Paul Cornell writers workshop
Feb. 25th, 2009 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethRedemption ‘09
Multimedia SF convention
With guests Paul Cornell and Rob Shearman
Paul Cornell Writer Workshop
Very few good books on how to write. Only trust those from people who
have written something good.
Stephen King ‘On Writing’
Robert McKee ‘Story’ everything you need to know. Wrote Chinatown,
which is excellent.
Stephen King wrote on the business of getting into pro writing. He had a row of spikes on the wall. He put rejection letters on them.
He filled 8 spikes before he got one that said why he was rejected, and another 4 before anything got accepted. He cherished those rejections. And that’s what you need [attitude you need].
There are no apprenticeships for writers. The BBC try. [Writers room]. Ladder scheme.
Happens sometimes.
Every writer has a strange mad tale [about how they got into pro work].
[It's not what you know, it's who you know. Meeting producers in a bar or something.]
Find who you know. Be good.
In becoming a good writer be a social observer, [wide range]. Read the sun and the mail and the telegraph.
Become a social being, observing humans. [In the process of that you will] Learn not to be rude.
[Learn how to meet someone from a show you don’t like and not start with talking about how bad it was.]
Know how to talk. [Being polite to producers in bars.]
Try Script Editors.
Not Doctor Who, they get a huuuuuge pile of mail.
[Script Editors for smaller shows, try sending them scripts.]
Get to know the show.
You must want to watch the show.
Say you have no experience *and know that's bad*.
Don't think you know better
Wonder how they do that.
Attitude and Work.
[that's what you need, humble attitude and hard work]
Good and able to take mad chances.
[that?s what you need to get a chance. You need to be good, and you need to be ready to take mad chances, because everyone he knows got in that way.]
Keep plugging at the obvious too.
Joke ends with the word that makes people laugh.
Central character creation.
Point of view. 1st person simple.
Is often a winner. Central character almost uncharacterised, reader can *be* that person. Direct & obvious.
[you start out thinking that the more little quirks you put in the more interesting they get, but that doesn't work as well, it can be offputting.]
Lead is often dullest. Interesting [characters and things happening] around them. Lead is there for others to compare to.
Them doing what you would do.
Your hero will try very hard *not* to have an adventure.
Always do easiest possible thing.
At no point does he volunteer, circumstances push.
Not rush, forced.
People who grab the initiative aren't very relatable.
Forced to is any of us.
Realism is what do you keep in, what keep out. Weight of research.
King writes books then researches them.
Efficient use of time.
Weight of research makes readers trust you. After that can do
anything. Can 'sneak in all sorts of foolishness' later on.
Real thing no one believes?
Chuck it.
[that's so common. It doesn't matter if it happened, if it isn't believable, it's no use for the story.]
You can't get out of something being ridiculous by calling it ridiculous.
Get rid and do another way.
How know when to fix?
There's no real writers block.
Suddenly you know if you go on you're on useless foundations, but you don't know why.
Go back a step and look.
You are going to rewrite.
Rewrites are what you do.
First drafts cannot be perfect.
Just sit and write rubbish.
So what? You always end up chucking it. Just get it down.
Or, go to something else, [another writing project]
Plotting. PC likes to plot solidly then ignore it. Novel has 80 page plot.
Ending is the important bit.
Pitch: Write the ending.
People will flip to the ending.
Endings: really tough.
Shakespeare: all the old things in all the new ways.
Book cover didn't lie, story expected, but so surprising in the way.
[unpack that note - when someone reads a story you have to give them what they bought, make sure the book cover didn't lie and they're getting what they expected, but you have to do it in a surprising way.
Surprise is key.]
What characters set out to do: either they do, or fail in satisfying ways.
[everything, keep track, make a little chart, whatever a character sets out to do, they do it, or they fail in satisfying ways.
Satisfying is something they learn from or something where you want to see them fail, I think.]
Beats.
22 page comic, each page 1, 2, or possibly 3 beats.
A thing that happens.
Scenes are no longer than the content of their beat.
Surpise + what it means.
THERE IS JUST PLOT.
(Story)
Plot is the shape underneath the writing on top making beats is the rest.
Jokes advance the plot.
Cut to the next surprise.
Xander says what he'll do // chains
[unpack that - it's the scene in season 7 when Xander says he'll go calmly sort something out and it cuts straight to him hanging up in chains. You don't need to see him try, that's entirely expected. The surprise is the degree of fail.]
Do two or three things at once.
Skip the boring bits, like parking. [you never see someone in a film have to look for a parking space, because that's boring. But when *do* you see it?]
Comedy or horror makes finding it interesting.
Nobody says 'goodbye' because useless + expected. [People on TV are very rude, no goodbye. Like the answer machine having 2 very quick messages not relevant before there's one important one.]
Reversal of Expectations
Surprise surprise surprise
'I didn't expect that'
Surprise per minute ratio
Surprise to surprise fast. Surprise end.
[unpacking that - the important bit is lots of surprises, if it isn't being surprising then you don't need to write it because people fill it in for themselves, you want to surprise your readers.]
PC working on a script right now. Finished it several days in a row.
Now he has one line that needs to go somewhere. He's left it 24 hours and it's still finished.
[that's how writing works. Finish a draft, leave it, realise that wasn't right, go back and finish it again.
BE adds its rather a relief this happens to actual smart writer people too, because its rather a depressing thing the first few times it happens to me.]
You've got to write. Lots. And read lots.
Your voice will come through.
Don't worry about imitating style.
[it's easy to get hung up thinking you'll accidentally copy things if you read a lot, or you'll soak up someone else's style. But if you're reading lots of good stuff that's actually no bad thing, you'll soak up a good style!]
[a good writing speed is] a couple thousand words per day. You're going to rewrite it. Nano is good. Imposes discipline. You will finish
Crap first draft. Read and sort it. Rewriting.
Each draft best possible.
[You can write the first draft where everyone says exactly what they mean in the most obvious possible way, then go back and rewrite it to be actually good. You can write a draft you know is going to be terrible - actually logically you must because you can't skip over the
first draft and the first draft is always crap. But even knowing that, each draft has to be the best possible draft you can write.]
[So you've got a finished draft, it has been finished for 24 hours,
it's the best work you can do. Now what?]
Hand it in; ACCEPT ALL CRITICISM.
Seek out harsh criticism and change because of it.
Learn from every punch.
[anecdote about famous boxer guy (Ali vs. Foreman)
learning from other famous boxer guy, neither name I recall because I'm not much for boxer guys. But to learn from boxers, you get hit a lot, and see how they did it.]
Have No Anger.
[BE knows this one, yet needs the internet and time delayed communication to manage it. I always get crit, sulk, get defensive, write about why I Am Secretly Right, and then delete it and have an actual think. With repetition I guess one can learn to skip to the thinking parts.]
Your mum won't give harsh crit.
[Donna's mum would.]
Gangs of readers, the kind of friends who can say you look really bad.
[because if someone tells you then you can go fix it, and friends don't let friends accidentally wander around looking really bad]
You can't see the wood [you're too close to your own writing. BE knows this. Really really.]
S King had to ask editors to keep editing. [He realised that past a certain point he'd got so successful they were just waving things through. He got really angry about it.]
"WE got this far."
[He knew the successful writing was a team effort.]
TV meeting hit in face a lot.
[I suspect that unpacks to be the boxing metaphor again. You get lots of notes and must learn lots of times.]
PC Changed agents to get criticism.
[Good thing is if you can] get used to it you can shrug off bad reviews.
Got to be entirely emotionally invested in your work but also ready to change it from scene 1.
[If someone tells you something or you just realise that something needs changing right at the start, even though it changes everything after that point, you must be ready to change it.]
[BE needed to hear both that and the comment about writer's block not being block but being awareness you've screwed up already. Between them they've unblocked my latest effort. Of course now I need to start all over again, but hey, story will happen.]
Don't be put off.
How to find critics?
Can train good friends. Can put it across nicely.
Pinkdormouse(?) suggested Make friends with a tech writer. [When they've been having a bad day they'll happily rip your work to shreds.]
PC: Nobody wants to read your manuscript for fun. Not really.
Make sure they're on a mission to crit you.
[How to find agents]
Writers & Artists Yearbook.
People with agents are treated differently.
People who lose if they've chosen badly have chosen you.
Agent less than 15% of what you’re paid.
Will cull what he doesn't like and tell you what he thinks.
An agent is the easiest way to get anything else.
BBC radio drama are cuddly and love you.
Listen to Afternoon Plays. They might mentor you in.
Don't assume 'any fool can'
Learn the RULES
(It's harder than you think)
Drama = Surprise
Soap = Anticipation
Hints
No surprise twists and turns
It doesn't satisfy the audience
They predict, anticipate.
SF fans are into big surprise.
[BE has been thinking about this since PC said it, and I think those among us who are still watching repeats x years later are also big into antici... pation. I mean, after the first dozen times, the surprise is pretty much gone. Also, humans like it when they can predict correctly. Starting with baby humans. It's like a test pattern that says brains are functioning correctly. So BE has been wondering if SF fans want the feeling that they can predict the really surprising things correctly, the difficult extrapolations projected a long way forward. But if first viewing lacks surprise, we no likes it. So it is complicated.]
[And all that was BE and not PC so I should probably stick it in a comment.]
PC found soap too tough to write.
Don't look down on a genre yet have a go.
Know your genre inside out.
Comedy is hardest. More range. Talent for comedy = hugs and training.
Comedy on Radio 4 = win.
[radio is hungry to fill hours, comedy writers is rare and precious,
comedy on the radio is a big win if you can do it]
Comics almost impossible
[I think we're still on 'how to get in'.]
2000 AD in Britain. Might have insanely hard short story opportunity.
[beginning middle and end self contained fresh world story in x tiny pages. Very hard.]
SHORT IS HARDER.
30 second pitch, 25 words or less, short snappy pitch.
[you need to be able to sum up your story in 25 words or less and say it quickly to someone else. If you have to fill in elaborate background first you'll lose your listener before you get to the story. Be short clear and memorable.]
You are the worst writer ever.
You are the best writer ever.
Hold that in your mind always.
You very rarely know best.
[You must be able to have the confidence to write something, finish, show it to people, and know throughout that it is going to work because you are the best writer ever. You must be able to throw that out the window and accept every criticism from every person, because you are the worst writer ever. You must be able to implement fixes and recall that you are in fact the best writer ever so you can show the story again.]
[BE has multi point fail on that advice. Fanfic gives more of a 'you aren't the best or the worst but someone will read it anyway' feeling. I guess if you want people to give you money there's so many gates and bars that attitude really won't get you far. BE likes fanfic.
But BE wants better television, with more women and less fail, and fanfic also teaches you that if you want more of something you start by making more of it yourself. Except, see up the top for 'you don't actually know better'. So it's sort of compound fail. But its why I
want to write.]
[Again, all that was BE, I should stick it in a comment instead.]
Blank page?
Write something.
Market or audience in mind?
Write generic.
Write "INT TARDIS DAY one"
Something happens right away.
TV rules
In & out of scenes. Arrive late, leave early. Don't show bits where nothing happens.
First surprising thing is first thing said. Leave early as poss.
USTV not everything explained.
Geeky part says 'but' [and gets hung up on the lack of explanation]
Not everything has to be explained [USTV is good at sticking to the surprising bits so it is in fact right not to explain what people can figure out]
Technobabble, exposition
Good IF is Plot & Emotion
No sitting at the end with a filp chart.
Christie makes it a genre. Genre expectations are good. [Genre expectations carry the audience with you through things that might otherwise be awkward.]
Dramatise it along the way. [referring to exposition and necessary information]
Show don't tell.
Understand it without the words. [you can watch TV with the sound off and still get a whole lot of what is going on, and this is of the good]
Dialogue:
[plot is the] Shape of script first, dialogue on top.
Every bit of dialogue does plot stuff.
Swap out inelegant words after draft.
Write in plot points in crap dialogue, the thing person needs to get over to other person, then swap it.
Motivation: Know what everyone wants. They will try and get it.
[In a conversation there's at least] 2 motives? What's the order?
Both as quick as possible.
Crit: It's all justified. All.
How do you know it's finished? :
It nags or it doesn't.
Make sure it feels satisfying.
[PC's agent will bounce the script back with the aforementioned harsh criticism a lot, until he gets to] "I think that's satisfactory"
SAYING things
On the nose initially
Just off is really good.
Joke that's a plot point. Whedon.
[all JW jokes also further the plot.]
Endings. Multiple.
PC "I'm really bad at this".
Miami Vice is good at finishing exactly as climax. Shot? End before falls.
Human Nature [endings] need all [every ending necessary]
Villains must have their comeuppance
Must see the boy is alright after the war
The old man is the less obvious version [the less obvious way of saying the boy is alright]
Q about US writers strike
British writers union already have all the rights the US strike for.
[US TV was contacting UK writers. PC said he'd be happy to work with them after the strike ended. Funnily enough hasn't heard back from them.]
Dialogue Pacing Jokes Plot
[there was a question here about character driven shows and plot driven shows, the latter defined as ones that push characters around doing things just for the plot. PC replied]
Plot dominates 'character' shows and 'plot' shows. It's all plot.
B5 budget constraints few sets to play with. Enter sooner and leave
later to fill time because there's nowhere to cut to.
HAVE somewhere to cut to!
Don't put all in the same room
Don't try and cut to later in the same place. It doesn't usually work. In comedy it can work. Different cuts to big changes.
Nothing on TV is too fast.
Can on Audio. Don't know where you are. Need establishing.
Choice of sound effects. Difficult. [PC once wrote in the sound of an oil lamp flickering to suggest a roman villa and got called on it because what does an oil lamp sound like really?]
"I see this is a roman dwelling" is the rubbish version.
Tell about the gun without telling.
What's a cliché? Imply is good.
That's the joy of audio.
Multimedia SF convention
With guests Paul Cornell and Rob Shearman
Paul Cornell Writer Workshop
Very few good books on how to write. Only trust those from people who
have written something good.
Stephen King ‘On Writing’
Robert McKee ‘Story’ everything you need to know. Wrote Chinatown,
which is excellent.
Stephen King wrote on the business of getting into pro writing. He had a row of spikes on the wall. He put rejection letters on them.
He filled 8 spikes before he got one that said why he was rejected, and another 4 before anything got accepted. He cherished those rejections. And that’s what you need [attitude you need].
There are no apprenticeships for writers. The BBC try. [Writers room]. Ladder scheme.
Happens sometimes.
Every writer has a strange mad tale [about how they got into pro work].
[It's not what you know, it's who you know. Meeting producers in a bar or something.]
Find who you know. Be good.
In becoming a good writer be a social observer, [wide range]. Read the sun and the mail and the telegraph.
Become a social being, observing humans. [In the process of that you will] Learn not to be rude.
[Learn how to meet someone from a show you don’t like and not start with talking about how bad it was.]
Know how to talk. [Being polite to producers in bars.]
Try Script Editors.
Not Doctor Who, they get a huuuuuge pile of mail.
[Script Editors for smaller shows, try sending them scripts.]
Get to know the show.
You must want to watch the show.
Say you have no experience *and know that's bad*.
Don't think you know better
Wonder how they do that.
Attitude and Work.
[that's what you need, humble attitude and hard work]
Good and able to take mad chances.
[that?s what you need to get a chance. You need to be good, and you need to be ready to take mad chances, because everyone he knows got in that way.]
Keep plugging at the obvious too.
Joke ends with the word that makes people laugh.
Central character creation.
Point of view. 1st person simple.
Is often a winner. Central character almost uncharacterised, reader can *be* that person. Direct & obvious.
[you start out thinking that the more little quirks you put in the more interesting they get, but that doesn't work as well, it can be offputting.]
Lead is often dullest. Interesting [characters and things happening] around them. Lead is there for others to compare to.
Them doing what you would do.
Your hero will try very hard *not* to have an adventure.
Always do easiest possible thing.
At no point does he volunteer, circumstances push.
Not rush, forced.
People who grab the initiative aren't very relatable.
Forced to is any of us.
Realism is what do you keep in, what keep out. Weight of research.
King writes books then researches them.
Efficient use of time.
Weight of research makes readers trust you. After that can do
anything. Can 'sneak in all sorts of foolishness' later on.
Real thing no one believes?
Chuck it.
[that's so common. It doesn't matter if it happened, if it isn't believable, it's no use for the story.]
You can't get out of something being ridiculous by calling it ridiculous.
Get rid and do another way.
How know when to fix?
There's no real writers block.
Suddenly you know if you go on you're on useless foundations, but you don't know why.
Go back a step and look.
You are going to rewrite.
Rewrites are what you do.
First drafts cannot be perfect.
Just sit and write rubbish.
So what? You always end up chucking it. Just get it down.
Or, go to something else, [another writing project]
Plotting. PC likes to plot solidly then ignore it. Novel has 80 page plot.
Ending is the important bit.
Pitch: Write the ending.
People will flip to the ending.
Endings: really tough.
Shakespeare: all the old things in all the new ways.
Book cover didn't lie, story expected, but so surprising in the way.
[unpack that note - when someone reads a story you have to give them what they bought, make sure the book cover didn't lie and they're getting what they expected, but you have to do it in a surprising way.
Surprise is key.]
What characters set out to do: either they do, or fail in satisfying ways.
[everything, keep track, make a little chart, whatever a character sets out to do, they do it, or they fail in satisfying ways.
Satisfying is something they learn from or something where you want to see them fail, I think.]
Beats.
22 page comic, each page 1, 2, or possibly 3 beats.
A thing that happens.
Scenes are no longer than the content of their beat.
Surpise + what it means.
THERE IS JUST PLOT.
(Story)
Plot is the shape underneath the writing on top making beats is the rest.
Jokes advance the plot.
Cut to the next surprise.
Xander says what he'll do // chains
[unpack that - it's the scene in season 7 when Xander says he'll go calmly sort something out and it cuts straight to him hanging up in chains. You don't need to see him try, that's entirely expected. The surprise is the degree of fail.]
Do two or three things at once.
Skip the boring bits, like parking. [you never see someone in a film have to look for a parking space, because that's boring. But when *do* you see it?]
Comedy or horror makes finding it interesting.
Nobody says 'goodbye' because useless + expected. [People on TV are very rude, no goodbye. Like the answer machine having 2 very quick messages not relevant before there's one important one.]
Reversal of Expectations
Surprise surprise surprise
'I didn't expect that'
Surprise per minute ratio
Surprise to surprise fast. Surprise end.
[unpacking that - the important bit is lots of surprises, if it isn't being surprising then you don't need to write it because people fill it in for themselves, you want to surprise your readers.]
PC working on a script right now. Finished it several days in a row.
Now he has one line that needs to go somewhere. He's left it 24 hours and it's still finished.
[that's how writing works. Finish a draft, leave it, realise that wasn't right, go back and finish it again.
BE adds its rather a relief this happens to actual smart writer people too, because its rather a depressing thing the first few times it happens to me.]
You've got to write. Lots. And read lots.
Your voice will come through.
Don't worry about imitating style.
[it's easy to get hung up thinking you'll accidentally copy things if you read a lot, or you'll soak up someone else's style. But if you're reading lots of good stuff that's actually no bad thing, you'll soak up a good style!]
[a good writing speed is] a couple thousand words per day. You're going to rewrite it. Nano is good. Imposes discipline. You will finish
Crap first draft. Read and sort it. Rewriting.
Each draft best possible.
[You can write the first draft where everyone says exactly what they mean in the most obvious possible way, then go back and rewrite it to be actually good. You can write a draft you know is going to be terrible - actually logically you must because you can't skip over the
first draft and the first draft is always crap. But even knowing that, each draft has to be the best possible draft you can write.]
[So you've got a finished draft, it has been finished for 24 hours,
it's the best work you can do. Now what?]
Hand it in; ACCEPT ALL CRITICISM.
Seek out harsh criticism and change because of it.
Learn from every punch.
[anecdote about famous boxer guy (Ali vs. Foreman)
learning from other famous boxer guy, neither name I recall because I'm not much for boxer guys. But to learn from boxers, you get hit a lot, and see how they did it.]
Have No Anger.
[BE knows this one, yet needs the internet and time delayed communication to manage it. I always get crit, sulk, get defensive, write about why I Am Secretly Right, and then delete it and have an actual think. With repetition I guess one can learn to skip to the thinking parts.]
Your mum won't give harsh crit.
[Donna's mum would.]
Gangs of readers, the kind of friends who can say you look really bad.
[because if someone tells you then you can go fix it, and friends don't let friends accidentally wander around looking really bad]
You can't see the wood [you're too close to your own writing. BE knows this. Really really.]
S King had to ask editors to keep editing. [He realised that past a certain point he'd got so successful they were just waving things through. He got really angry about it.]
"WE got this far."
[He knew the successful writing was a team effort.]
TV meeting hit in face a lot.
[I suspect that unpacks to be the boxing metaphor again. You get lots of notes and must learn lots of times.]
PC Changed agents to get criticism.
[Good thing is if you can] get used to it you can shrug off bad reviews.
Got to be entirely emotionally invested in your work but also ready to change it from scene 1.
[If someone tells you something or you just realise that something needs changing right at the start, even though it changes everything after that point, you must be ready to change it.]
[BE needed to hear both that and the comment about writer's block not being block but being awareness you've screwed up already. Between them they've unblocked my latest effort. Of course now I need to start all over again, but hey, story will happen.]
Don't be put off.
How to find critics?
Can train good friends. Can put it across nicely.
Pinkdormouse(?) suggested Make friends with a tech writer. [When they've been having a bad day they'll happily rip your work to shreds.]
PC: Nobody wants to read your manuscript for fun. Not really.
Make sure they're on a mission to crit you.
[How to find agents]
Writers & Artists Yearbook.
People with agents are treated differently.
People who lose if they've chosen badly have chosen you.
Agent less than 15% of what you’re paid.
Will cull what he doesn't like and tell you what he thinks.
An agent is the easiest way to get anything else.
BBC radio drama are cuddly and love you.
Listen to Afternoon Plays. They might mentor you in.
Don't assume 'any fool can'
Learn the RULES
(It's harder than you think)
Drama = Surprise
Soap = Anticipation
Hints
No surprise twists and turns
It doesn't satisfy the audience
They predict, anticipate.
SF fans are into big surprise.
[BE has been thinking about this since PC said it, and I think those among us who are still watching repeats x years later are also big into antici... pation. I mean, after the first dozen times, the surprise is pretty much gone. Also, humans like it when they can predict correctly. Starting with baby humans. It's like a test pattern that says brains are functioning correctly. So BE has been wondering if SF fans want the feeling that they can predict the really surprising things correctly, the difficult extrapolations projected a long way forward. But if first viewing lacks surprise, we no likes it. So it is complicated.]
[And all that was BE and not PC so I should probably stick it in a comment.]
PC found soap too tough to write.
Don't look down on a genre yet have a go.
Know your genre inside out.
Comedy is hardest. More range. Talent for comedy = hugs and training.
Comedy on Radio 4 = win.
[radio is hungry to fill hours, comedy writers is rare and precious,
comedy on the radio is a big win if you can do it]
Comics almost impossible
[I think we're still on 'how to get in'.]
2000 AD in Britain. Might have insanely hard short story opportunity.
[beginning middle and end self contained fresh world story in x tiny pages. Very hard.]
SHORT IS HARDER.
30 second pitch, 25 words or less, short snappy pitch.
[you need to be able to sum up your story in 25 words or less and say it quickly to someone else. If you have to fill in elaborate background first you'll lose your listener before you get to the story. Be short clear and memorable.]
You are the worst writer ever.
You are the best writer ever.
Hold that in your mind always.
You very rarely know best.
[You must be able to have the confidence to write something, finish, show it to people, and know throughout that it is going to work because you are the best writer ever. You must be able to throw that out the window and accept every criticism from every person, because you are the worst writer ever. You must be able to implement fixes and recall that you are in fact the best writer ever so you can show the story again.]
[BE has multi point fail on that advice. Fanfic gives more of a 'you aren't the best or the worst but someone will read it anyway' feeling. I guess if you want people to give you money there's so many gates and bars that attitude really won't get you far. BE likes fanfic.
But BE wants better television, with more women and less fail, and fanfic also teaches you that if you want more of something you start by making more of it yourself. Except, see up the top for 'you don't actually know better'. So it's sort of compound fail. But its why I
want to write.]
[Again, all that was BE, I should stick it in a comment instead.]
Blank page?
Write something.
Market or audience in mind?
Write generic.
Write "INT TARDIS DAY one"
Something happens right away.
TV rules
In & out of scenes. Arrive late, leave early. Don't show bits where nothing happens.
First surprising thing is first thing said. Leave early as poss.
USTV not everything explained.
Geeky part says 'but' [and gets hung up on the lack of explanation]
Not everything has to be explained [USTV is good at sticking to the surprising bits so it is in fact right not to explain what people can figure out]
Technobabble, exposition
Good IF is Plot & Emotion
No sitting at the end with a filp chart.
Christie makes it a genre. Genre expectations are good. [Genre expectations carry the audience with you through things that might otherwise be awkward.]
Dramatise it along the way. [referring to exposition and necessary information]
Show don't tell.
Understand it without the words. [you can watch TV with the sound off and still get a whole lot of what is going on, and this is of the good]
Dialogue:
[plot is the] Shape of script first, dialogue on top.
Every bit of dialogue does plot stuff.
Swap out inelegant words after draft.
Write in plot points in crap dialogue, the thing person needs to get over to other person, then swap it.
Motivation: Know what everyone wants. They will try and get it.
[In a conversation there's at least] 2 motives? What's the order?
Both as quick as possible.
Crit: It's all justified. All.
How do you know it's finished? :
It nags or it doesn't.
Make sure it feels satisfying.
[PC's agent will bounce the script back with the aforementioned harsh criticism a lot, until he gets to] "I think that's satisfactory"
SAYING things
On the nose initially
Just off is really good.
Joke that's a plot point. Whedon.
[all JW jokes also further the plot.]
Endings. Multiple.
PC "I'm really bad at this".
Miami Vice is good at finishing exactly as climax. Shot? End before falls.
Human Nature [endings] need all [every ending necessary]
Villains must have their comeuppance
Must see the boy is alright after the war
The old man is the less obvious version [the less obvious way of saying the boy is alright]
Q about US writers strike
British writers union already have all the rights the US strike for.
[US TV was contacting UK writers. PC said he'd be happy to work with them after the strike ended. Funnily enough hasn't heard back from them.]
Dialogue Pacing Jokes Plot
[there was a question here about character driven shows and plot driven shows, the latter defined as ones that push characters around doing things just for the plot. PC replied]
Plot dominates 'character' shows and 'plot' shows. It's all plot.
B5 budget constraints few sets to play with. Enter sooner and leave
later to fill time because there's nowhere to cut to.
HAVE somewhere to cut to!
Don't put all in the same room
Don't try and cut to later in the same place. It doesn't usually work. In comedy it can work. Different cuts to big changes.
Nothing on TV is too fast.
Can on Audio. Don't know where you are. Need establishing.
Choice of sound effects. Difficult. [PC once wrote in the sound of an oil lamp flickering to suggest a roman villa and got called on it because what does an oil lamp sound like really?]
"I see this is a roman dwelling" is the rubbish version.
Tell about the gun without telling.
What's a cliché? Imply is good.
That's the joy of audio.