While I read all the books on screenwriting (back when I was still writing screenplays) -- Syd Field's Screenplay, Save the Cat, Bob McKee's Story, Viki King's How to Write a Movie in 21 Days...and a dozen others -- who really influenced my screenwriting was Alfred Hitchcock in his interview with Francois Truffaut.
I found the book when it first came out. I was working at Frost Brothers in downtown San Antonio and there was a news stand across the street with a basement for books on various subjects, including film. I flipped through it, saw it had samples of Hitchcock's storyboards and bought it. I was doing some comic strip nonsense, at the time. I read it. And his attitude that dialogue was secondary to image stuck with me.
Tainted me, really, because the more I got into writing the more I wanted to deal with the characters and not just running-jumping-standing-still movies. When I finally got it through my thick skull I was never going to make it in Hollywood and started writing books, unfortunately that carried through...to an extent. And still haunts my work.
At the beginning of the process.
But I've begun to accept that half the reason I rewrite my work so much is because I want to strip that superficiality away as much as possible. Working on HNH is turning into another case study, for me. I found I was ignoring the reality of the situation in Derry, at the time Brendan returns, and having important dramatic moments filled with symbolism occurring...which were totally wrong. And now I'm dealing with that superficial nonsense as I dig in deeper and deeper to make the story as real as possible.
I know it can't be 100% right; I didn't live there, nor was I involved in anything that happened. But I can make it feel right as it's being read. That's what got me through the first two books...each of which underwent at least two dozen rewrites before I could let go. And tore me up as I went.
Yet here I go, again...already cut out more than 4200 words. Boom...boom...boom...
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