But Ann, that's a class for screenwriters.
Yes, it is.
Let me tell you a story.
In movies, there seems to be a cliche of the English teacher who really wanted to be a novelist and decided to teach as a day job or a back up plan. That isn't me. I've never been a person who wanted to write "The Great American Novel." I became a teacher for more intentional reasons, reasons that this blogpost need not delve into, but none of them were remotely "back-up plan" related. Teaching was, and continues to be, "the plan."
I chose specifically to teach ENGLISH for one main reason. To be a good teacher (who doesn't get bored after the first year), I needed to teach something I was passionate about, and I love stories. I love to consume them, in any form.*
It turns out that teaching Language Arts means teaching the creation of stories as well as their consumption, and so I've been teaching writing since day one of my career. Over the years I modeled good writing techniques for students, which means I wrote sentences, paragraphs, scenes...
When I decided to try writing more than that, just for fun, I couldn't. Not a single sentence I wrote rang true. I was daunted by great literature from amazing writers and didn't know how to write like them. The worst part was writing description. Prose narration was torture. All my words seemed dumb.
And so I turned to screenplay.
I read a few books on how to set up a film plot and format a screenplay. It was perfect. No description. Just set up the scene with a log line (as succinct as possible), figure out the main thing that had to happen in the next few minutes, and let the characters talk to each other. Or force them to.
I wrote a silly romantic comedy. It was a modern version of "The Snow Queen" that would fit right in during Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas. It was a fun challenge, and although the script is embarrassingly hokey, I'm glad I wrote it. Being forced to limit description, focus on characters' immediate goals, and structure an overarching plot is great training for an aspiring novelist. Because I wrote a screenplay, I got past my prose roadblock.
So now, in the throes of novel number four, I am circling back to screenplay. Listening to Sorkin describe the essentials of a scene has been inspiring. I made great progress a few weeks ago. But then I hit another roadblock. Okay, I admit, I took a trip to NYC and reveled in Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.
I lost a week to the trip and can't seem to get back into writing now that I'm home. Doesn't help that I have snatches of songs from all the musicals we saw running through my head all day long...
Back to the Masterclass.
Before the NYC trip, I had paused at Lesson 11: Writing Habits. I expected Sorkin to say he woke up at the exact same time every day, worked out, and wrote for 3-4 hours. I've heard many writers with this logical and steady schedule. Instead, he talked about taking months and months to think about his ideas. Then, when he starts writing, the words flow. If the words don't flow, if progress is slow and painful, he's not ready to write yet. He thinks more. Sometimes while driving around.
THAT'S ME!
He perfectly described how I started L&L a year and a half ago, how I traveled to England last summer to see castles first hand, how I read dozens of books on medieval culture for ideas, and how I have and continue to come up with so many lightbulb ideas while driving. Most important, he affirmed that if the words aren't coming, the ideas aren't ready.
Okay, so I'm rationalizing. But mostly, I feel relieved.
* Except Twitter. It's too Memento for me.
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