Dispatch From The Quest: Waka Brown
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: Waka muses about story prep… and doughnuts:
As I hoped, I’m feeling back on track this week. I’m continuing to brainstorm since I don’t feel like I’ve “broken” my story quite yet. And here and there, I’m finding some fascinating information, my fellow Questers are giving me great suggestions, and I really feel like this intensive focus on prep and theory are helping me develop a story I can be proud of. I think when we write by ourselves (at least for me), it’s easy to shy away from the challenging stuff. With the Questers though, we’ve been honing in on areas that need work, characters whose motives might not make sense, untangling knots, challenging developments, offering options. It’s an environment in which I feel we are as excited about helping another Quester out as much as we are at finding something that works for our own stories. It’s a strange feeling — we haven’t so much as typed “FADE IN” and I feel like everyone’s stories have already transformed so much. If this is the first half, I can’t wait to see what the second half brings! Hopefully doughnuts. Scratch that. Doughnuts are my kryptonite.
Interesting that Waka mentions doughnuts. I’ve just wrapped up a week working with six writers selected for the first Black List Screenwriters Lab in Las Vegas, mentored by Brian Koppelman, Jenny Lumet, Billy Ray, Kiwi Smith and myself, and workshop sessions there involved a variety of food items to help fuel the process. Healthy stuff like apples and granola to the more ‘traditional’ items one might expect, chips and candy.
That got me thinking about the connection between writing and snacks. I remember reading an interview with a writer — Neil Simon perhaps? — in which he said he used food as a device to motivate him to write. When I finish this scene, I can have some Fritos. Seems silly, right? But I’ll bet each of us can relate, using some sort of external ‘prize’ to help push us along when pounding out pages, whether it’s M&M’s, a cappuccino or a Jack Daniels on the rocks.
My go-to favorite is pretzels, just a little something to munch on every couple of hours.
How about you? What are your favorite writing snacks? Do you use them to motivate you? Or are they just fuel for the process?
In any event, I’ve got these virtual doughnuts to give to Waka when she finishes her actual first draft:
Next week: More Dispatches From The Quest.
About Waka: Kansan turned Californian turned Oregonian. Fan of Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, Richard Curtis, Tina Fey (who isn’t?), & I still use a $30 Tracfone @wakatb.