to 1 the best way to do that is spend the time immersing ourselves in those characters’ lives. Then they become real to us.
But yes, more well-crafted female characters, please.
Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.
About Miranda: New Englander turned Angeleno by way of New York. Enjoys: high-powered action films, dark dramas, and ’90s legal thrillers. Does not enjoy: the dentist. Mushrooms. @ScriptChix.
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