I'm a writer damn it!
I've wanted to be a writer, or at least entertained mild thoughts of being a writer, for as long as I can remember. When I was at high school and university I didn't believe writing was going to make me enough money so I never pursued it. Since then writing has always been my fall-back option. When I panic that I still don't really know what I'm doing with my life (this is a panic that has been going on since about 6th form) I would always calm myself down with the thought that if all else fails I will be a writer. That thought has never failed to calm me down.
Sometime last year I realised that the reason the thought of becoming a writer always calms me down is because it is what I actually want to do with my life. I don't want it to be my fall-back option. I want it to be my career. I have also always wanted to own my own business. Happily, if I manage to do both then my business will hopefully balance out the fact that it is hard, as a New Zealander, to make money from writing.
Over the years I have experimented with a heap of different writing styles. I have tried non-fiction which I am okay at but not great. If I do go down the journalism path then it will take a huge effort on my part to improve enough to be successful. I have tried fantasy type fiction (ie purely from my imagination) again I am okay at this but not great. I finally found my forte when I started writing fiction based on reality. I will not be writing the next Harry Potter but I might be writing the next My Sisters Keeper. (If you haven't read either of those then go and find a copy now. You won't regret it. Or ask me to borrow mine because that'll be cheaper.)
Along the way I have fancied myself as a script writer. I still do actually. I find the difference between writing for print and writing for film totally fascinating. I have a file on my computer that is 18 pages of story ideas. None of the ideas in this file are more than 2 sentences (so as you can imagine there are A LOT of ideas listed in there). The ideas I have thought about beyond those 2 sentences are then detailed in their own file. Probably about half the ideas in that 18 page document would never, ever work in print. They are purely film ideas. A very tiny percentage would only really work in print and the rest would be okay in either.
When you are writing for film you can think in pictures. There are some stories that just won't come across quite the same in words. For instance I have a half written script that is about a serial killer. In itself the story could be written for print and, if the writer is good enough (which I hope I will be one day), still be scary. However, there is one scene which is very critical that would never translate from film. It is a scene that shows the serial killer raping and killing a series of women juxtaposed with him making love to his wife. (Don't worry, I haven't just given away a whole lot of intellectual property. It's not like what I just wrote hasn't been done before anyway.) This scene is completely critical to my story and without it the story would actually almost be about something else. It's nice to have the freedom to write in either medium. I don't know how any writer could be happy just sticking to one. share this: facebook
Sometime last year I realised that the reason the thought of becoming a writer always calms me down is because it is what I actually want to do with my life. I don't want it to be my fall-back option. I want it to be my career. I have also always wanted to own my own business. Happily, if I manage to do both then my business will hopefully balance out the fact that it is hard, as a New Zealander, to make money from writing.
Over the years I have experimented with a heap of different writing styles. I have tried non-fiction which I am okay at but not great. If I do go down the journalism path then it will take a huge effort on my part to improve enough to be successful. I have tried fantasy type fiction (ie purely from my imagination) again I am okay at this but not great. I finally found my forte when I started writing fiction based on reality. I will not be writing the next Harry Potter but I might be writing the next My Sisters Keeper. (If you haven't read either of those then go and find a copy now. You won't regret it. Or ask me to borrow mine because that'll be cheaper.)
Along the way I have fancied myself as a script writer. I still do actually. I find the difference between writing for print and writing for film totally fascinating. I have a file on my computer that is 18 pages of story ideas. None of the ideas in this file are more than 2 sentences (so as you can imagine there are A LOT of ideas listed in there). The ideas I have thought about beyond those 2 sentences are then detailed in their own file. Probably about half the ideas in that 18 page document would never, ever work in print. They are purely film ideas. A very tiny percentage would only really work in print and the rest would be okay in either.
When you are writing for film you can think in pictures. There are some stories that just won't come across quite the same in words. For instance I have a half written script that is about a serial killer. In itself the story could be written for print and, if the writer is good enough (which I hope I will be one day), still be scary. However, there is one scene which is very critical that would never translate from film. It is a scene that shows the serial killer raping and killing a series of women juxtaposed with him making love to his wife. (Don't worry, I haven't just given away a whole lot of intellectual property. It's not like what I just wrote hasn't been done before anyway.) This scene is completely critical to my story and without it the story would actually almost be about something else. It's nice to have the freedom to write in either medium. I don't know how any writer could be happy just sticking to one. share this: facebook
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on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 11:13 AM.
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