“Write what you know”

Perhaps the hardest thing for me when it comes to script writing is coming up with an original and imaginative story concept.

 I’ve personally had more experience and am thus more comfortable with journalistic writing and documentary-style film. I am used to conducting interviews and creating stories based on fact. It is therefore more of a challenge for me to rely on my imagination when I am so used to documenting truth.

So what makes a good story? How can I improve my capacity to come up with compelling characters and plots?

 In our class exercises so far, the prompters have certainly helped my ability to write freely in a script format (being provided with a character and action to base your script around). In these instances however, I find myself less passionate about the stories and characters. I do not necessarily feel a connection to the story, and this is likely to be shown through my writing.

I interviewed a young writer/director recently and he gave me some inspiring advice.

“Write what you know,” he told me

As a filmmaker, the ultimate goal is to resonate with an audience; to make a connection; to create something people will want to watch again. It becomes difficult to do this however if we write stories way out of our depth – stories based on something we have no knowledge of, experience with or exposure to.

“I find that a lot of young filmmakers forget that they’re are in their 20s… So tell 20-year-old stories. ‘Cause if you can identify with an audience, your film’s got more integrity and it will be more successful,” he said. “Just draw from real life, and you’ll be surprised what you can make”

Makes sense, right? It made me feel at ease. Why not write what I know? Whether that be a simple case of boy meets girl, two people having a conversation in a café, or about the connectedness of a town. Good stories do not necessarily mean spies, superheroes and vampires. Real, genuine characters can be just as, if not more, powerful.

I feel like this misconception of elaborate narratives equating to quality has hindered my capacity to dive into scriptwriting in the past. The entire process has kind of made me nervous as I felt as though there’s more room for failure when you haven’t got facts to fall back on.  But maybe I can rewire my skills of documenting truth into my scriptwriting, by telling stories based on my own experience or stories I have personal connection with.

With this in mind, I hope to broaden my imaginative capabilities and write some damn good scripts.

PS: I hope that this rambling-style of blog is acceptable. I feel like the blogging format is more allowing of personal content like this, as sometimes I just like to let my mind run wild without necessarily stressing about research, formatting and the like.

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