Reader Question: How can a screenwriter find their own voice?
An Open Forum question via email from Mahmoud:
How can a person finds his own voice and not copy other writers and artists?
Insofar as we’re talking about mainstream Hollywood movies, I don’t consider screenwriting to be an art; I think of it as a craft. So while a writer’s voice may be an important part in contributing to and defining a screenwriter’s career, there are many other aspects of the craft — like a keen grasp of story structure, the ability to write distinctive and compelling characters, a great ear for dialogue, the ability to work with others, handle criticism, and sort out good story suggestions from bad ones — that are of equal or even greater importance.
One has to acknowledge that a Quentin Tarantino script is going have a different voice than a Diablo Cody script which is going to have a different voice than a Shane Black script which is going to have a different voice than a Charlie Kaufman script — and so on. However if I had to guess, I’d say that there are perhaps 50 screenwriters whose style and voice are so distinctive, you can recognize them from their script pages straightaway. And even if that small group of screenwriters is noteworthy, my hunch is that while a studio executive would be interested in a writer to bring their unique perspective and slant on a project, they are typically much more concerned that the writer turn in a strong draft that moves the project forward — distinctive voice or not.
With that as a preamble, let me say three things re the subject of a screenwriter’s voice.
Learning a craft and developing your own sense of style requires you to study the ‘masters.’ Per screenwriting, that means you should read professional quality screenplays and watch all sorts of movies. Immerse yourself in that world so you can bounce up against a wide variety of stories, screenwriters, and styles, see what you like and don’t like.
The second thing is you take what you learn and you experiment with it in your own writing. That’s one of the things I encourage my students to do in our classes: Test out different styles. For example, this Wednesday in class, we’ll be looking at the script for Wall-E, featuring a ‘haiku style’ of writing.
Wally’s head rises out of the dirt.
Glows red hot from the heart.
Trembles with fright.
Everything in shadow.
Something very big looms over him.
Wally climbs out of his hole.
Bangs his head on metal.
WIDE on a massive SPACESHIP.
Rests ominously in the empty bay.
A PORTAL on its underside opens.
Frightened, Wally tries to hide.
Nowhere to go.
He places a SMALL ROCK on his head. Boxes up.
A DEVICE lowers to the ground on a long stem.
Scans the surface.
Wally creeps closer for a better look.
The device unfolds.
Wally boxes up again.
A CAPSULE descends from a chute in the stem.
ROBOT ARMS emerge from the device.
Place the capsule on the ground. Press buttons.
The capsule falls away in sections, to reveal…
…a PROBE ROBOT.
It hovers gracefully above the ground.
White. Egg-shaped.
Blue-lit eyes.
Female.
Eve.
Wally is transfixed.
Inches closer.
Watches Eve from behind the device.
Tilts his head.
Time stops.
She’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
Screenwriter Andrew Stanton was inspired by the script for Alien — I posted on the subject here — and found that this ‘Haiku style’ provided the perfect form for the narrative voice for Wall-E.
And that leads to my third point: While some writers will develop a voice that is unique to them and consequently shape all of the stories they write to reflect that voice (think Kurt Vonnegut and Elmore Leonard), screenwriters have to be especially concerned with matching the style they choose with the genre they’re writing. That’s my ‘formula’ for what I call Narrative Voice, your script’s invisible character:
Genre + Style = Narrative Voice.
I wrote an article re this for Screentalk magazine which you can read here.
So you can think about the concept of ‘finding your voice’ in two ways: Finding that unique combination of style and attitude that defines your writing in a distinctive, determinative way, or finding the voice that best fits each story you write. And per the latter, the challenge is not only to come up with a narrative voice that works, but also one that contributes to the entertainment value of the script.
An excellent example of this is (500) Days of Summer, written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber. I did an analysis of the script here. Per their narrative voice, the writers made a conscious decision that the voice they used for the script was a risk-taking one. And that voice starts — even before FADE IN:
The title page, then the next page: “NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A WORK OF FICTION. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.” Next page: “ESPECIALLY YOU JENNY BECKMAN.” Next page: “BITCH.” That could either come off as too cute by half… or make you laugh. I laughed. Out loud. If a script can make you laugh out loud before FADE IN, that’s a good start.
In sum, three things:
* Learn from the ‘masters’ by reading great scripts and watching great movies. In other words, immerse yourself in the world of cinematic storytelling.
* When you write pages, test out various styles to determine what resonates with you — and what does not.
* While it’s a worthy goal to try to ‘find your voice,’ don’t forget that each genre, even each story will require its own distinctive narrative voice.
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