My head is in such a whirl that I don’t know whether I am standing or sitting.
I guess it’s normal. I’ve had 10 different instructors with 10 different opinions about how a screenplay should be written. (Mirrors real life, don’t you think?)
Oh, the major things all match. They all agree on how to format the script, how long it should be, how the story should be structured and the characters developed.
The disagreement comes when they get down to the real brass tacks of writing.
My problem is that I always try to use whatever suggestions arise as soon as possible. I don’t wait to see how it all plays out. No, not me, I jump right in with both feet.
One instructor, several weeks ago, suggested that good screenplays do not always use complete sentences. I, being the good little student that I am, combed through my script and made changes throughout. Whenever it seemed I could do so, I utilized sentence fragments to “create a sense of speed.”
This month, the instructor informed us that incomplete sentences will not be tolerated, and that we were expected to turn in a draft of our script by tomorrow. Gulp!
As you might imagine I spent most of yesterday and part of today combing through my script trying to undo the work I had done earlier. I got slightly past the halfway point when I realized my brain was no longer working properly.
Rather than take a chance on incorporating a whole new set of mistakes into the script, I sent it off. Sometimes, you just have to let things go.
Did I really just say that, or is it the whirl talking?