Dispatch From The Quest: Sandy Leviton
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: Sandy found subtext in the plane ride from Hell:
I type this blog post from the distant, foreign land of Florida. Which feels appropriate for a week that we are focused on dialogue. Traveling is an amazing opportunity for writers — a chance to immerse yourself into different cultures, find new stories, and meet interesting characters. While I may only be in Florida, I have already had ample opportunities to study people. In fact, Disney World, which is where I am now, is one of the best places in the world to study personalities and dialects. It’s like one big international stew. And I am nomnomnom’ing it all up. Though it was the start of the trip that really steered me into the right mindset for this week….
This week’s study began on the plane ride over. I spent, what started out as a mostly smooth flight, reading our assignments on dialogue and subtext. By the time we got to Orlando, bad weather rolled in, causing extreme turbulence and our flight had to be rerouted to another airport. This is where it got interesting. We were stranded on the runway for three hours while the plane refueled and waited for the weather to clear. We were not allowed off the plane. During this time we had screaming babies, screaming adults, an overused toilet that eventually gave out, and minimal information as to what was going on other than they wanted to fly us back to Orlando. A fight even broke out causing the flight attendants to get onto the PA system and lecture the plane on civility and patience like we were unruly children. While stuck in my own personal hell, I had the chance to put our reading and writing exercises to work. Actually, it was one of the few things that kept me calm — having something interesting to focus on. I listened to how each person spoke, how they said it, and what I learned about their lives and who they are from the context of their dialogue. For example — the family behind me — they were local Floridians, specifically Orlando, which I learned through their comments when our plane was diverted. They were loud wise-crackers that sang their way through the vomit inducing turbulence. They didn’t have much of an accent, but the cadence of their speech indicated they were definitely local. This family was laid back, fun-loving, and at time obnoxious. All learned from their dialogue between themselves and with other passengers. Another man near us spoke with a smoothness, using slang but in a polite and understandable way. I learned he traveled a lot for work when he spoke about learning some construction skills while watching youtube videos and then said “Yeah, I do that all the time for jobs.” after another passenger asked if it was normal for him to do that. Then there was the group of toddlers a few rows back (seriously, like 6 of them) who squealed with delight every time the plane hit a bump and then the stressed nerves of the people around us not being able to take the alternately squealing and wailing toddlers. When the fight broke out, the woman that was on the defensive slurred her speech and over-reacted to everything. When she started yelling at her husband to come to her defense and that he’d “pay for it later”, I was able to use the subtext and learned they have a volatile, possibly abusive relationship and she may be an alcoholic.
Our focus this week was on how dialogue shapes story and character; what we learn from style and subtext — how it creates individuals. This may have been the plane ride from hell, but it couldn’t have been a better study in dialogue and subtext. Sometimes the universe has such a grand sense of humor.
Per Sandy’s last observation, I wrote a line back in my stand-up days: “Life is a joke… and we are the punch line.”
Of more relevance, what Sandy demonstrated while being stuck on that airplane is a writer’s sensibility: Be aware of and absorb what is going on around us. You never know when inspiration might strike.
In Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s character demonstrates this instinct in a short scene:
Whether the plane ride from Hell, a nice day at the park, or anywhere, we can stop, look and listen to what’s going on around us, and find fuel for our creativity… and subtext in dialogue.
Sandy, we hope you had a blast at Disney World and a nice boring flight back to L.A.!
Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.
About Sandy: Bostonian that learned how to pronounce “R’s” upon moving to LA. A lefty that loves the unusual. Dreams of owning a taxidermy dodo bird. @scriptchix & @lil_sjl.
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