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 deals with outlines and getting sick:
This was a tough week because our whole family got sick. My son went down first, then the rest of us quickly fell like dominoes. This usually happens maybe once a year, but this is the second time this summer so it felt especially grueling (must be Central America). Anyway, in addition to caring for kids, I spent most of the week sniffling, achy, exhausted and grumpy. Fortunately, everyone’s on the mend now and feeling a lot better. And back to school!
In the Quest, we finished our 10 major plotline points. We’d actually completed most of the work in previous exercises, so the assignment was relatively straight forward. Given my condition, I was happy I didn’t have to think too much. This won’t be the case next week.
When I opened the document describing the Narrative Throughline assignment, it was clear that it’s going to take a lot of thought. It reminded me of opening the box to the lego castle set I tried to build this week with my sick sons. All the little components have been organized and lined up for assembly, but putting them all together could get ugly.
Of course, the Narrative Througline is just a set of instructions for a blueprint of a final product (a movie), but still, it’s our first attempt to go from A to Z, which is exciting but also induces a little anxiety.
Here’s hoping that my assignment comes together as neatly as the lego set ultimately did, and that my finished screenplay is more entertaining than the castle was for my sons… hours of assembly and it ends with a curt “Hm. Is that it?”
Outlines are funny things. Some writers take to them like ducks to water, happy to break a story in prep, then leap into the page-writing part of the process. Other writers loathe them, preferring to discover the story after typing FADE IN.
As I say, there is no right way to write.
But if you have never worked from an outline, you owe it to yourself to do it at least once. Even if you’re reticent to do an outline, maybe you’ll surprise yourself as many of my students have over the years in discovering how helpful they are.
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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