|
Every new writer is faced with innumerable choices. What should he write, a novel, short story, a screenplay, a stage play, a TV drama? What genre should he write in, horror, romance, comedy, thriller? What length should he write at? Third person or first? For me, what I really enjoy is half hour TV sitcoms but I've written for just about every avenue going. I've written comic books, journalism for newspapers, magazines and radio, scripts for theatre, radio, TV and film. Plus I've done advertising work for commercial companies. So, I think I know what I'm talking about. My advice for the new writer is to begin by writing short stories, if only because they make the least demands yet still demand that the writer has a command of the basics of plotting, characterisation, dialogue and all that other technical stuff. Where genre is concerned it's obviously a matter of individual choice, but it's almost inevitable that you're going to write the stuff that you enjoy reading and have experience of. It would be pointless in any case for a romance reader to attempt to write a thriller. Let's not stray into dangerous territory too early. Having mastered the short story form the writer has two choices, to vary length or to vary media, either by expanding to novel length or to attempt a dramatic piece for theatre, radio or TV. Here I would suggest that taking on the role of dramatist offers more in the way of developing skills. My main aim is to avoid my novice attempting a full length work which he might not be able to complete, leading to disillusionment. Better to build up some confidence with a two hander for stage, which will improve dialogue skills. Converting this to radio will add another string to the bow, as the disciplines of writing with only sound as your outlet are digested. During this time I would never discourage the writer who has a full length work as an ultimate ambition from doing some groundwork on their opus. Planning this masterpiece will ensure that when they do tackle it, half their work is done, and it will not appear so daunting. If the writer now took one of his short stories and converted it to television this would be another healthy step along the learning curve. Realising the limitations of each medium is important and a television drama is going to impose limitations that the prose writer would never imagine. At some point, and only the writer will know when, this process of education must end and the writer will know who he is, where he stands, and what he writes. This need not define him as my experience has proved. But back to my love of the sitcom. I like to make people laugh. It's a good thing. Yet the sitcom genre still makes me work at character, structure and dialogue. Perhaps even more than longer pieces in other media. I've written two comedy screenplays but much though I enjoyed those, there was too much work involved to make them my favourite. One last thought. Much though you may enjoy writing, once you've done it for a while your most favourite words to type will be THE END thesis
Related Articles -
Writer's, Choices,
|
