Dreamcatcher and Writing
I just finished watching Dreamcatcher, taken from Stephan King's novel. If you haven't watched Dreamcatcher, it's (what I feel is) typical Stephan King movie: You're watching the movie, you are completely entrenched in the world he has created; it's intense and curious about knowing everything that's going on; you're nervous when he wants you to be nervous and laughing when he wants you to laugh... you're completely enjoying the world according to King and then... the ending. And you go "What the FUCK was I just watching?" Because the endings to most (okay, I can probably only say "a few" in good conscious) Stephan King based movies just kinda go pppbblltt... which is defined as the sound of a deflated Stephan King based movie ending. You watch the whole movie thinking "How interesting this all is," and then it ends and you're left thinking "well... I feel somehow unfulfilled."
And it made me think about my class tonight. My instructor, Ms. Scruggs, was talking about how most people, when they start writing a screenplay, get to about page 30 and then stop. And I know exactly why that is: Everyone is afraid to ruin the story with the ending. Good endings are so few and far between, whereas everyone has a few "good" ideas for a movie kicking around in their heads. Starting the movie and setting up the conflict (and even the characters) is not difficult... following through to the end is. Furthermore, my personal problem is that I don't want to ruin what is perfection in my head. I'm afraid to put words on paper, as whatever I'm writing cannot possibly be as perfect as it is in my head. My fear is that the actually story on paper won't be as good as the idea of the story is in my head. And I think a lot of people have similar fears. Sometimes I wish I was a good story-teller, so I could just know I'll have a good story and worry about other things later. I'm not good at telling stories. I am, however, good at writing dialogue. I feel I've always been good at dialogue... it seems to simply flow from me, and it comes out sounding very natural, intelligent, and humorous. I got comments about my good dialogue in college, and even here at Second City I've had a couple writers say that they wished they could write dialogue as well as I write it. That makes me feel pretty good... and I never shared that with you and thought I would to make myself feel better tonight.
That was a tangent for no reason. Where was I? Oh yes! I was basically done with what I was talking about. Maybe someday I'll post how I go about writing such great dialogue... but I fear it's going to make me seem creepy or crazy, even more so than usual. I just find it odd how close writers (and certain other professions) can get to certain things that are considered "insane"... but are 'par for the course,' if you catch my meaning. And, if you don't catch my meaning, I mean that the only way to function in certain jobs is to do things that are contrary to common sense (firefighters come to mind) or things that are just plain out-of-the-ordinary. I think writing--great writing--is one of those things. And I think it's very late. Goodnight.