Twitter Rant: Gary Graham on Some Keys to Screenwriting
Tweetstorm: Gary Graham on Some Keys to Screenwriting
Last week, Gary Graham posted a tweetstorm about how he wrote and sold his spec script “A Garden at the End of the World” to Warner Bros. Subsequently Gary was hired to retrofit “Garden” to reboot I Am Legend. Gary’s saga told in tweets is a terrific object lesson in vision, passion, and perseverance. Reprinted in its entirety by permission.
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/634725152236941312
despite my best efforts, i could not get the script into anyone’s hands who wanted it. so i wrote another.
more attempts to connect with managers failed. so i wrote another. a western. spent months and months on it.
with a connection i had in the industry, we tried to get it in front of people. realized no one wants to make a western.
as this was happening, i was working simultaneously on a documentary to make ends meet. two years on this film with a billionaire…
…who was really into it, etc. once we were finished shooting, that billionaire brought in his son in law and they kicked me off the film.
with no job i started working at apple. mainly because 5th avenue is 24 hours. so i could continue to write in the day, work late at night.
so long hours of a) working a day job. b) writing my ass off.
i wrote yet another script, a monster movie that takes place aboard a subway train. small, contained horror. had a few bites on that one.
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/634727352992403457
Some days I wanted to toss that script in the garbage. I couldn’t crack it. I was so frustrated. And my day job was grinding me.
But I kept at it. And a few things happened to me. Mainly, I fell in love with my characters. And it was personal in some way.
I’m writing about a guy who feels isolated and alone. Who feels he’s lost his fucking soul.
And here I am working a job at Apple that I could have gotten when I was 19. And I have an MFA from Columbia.
It was an incredibly difficult time of self reflection. What the hell am i doing with my life?
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/634728694540595200
I’m spilling this because I’ve been reading a lot of the same frustration I felt and hey… still feel.
So today is friday. if you’re feeling defeated or down, pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
Get off twitter and go talk to the people you love… the characters in that script you’re writing. And pour your heart and soul into it.
And forget all the rest of this shit and drama going on here. It’s a distraction from what you need to be doing.
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/634730721710632962
Passion. Find a story you are passionate about writing… and write that. That not only ups the odds you will actually drag your ass onto chair day after day that you’ll get to FADE OUT, it’s also that passion which will hopefully find its way into your words, then lift those words off the page, and into imagination of the script’s reader.
This isn’t part of Gary’s rant, but it’s such a great story from his days at the Apple store, I’ve got to include it:
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/635173725944586245
this elderly german woman comes in. big frown on her face. i sit down with her. she is not happy.
her grandson convinced her to buy a computer. but she can’t use it. what the hell does she need it for. it’s a paper weight.
i asked her question after question, looking for something she might need it for. then invited her to return it.
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/635174320386482176
so i said. where were you born. she tells me. some small village in germany. i say, when was the last time you were there?
she says, last time she was there was when she was 15. never been back.
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/635174725766004736
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/635174788173037570
I love this story obviously for the human emotion involved, but there are a lot of writing takeaways from this tiny little anecdote:
* Characters are everywhere: Every single person we intersect with can be an inspiration for our creativity. We just have to keep our eyes and ears attuned to that frequency.
* Questions are key: Notice how Gary kept asking the woman questions, digging and digging, trying to find something with which he could make a connection for her and the computer. Likewise when dealing with our characters, I’ve found curiosity exhibited in questions is the most important tool we have in unlocking the mysteries of the individuals who inhabit our stories.
* Look for moments: One of my favorite writing quotes comes from Anne Beattie who said, “People forget years and remember moments.” That’s how I most remember movies: Its memorable moments. So as we go through life, the millions of moments we have over the years, be aware and sensitive to those which can spark a scene… give us dialogue… perhaps inspire an entire story.
Like helping out an old woman with her computer… and suddenly taking her home again.
By the way, you may be asking how did Gary get “A Garden at the End of the World” in front of Hollywood buyers? He uploaded the spec to the Black List website where it caught the attention of Brooklyn Weaver, a manager at Energy Entertainment, and CAA. The rest, as they say, is history.
To read all of the screenwriting Twitter rants I’ve aggregated on GITS, go here.