Dear World

Please Kill Me,

Good evening my twinkle – eyed star seekers. So I took a couple days to work on a side project -as some of you may have noticed- and a special thanks to those who checked out my The Boondocks spec script. (Yea, yea I know the shows over… Shut up).

I was stricken with a creative craving to try something new. Also, it was a great frame for some social commentary on recent events.

I won’t lie to you- even though my focus has been primarily on short stories and novels- it was invigorating to try my hand at something new. (Also, not for nothing, I sense alot of people enjoyed it-so you can probably expect a few more in the months to come.)

That being said, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t share some of what I learned from experience with you. So here are a few things that I discovered.

Relevance – About two minutes after patting myself on the back (for being so damned creative and diverse) , I was stinted by my over confidence in my ability to write a solid plot. Keep in mind this wasn’t writers block- it was more of a recognition that this particular format is better served with a relevant plot. Sure I could have did what I wanted anyway- but that would have defeated the purpose of this exercise. Writer’s are never served by an inability to adapt.

Dialogue- once again an entirely different format. I quickly discovered that unlike traditional story dialogue, I couldn’t really “prose my way out”( yea, I made it a verb…. take that – words.), There was no real escaping the necessary sentence delegations. Though it’d be unfair to say this is a difficult adjustment.

The same goes for:

Setting- once again (in order for any of it to make actual sense), locations and surroundings had to be clearly stated. For those who don’t know- The Boondocks an extremely tightly written show. Having the characters include every bit detail in their speech- not only made for boring and needless (in this format anyway), exchanges ; but also made the writing kit difficult than it needed to be. Simply put, this made the conversations stake and unrealistic.

And lastly,

Voice- this is probably one of the more obvious differences (obvious as in Michael Jackson’s  (on second thought, all of the Jackson family’s plastic surgery.)). Unlike my usual straightforward story telling, I had to deliver my message- without my voice. When you write a script it becomes necessary to delve into the personalities of the (in this case previously established) character’s. Honestly this was a bit of a hassle (because I only really trust what I personally do, say, and think.) But after researching and rewatching the show, they became clear. Surpisingly enough, once I had that down and dropped the characters into my scenario, they pretty much wrote the rest themselves – I basically became a surrogate. (Or the Holy Spirit, whatever #arrogance).

All in all it was interesting, and as I said you’ll more than likely see another.

Also, I totally learned other stuff, but I’ve got to stay least stay one lesson ahead of the class (it’s kind of the main thing that keeps the lights on around .)

So that’s what I’ve got for the congregation today. See you guys tomorrow for some more post drunk ranting.

From inside of the Matrix,

-Antwan Crump.