Dispatch From The Quest: Troy Klith

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: Troy speaks to the value of a workshop environment:

Everyone seemed to have a love/hate relationship with this week’s brainstorming exercise. We hated it because it was a lot of work, but loved it because we all gained insights into our story universe and its characters.

For me, the best way to come up with new ideas is to be out and about, and so I’ve made a habit of carrying a little, hand-held recorder with me to capture my thoughts. This can be very awkward if you get caught sneaking off at your 5-year-old’s playdate whispering covertly in a corner about how his best friend’s father has a mannerism that would be perfect for the psychopath in your screenplay. (Mark, if you’ve somehow found this blog and are reading this, that didn’t happen. I’m just trying to make a point about carrying the recorder around in public.)

Also, if anyone has used one of these tiny recorders to capture notes, you know how time-consuming it can be to transcribe the comments. Needless to say, I didn’t get most of my thoughts down in my brainstorming document. And, if you’re like me, you’re forced to endure the humiliation of listening to yourself excitedly whisper something like, “OK, OK, OK… (heavy breathing from my brisk, morning walk)… what if… instead of stumbling… (heavy breathing)… she like… you know… (heavy breathing)… does sort of a… (heavy breathing, followed by a soft, embarrassed greeting to a confused passerby… my voice takes on a whisper)… where was I?” The recorder turns off, then clicks on again with a bunch of jostling. “OK… what if… instead of stumbling, she… (heavy, excited breathing)… she does sort of a… like… you know… fast fall!”

I want to shout to myself, “Spit it out, damn it! Get to the effing point!” My second thought is, “is my voice really that whiny?” Of course, there’s also that confusion, wondering what the hell I was so excited about. Fast fall? What does that even mean, Troy?

Despite all of this, I did make a lot of progress on my story. Our teleconference, while long, was also really useful. Everybody later said they ended the call eager to dive back into their story. This happened to me, too. The problem is it wasn’t my story, it was Christian’s.

My first post to him was just an explanation of something I hadn’t articulated very well in our teleconference. But that thought quickly spiraled into another… and another…. and another, until I felt it necessary to begin my posts with an apology. I have no idea if any of my comments were helpful to Christian. I suspect a lot of my insights were met with the feeling a football coach might have if somebody who’s never watched the game pulls him aside and says, “You know what you might consider: what if one player threw the ball to another player?!!”

Regardless of whether any of my comments were helpful for Christian, it was definitely helpful for me. It allowed my creative mind to run away from my story and into another one for a while. This is pretty common, especially for me, but usually I run into another one of my own stories. The problem with that is it takes me longer to pull out and return to the story I should be working on. I embark on what Scott’s described as the “shiny object syndrome.” So what I learned this week, aside from the several story nuggets in my brainstorming, is that a writing group can be a great way to keep your creative juices flowing while also taking a break from your own story. Thanks, Christian.

The Quest writers, both this year and last, have done an excellent job with workshopping each other’s stories, embracing the spirit of constructive critique. Here is what I post and what we discuss at the beginning of every workshop I run:

A professional screenwriter knows how to give and accept critiques on written material. This is called constructive critique. What that means for this course is two-fold: I expect you to give honest feedback on your classmate’s writing assignments. A second and equally important element of constructive criticism is that I also expect you to provide creative suggestions as to how to possibly improve the material.

The goal is to create a positive evaluative environment. This does not mean everything you say about your classmates’ writing has to be spunky and upbeat. As I say, I expect you to provide honest feedback. If something doesn’t work for you, then as a professional, it is your responsibility to convey your thoughts.

Posting the comment “It sucks” does not qualify as constructive critique. Why? Because you haven’t specified what you perceive the issue/problem to be. Honest feedback not only requires honesty from you, but also some specific evaluation of the material in question.

Now I understand none of us likes to be critiqued. But please get this point: Critique is not the same as criticizing. It is, rather one person’s honest assessment of the material, not the writer.

So a writing mantra: “Always critique the material, not the writer.”

That’s that about honest feedback. But we don’t leave it there. As part of constructive critique, I expect you to do your best to follow up your assessment of the material with creative suggestions as to how to make the material better. This is critical in part because it helps to ensure a positive evaluation experience in our online classroom, and also forces you to become a better critical thinker.

It’s simple to take pot shots at material. It is not nearly as easy to come up with creative suggestions to make the scene, story, or characters work better.

Robert Towne, screenwriter extraordinaire who wrote Chinatown, among many other scripts, made this comment: “In rewriting what you have to be able to do is read a piece of material, say what’s wrong with it, know how to say what’s right with it, and then be able to do it yourself. That’s really what it comes down to. Some people say what’s wrong with something, some people can even say what’s right with it, and some people can do all three. But, you know, the more things that are required, the fewer people can do it. I think I can do it.”

A big reason to engage in constructive critique is so that you can learn to do all three.

And so yet another mantra. Regarding constructive critique: “Say what’s right with it, say what’s wrong with it, then say what you’d do to make it work better.”

It is important that each one of you engage in active constructive critiques on every assignment. Your feedback will not only benefit your classmates, the process of formulating your opinion will improve your own creative understanding of screenwriting.

If you have a group consisting of quality writers, it’s amazing what can transpire. And as noted above, the benefit goes both ways: The recipient of the feedback derives analysis and suggestions to improve their script while the person doing the critiquing flexes their critical analytical muscles.

Writing is hard. Sometimes just having someone else to bounce story ideas around with can be such a relief… and inspiration.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

About Troy: Born Midwesterner with heart in San Francisco, but nothing beats NYC. Entrepreneur. Writer. Lover of the underdog. Grateful father of 3. @troyklith.

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