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I recall a writing seminar speaker once remark: "all writing begins in confusion." Whether writing a corporate media script, a poem or a screenplay, it's a comforting thought. Sometimes, when starting something as daunting as a screenplay, it's helpful to remember that it's only through the writing process that we discover what we want to say.
The confusion may come from getting one's arms around the subject matter. Over the years, I've written many corporate video scripts on medical subjects. Not having a background in medicine or even biology, the topics are often initially difficult. The noted nature writer, Rachel Carson, had good advice for those in this situation.
"The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to say to him," she wrote. "His initial task is to come to know his subject intimately, to understand its every aspect, to let it fill his mind. Then, at some turning point, the subject takes command and the true act of creation begins..."
Many of my plays and screenplays focus on historical material. There, too, it's important to get to know the subject intimately-to assimilate the material, letting it become part of one's unconscious being.
Sometimes, screenwriters face other symptoms of the confusion syndrome. Characters that resist taking on a life of their own. Making exposition believable. Finding the story arc.
Ever write a scene in the morning and realize by afternoon that it just doesn't work? You have to pitch it. Seems like a wasted morning. But turn that thinking around. You had to write it that way to discover it wouldn't work. This frees you to try a different tack. It's all part of the writing process.
So, don't let confusion block you. Recognize it as a normal state when writing-as good a place as any to begin.
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