Writing Process

When you get a great idea for a story, but you don’t know much about the setting
of the story, like the medieval times, how do you go about writing it? How
do you gain enough information about a certain setting or place so that it
sounds genuine (like Fargo) and not fake or phony (the basketball scenes from
Finding Forrester)?

–Henry

You do research. Right now, I’m in the process of writing a show for ABC about
murder in Alaska. Before I started working on it, I knew very little about
State Troopers, the provincial government structure, the Russian Orthodox Church,
tribal corporations and bush planes. I’m certainly not an expert on any of
these subjects now, but I know enough to write the pilot.

In my case, I started by reading books and Googling a lot of different Alaska
websites. The second round of research involved a lot of time on the phone,
calling the various people who actually have the jobs I’m writing about. Finally,
I’ll be making a research trip up to Anchorage to interview these people in
person, and investigate a lot of intangible details. (Such as, do Alaskans
carry over any of the strange Canadian pronunciations, like "SO-ree" rather
than "SAR-ree"? When Alaskans refer to non-Alaskans, is there a term
they usually use?)

If you were researching Medieval times, you would obviously find a lot of
your information in books about the period. But it would also behoove you to
find some experts in the field, and even visit some authentic sites to get
the most possible verisimilitude.

Just remember that no amount of research can substitute for good writing.
Knowing the exact shade of ochre in the king’s bedroom is pointless unless
you have a fascinating scene taking place there.

And keep in mind that audiences carry with them certain misconceptions about
places and times that make certain details less than crucial. For instance,
most audiences think of horses having saddles, and saddles having stirrups.
So when we see Russell Crowe and his men charging in on horseback at the start
of GLADIATOR, sandals in stirrups, we think nothing of it. Yet as many historians
(and Internet nit-pickers have pointed out), stirrups were invented centuries
later. Maximus’s advice to "keep his heels down when riding" is impossible.

Also, in A KNIGHT’S TALE, the people wouldn’t have been singing along with
Queen’s "We Will Rock You."

When you’re hired to rewrite someone else’s existing screenplay, do you have
to type the entire script out yourself or do you get the computer file? How
does that work? I feel stupid, but it’s been bugging me for ages!

–Nathan

My first real rewrite was on BLUE STREAK, and when I got hired, that was my
first question. In that case, the studio didn’t have the script on disk, so
my assistant Emily had to retype the whole thing. (As an alternative, we could
have scanned in the pages and used optical character recognition, but the studio
offered to pay Emily to type it, so she did.)

Now that almost everybody uses Final Draft, it’s pretty common (if awkward),
for the producer’s assistant to call the previous screenwriter and ask for
the script on disk, or via email. If I’m leaving a project, I’ll always volunteer
to give them the file, just because I know how uncomfortable it is to ask.

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.

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.