The first piece of creative writing I remember completing that garnered positive feedback was a story about a country boy who grew up on a farm in a God-fearing Catholic home. The story followed his relationship with a girl from a poor estate in the rough town he attended school in, which was ultimately dismantled by his disapproving parents.
I was thirteen or fourteen years old at the time I wrote it. I knew nothing about themes and I didn’t feel like I was “saying” anything. It was an underlying, subconscious observation, or more accurately, a purge of something I had absorbed from the world around me.
The older I got, the more I came to realize that the town where I attended school was very definitely split between the haves and have-nots. My perception of the class struggles within this community was scant at best, given that I was an outsider who came and went and never really had to live in that town, but what became clear over the years is that the teacher who read it identified with it, and recognized it to be true.
If you want to be a screenwriter or any kind of creative writer the whole sum of what your job boils down to is one “simple” thing – what you write must have a ring of truth to it.
Beginner’s luck is beautiful, particularly if it strikes when you are attempting to make something of yourself. However, speak with any writer and they will likely acknowledge that in learning your craft one of the most challenging aspects is maintaining top priority for your storytelling instincts. You can learn structure, you can learn theme, you can learn character but if you ultimately trust the ABCs of how to write, as directed by someone else, then you will inevitably write like someone else and not in your own voice.
That’s not to say that those who teach writing have nothing to offer. There are some great mentors out there, those with a limitless passion for screenwriting, film and television, and if you are lucky enough to find one who wants to help you succeed, then your journey is at least a little less lonely, and the inevitable setbacks a little less brutal when they come – and trust me, they will no matter how good you are.
But your job is on the page. Forget yesterday’s ‘no’. Forget that you just spent a year developing and writing something that you’re not sure will find a champion anywhere ever. Every day that you turn up, you grow as a writer and you move one step farther away from slavishly trying to write something that isn’t you, and one step closer to channelling your inner voice and writing that thing that will define you in the market, and if you’re lucky introduce you to an audience someday.
So, you want to be a screenwriter? Sit down and write.
But if you find yourself at a loose end, or you’ve hit a wall, or if it’s just too hard to start again, drop me a line, because I’m likely going through – or have gone through – something very similar. Believe it or not, conversations with other writers can be a form of catharsis… and, if nothing else, will at least spare you the vacant looks of family and friends who aren’t even remotely interested in that second act twist you’ve been struggling to nail!
Email: niall@theartfulwordsmith.net