JMS on script writing

[hypatia]

JMS wrote this in response to a question about writing on the B5 moderated board. I'm only quoting his comments on script writing, he has more to say about fiction (novels and such):

"Scripts I tend to write once straight through and that's it, minus last minute
production changes (sets and the like). I hate outlining and avoid doing it
whenever possible because then the story's written, and I lose interest in
writing it. I like to find the story in the characters as I write them; I like
to be surprised by what happens, on the theory that if I'm surprised, then the
audience will be surprised.

The longer I take to write a script, invariably the weaker it is. Conversely,
the ones written in one pass, in one sitting, in white heat, tend to be my best
stuff. Sleeping in Light: written in under two days (though I'd thought about
it for years, so that may not be the best example). Gethsemane: one day.
Signs and Portents: two days. Chrysalis: one day. I could site others. Grey
17 took three weeks. It shows.

The thing about writing fast, for me, is that it forces me to get out of my own
way. I don't second-guess myself, I just listen to the characters and write
down what they say without questioning it or over-analyzing it. And I try to
avoid rewriting because I think it leeches life out of a script."


I thought this was interesting.


------------------
"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

 

[drakh]

It's worth noting that this position is very different from what is done on a lot of other shows (like for example Trek). There they have a meeting where they "break the story", basically let the whole writing staff make sugestions on how to "improve" the script. To me, it seems a script has to suck pretty hard for something like that to make it anything but blander.

------------------
You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert

 

[hypatia]

drahk, I admit I'm amazed to hear both JMS's reply and your comment. I remember class after class in "English" and "Composition" etc, etc. I was certainly never under the impression that outlines were anything other than necessary!

Maybe this is a case of: use it if it helps you, cast it off if it doesn't help you. I just remember English teacher after English teacher requiring an outline BEFORE the story. I suppose JMS survived by writing the story first, then making the outline later.

Education tries its best. Good old Einstein failed at school himself, didn’t he? Before he became one of the world’s greatest physicists, I mean. Maybe that’s part of what makes a genius: not working according to the set rules.



------------------
"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Of course, if you really want to read JMS's views on script writing you should pick up The Complete Book of Scriptwriting by J. Michael Straczynski.

It covers everything from radio drama and childrens' animated shows to sitcoms and big-screen dramas. He does recommend that novice writers start with outlines, just a Piccasso recommended that novice painters start with realistic paintings of bowls of fruit. You have to know the rules before you can know how and where to bend and break them, and carry it off successfully. (Anybody can ignore the rules. It takes an artist to break them and not end up with something incoherent and embarrassing.)

JMS has said elsewhere that with scripts in particular, he does most of his writing in his head, before he sits down at the word processor. So it is more a matter of transcribing something already written than it is of creating something at the moment. And scripts are, in their nature, different from normal prose. You need to set the scene with great economy, indicate the movement and then set down the dialogue. This automatically requires less rewriting unless there are structural problems, like a second act that doesn't quite work. There is much less of the lyrical description, interior monologue and other literary techniques that prose depends on.

This is one of the reasons that great books often make poor films - it is their language as much as anything else that makes them great. Whereas second-rate books, which are apt to depend more on plot and character, often translate wonderfully to the screen. Many mediocre novels actually work much better as films than they ever did between hard covers.

Regards,

Joe

------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[Kribu]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
I suppose JMS survived by writing the story first, then making the outline later.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's what I did.

In the 9th grade final exam - because there, an outline was required.

In regular class, I had an understanding and intelligent teacher who realised that not everyone can write in the same manner.

I have always done my best writing in one go, without going back and without re-reading (I detest re-reading anything I've written). Partly because the inspiration either is there or it isn't, and partly because I start to second-guess myself if I go back, doubting whether I've expressed certain things the best way.

So it certainly makes sense to me that JMS writes the good scripts like that.

It also explains how he can get so much done - if he sat and pondered over each script for weeks, I don't think he could *do* so many different things (TV shows, comics, whatever) in a short time.

------------------
"It's animal magnetism. What can I say?"
- G'Kar, A Tragedy of Telepaths

 

[Mysterio]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:

Education tries its best. Good old Einstein failed at school himself, didn’t he? Before he became one of the world’s greatest physicists, I mean. Maybe that’s part of what makes a genius: not working according to the set rules.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, that's an urban legend (or whatever the appropriate term might be.

) einstein's grades throughout school were nearly perfect.

------------------
"The war is never completely won. There are always new battles to be fought against the Darkness. Only the names change."--Delenn

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
I suppose JMS survived by writing the story first, then making the outline later.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can definitely sympathize there. I had English classes like that myself--despised outlines because of them. I ended up writing two drafts of the outline, a working outline I could butcher to my heart's content and a cleaned-up version for submission, and one of the actual composition.

You have a point about education. You can train creative people, but not creativity. It's not a linear, mechanical experience and educators rarely address that.

------------------
Joe Medina (neargrai@aol.com)

"...that which are, we are"

 

[GKarsEye]

Well, the real problem is that creativity is individual, but a school's job is to teach the masses. It's an unsolvable contradiction.

Regarding Einstein's grades, I believe they changed throughout his life, so both statements are true.

------------------
"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."

 

[drakh]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
drahk, I admit I'm amazed to hear both JMS's reply and your comment. I remember class after class in "English" and "Composition" etc, etc. I was certainly never under the impression that outlines were anything other than necessary!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>That wasn't really what my comment was aimed at... It was more that he feels that the script should be as close to the writers initial idea as possilbe and the fewer rewrites the better, other shows put all scripts the scripts through mandatory meetings where the entire writing staff takes a wack at it. It's the old saying about too many cooks IMO.

------------------
You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert

 

[hypatia]

I should point out that JMS had more to say, even in that short response, about writing in other formats. He did mention that novels and fiction like that takes longer, more re-writes, etc.

If I were a writer I definitely would buy and study his book on writing that Joe mentioned above in an earlier post. I'm sure he has a lot of valuable tips and pointers to give.

------------------
"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

 

[channe]

I picked the book up in a library and read through it. That's the kind of book I'd want to have with me to start off with, were I going to go out to L.A. and become a scriptwriter.

Outlines, I think, help very much, especially if you're a bit wierded out on where to go with your story or your thesis. You don't have to have them from the beginning - they can come afterwards or as you write - but I recommend them highly.

I just hated when people MADE me do them. I hate it when people MAKE me do anything I don't want to do.

Yeah, I'm a snotty American

------------------
Channe, Freelance Writer Extraordinaire and The Next JMS
--
B5 Synchroninity of the Day: I just found out that the new dorm I'm living in next year has been named Breen Hall.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by channe:
I picked the book up in a library and read through it. That's the kind of book I'd want to have with me to start off with, were I going to go out to L.A. and become a scriptwriter.

Outlines, I think, help very much, especially if you're a bit wierded out on where to go with your story or your thesis. You don't have to have them from the beginning - they can come afterwards or as you write - but I recommend them highly.

I just hated when people MADE me do them. I hate it when people MAKE me do anything I don't want to do.

Yeah, I'm a snotty American

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I find a general outline, what JMS has called a "spine" is useful --- but like my stories the outlines evolve as I go alone and discover new ideas. Basicly its a kind of testing ground. I'll toss in dialogue and stuff like that to see if it works then flesh it out in the actually text.

Krada



------------------