STATUS – Still Learning From Everything –

We’re in Tucson for the next few weeks.

This will be a quick one, just a lot of copying and pasting, as I need to take full advantage of the boys’ nap time to finish up Project: GREY’s rewrites before the end of May. Thankfully, we’re surrounded by (vaccinated) family who can watch the boys so it should be a little easier to sneak in some extra writing time, even when they’re awake.

In the meantime, as a follow up to yesterday’s post about learning storytelling from everywhere, here’s comic writer/screenwriter Bryan Edward Hill saying the exact same thing I said yesterday except, you know, better:

Don't know if this is helpful #writingadvice but something that helps me during GENRE work is to watch and study things far outside of the genre of my project, just to see different ways scenes are executed, characters are built, etc. An example of how this works for me…
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) May 11, 2021

So let's say I'm working on a buddy cop movie, a LETHAL WEAPON kind of thing. The natural pull is to study Shane Black and Walter Hill etc., which I do…but I'll also watch romantic comedies. Billy Wilder to Nora Ephron. Why? pic.twitter.com/op1ojnwajx
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) May 11, 2021

Because a major element of those films is the "meet cute" — the scene where your protagonists meet and spark the journey of their connection. So if I watch something like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, I can study that technique outside of the action genre and learn…. pic.twitter.com/r5B9pu2rid
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) May 11, 2021

How they made that spark happen? How did they stage it? What's the moment in the "meet cute" where the two characters CLICK and you know there's a connection built. Studying it outside of genre, makes it easier for me to see the technique of it.
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) May 11, 2021

Is LETHAL WEAPON a love story? Well, sort of, yes. You have two characters that oil and water mix until there's a unifying moment of connection. In that film it's Murtaugh realizing Riggs isn't pretending to be crazy. He's actually self-destructive and their partnership starts —
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) May 11, 2021

— there. In Shane Black's work it's violent and stark, and in Ephron's it's comforting and warm, but there's a shared technique there to study. Were I to ONLY look at action films, I would miss subtlety that I can use from that genre into mine.
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) May 11, 2021

Brilliant stuff. He goes on for a little while longer, elaborating on its usage in genre writing (which is also good) but I thought using just the beginning was enough. Follow him on Twitter, if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading,

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Contact: robertmichaelacosta@gmail.com

Fifth Draft

Learning To Be A Professional Writer