Hi folks,
Gonna
turn you onto a new book that’s blowing me away. It’s a screenwriting book, but
it’s very different from the normal mish-mash of such books and has tons of
wisdom that will be helpful to fiction writers as well.
It’s
John Jarrell’s TOUGH LOVE SCREENWRITING and I’d recommend every fiction writer
add it to their professional library.
Here’s
one example that, while aimed at screenwriters, applies also to fiction
writers:
“Modern
cinematic storytelling has evolved into lightning-quick cuts and tightly framed
visuals, shortcuts which compress and collapse screen time with a maximum of
brevity while still managing to impart the essential content.
This is also how we live our lives now—in
shorthand.
All our mind-bending new tech reflects the same dynamic and reinforces these same expectations. Net-consciousness
dominates, dots connect at light speed. People process twice the same info
three times as quickly. Readers and audiences not only “get it” faster, they
bring shorter attention spans, amplifying their impatience. Bore folks for an
instant, the channel’s been changed, a fresh Chrome window’s been opened and
the app closed out.
Which
is why your screenplay needs to be stylistically in synch with these same times
and expectations as well.”
In
a nutshell, this also describes contemporary fiction techniques.
The
book is chockful of this kind of practical wisdom. Jarrell shows the reader all
the mistakes he made and how to avoid ‘em. What’s really cool about what he
says is that he’s a working screenwriter who’s sold tons of stuff to the
studios. There are an awful lot of books out there written by folks who’ve
never sold a blessed thing and yet somehow they get bunch of people to purchase
their so-called “wisdom.” Not this guy. He’s the real deal.
Here’s
another gem that struck a chord in me as I’d just written a blogpost about the
very same thing. Jarrell is describing a process he went through to get the right agent… not just any agent, which is precisely what I’d
just written about.
He
says:
“Couple
weeks flew by before our follow-up. Agent Two told me he’d enjoyed the script,
and from his brief notes I could tell he’s actually read it—even more miraculous than the first call-back. In all
honesty, though, Agent Two had another client sharing somewhat of the same
creative wheelhouse, and servicing one writer coloring outside the traditional
lines was already a handful as it was.
This
shit happens. Agents don’t need many duplicate clients on their rosters,
meaning writers working within the same specific genres or overlapping in the
type of material they write. Agent Two was totally cool and gave it to me
straight, like an adult—which, at the end of the day, is all any writer can
hope for. Very warmly, I thanked him for taking the time.”
This
hit home. It was exactly what I had said about a week ago in the post about why
Lee Child and Matt Hilton don’t share the same agent and shouldn’t, even though
both of them feature the same kind of series character. For me, this bespoke a
guy who understands the business.
There
are tons and tons of other practical and useful advice within these pages. Jarrell’s the real deal and his book is one of those rare things—a compendium of
thoroughly useful and usable advice.
I’d
get it if I were you. I think you’ll find it to be one of the best investments
in your craft you’ve ever made. Either as a fiction writer or a screenwriter.
Or both.
Blue
skies,
Les
P.S. Full disclosure--After reading his book, I asked John to take a look at one of my scripts to see if he can help me with his script consulting service. I've passed on these for a long time, but I never had the full trust that I'd encounter a guy with fully-operational bullshit detector before him. Check him out on his blog.
And, tell him I sentcha...
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