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 does something I thought would never be possible: Discuss screenwriting style while referencing Pokémon:
I’ve always thought the concept of Voice, or Narrative Voice was a nebulous one. In screenwriting I know it’s a good thing when someone tells you, “You have a strong, fresh voice,” but when you ask someone, “so how do I achieve a strong voice?” They’ll tell you it’s something you have or you don’t.
I have a book on the Japanese language called, Flip, Slither, and Bang. It’s a book that details Japanese sound and action words, something that’s not that common in English, but I think is one of the more fun aspects of the Japanese language. It’s a type of onomatopoeia used frequently to express sounds, a condition, or even a state of emotion. For instance, doki doki is the sound of a heart beating, possibly implying nervousness; pika pika is a term that describes something that sparkles (for those of you familiar with Pokémon, Pikachu is a derivation of this term); and fuwa fuwa describes something soft and fluffy. Being able to use these words will make your Japanese sound more natural. For some reason, I kept thinking of these words and this particular book after reading the lectures on Narrative Voice and Style this week. I then realized it’s because having a strong Narrative Voice and Style is like having flip, slither, and bang.
In terms of screenwriting, I think I can safely say that it’s a form of writing that seems to have a lot of rules. No more than 120 pages unless it’s a period piece. Or you’re Aaron Sorkin. 100 pages (or less) if it’s a comedy (but more than 85!). Watch your margins, Courier font, First Act break at p. 27. Inciting incident by p. 15. Make sure there’s not a single –ly in the script. Sound familiar?
The lectures this week were a bit of a revelation to me. Some rules that I thought were hard and fast were being broken: take for instance:
“Only write what an actor can say (action) or do (dialogue).”
No! We can use psychological writing to enrich the story experience for a reader.
Narrative Voice is a poet… Poetry in scene descriptions… What??
I know for myself, if I get too hung up on the rules, a lot of the fun of language and writing disappears. I’m guilty of this — for my past three screenplays, I’ve had a list of “don’ts” that I go through and meticulously fix. And no, it’s not an especially fun process. What the Quest has reminded me of thus far is that writing and stories are fun. Yes, writing is fun, except for when it’s agonizing. But even then, it’s a kind of a fun agony, otherwise, why do we do it? I do believe, though, when you’re having fun writing, your reader will most likely have more fun reading. So whaddaya say? Let’s all agree to flip, slither, and bang away! (Wait, that came out weird…)
Re Pokémon: I know all about this hugely popular cultural phenomenon. My oldest son Will caught the first edge of the Pokémon phenomenon, my youngest son Luke the multiple TV and video game iterations. My personal favorite: Articuno.
Re screenwriting ‘rules’: Yes, we should learn the conventional wisdom of screenplay format and style. But in my view, that should never stand in the way of how we tell a story. We do what we need to do to convey the story the best we can.
Re poetry: Scene description is much more like poetry than prose. Vivid descriptors, strong verbs, lean visual writing. We don’t need to write complete sentences [check out today’s Scene Description Spotlight to see what I mean].
While you need to demonstrate you know what the hell you’re doing, you have the freedom to express yourself with regard to screenplay style. Trust me on this: Hollywood cares much more about your distinctive voice and creativity than it does your ability to write a script according to some set of supposed ‘rules’.
Tomorrow: Another Dispatch 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.