Some writers focus on non-fiction, or fiction, or romance, or poetry.
I have no such clarity.
I like writing screenplays, but miss the ability to get inside the characters head. And I dislike the feeling I get that I'm cheating on REAL literature if I write smut like screenplays...even though I totally acknowledge that screenwriting is challenging, and worthwhile, and I love watching movies. I suppose it's just that screenwriting is guilty by association. It's guilty of all the vile things about Hollywood by association: glitz, glamour, a whole industry bent on not growing up. An industry which constantly seeks escape. I like writing screenplays but I don't want to write something which is really only appreciated if it's produced and shown to an audience.
Vs.
I love writing novels because--as my ever-so-wise friend Eric Thompson says--what you put on the page is the final product: what you put down on the page is what the reader sees. Period. End of story. No director, actors, producers, studios, and/or test audiences. Oh, sure, you'll have editors helping you form your work as you craft it, but it's largely a direct route from you to your audience. I love that. But, writing a book is easier and harder than writing a screenplay. Writing a screenplay is an exercise in economy. Writing a book, an exercise in detail.
Then there's the fact that I feel indefinitely torn and paralyzed just by having the option to write either one. I cannot choose. I don't want to choose. I don't think, ultimately, I will or that I must...but when I write one I feel like I'm being unfaithful to the other; or, perhaps, I feel like I'm spreading myself too thinly and won't complete either.
I have no such clarity.
I like writing screenplays, but miss the ability to get inside the characters head. And I dislike the feeling I get that I'm cheating on REAL literature if I write smut like screenplays...even though I totally acknowledge that screenwriting is challenging, and worthwhile, and I love watching movies. I suppose it's just that screenwriting is guilty by association. It's guilty of all the vile things about Hollywood by association: glitz, glamour, a whole industry bent on not growing up. An industry which constantly seeks escape. I like writing screenplays but I don't want to write something which is really only appreciated if it's produced and shown to an audience.
Vs.
I love writing novels because--as my ever-so-wise friend Eric Thompson says--what you put on the page is the final product: what you put down on the page is what the reader sees. Period. End of story. No director, actors, producers, studios, and/or test audiences. Oh, sure, you'll have editors helping you form your work as you craft it, but it's largely a direct route from you to your audience. I love that. But, writing a book is easier and harder than writing a screenplay. Writing a screenplay is an exercise in economy. Writing a book, an exercise in detail.
Then there's the fact that I feel indefinitely torn and paralyzed just by having the option to write either one. I cannot choose. I don't want to choose. I don't think, ultimately, I will or that I must...but when I write one I feel like I'm being unfaithful to the other; or, perhaps, I feel like I'm spreading myself too thinly and won't complete either.
No comments:
Post a Comment