Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Role Changes and Writing by the Seat of Your Pants

Greetings, one and all! Well… the temp track I mentioned last time took longer to finish than expected, but it’s finally together. After that, it’s back to some more writing. A professional screenwriter once said it’s the only job he knows of that gets harder the better you get at it. I’m certainly feeling that, at the moment. Once upon a time I could just put a story down on the page, and then edit it, but no longer. Now I’m aware of the ripple effects of every decision. They say there are two schools of writing, the “plotters” and the “pantsers.” The former so called because they meticulously plot everything out before even beginning to put words to page. The latter are so called because the “fly by the seat of their pants,” compared to the plotter.

The reality is that the development order is just different for each, and where they put the priority in their narrative construction. For instance, one “plotter” I know starts with theme and researches the philosophy and psychology associated with that theme, whereas I, as more of a “pantser”, start with the world and characters, and see how themes develop from their interactions. Naturally, this looks far more chaotic, and I do sometimes envy people who can find joy in locking things down before they start writing. But, then again, they do seem to suffer whenever the characters don’t do what they want, so I do have that going for me…

Anyway, on top of that, the stunties met on Sunday, and this time I had two of the more veteran members of this generation step up their game by filling our usual roles and directing the younger members in a choreography session.







It was a fun, exhausting, and interesting experience, and far more educational for me than one might think. Now I must figure out what I should do to build on what we’ve learned…

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

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