John August

QandA

Numbers in dialogue

Formatting, QandA

questionmarkI’m writing a screenplay in which an administrator reads excerpts from a statistical report. I’m not quite sure how to write the numbers which he uses in dialogue. Should I use numerals? Words? Doesn’t matter?

— Marcus J

For dialogue, a screenwriter should use as few numbers as possible, and write them out unless it’s cumbersome to do so.

Write out:

* “We’ve got nineteen calls on hold.”
* “That joke’s got to be a hundred years old.”
* “Alaska may be the forty-ninth state, but it’s first in awesome.”
* “We have an unidentified craft, bearing thirty-one mark nine.”
* “This suit cost me five thousand. You stole yours from a hobo, I’m guessing.”

Use numbers for things like dates, codes and phone numbers:

* “According to this, he was born March 10th, 1970. That means he’s already forty.”
* “The combination is 21…34…17.”
* “Just call this number: 555-764-2002.”

In action lines, I generally spell out numbers less than ten. But I’ll happily break that rule if it looks better on the page. I never start a line with a numeral, and will favor unspecific counts when possible: a thousand stars rather than 1,000 stars.

Academy’s Film Noir series

Genres, Los Angeles, News

noirThe Academy is hosting a [Monday night screening series](http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2010/noir.html) focusing on film noir:

> Fifteen film noir classics from the 1940s, all of which were nominated in the writing categories, will be celebrated in a summer-long screening series, introduced by contemporary screenwriters whose own work reflects the film noir style.

I’ll be handling “The Dark Mirror” on July 12. (Olivia de Havilland! Twins! Murder!)

It’s a unique chance to see these films on the big screen, with terrific prints.

Date Film
May 10 “The Maltese Falcon,” introduced by Lawrence Kasdan
May 17 “Shadow of a Doubt”
May 24 “Laura,” introduced by Scott Frank
June 7 “Double Indemnity,” introduced by Nicholas Meyer
June 14 “Mildred Pierce,” introduced by Callie Khouri
June 21 “The Killers,” introduced by Billy Ray
June 28 “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” introduced by Robin Swicord
July 12 “The Dark Mirror,” introduced by John August
July 19 “The Blue Dahlia,” introduced by Wesley Strick
July 26 “The Stranger”
August 2 “Body and Soul”
August 9 “Crossfire,” introduced by Brian Helgeland
August 16 “A Double Life”
August 23 “Kiss of Death”
August 30 “White Heat”

Tickets are $5, or $30 for the entire series. It may sell out, so if you’re interested, [reserve now](http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2010/noir.html).

Should she take anxiety medication?

Psych 101, Random Advice

questionmarkI was recently prescribed an anti-anxiety medication, but it’s just sitting there on my desk, untouched. My concern is that it will affect my ability to work — I am a writer, in a Graduate program, coming to the end of the second semester of my second year (of three). Now is absolutely not the time to be inhibited in any way.

On the other hand, I was prescribed it for a reason, advised to take it on an “as-needed, it’s-up-to-you” basis. But I was also advised that the medication could cause drowsiness, an inability to focus, etc. So what would you do?

Say you had to have a second draft of a new screenplay, a first draft of an original TV pilot, a spec script for another TV show, 2 short scripts and a 20-page essay due for… an entertainment magazine (yes, this is an accurate reflection of what I need to finish in the next… 20 days or so), would you take a chance and pop a pill? Or power through and hope the stress does not overwhelm you?

— Jenny
New York

random adviceFollow the directions on the label: take it when you need it.

I’m not a doctor or pharmacist, but unless they told you otherwise, you don’t need to take it prophylactically, the way you take medication for depression or other conditions. If at this very moment you are spinning with anxiety that needs to be shot down, take the pill. Maybe it will help. Maybe it won’t.

My only experience with anxiety medication is Xanax. I take it so I can sleep on international plane flights. ((Yes, for sleeping on planes there are other medications I could take that are strictly sleep-related. But Xanax works and doesn’t make me freak out, binge eat or forget the past few hours. So I’m sticking with it.)) A writer/producer I worked with years ago took it much more casually, half a Xanax with a glass of wine at lunch.

It made him calm, which made my life less stressful. But his productivity was functionally nil.

Anxiety medication isn’t going to help you write. It may help keep you from running full speed off a cliff of panic.

More than any pill, you need some serious work intervention. There is no way you’re going to write all of those projects, so you’re better off dropping a few now rather than waiting for missed deadlines to drop them for you.

Aim for smaller victories to avoid bigger defeats.

Write the thing for which you’re being paid. If that’s the magazine piece, buckle down and get it done way ahead of schedule. Then take half a day, see a movie, and get started on the next most important project.

In a graduate school writing program, your grades don’t matter at all. So disabuse yourself of all valedictorian fantasies, or the desire to make your professors happy. You’re much better off leaving with two great scripts than eight decent ones. Don’t waste time writing things you don’t believe in.

Play this smart, and you may never need to open that bottle. But if you do, don’t beat yourself up over it.

Our brains are wired for a completely different existence, one with lions and bears trying to eat us. Your neurochemistry treats a spec pilot like a predator. It may need some help sorting itself out.

On Golden Handcuffs

Film Industry, Psych 101, Random Advice

questionmarkI was young, innocent and seduced by a mouse. I spent 29 years working for The Company and even after I was laid off continued to work freelance doing the same work for seven more. Held back by golden handcuffs, I fear I’ve wasted decades to pursue greater things.

Is it too late to break in? Should I stop writing scripts and just take a job behind the counter at Starbucks to sell coffee? Should I never have considered starting to write in the first place, since clearly I wasn’t driven enough at an early age?

Hold old is too old to hold on to a dream? Not just screenwriting, but any dream.

— Paul
Santa Ana

random advice“Golden Handcuffs” is a term I heard a few times while visiting Pixar: a job that’s so good that you’d be crazy to leave it.

In the case of Pixar, well, Pixar is awesome. Get a job there, and you’re making amazing movies with some of the brightest people you’re going to meet anywhere. But you’re ultimately making Pixar’s movies, not your movies.

The same could be said for companies in every field. Take an anonymous survey of executive vice presidents from Fortune 500 corporations, and I bet you’ll find a lot of MBAs who feel like failures for not starting their own ventures.

Life is choices. In this case, which do you put first: your comfort or your ambition?

From what you describe, Paul, you chose comfort. ((Inaction is a choice, too, though it often doesn’t feel like it. You didn’t ask yourself every morning, “Should I quit my job today?” But it’s a good question to ask.)) And that’s okay.

I strongly doubt you wasted decades: you had an entire life outside of work that was possible in no small part due to having a steady paycheck. Most of America would gladly trade places with you. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you’re aiming for self-actualization. That’s good, but recognize that it’s a comparative luxury.

Right now, you’re playing the What If? game, and you’re playing it wrong.

You are never going to be able to go back and make different choices. As Daniel Faraday would remind you, whatever happened, happened. So stop fantasizing about scenarios in which the past 29 years might have turned out more artistically satisfying. More importantly, stop beating up the younger version of yourself. He wasn’t lazy or naive. He was you.

Here are your new rules for the What If? game:

* **Only ask What If? questions about the future.** What If you now devoted yourself full-time to writing? Or, What If you stopped carrying this torch for screenwriting, and pursued something else you enjoyed? Which would make you happier?
* **Only think about the person you are today.** A 20-year old has different options and challenges than a 49-year old. How much of your current life would you be willing to up-end?
* **Recognize assumptions.** Don’t assume you know where a path would take you. Rather, ask whether traveling that path would be interesting and fulfilling. ((Yes, this is essentially the chorus to the Miley Cyrus hit, “The Climb.”))

Golden handcuffs don’t really go away, incidentally.

I write movies for other directors because it’s safe and lucrative. And fulfilling, mostly. I want to get movies made, and I can write many more movies than I could ever direct.

But every time I take a job writing someone else’s movie, it pushes back my own next movie another few months. At some point soon, I’ll need to quit my day job to pursue my own ambitions, with all the risks that entails.