This is my first installment of The Screenwriter’s Journal. The title series if you will. Of course I’ve already been blogging now for about half a year, most of which were movie reviews. But this is my personal work. A way for myself to document how much progress I actually make and allow you awesome readers to slam me if I accomplish nothing. So without furtherado, here I go:
This month I think I actually did an alright job at screenwriting. I made decent progress on my Napoleon story, which I’ve now put on hold. I completed a short story, and plan to finish the second draft by mid-March.
I’ve also started an entirely new project, which has become my main focus. For future reference let’s call this Project A. Unlike previous works of mine, and I suggest all readers apply this to their own work, I’ve actually started writing lengthy a lengthy for my main protagonist. I’ve accomplished about seven pages of his backstory, his general life and world views. I have yet to really indulge in writing the screenplay other than the first couple pages, but I can already tell that by having written as much as I did already, that my writing will be better for it. Though I’ve always been against lengthy, overdetailed outlines, I try to have as good an understanding as possible for my characters. A good example of this tactic would be Tarantino, who writes and let’s the story develope naturally as he writes it.
I plan to use this tactic of extensive backstory writing on other characters too. Sure, minor characters won’t have the luck of getting this treatment, but core, important characters will. So while my main characters and villains will be given backstories, I’m afraid the background waiter at a burger chain I made up so that I could one day have my own cinematic universe will not.
I cannot tell you much about Project A. Not right now anyways. It’s set to take place in rural Virginia and the main protagonist is named Matthew, who has some questionable morals. That’s all I’ll say for now.
-The Screenwriter
Rest in peace Christopher Plummer