“The Savant”; a Rant

About ten years ago, during my college years, I was invited to a dinner party. In attendance was a famous novelist. While everyone was standing around having a drink before we sat down to eat, I went up to the guy; as a fledgling writer, I had to work up the nerve. I wanted to tell him about the screenplay I was working on. And, hopefully, to get him to read it. 

It turns out he’d had a little experience with writing scripts: one of the big studios had hired him to rewrite a Tim Burton film about a decade before before that. And that he’d done so, but for whatever reason, it hadn’t worked out. Meanwhile, I was describing how much trouble I was having with my own script. 

“The thing is,” the novelist cut in. “Writing screenplays is so easy.”

He said it in such a way as if it was the most natural thing in the world to agree; I wasn’t quite sure that he’d been hearing what I was saying. So, then I asked him if I could send him my latest draft. And he looked me square in the eye.

“Do you think it would help?” Meaning that, indeed, it probably wouldn’t. 

This is not the place to discuss the relative benefits of getting other people to read your work. These days, I hardly ever send my work to other people for their comment—perhaps a strange admission from a developmental editor, who relies on people doing just that. But for my own work, I only ask people to check for errors. At the time, however, I was quite hurt.

Furthermore, if you have written, or are interested in writing a book, and you are considering hiring a high-priced professional editor (or a ghostwriter), the best way to maximize your investment is to already know what it is you want. 

Fast forward a few years; I was working on yet another screenplay. (The first had been a relative success. It hadn’t been made, but it had gotten me a good writing job, which led to my work as an editor.) For this other screenplay, I was filling hundreds of pages with notes from my research, and with character biographies, and outlines. 

Then I was sent an editing assignment: a screenplay. 

The script was such a complete mess. It was so categorically bad in so many ways. Particularly egregious was that the writer didn’t know the screenplay form. In other words, he didn’t realize that, he literally had to write out the actions that he wished to appear on screen. I wrote the filling note to him in my editorial letter, “There can be no action too small not to merit inclusion in the script. If it happens on screen, it must be written in the script.”

Most of all, the script was so oddly and so unnecessarily complex; the writer was trying to jam all of these different and disparate thoughts and ideas onto the page. As I was hacking my way through it, trying to decipher what the heck the writer was trying to say, my thoughts leapt back to my own script, and the hundreds of pages of notes I’d made. 

It struck me that I was doing the same thing. And that I should keep it simple. 

I was doing so much research, but for what? You can’t put this research onto the screenplay page. I was taking so much time to get into the minds of the character by writing their character biographies, but for what? You can’t go into the mind of a character on the screenplay page. 

And I remembered what the novelist said to me. He was right. Screenplays are easy. 

I realize that historical research and character bios can be beneficial. But there is also a great danger in going too far in the other direction. At a certain point, you’ve got to just start. The same could be said for novels, or any other piece of writing as well. At a certain point, you’ve got to just start. 

Indeed, if the guy who sent me his terrible script for editing could do it. Then so could I. And so can you. 

But you must know certain formal aspects. Or rather, it would be very helpful for you to do so! There is much wisdom in the expression, “Learn the rules so you can break them.”

Furthermore, if you have written, or are interested in writing a book, and you are considering hiring a high-priced professional editor (or a ghostwriter), the best way to maximize your investment is to already know what it is you want.