John August

QandA

The only ache should be in your soul

QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkI write six days a week, four hours a day. I’m putting together a portfolio for when I move out to L.A. next year. I’ve finished a musical comedy, am in the middle of a comedy drama, and have two children’s films outlined and in the queue. (One of which I’ve already written as a 35,000 word children’s novel.) So I’m on a surprisingly strict writing schedule considering I have no “real” deadlines.

My question to you is: Do your hands hurt?

Mine definitely ache. I stretch and ice them and beg for hand massages from friends and loved ones. I take ibuprofen, etc. I’m trying to determine if this is normal or if I should be freaking out?

Athletes live with a certain amount of pain for what they love. Same for professional writers?

Do you do anything special to take care of your hands?

— Asher Noël

answer iconTake it seriously. I’ve had problems in the past, and regretted waiting as long as I did to do something about it.

At my worst, not only would my hands hurt, my arms would go dead every night. Beyond pins-and-needles. I’d wake up with zombie appendages attached to my body. I’d have to flop over to get blood flowing into them.

I’m better now.

A Google search on ergonomics or carpal tunnel syndrome will give you a ton of information — too much information, probably — but I can synthesize it down for you thusly:

  1. You need to check your setup. Feet on the floor, arms at a comfortable 90-or-so degrees. I strongly believe in arm rests, but different things work for different people. Your typing surface probably needs to be a lot lower than you think. My desk lowers to just two inches above my knees. Everyone has different opinions on chairs. I’ve found the expensive ones aren’t necessarily better. Try a bunch.

  2. You need to change your keyboard. I use this one, which rightfully scares people, but I find works great. You may need to try a bunch of different ergonomic keyboards before you find one that works.

  3. You need to take breaks. A lot of them. Walk around. You’ll actually get more done if you’re not staring at the screen the whole time.

  4. Like crutches, gloves can help, but they’re not fixing the problem. These Handeze support gloves saved my life, but I’m happy not to need them now.

When it was really bad, I considered surgery. I’m glad I didn’t do it. I didn’t need it.

You won’t always be writing as much as you are now. But try to get into good habits now.

That’ll teach her

Genres

Tad Friend examines female characters in comedies and finds an unsettling pattern:

Funny women in movies must not only be gorgeous; they must fall down and then sob, knowing it’s all their fault.

Nerve has a super-cut to demonstrate:

Friend’s article — a lengthy piece on Anna Faris — looks at a lot of the issues surrounding female roles in comedy. It’s easy to point fingers at screenwriters (“Write better parts!”) or studios (“Make better movies!”), but the real obstacle is of course the audience, voting with dollars.

The more money female-driven comedies make, the more female-driven comedies will get made. In the short term, the success of Bridesmaids should make studios less gun-shy about spending money to produce and market these movies.

But will they be any good? I worry we’ll learn the wrong lessons and just make more comedies about women in wedding dresses.

Okay to use bold for scene headers?

Formatting, QandA

questionmarkSounds trivial, but I’ve been seeing a lot of scripts recently with sluglines (or scene headers) in bold formatting. Is this a trend? I kind of like it, but is it appropriate to use bold sluglines in a spec as a first-time writer?

— Shane

It’s simply a matter of personal preference. As long as you’re consistent through the script, either bold or normal weight is fine.

KYLE’S DAD

Half-done is half-assed, Kyle.

KYLE

So you want full ass, you’re saying.

KYLE’S DAD

I want less lip and more hustle. Now.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOUSE – DAY

Kyle drags the giant spider’s carcass from the garage to the curb. It’s too big to fit in the garbage can -- he couldn’t lift it anyway -- so he tucks the legs underneath the body.

or…

INT. BENNIGAN’S – NIGHT

Aspiring mixologist JIMMY WAKE (24) strains his latest creation into a chilled martini glass. The liquid has an unsettling yellow-green hue with streaks of blood. He garnishes it with a pickled crow’s foot.

Either is fine.

Born on the Fourth of The Nines

QandA, The Nines

questionmarkIn The Nines, was there a particular reason you chose to make Dahlia and Gavin’s birthday the same, November 21st?

— Guarionex
Florida

answer iconIf you look through the screenplay of The Nines in the Library, you’ll see that many scenes in the second section of the movie are basically unscripted.

Here’s that scene as written (italics in original):

INT. SUSINA COFFEESHOP – DAY

Gavin meets with Dahlia Salem. She’s pretty, funny, and very cool.

They talk about the other pilot (Gatin’s), the role, and how fucked up it is to be having these double-top-secret conversations. It goes well. They seem to genuinely like each other.

When filming these scenes, I was beside the camera as it was rolling, telling the actors what to talk about. I told Dahlia that she and Gavin had the same birthday, and she went with it. (In fact, she misunderstood at first, and assumed that she and Ryan Reynolds had the same birthday.) Ultimately, it didn’t really matter what they were talking about, just that they were talking and seemed to click.

All of Part Two was shot essentially this way. Even in scenes with traditional dialogue, I would “wind the clock back” a minute and have the actors talking about something else, eventually getting to the text of the scene.

The conceit of this section is that it’s a half hour episode of a reality TV show, so I needed lots of little pieces to suggest the conversations have been stitched together in editing. Non-scene conversation got the right rhythms goings.

Part Two was the last section we shot, and by far the most fun. It was like real-time writing. A lot of things that came up in the moment could easily be incorporated; I’d say something, then have Ryan say it. Melissa McCarthy talks about buying a house because just that day she bought a house.

The Nines was a very special case, and the only time I’ve done it. I wouldn’t suggest trying such non-writing in your own scripts unless there’s a particularly good reason for it.