John August

Writing Process

Todd Graff on How I Write

First Person, Writing Process

Todd Grafffirst personThe first thing you need to know is that I write longhand, on legal pads, which makes me either a romantic or a dinosaur or both. When an idea starts percolating in my head, I jot notes everywhere: matchbook covers, snaking around all the white areas in a magazine ad, etc. Bad movies seem to get my juices flowing, and I’m forever ripping up popcorn containers, scribbling on their oily, white insides with the tiny wallet-clip pen my boyfriend bought me for Xmas (a far more useful present than the gym membership).

These notes all make it onto individual index cards. As time passes, the pile of cards grows, until all that’s missing is the connective scene-tissue between all the jotted down sequences.

When it’s time to write, I procrastinate as much as the next guy. I find I have to sneak up on it — like I sit down to work, knowing I absolutely have to be somewhere in an hour. That way I can’t fuck up too much at any one time.

I also take long showers, where I don’t let myself leave until I’ve had at least one valuable idea about the script. Solved one problem. My hot water bills are always an accurate gauge of how blocked I am.
***
Todd Graff wrote and directed CAMP. As a writer and
producer, his other credits include BEAUTICIAN
AND THE BEAST, ANGIE, THE
VANISHING and
USED PEOPLE.

Generating ideas

QandA, Writing Process

Do you have a method to generate your ideas?

–Anonymous

Not really. I’ve never found it particularly hard to generate ideas. Most of the time, I have far too many different things I want to write, and the challenge is deciding which ones are actually worth the investment of time and thought. So I don’t really have any methods for generating ideas. I don’t brainstorm. I don’t draw mind-maps. I only outline if I’m concerned about fitting the pieces together.

In fact, 90% of the time, I’m trying to find methods for shutting competing ideas out, so that I’ll actually get my work finished. Or get to sleep.

I’m drawing a distinction here between coming up with new ideas (“a biker movie in space”) and figuring out how to solve specific problems with a story or scene (“how should the villain capture the Millenium Harley?”). Obviously, every writer is going to have to find ways to get over these hurdles when they come up. A few techniques that often help include:

  • figuring out what the outcome needs to be, then working backwards;
  • deciding what caused the problem in the first place, and whether it can be changed or cut;
  • looking at the moment from another character’s perspective;
  • quickly writing several different solutions, then judging whether one or a combination of several best address the problem.

For all the talk of high-concept comedies or big-idea action tentpole movies, a screenwriter’s daily life is almost entirely about coming up with the “little” ideas that help get the story told.

How much research does it take?

QandA, Writing Process

1. When you are working on characters or bits of plot, how
much do you research them? For example, if a character’s profession
played a major
role, would you feel compelled to learn everything you can about profession?

2. How far should a writer try to flesh out a character? I feel like in order
for my characters to be real (at least to me), I need whole life stories on
them. Is that necessary or even useful?

–Andrea Hammond

Your questions are very timely, because I’m currently deciding whether to
take on a project set in a very dangerous part of Africa. I love the idea of
the movie and the filmmakers involved, so the focus of my decision process
is whether I feel I could write the movie without physically going to the region.
I would classify myself as moderately adventurous, but I have no interest in
catching malaria or being shot in the head, both of which would be (remote)
possibilities if I were to travel there. And yet I love to write on location,
so I would probably go if given the chance.

On one hand, the idea of first-hand experience is a little silly. George Lucas
has never been in space, and even though James Cameron became an expert on
the Titanic, his movie was much more concerned with the love story he invented.

But there’s a lot to be said for research in pursuit of verisimilitude. Imagine
if Dr. Carter on E.R. referred to "that tube thing-y." Most of the
show’s writers aren’t medical doctors, just as the "Sopranos" writers
aren’t Mafia, but they’ve all learned enough of the appropriate lingo so that
we believe the characters really know what they’re talking about.

When fleshing out your characters, that level of detail should be your goal.
You don’t need to know everything, just enough to firmly place them in the
world.

Finding the structure

QandA, Writing Process

I’m a 28-year old writer with a very old problem. I do my best work when I’m
not consciously structuring a screenplay. I’ve found trying to shuffle scenes
around on note cards about as useful as trying to construct a meaningful sentence
out of syllables. So I’m reluctant to embrace a fully plotted mode of writing.

–Zackery West

First off, apologies to Zackery for editing his question down so much. The
original was filled with a lot of other good observations and side-questions,
but ran longer than my whole weekly column. And in cutting it down, I was doing
exactly the kind of work Zackery is struggling against.

Structure isn’t really about tacking notecards on a wall. It’s about organizing
ideas — sequences, scenes, and beats within those scenes — so that they can
have the most possible impact. You don’t just create structure before you write.
It happens inevitably with every character who walks in the door, or takes
an action that spins the story in a different direction.

I doubt there are any working screenwriters who would say they’ve adopted
a "fully plotted mode of writing." Whatever plan you’ve made for
the movie, be it notecards, an outline or just an idea in your head, it’s always
subject to change based on discoveries you make while you’re writing.

You’re beating yourself up over not plotting out your whole script beat-for-beat.
Guess what? You don’t have to. For now, just write the best scenes you can,
keeping in mind that they may need to be changed or cut to service the movie
as a whole.

The best thing about fighting with yourself is that when you give up, you
win.