Postby The Anti-Archon » Fri May 12, 2017 1:22 pm
I started writing in a screenplay form, scripting comic books that my best friend would draw. I was a giant nerd when I was a kid and played a ton of Dungeons and Dragons. That was where I cut my teeth on world building and writing. Once in high school, I "got serious" and started writing awful horrible poetry and really bad articles for the school newspaper and occasional short stories, one of which I am still sort of proud. When I went off to college, I took a fiction writing class almost as a lark because I thought I was going to go into computer science. It turned out I hated the advanced math necessary to go anywhere in engineering and barely escaped those classes with my GPA intact. I loved my fiction writing class where I wrote four different stories that I really thought were good (at the time). I took a screenwriting class the next semester and changed my major to English, you know for all those big English jobs out there.
I absolutely loved screenwriting. It became my passion and I sincerely wanted to move to Hollywood and become the next Tarantino. After college, I did wind up moving to California, but it didn't quite go as planned. That's where I wrote my first novel. The difference between screenwriting and novel writing is that you don't get to quickly describe visuals for a director to interpret later. Everything that happens in a novel comes down to your command of the language. Word choice is incredibly important. It can be grueling. However, Maya Angelou (one of the world's most celebrated poets BTW) is correct. Once you open yourself up to the voices of your characters, they start to speak through you. Like any exercise, you have to get into a daily groove where the muse or whatever it is begins to talk to you. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
I finished that novel which was all dark and depressing and Bukowski-esque and got very disappointed when it went nowhere. Quit writing for a time afterwards. Moved back to Michigan and started grant writing for a nonprofit. Been doing that more or less ever since. When I met my wife, she re-ignited my passion for writing and we collaborated on another novel. That one is a DaVinci Code-esque potboiler that I thought would be more marketable. Still didn't sell. C'est la vie.
After that, I had kids and became a director at my current nonprofit and time has sort of gotten away from me. I've half-started other projects, but never seen them through. Of course, I did win that three-way tie for 2015 Poster of the Year at EY.com, so that's a feather in my cap, lol.
In the end, I like the freedom of novel writing more than the strict structure and reliance on someone else to complete your vision necessary with screenwriting. However, it is a lot harder. To put together 100,000 words on anything takes six months minimum for me, and that is the minimum length a publisher will consider for adult fiction. That is working on it 6 days a week straight. I can't do seven days a week or I go nuts. I have to give myself a day where I don't have to sit in front of the screen and lose myself. I can really only do that for an hour at a time and I feel drained afterward. I really do feel like it is channeling something that is not within me, but outside in the ether. Out in the psychsophere, if you will. It's a complete sacrifice of yourself while you are in that mode, like meditation, but with more exertion and no peace. And yet, sometimes I am compelled to do it, even though other times I have to force myself.
Anyway, if you are interested in ever trying novel writing, Stephen King's book "On Writing" is the best thing I ever read. He's a goddamn freak of nature, though, so I try not to compare my struggling attempts with his prolific output. But his tips and advice are invaluable. As for screenwriting, Lawrence Kasdan wrote a book that really helped me back in the day. I don't remember it's title, but it's good.
Anyhoo, there's my two cents on writing. Time to do some actual work.
