photo by Miikka Skaffari
My most significant professional work, prior to screenwriting, was writing radio commercials. I was good at it. Did it for twelve odd years; odd in both senses of the word. Along the way, I won a serious number of international awards. If they gave out Oscars for selling beer on the radio, I'd have a dozen of them. Oscars that is. I've been lucky, because screenwriting and radio advertising are both forms of writing which have one distinct quality. In both cases, you are writing for the voice. It's hard to express just how important being able to write for the voice is for screenwriters. And, when I talk about writing "an actor's script," it is exactly that ability, the ability to write sentences that are easy on the tongue, which flow naturally from the mouth, that I am talking about. And, surprisingly, this is the point at which I need to mention my dyslexia. I am dyslexic. Not as badly as my youngest brother, who is chronic, and not as badly as my Mother... but, for a person who writes all day, everyday, and who has done for years, my ability to spell simple words is retarded. And, before someone yelps about my use of the word "retarded," I'm using it in the technical sense, that I am well behind where I naturally should be, were I not disabled. Which is also the reason both my grammatical sense and my usage of punctuation colour well outside of the lines of acceptable usage. My writing would not win me any spelling bees, or any ribbons for English composition. I write sentences that infuriate school-teachers, and I always have done. And yet, it is exactly because I was unable to take in the rules of the game whilst at school, where I was too busy trying to spell "adequate" to pay attention to the niceties of subject and predicate, that has defined my writing style. Just like Daredevil in the comic books, my inability to see it on the page as a child, heightened my ability to listen. I learned to be eloquent, long before I learned to spell "participle." (by the way, I spelled "adequate" wrong four times just now, before I hit the right combination. That part just doesn't get any better). According to the educators, I shouldn't be a writer. By their standards, I am poorly equipped to succeed... and without a spell checker, I would be unemployable.At the same time, the very thing that makes me a retarded English student, makes me a phenomenal radio copywriter and a gifted screenwriter. By forcing me to understand language by the way people speak, my disability provided me with the perfect opportunity to develop a distinctive voice as a writer. However, the purpose of this week's article isn't "aren't I wonderful" (just for a change)... nope, this week's article is a sincere attempt to persuade those people who want to write screenplays, to forget about writing in the conventional, educated sense... and to somehow develop an ability to hear the patterns... to sense the rhythms... to feel the cadences... to sense the lyrical qualities of the spoken word. And to then bring that sense to the page... not just in dialogue, but with every hit of the keyboard. The message this week is, find your voice... throw away Lynn Truss, take her book from the shelf next to the loo and find a suitable use for the paper. Screenwriting, in fact any kind of creative writing, is never about colouring within the lines and showing our grammatical competence, it's very simply about selling our ideas... and selling ideas happens best, when we talk from the page. keep writing and viva the revolutionPosted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog
