Writing is visceral. I mean, it has to feel right.
And its as simple as you have that, or you don’t. I don’t know if it can be developed. EVery project I’ve ever worked on in my life in some sense or another is to create emotional response in the viewer. You have to get that trembling feeling, that hint of a tear in your eye. I suppose that’s why I tend towards writing sad scenes in my novels, because I know if I can feel it, you’lll feel it.
Screenplay writing is very simple in that way. If you write down, “sam goes to the store” and you get bupkis, then that goes into the overflow area on your beat board, and maybe just maybe, makes the script.
If you put in there “sam goes to the store and sees his face distorted on the security monitor – clerk tells him he’s going to die” and you FEEL that, then whoah…. you’ve got it.
By the way, I’m SURE everyone knows that those two creepy movies from a few years back THE RING and THE GRUDGE that seemed so fresh and bizarre were actually remakes of Japanese movies?
In case you were wondering, The Ring improved what was in “Ringu”. “Ju-On”, however, was a complete classic, and “The Grudge” seemed sorry by comparison.
And yes, a week after I saw “The Ring”, I got a little bit nervous.
You have to feel it. When you’re writing something and someone reaches for…
What? You write something and if it doesn’t FEEL right, it’s time for the big key next to the = button. Seriously
Ya gotta feel it. And sometimes that’s my repsonse to my producer when he asks why I wrote something a certain way. “It felt right.”
And he’s a writer so he knows.
