So yesterday I attended the SCBWI Spring Retreat at the beautiful, and extremely busy, (weddings--writers--bus loads of wine tasters--oh my!), South Coast Winery Resort and Spa in Temecula, where I got to hang out with super cool authors like Debby Garfinkle and Stacia Deutsche, and give a little talk about how using the screenwriting technique changed my life. (Yes, Robert Mckee, I owe it all to you!)
Or at least it changed my writing, which lead to my first two-book deal with St. Martin's Press, which ultimately changed my life by allowing me to do what I love for a living (well, that and my awesome husband's unfailing support!)
I have to admit, several months back when I was first asked to speak at the even I was thrilled, but as the day crept closer, I began to panic about what I was going to talk about. I'm not a "look under the hood" kind of writer. I just sort of immerse myself in the world I create, become the character, and feel my way though--somewhat like a method actor--with only the roughest, most barest, outline by my side, which is really no more than a list of the plot's most major turning points. And since there are so many industrious authors with their charts, outlines, and storyboards who do really great, visual, presentations, I had no idea how I'd fill up my own 50 minutes without all those tools.
But once I started thinking back on my publishing journey, I remembered how the shift came just after reading STORY by Robert Mckee (I later went on to read SAVE THE CAT by Blake Snyder, and love it just as much!). And the reason this worked for me is because film is an expensive medium with no time or $$ to waste on unnecessary scenes, and as FAKING 19 began as a story about a girl who did far more thinking than acting (kind of like me back then!), applying these lean, mean, make-stuff-happen-or-kill-it, methods, transformed it into a totally different manuscript that snagged my first book deal.
Are these methods for everyone? Probably not. But they worked for me, and hopefully, I was able to impart something helpful to a wonderful group of writers!
Happy Sunday everyone!
A
