 It used to haunt me at night. I’d lie awake for hours dreaming up different character flaws and narrative complications for Dean McGowan to overcome. Would he be capable of falling in love again after his wife cheated on him? Could he really save his suicidal little brother from grief after his daughter is killed by a drunk driver? Would he be able to escape his Manichean world of black-and-white moral views to see that all men are capable of both good and bad? Most importantly could I make a vigilante assassin into a likeable hero? | |  | | | Then one night as scene after scene evolved in my head I could not take the tormenting challenges that Dean posed to me any longer. I quit my well paying job. I left my family and friends in New Jersey and moved to a scenic mountain town in Colorado. I have just decided for the first time in my life to move past the daily monotony of the real world in order to fulfill a dream. I do not take this opportunity lightly, it is the dream of many, and I was willing to spend my life’s savings to give it a try.
I worked part-time as a script reader for an independent film company in New York City for almost two years. During that time I always wanted to write my own script but pretty much ignored my desire. The reason was simple: fear of mediocrity.
As a script reader, over 50 percent of the material I read was dreadful and about 40 percent was just plain mediocre. I read almost 200 scripts and recommended only two. I eventually realized that I could write a better script, but I mean in reality, it's probable that every one of those screenwriters that I passed on thought the same exact thing.
So as I drove the 1,800 miles from New Jersey to Colorado, I kept asking myself “What the hell am I doing?” However, instead of giving into fear, I let it push me and take comfort in the fact that no one ever did anything great without first doubting themselves. My friend Marissa who lives down the street from me here in Boulder always shuts down my self-doubt by telling me, “Fear and greatness cannot occupy the same space.”
I signed up for an eight-week online course called Writers Boot Camp. The course is structured so that there are five weeks of lessons and then a writer has three weeks to complete a first draft. I chose this particular class because it practices the theories most similar to the best screenwriting book I’ve ever read: Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters by Michael Tierno. The book and the class preach that all great Hollywood screenplays can be written from a single premise line and that every scene must drive the narrative forward moving your hero closer and closer to his goal. In order words, say what the story demands and nothing else. | | | | | But first, before I left on my little road trip, I had to cleanse my brain of all the sub-par material that I had covered from spec scripts. My fear was that I would fall into the same traps many inexperienced writers fell victim to. So I read all the scripts that I thought were excellent blueprints for films: American Beauty, In the Bedroom, Goodfellas, Thelma and Louise, Taxi Driver and Casablanca to name a few.
My online class began. My first task was to write my premise line. After e-mailing my online instructor my first attempt she told me that it was a nice first effort but didn't follow the proper pattern for a successful premise line. I worried at his point that my screenplay wasn’t going to follow the typical three-act structure. Moreover, I was concerned that my first act was going to be 40 pages long. These are, of course, big mistakes for the first-time screenwriter and I feared that I was falling right into the trap.
The following week we were to submit a Writers Boot Camp theory called the 3-6-3. It is the single most important tool for the course. In essence, the 3-6-3 is not merely a plot synopsis. It is more a map of all the human progress in the script including character’s motivation, self-awareness, emotional arc and the fluid status of relationships in the story.
The 3-6-3 baffled me. Three weeks into the class, I hadn’t been able to come up with a well-structured 3-6-3. Every Sunday I would submit my 3-6-3 and on Monday my instructor sent me feedback pertaining to all the areas that my 3-6-3 didn’t work (which were all of them). I feared the worst since I couldn’t grasp the complexity of this tool; that my script was awful. Honestly it was shaping up to be that way. I don’t know how it happened but perhaps because I had all these great and dramatic scene ideas in my head, I forgot the most important question that a screenwriter must ask: What is my hero’s goal? My set-up was awful, my instructor wondered who the protagonist in the story actually was and many of the scene ideas had absolutely nothing to do with my hero’s goal of saving his brother.
So I did what all good neurotic Italians do, I panicked, big time. I began to pace and bang my head against walls as if jarring my brain would somehow provide me with great material. I emailed my friend Marissa and had a cyber breakdown. She wrote me, “What did you think? It was going to be easy? STOP worrying about failing and start concentrating on success.”
I mean did I actually think it was going to be easy? I worked and worked for hours and days without sleep. I went through all 130 of my scene index cards and rearranged, adjusted, threw away and rethought everything. I let go of my fear of mediocrity and realized that I didn’t have to take huge risks in my story; the most important aspect was simply to write an entertaining story with well-defined, three-dimensional characters.
After much more pacing and some more banging my head against walls, I submitted a completely re-tooled 3-6-3 on week four. I figured if I couldn’t capture it close to the end of the course then my narrative was not screenplay material. I suffered waiting for my instructor’s response. Then she gave me the news that cajoled me into my happy dance. She wrote: “This is really good. It’s really come a long way, and I really see the movie now. You’re really there! CONGRATULATIONS!”
I started writing pages from my outlines and 3-6-3. So far I have completed 90 pages of my story and plan to finish writing the third act by the end of the week. The tools I learned at Writer’s Boot Camp have really provided me with an excellent foundation to work from, and honestly for the most part all of my scenes are flowing effortlessly. Do I fear that it’s mediocre? Of course I do, but I no longer let that interfere with my writing.
Hey it’s the first draft of my first screenplay, chances are that only 40 percent of my material will be retained through rewrites. However, it’s a good story with interesting characters, thought provoking themes and a catchy title, Penance.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Ann Casano has worked as a script analyst for an independent film company in New York City and in production for Kevin Bacon's feature directorial debut Loverboy set to open in theaters this fall. Penance is her first attempt as a screenwriter. She resides in Princeton, New Jersey and Boulder, Colorado.
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