Loglines are my best friend

If your story, script, or, hell, even poem cannot fit into a logline it's not quite where it's supposed to be.

Lately, I've been trying to conceive of some ideas for a one act play for a festival I'd like to enter. Preferably I'd like to use a work I've already put some effort on rather than completely start afresh.

Initially I thought about expanding on a one act I put about three drafts into. I have a play entitled "Patricide" that I wrote originally for the Horizon Theatre One Act competition. It was ultimately rejected, but that's how writing goes. The play dealt with a true event that cluttered with fictional pretenses. Succinctly, it dealt with my father's troubled relationship with his father, my grandfather, who abandoned the family for another woman and didn't budge even during my uncle's dying days. 

Not succinctly, when my grandfather was in his dying days by dad refused to see him or, more importantly, bring my sister (a baby) to see him. My dad never forgave my grandfather for forsaking my uncle and this brought about a short story that I kept in my mind primarily because I liked the idea of a revenge story through subtle shunning. Eventually I took this short story on for the script but changed the main character from male to female, but there was a couple of arcs that even in the third draft I still couldn't manage. With this play contest I figured I could address this to produce some written material appropriate for the festival. Consequently I re-read the last draft. 

I can see why Horizon rejected it.

The play was written to be a little more poetic for its britches and some of the details aren't fine tuned. Specifically, the stage directions aren't too wonderful. 

I've been mulling over whether to rework it or not because I'm not sure it would work. More importantly it doesn't really seem to be the festival's style or honestly...mine. I rarely have an interest in family squabbling in dramatic scripts or narratives. Plus I wasn't sure how to bring out some comedy in the script except for the husband character I created to be a goofball, but I also couldn't put a proper justification to his existence. 

Most important, or at the very least pertinent for this blog post, I couldn't put a proper logline on it.

Loglines have become my life's blood in regards to developing material. Working with loglines has allowed me to have a basic framework of dramatic action. A great script needs dramatic action. It needs an antagonist, a struggle, a character fighting for something. I knew I was possibly on to something with my latest script because I came up with a reasonably decent logline and it helped lead me into a third draft that I don't truly hate. 

In coming up with ideas with this one act I've been working with loglines. I really struggled Tuesday coming up with a good story because each story I came up with, with the intention of being really funny, was not really funny. The logline for a good comedy script needs to be funny or elicit a chuckle. Whenever I mention my script "The Five Stages of Baldness" to someone it usually brings about a laugh. I think the logline for the script is essentially "A young man goes through the fives stages of grief as he discovers he is going bald."

That was the problem I was facing in my reconception of "Patricide." It is a good title, I must confess in order to boost my ego. Yet, the logline isn't quite there yet. "A woman tries to avenge herself after her father leaves her," is WAY too dramatic. "A woman confronts her past" is a trope that isn't quite what I want. There's something in this script but I haven't reached the right logline. 

As I need to begin this script soon, I've been looking over some other material I've worked on. There's an idea that I've been wanting to turn into a feature length screenplay for the Nicholl's Fellowship or some other competition. It's about young men who rob their grandmother of her guns to resell and ultimately get hunted down by someone far too dangerous for them. There's an element of "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" in the story, but really I'm looking at portraying characters far too young for their pants, akin to a storyline in "Gomorrah" (if you've seen it you know which one). What leads me to this script is a few things.

For one, I already wrote a draft of the script, an outline, and several other supplementary material. I have some arc work and plot work to iron out, but I have an idea that I could turn this story into a play by just breaking the plot down into three scenes. The first scene would be the boys planning, the second would be the aftermath and trying to figure who is hunting them, and the third would be the confrontation of the hunter and the hunted. The idea of robbing a grandmother leaves room for some comedy and dark humor which is more up my alley. Equally important is that I already have a juicy logline.

"A pair of young men must find out who is hunting them after stealing guns from their grandmother."

This logline indicates some possibilities as a script. There is dramatic action in the hunt, the detective work of who is hunting them, and the robbing. There is a conflict with protagonists and antagonists. Therefore I think I intend to use this story to work on for this one act. My hope is to still turn it into a feature length script, which I think is feasible, so this one act will help if anything.

Now, as you could tell from my development of these stories, loglines aren't guiding everything. Yet, loglines have become a valuable tool in my arsenal. Go loglines!

How to Take Criticism (and why you should always take criticism)

When I was three I thought that eventually I would be able to see my own eyes.

To clarify, I thought that at some older stage of my life I would be able to gaze upon my own eyes as if I was someone else looking at me.

I don't know why I remember this but there's something powerful in this image. Hell, I may make a poem out of it. No less, there is an application that I have for this moment. I feel that a metaphor can be made out of this futile belief, that one cannot see one's own eyes.

As an artist there's a hope that I can measure my own work's merit without others' criticism. Yet, this isn't the case. No artist can measure his or her own work. That's why you need to be able to take and handle criticism.

So how do you take criticism?

With pen and paper, or pencil and paper, of course!

...

I do think I need to elucidate that the criticism that I'm talking about is different than say critics like Roger Ebert. Those critics handle your absolute finished work. I'm talking about individuals like mentors, fellow artists, friends who are criticizing a work in progress. These individuals are imperative to have and you need to surround yourself with these individuals...those who say "No."

When I say friends I don't mean everyday friends but individuals who intake a lot of what you write. If you're writing poetry and you lend your poems to a friend who doesn't normally read poetry then your friend's or friends' criticism isn't going to be as meaningful as someone who reads a lot of poetry and subscribes to The Paris Review.

The reason is that you don't want someone critiquing your work with "I like it" or "I hate it." There needs to be specific examples. If someone isn't giving you specific examples, then his or her criticism isn't fully valid. Granted, there's something to be said if your poetry impresses someone who doesn't like poetry, but if it is coming from a friend perhaps it's just a bit of generosity.

Let's say you found someone to critique you. You've become a screenwriter and you've kept in touch with a former screenwriting professor who knows a little bit about industry or at the very least what's artistically brilliant in screenplays. What then?

Listen. Well, read if long distance. Don't talk. Let me repeat that: Don't talk.

Don't try to defend what you put out there. It stands on its own now, if in draft form or final form. Don't defend an artistic decision. "I put that Voice Over in that moment to do diddley da" don't say that immediately after hearing a critical thought. If you're receiving a criticism about something then it means it didn't read well to an audience member. I remember directing "The Case of the Crushed Petunias" in university, with my Advanced Directing professor critiquing a scene and I tried to defend a decision to which she replied "I'm just trying to tell you what I saw!" Don't be that kid or lame artist that says "You just don't understand" because if you do then the person on the other end will say "You're right, I don't understand."

Just accept the criticism. Take notes while the criticism is taking place. Then take a day to let it set in or two days, and go back at it. That's the important thing about criticism is that for some artists it can make or break one's work. If that's the case then either your work wasn't worthwhile in the first place or you're not an artist.

Feeling strongly about something in a work is common but sometimes it needs to be let go. If you think it should stay get someone else to critique it. If two people say the same thing then lose it.

Now be mindful that the people who are critiquing you harshly are your best friends unless they are not using specific examples. If they are harshly attacking your work with no specific examples then it is not valid. They're just be ego pricks. Don't let ego pricks facilitate any decisions in your work.

You still need people who are able to say "no that doesn't work," however. The problem with several artists as they get older is that they no longer surround themselves with people who feel confident to say "No," and they have no filter.

Critics, the right ones, the ones that will bust your chops, are your friends. Use them wisely.