Seems he's taking me at my word, that I'll finish Place of Safety with him, and he's given me a bit more of his life in Houston. He'll be there from not long before he turns seventeen until just before he turns twenty-five. The longest part of the story, and what was proving to be the least interesting, to me. And yet...it's necessary, I know it is.
I've long given up trying to understand why some aspects of my scripts or books are required. It's just, when I'm right about something in them, no amount of criticism can change that. I finally got it hammered into my thick skull when I tried to put aside all my ownership of a story I'd been hired to write and do what others told me to with it...and it worked for a while because I was able to make the story stronger in ways that still satisfied those running the show. But they kept coming back with more and more requests for changes until they went one step too far.
They asked me to get rid of a character. Combine her with the hero. And that is when I stopped. Didn't even think about it. The very idea was so completely wrong for the story, I refused to even consider it. I saw it as an insult to the characters and their world. So it was taken away from me. Given to another writer. After all my fucking work on it. And here we are, ten years later, and nothing more has been done with it.
Something else I learned was, no matter how perfect a screenplay is, someone will want to change it. Not to make it better; just to make it theirs, and never mind it's at the expense of your blood and flesh. Making a film requires compromise, they say. Only if you want to turn out shit, is my response to that.
Now I'm getting back to Place of Safety and wondering why Brendan goes to live in Houston for so long. Why it's so important to the story aside from taking him away from his world in Derry and letting him know a form of peace...that proves not to be...and forces him to return home, a man now too aware of the world. Too aware of humanity's failings.
Then this evening, he showed me to a door that will help me understand...and I'm shaking as I write this. Having to go back, over and over, and correct typos because my fingers aren't sure about our new direction. I have a feeling that when I finally do dig into Brendan's journey through Texas, it will be as illuminating to me as I hope it will be to a reader.
But you never know until the story is told, if you've told it well.
I've long given up trying to understand why some aspects of my scripts or books are required. It's just, when I'm right about something in them, no amount of criticism can change that. I finally got it hammered into my thick skull when I tried to put aside all my ownership of a story I'd been hired to write and do what others told me to with it...and it worked for a while because I was able to make the story stronger in ways that still satisfied those running the show. But they kept coming back with more and more requests for changes until they went one step too far.
They asked me to get rid of a character. Combine her with the hero. And that is when I stopped. Didn't even think about it. The very idea was so completely wrong for the story, I refused to even consider it. I saw it as an insult to the characters and their world. So it was taken away from me. Given to another writer. After all my fucking work on it. And here we are, ten years later, and nothing more has been done with it.
Something else I learned was, no matter how perfect a screenplay is, someone will want to change it. Not to make it better; just to make it theirs, and never mind it's at the expense of your blood and flesh. Making a film requires compromise, they say. Only if you want to turn out shit, is my response to that.
Now I'm getting back to Place of Safety and wondering why Brendan goes to live in Houston for so long. Why it's so important to the story aside from taking him away from his world in Derry and letting him know a form of peace...that proves not to be...and forces him to return home, a man now too aware of the world. Too aware of humanity's failings.
Then this evening, he showed me to a door that will help me understand...and I'm shaking as I write this. Having to go back, over and over, and correct typos because my fingers aren't sure about our new direction. I have a feeling that when I finally do dig into Brendan's journey through Texas, it will be as illuminating to me as I hope it will be to a reader.
But you never know until the story is told, if you've told it well.
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