I get asked all the time what things annoy me about the scripts I read, so it seems only fair to turn that question back on you guys. What about your own writing annoys you?
C'mon! Be honest.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
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Good god, man.
ReplyDeleteHow about my action lines being too sparse, leaving no room for my voice?
Or my dialogue is too on-the-nose?
Or my concept is something I am passionate about, but it doesn't seem commercial?
Asking writers to critique themselves is opening a Pandora's Box of neuroticism.
Fuck it. I'm writing three pages and going to bed.
(Great Twitter session btw.)
Damn you...
I get stuck prettying stuff up in the initial pass when I should be plowing ahead to the end. Tantamount to polishing a turd. Need to develop the discipline to let it suck at first.
ReplyDeleteNot spending long enough on the brainstorming and outlining phase. Always suffer for it later...
ReplyDeleteContinuity. Gets me every time.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anybody who writes a 60pg TV or 11pg movie script in one sitting, so like every other writer here I attack my scripts piecemeal, about ten pages a session (on a good day).
So what I'm always finding is that I'll contradict little details, forget stuff that's already happened, do a little accidental retcon, all the stuff that we as viewers/readers mercilessly lambast when we see it happening.
What I need is a little Continuity Imp whose job it is to hover near my keyboard and yell 'NO YOU FOOL ALISON IS ALREADY AT THE GAS STATION' whenever I'm about to write something that doesn't belong. Although if that's all he said then I may need a new imp.
I of course meant 110pg movie script. Nobody's THAT concise :P
ReplyDeleteJust finding the time to work on my script and fretting over whether or not it's a good enough story.
ReplyDeleteBeating about the bush. But I like editing, and the longer I've been away from a scene, the easier it is to see how I took twice or three times as long as necessary to get to the point. But I have a bad habit of getting distracted and editing what I've already written before writing more, until I run out of time in that sitting and have written nothing new.
ReplyDeleteProvided too much info... not skipping ahead... trying to provide answers instead of raise questions...
ReplyDeleteshould be... **providing** too much info/detail...
ReplyDeleteToo much clunky scene description.
ReplyDeleteNot being able to describe a scene as vividly as i'd like it to be.
ReplyDeleteNot writing enough detail in my outlining and rewrite notes because I think "of course I'll remember every thought, it's so obvious." Then a month later trying to figure out what my cryptic notes mean.
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ReplyDeleteI have a tendency to make act 3 an "apology tour": my characters say they're sorry and then everything should be okay, right? Too bad that only takes a page. :) I now try to think of act three as a FINALE rather than just a RESOLUTION.
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